Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD'RACE ,,W ridurarice C orldE hampionshipSeries . R d2:The6·Hours of Assen oun but fina lly fou nd em p loy me nt on the French team of Jean-Louis Guign abodet . At first, the former Grand Prix rider had only entered one bike for Michel Simeo n/Jea n -M ic he l Ma tt io li . But first Stephane Mertens (the third rider of the team at Le Ma ns) showed up, and when Lav ieiIle turned ou t to be very eager to ride th e second Hon da, Gu ig nabodet entered this bike only some two hours befo re official p r ac tice. Ste p ha n e Me rtens was tea med up with Jea n Michel Mattioli, and Ch ristian Lavieille joined forces wi th Simeon. LavieiIle and Simeo n took the bike tha t had bee n used at Le Ma ns, whereas Mertens and Mattioli had a go on the team 's secon d bike, .wi th fresher parts. With the two Ph ase One Kawa sak is, the Guignabod et Hondas were definitely th e fast est things around at Assen . From the first lap s of pr actice, these four team s did exactl y what was expected of them . Pole position w en t to the New Ze a la nd duo of Robert Ho ld e n an d Andrew Stroud (Phase One Kawasaki), in fron t o f Jean-M ich el Ma t ti oli and By Johan Vandekerckhove ASSEN, HOLLAND, APR. 30 fter a long absence from the top r os tr u m position, Stephane Mertens and Jean-Michel Mattioli finally added anothe r victory to their enduran ce-racing resume. For most pee- . pi e, thi s is a complete surprise; even . some ro ad ra ce insiders did not know th at As sen hosted a world en d u ran ce race on the last weekend of April. The trouble may have been what many considered a rather modest publicity cam paign, bu t wha tever the case, on ly 25 teams showed up and most sea ts in the grandstands aro u nd the short circuit of Assen stayed vacant. Bu t as so often, those abse n t were at faul t: The battl es on the track were extremely intense and the ros tru m positions were attribu ted on ly in the last ho ur of the race ...or actually, eve n some hours later... It had b een 15 y e a rs si nce the endu rance ra cers h ad put tire on the Du tch asp halt a t Assen . It was a lso the first time in the history of modemday endurance raci ng th at a race was planned to be run in two separate hea ts. This possibility had been introd uce d in the spo rting reg u lations tw o years ago by Claude Danis, the Belgian presid ent of the road race commission wi thin HM. This way, the federation hop ed to make the lon g-distance races more attract ive to the sp ectators, with tw o spe ctacu lar Le Mans -s tyl e ru nning s tarts fo r th e same money. Moreover, it was expected that the race speeds wo u ld be higher in this format. The init i ati ve was, h o w ev er, n o t much appreciated by th e riders. Most teams w ere unhappy abo u t n ot bei ng able to go on for six hours straigh t. They ' felt th at by break in g th e race up th ey w ou ld not get into th eir "e n d u r an ce rh ythm " and th at the impo rt ance of good pit work would be lost in the tw oleg form at. Despite some of th e problems, the Dutch are willing to co n ti n ue in th e future. "This was a good investment for the A (Above) After sprinting across the track for the start of the Assen 6-Hour, the riders rush to get the ir mach ines off the li ne fi rst . The World Endurance Series had not visited Assen in 15 years . (Right) Stephane Mertens (pictured) and Jean-Michel Mattioli took the ir Guignabodets Honda to victory in the two-leg endurance event. following editions," explained organizer Ernst Lutgert after the race. "Of course, some m istake s h a ve b een m ad e, b u t we ha ve learn ed a lot. We desperat ely wa n ted to ge t endurance raci ng to Assen . We already had the Gran d Prix, a ro und for the World Superbike Cha mp ion ship a n d we only mis se d th e m ara th on runners. Now, Assen is a hou seh old name in every one of th ese di sciplines. In the fut u re, we w ill also invest more in the activities aro und the race itself. We w ill invite m or e rock groups and make a real hap pening of it all, as is the case in Le Mans and at the Bol d 'Or a lrea dy . We w ill also try to es ta b lish anothe r d a t e, as m any en d u ran ce teams h ave not shown up b ecau se thi s ra ce w as orga n ize d tw o wee ks after the Le Mans race. Probably, we will also continue w ith the two-heat forma t, but nex t year we mig ht orga nize one heat on Saturday afternoon with the rider s finishing in the dark , and the secand heat on Sun day." Some 6,500 spectators atte nded this year's event. QUALIFYING Only 25 tea ms present ed the mse lves at the Asse n ga tes on Thursd ay. Am on g them there was no t one fac to ry team ; the privateer s su ddenly fou nd 10 extra horse power of mot ivati on w he n th ey walked aro und the paddock. On e factory rider howeve r had undertak en th e trip to Holland. Ch ristian Lavieille - in most othe r races a rider on th e official Suz uk i- tea m - applied with s ev era l tea ms on Th u rsd ay and asked them if' they had a vacancy for him. The Frenchman did so me lap s on the British Phase One Endu rance Racing Team Kawasaki, Ste pha ne Mertens; the Guyot Motorcycle Team of Christophe Guyot and JeanFrancois Damide; the' second Phase One Kawasaki of Steve Manley and Bruno Bo n hu il; the Da fi x-H ond a RC4 5 o f William Cas tes and Eric Mizera; and the secon d Guignabod et H on da of Miche l Simeon and Christian Lavieille. Surprisingly, the Varider Wal-run tea m (with Leo Pl anken a nd Ru di Markink) was beate n in p ra ctic e by [oop Bosch an d Henk van den Broek in thei r battle for best Dutch honors. Th e fine results of th e Phase On e Kawasakis brought a sm ile on the face o f team m an a ger Ru ss ell Benney : "Stra nge as it may seem, for u s this is one of the most important races of the last couple of yea rs. We want to go back home leading th e championship. That way, we will ha ve a fairl y strong posi-

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