Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ishers. American Seott Gray retired afte r two slow laps. Doohan retained the title lead with 70 points, just five points clear of Beattie's 65. Schwantz is third with 34, follo wed by Criville's 32 and Puig's 31 points. 250cc GRAND PRIX (Opposite page) Michae l Doohan (1) led Dary l Beattie (4) unt il th e fin al lap in the 500cc Japanese GP. At tha t po int, Doohan ran off the track, hand ing the victory to Beatt ie. (Abo ve) The 250Cc GP gets under way in a downpour; Tadayuki Okada (2) gets the Jump on the pack. The race was won by German Ralf Waldmann. (Right) Dary l Beatt ie celebrates the second 500cc GP win of his career and hi s fi rst on a Lucky Strike . SuzukI. .. o n the corner a t th e e nd of th e ba ck straigh t, an d his dreams of a home win we re promptly ove r. Worse still, he rebrok e the bone in his left hand that was s t ill n o t m end ed fro m a prese ason crash. Doohan's lead was far from secu re, however. Beattie h ad no w fo u n d h is rhythm and was the fastest man on the track, closing qui ckly up to a chall enging position. Doohan responded with redoubled risk -taking. He nearly crashed over and over again, wiggling as he came out of th e chicane, wobbling elsewhere, and., living p re tty da ngerous ly. Beattie by compa rison looked cool and was taking tig hter lin es. But he could n' t catch up, and he too mad e a mistake running too dee p into the chicane, giving Doohan a brief respite. So it ran to the closi ng stages, with Dooh a n ap parently ab le to stay just a head . In th e last laps th ey ran into lappe d tra ffic, and by and large Doohan got the better of it, so that in spi te of a h uge slide in the left-hander after the hairpin he was more than a second clear at the start of the last lap . If only he'd known. Bu t he wanted to make d oubly sure of it, an d was still at fu ll s tre tch th e next time aroun d th at comer when it happened again, the rear kicking out, "as [ snicked fourth." This time he coul dn't save it, tho ug h he did stay on board. The Ho nd a went rocketing acro ss the grass verge at some 125 mph, bu cking wild ly as it ran onto the helicopter pad within the Spoon Cu rve, Doohan battling to regain control as he arrowed across toward ·the place wh ere Beattie would be crossing any minute. It was close, but he did manage to get it slowed enough so he could rejoin -the . track safely. But by the n not only Beattie had go ne by, but also Aoki, And so Beattie wo n his secon d 500cc . GP, with Doohan jus t nicking past Aok i as they crossed the line to save second place by two tenths of a second . Some 10 seco nds back, Cadalora prevailed in a race-long tactical battle with Puig, wi th Schwantz gradually dropping away behind. Almost three-qua rters of a m inu te b eh in d tha t ca me J uan Bo rja, th e increasi ng ly im p ressive Te am ROC Yamaha pri va teer . He had defeated the equally impressive ve teran Tos hiyuki Arakaki, in a one-off ride on the Padgett's Ha r ris -Ya maha eve n t ually intend ed for the still-recovering Jimm y Filice. Abe was a disappointing nin th, clearly short of rear grip as he came close to cras hing several times. He later ad mitted that he 'd nearl y copied Te am Roberts teammate Cadalora's retirement in Malaysia because of tire problems, but pressed on for the points. Reggiani was 10th, h is problem the fact that he uses unusual tire sizes on his Ap rilia . This means there is little develop ment on that pa rticu lar type of Dunlop, an d !t cost him traction and d rive in a wet race that might otherwise have suited him . Bernard Garcia wa s 11th; Andrew Stroud defea ted Sean Emmett for 12th; Neil Hodgson was 14th, with Bosshard taking the final point. There were 23 fin- The rain eased befor e the start, began again as they lined up , then eased again. This was only a temporary respite. On the second lap the heavens opened and it started sheeting down, taking control of the race and its res ults, and forcing the already pre-shortened race (from 19 to 18 laps) to be stopped as the leaders comme nced their 14th lap. They sloshed away with Okada in a determined lead. Carles Checa pro mptly slip pe d off a t the fir st corner, saving h imself a lot of further trouble. Both Harada an d Biaggi go t away slow ly, and were in the middle of a pack tip toeing through the puddles while at the sa me time tryin g to race. By the time they reached the chicane at th e en d of th e firs t la p Ok ad a w as alre ad y pullin g away, lo ok in g both smoo th and fast as he opened a gap on second -pl aced Wal d ma nn. Mea nw hile, Romboni was on the cha rge, quickly through to third and alre ady at tacking Waldmann, to seize secon d p la ce as they braked for the righ t-left flick. Now there wa s every prospect of a good tussle fo r th e lead, and h e had closed to within just ove r a second at the end of lap two . Soon he wo u ld be with Okada. Or not. Instead, as he zoomed down the straight his engine rattled, and died. A crankshaft was broken, and for a second race in succession the lu ckless Italian coas ted to a stop and parked the bike by the barriers. By now, several had already falle n off or retired. Numata was one, slipp ing off the Su zuki and unable to continue; likewise Oliver Jacque, Grego rio Lavilla and Luis d 'Antin. And that was just the sta rt of it. Bayle h ad pitted , his Ap rilia . refusing to run right with igni tion problems; .Pa trick va n den Goorbergh would p it also one lap later wi th no s tomach for a losin g battle in dangerous conditions. Three laps later, Okada had a mass ive lead of 8.6 secon ds, with Waldmann in second and Roberts thi rd . By now Wild Card Toh ru Ukawa had fallen, follo we d one lap later by Roberts, Tsuji mura and Bulega, who su ffered a fract u re d an n. Al ready peo p le we re wo ndering whethe r the race should be stopped, since the pelting rain was accumula ting on the track, whic h also had several s t reams ru nn in g across it. Nonetheless, it wenton, and maybe that was righ t, because the re were no more cras hes for a while. Then it started aga in on lap 12. Waldmann was within six seconds of Oka da, but was no lo nger closing w hen th e Japan ese rid er was su ddenly fl icked ove r the high side. "I was only at halfthr ottle when I ran across a stream in a dip, and the bike jus t went," he said . Waldmann now had a 30-secOild lead over Aoki, splashing al ong all alone, himself comfortably ah ead of H ikita. But Waldmann only lasted half a la p, aquaplani ng and falling himself at th e esses behind the paddock. "When I was sliding along I was thin kin g, 'Oh, boy, yo u a re st u p id: But the bike wasn't dam aged an d [ was lucky enough to get going again befo re Aoki arrived: ' He was stil l in fron t as they finished lap 13, while third-placed Hikata was coming under p res sure fro m Harada. Then carne Ruggia (an ea rlier Ha rada vic t im), Wil d Ca r d Miyazaki a n d ~ B ~

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