Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

the right hand sleeve of his leathers, cutting his hand, when he caught his, arm on Waldmann's fairing during a passing maneuver. Team HRe's Tadayuki Okada ended up third, alone much of the race after ridding himself of Fortuna Honda Pons' Carles Checa. Okada was followed by the Marlboro Team Rainey Yamahas of Tetsuya Harada and Kenny Roberts Jr. Harada wasn't at full strength after his horrific crash at Assen and Roberts got away from the line poorly, then had to deal with an engine misfire. Roberts' was the more dramatic charge, moving up through the field from 11th on the first . lap and getting the best of a four-rider scrap. Behind him came the Hondas of MX Onda's Luis D' Antin and Elf Honda Tech 3's Jean-Philippe Ruggia and Olivier Jacque, and the Mohag Aprilia of £Ski! Suter. It took Waldmann 43 minutes, 39.063 seconds to complete the 25-lap, 68.375mile race, which he ran at an average speed of 94.596 mph The 125 win, his sixth in eight tries, went to Blumex Rheos Racing's classleading Haruchika Aoki. For the second half of the 23-lap race, the Japanese rider was hooked up with Germans Dirk Raudies and Peter Oettl, each of the three riders leading across the line in the last four laps with Aoki there the last two. The Japanese said he'd taken the lead on the last lap out of desperation, knowing that he didn't have the motor or tires to power past at the end. Aoki crossed the line 1.045 seconds in front of HB Team Raudies' Dirk Raudies who in turn had a margin of 1.652 on the Marlboro Aprilia Eckl machine of Oettl. Docshop Racing's Akira Saito was fourth with fellow Japanese rider Tomomi Manako fifth on the F.C.C. Technical Sports Honda. Aoki increased his already burgeoning points lead to 69 points, 161 to 92 over Stefano Perugini, sixth today on the Team ll'A Aprilia. 500cc GRAND PRIX A jostle at the start gave an odd look to the front of the pack as the 29-rider field entered turn one with Alex Criville in front of Daryl Beattie, followed by WCM Motorsports' Neil Hodgson, and Mick Doohan. Luca Cadalora was just back from them but quickly moved through the field and into the.lead in the Garage Vert turn, the second horseshoe of the Bugatti Circuit. The Spaniard held the lead at the end of the lap with Criville second, then Beattie and Doohan, the order reversing entering turn one on the second lap. Lucky Strike Suzuki's Russell crossed the line sixth at the end of the opening lap, then made' a mistake in the first chicane, went through the gravel and dropped to eighth by the end of the second lap. . It would take Doohan ,until the sixth lap to get to the front. The next lap was his fastest of the race - though not a lap record - and on the eighth he had better than a 1.5-second gap. Two seconds in front on the ninth lap, Doohan's lead suddenly became 5.35 on the 10th after Criville lost the front end'in the Garage Vert and did a faceplant into the gravel "I don't know the reason," Criville said. "It could have been a mistake on my part because, although I was close to Michael (Doohan), I couldn't relax because Cadalora and Beattie were close behind me." (Right) A rejuvenated Luca C8dalora leads Doohan (1), Alex Crlvllie (6) and Daryl Beattie (4) early In the race; cadalora would finish' second, BeattIe third. Crlville crallhed on the 10th lap. (Below) Max Blaggl (1) checks on evamual race winner Ralf Waldmann (28). Waldmann made a late-race pass and Just edged the reigning world champion at the end of the race. Noboatsu AokJ (10) and Dorlano Ramboni (4) would both crash. With CriviUe out, Doohan had no worries and his lead ballooned. Halfway through the race his lead was nearly 10 seconds and he would expand on that at better than a second a lap. "The track was slicker today than during practice, so I settled down to an easy pace, which was between high 41s and the mid-42s. I certainly wasn't looking for records and the lead I built up simply came from maintaining the pace," Doohah said. The race behind was the one to watch, with a determined Beattie hounding Cadalora, but not getting the better of him. The advantage, from where Beattie sat, was on acceleration. Cadalora was using the Dunlop-rear, Michelin-front tire combination and Beattie said that the Italian was able to get him out of the turns. The rear tire went off after 10 laps, but remained consistent to the end, Cadalora said. '1 was behind Luea a long time and I was able to close up on him a little under braking. But he was taking it back from me out of the corners," Beattie, on the mend from his broken collarbone, said. "There was no question of tactics. I was giving it