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." ,ROAD RACE , ' '.' .. ' '* ~-- t' ~ ..WorldC hampionship Road Race Series .ยท Round 2: Malaysian Grand Prix By Michael Scott File photos by Henny Ray Abrams SHAH ALAM, MALAYSIA, APR. 2 eja vu has no th ing to dO with it. Just becau se the top th ree in th e .Malaysian Grand Prix we r e th e sa me as in Au st rali a one week before does not mean it was a similar procession . Only sligh tly so, w it h a te nse waita nd-see r ace fo r second h ighli ghtin g th e tension b eh in d cl ea r w in ne r Michael Doohan and his Rep sol Hond a. This time, Lucky Strike Su zu ki' s Daryl Beatti e h ad to figh t fo r it, di spla cing third-placed Alex Criville and th e Repsol Hond a only in the clos- . in g stages, w he n team m ate Ke vin Schw a n tz had le t the Austra lia n th rou gh after runn in g into tire troub le. Schwantz h u ng on to fourth, keeping th e sli ding Lu ck y St rike Su zu ki o ne seco n d clear of a fierce battle for fifth. This went to Fortu n a Honda 's A lberto Puig, coming through in the closing lap s to cross the line almost side by si de w ith Kanemoto Honda ' s Al e x Barro s a nd Rep sol H ond a ' s Shinichi Itoh . . Just behind, outdistanced only at the finish, came Loris Reggian i' s V-twin ApriJia. Eighth was the best finish ever for the 400cc "su per-250" V-twin Aprilia; but while Reggiani d id pass Itoh at one point, and could climb all over the V-fours through th e corner s, the re are few overtak ing points on the twisting Shah Alam circuit outside the Malays ian capita l exce p t at th e end o f the main straight, and he simply didn't ha ve the power to do that. It was another dr eadful da y J or the Marlboro Yamahas, struggling w ith tire probl ems on th eir Dunl ops. Luca Cadalora pulled in after seeing no gain in chasing a sliding front end for little reward. Abe was more persistent and had held fifth place befo re he paid the price, sliding off unhurt after 17 laps . The SOOcc GP, run in front of a crowd of 22,000, finished just minutes before the first drops of rain turned into a fullscal e tropical downpour, and flooded out the 125cc race. Scheduled to run 29 laps, the 125cc GP was stopped after 12, and half-points were awarded. That did little to take away from the achievement of Garry McCoy, with the young Australian H onda rider taking a D If) 0\ 0\ ..-l - N' ..-l ...... ..... l-< c, <: 22 hard-fou ght half-v ict o ry fro m a stron gly ch allenging Ste fa no Peru gini (Aprilia ). H B Ho nda 's Dirk Raudies dropped from the front grou p to seventh; defending Worl d Champion Kazuto Sakata on th e factory Ap rilia mad e a slow start and had worked his way through to 10th; and last weekend's w inn er Harachuki Aoki wa s 18th - out of the points. Th e 2S0cc GP, th e first of the da y, was - a runaway win fo r defen ding World Ch ampi on Max Biag g i, th e Che sterfield Aprilia 'rider rep eatin g hi s all-dominating performance of last year in the heat of the midday. . Second w ent to Tet su ya Ha ra da 's Marlboro -Raine y Ya m ah a, taking a su pe rbly judged win after a fou r-bike battle with HRC' s Tad ayuki Okada, HB Honda's Ralf Waldmann and Elf-Tech 3 H onda's [ean-Philippe Ruggia. Kenny Roberts Jr. was ninth after comi ng off second-best in a fierce battle with eightplaced Luis d' Antin. They had been dicing all race long with ex ci ting new French find Olivi er Jacque, Ru ggia' s teammate, who ended up 10th. 500cc GRAND PRIX Schwantz made a fine start this time, jumping through from the second row. to take a short-lived lead. Even so, it was Doohan leading into the first turn, a situa tion that did not change until long after th e la st turn almos t 48 minutes later in a slow-paced race that, up front at least, lacked fireworks. Th is week, he didn' t just run away. "My tires didn't seem to want to work a t fi rst, an d I had a fe w sli d es, so I decided I'd better cool it," Doohan said. It mad e a differen ce to the speed of d ep arture, but not to the fact of it. He stea dily drew away at an average of ha lf a second a lap to make it more than 10 . seconds on lap 22. The gap hovered there for five more laps, then started to shri nk again, so that at the finish he was less than seven seconds ahead. It looked as though he was playin g it cool, but he denied it. "I started to feel a vibr ation, and I thought the tire might be breaking up. Then the front tu cked und er o n the fas t righ t kink on th e straight, and it reall y shook my confidence. In fact, there was nothing wrong with the tire - I migh t hav e lost a wheel weight or something, but it made the last laps pretty tense." The tension had to come from within, because there wasn't much from behind. Schwantz he ld second for the first six laps, with Criville's Honda hard on his heels. Then the Spaniard used his pow er to pull al ongside on th e stra igh t, and manfully held the in side line against considerabl e pre ssu re to slot in ahead. By this time , Beattie had joined on the back of the group, without having to pass an ybody after his own good start. "I could stay wi th Kevin, and if I lost ground, I could catch up, " he said later. "But the re was no w ay I could pa ss him." Thus the tr io held station, free from any threat from behind, and awaiting developmen ts in the heat. In the end, it was Schwantz's rear tire that cried en ou gh . He s tarted sliding badly, and especially-on the kink on the straigh t that precedes the track's main overtaking spot. He knew his challenge was spent, and on the 27th lap he made room for his close friend and teammate Beattie to get by. The Australian nee d ed no secorid invitation, and to ok up the pursuit forthwith, He was immediately on Criville's tail , ~nd one lap lat er pulled the classic overtaking move at the end of the straight to move into second.