everything I had. My collarbone was OK, but my arm was painful and it was a little difficult to hang on." Though he was in front, Cadalora was never complacent and it wasn't until the very last laps that he had any sort of space - and that came despite a front tire which was starting to go off in the final 10 laps. "I'm really happpy with the result. The team really needed it and Dunlop and everyone else did a good job this weekend," Cadalora said. The race for fourth was the equal of the race ahead, at least for a while. Then Norifumi Abe, fourth at the midway point after passing Itoh, ran wide at Garage Vert and into the gravel. He stayed upright and continued on after losing three spots. Five laps later he made the same mistake, this time more fatal, the front end sliding away into a spray of pebbles. He, like Cadalora, went a little too hard on the front tire choice. "The crash really caught me by surprise. The front end slid away and it had seemed fine up until then," Abe said. '1 got back on and tried to continue, but the fall had broken the right footrest, so I couldn't continue." That left Itoh alone in fourth, and he cruised home 16 seconds behind Beattie. The third of the front-running battles was a scrap over fifth place. Alex Barros and Scott Russell were at the rear of the Itoh-Abe battle, but the two pairs would eventually split up, leaving the rear two on their own. Russell was Barros' shadow, haunting him in every comer, trying different lines to get by but never succeeding. Finally, he nearly crashed on 22nd lap, then did it for good in Garage Vert. "I wasn't hurt a t all and the bike wasn't damaged, apart from some dirt on the handlebars and my gloves, so I could get going again right away," Russell said. His speed was a little off and Briton Jeremy McWilliams made a spirited charge at the Georgian that came up just over a second short at the end. Next was Hodgson, who'd faded from his early promise to eighth at the end. Arakaki, riding in place of Filice, and Laurent Naveau rounded out the top 10. 250cc GRAND PRIX Biaggi had the best start, followed by Doriano Romboni on the Agostini Honda, then Waldmann, Aoki and Luis D'Antin. As the pack sorted itself out on the first lap, Biaggi maintained the lead and Waldmann was up to second, with Romboni and the rest following. It wasn't until the fourth lap that Waldmann took over the lead, but Biaggi and Aoki stuck to him as the three pulled from the pack - Romboni already gone after crashing. On lap seven, the leaders - Waldmann, Biaggi and Aoki - had three seconds on the pack and the trio took their . fight to each other. The battle between .the top two was especially harsh; Biaggi ripped his leathers when he went around the outside of Waldmann for the lead, the German able to take the spot back in the next comer. The order didn't change at the line; neither did the intervals, and it would be the 14th of 25 laps before there was any shuffling. That's when Aoki pitched it away in Les "S" Bleus, a right-left combination near the end of the lap. That made it a two-rider race with Waldmann leading Biaggi every lap, the Italian seeing tha t he didn'~ ha ve the machinery to make a pass stick. "It was really close racing," Waldmann said. "We touched many times," Biaggi gesturing with a number of the contacts, "but no problem. I stayed on the bike.. "I can use less brakes and more corner speed," Biaggi said. "My bike is better on top speed, but here it's not so useful." Biaggi was in front for the end of the 23rd lap, but after that it was Waldmann and both riders knew it would come down to the last lap. "I knew Max would try everything on the last lap so I just took the tight line and kept him out," Waldmann said. "I attacked as hard as I could over the last few laps but Ralf was too strong," Biaggi said. "For me the best thing was to take second position and go .up in the championship." Tadayuki Okada moved into third when Aoki fell and he had Carles Checa for company for just a little while. Then the HRC ace overcame what he found to be a handling deficit to stretch the gap and capture a secure third. Checa came in a lonely fourth. The ba ttle for fifth was led by Tetsuya Harada before he pulled away from Jean-Michel Bayle with less than five laps to go. Bayle had been sticking Ln with the former world champion until one of his exhaust pipes began to disin- ,..... tegrate, leaving him down on power. "From the second lap onward the engine wasn't revving properly," Bayle said. "The upper exhaust developed a crack and as it got worse the engine lost more and more power. I could do nothing about Harada and then on the last '" '" 7

• Cover