Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) The factory-backed Kawasaki team (Jean-Louis Battistlnl shown) led In the late stages but finished second, their lead derailed by a broken water pump. (Below) Herve Molneeu (2) and Steve Manley (4) prepare to overtake a backmarker. Manley later crashed out of the race. were limited and both factory riders were able to get back to the pits without much delay. The Honda and the Suzuki would resume their fight in the fourth and fifth position, respectively, lying five and six laps behind the leading Kawasaki of Rymer. Second and third were held by the privateer Hondas of Mertens and Guyot. The night hours didn't bring many surprises, despite (or thanks to?) the heavy rainfall. Rymer kept his lead at an average of two laps from the French-Belgian Honda of Mertens, Simeon and Mattioli. But behind the two leaders, things were a little bit more exciting. During the night, the private Honda of Guyot couldn't thwart the comeback of the factory Honda and Suzuki. Guyot and his mates eventually dropped back from third to fifth, letting Moineau and Vieira past as those two battled it out between themselves. Still, the two factory teams would not have it all their way. For Suzuki, a faulty shift mechanism caused some headaches. For Honda, things were a little bit more complicated. "When Alex had come in with the crashed bike, the mechanics had changed the fairing, the exhaust and some minor things," said Brian Morrison. "But as the night wore on, it became ever more difficult to use the shifter. We lost a lot of time making unannounced pit stops, and trying in vain to find the reason of the trouble." . At 3 a.m. - at the halfway stage - 43 bikes were still running on the soakingwet track. Behind the factory and best privateer teams, the fastest lap times belonged to Belgian Michel Nickmans, who rode a private Yamaha to the eighth position. Just when the track started to dry and the first rays of sunlight shined above the Arden pines, the race results were turned upside down. At around 5:15 a.m., the leading Kawasaki passed the bus-stop chicane at a very slow pace - the result of a broken chain. Rymer was forced to push the bike back to the pits, but fortunately the bus-stop is the last chicane before the La Source hairpin, and there's a downhill run to the pits. And the team only ended up losing about 10 minutes. But that was more than the Guignabodet team had asked for, and it put Mertens and his teammates into the lead. At the same time, the factory Honda was back in the pits with the recurring shifting problem rearing its ugly head again. After another 15 minutes of searching and work, the cause was finally discovered - in the Vieira crash, the axle of the shift mechanism had been pushed through a separating wall in the engine, causing the axle to get stuck. The number-seven Honda dropped back to sixth place, with 16 laps separating them from Rymer. At 7 a.m. on Sunday morning - eight hours before the end - Mertens was leading from Moineau (6 laps), Guyot (7), the astonishing Dutch-English team of Bosch/Pullan/Neomagus (13) and Vieira (17). At that time, Belgian Michel Nickmans was forced out of the race with a broken gearbox. A full workday waited the riders before the checkered flag. On the track, the best, lap times were made by Rymer's Kawasaki, while the Honda of Vieira wasn't able to make up ground due to some minor oil leakage through the gasket and the riders having lost motivation after Vieira's crash and the difficult hours that followed. The Honda boys were now lapping three seconds slower than they had been doing on Saturdayafternoon. . For the official Kawasaki, team their troubles weren't over either as trouble struck again - and again it was Rymer who was the unlucky one who had to bring the bike back into the pit. "The water pump just seems to have blown up," the Brit said. "I took the chance to ride the bike back to the pits, with the water leaking out of the engine, but 1 found I had no other choice, even though 1 never thought 1 would make it till the pit." But make it he did, and the Kawasaki mechanics managed to repair the bike pretty quickly. Rymer got back on the track still in second place, but now with a five-lap margin to the lead Honda, after having crawled back to only a onelap deficit prior to the water pump incident. Things were really looking good for Mertens and Mattioli: With the Kawasaki thrown back, and Vieira struggling to get into the top three, their chances to leave the Francorchamps circuit as the new leaders of the World Championship started to grow. As a matter of fact, championship leader Christian Lavieile wasn't even in Francorchamps. After his "escapade" in Assen - where he had ridden one of the Guignabodet Hondas - he had been fired by Suzuki team manager Dominique Meliand. Still, Mertens, Mattioli and Simeon would have a hard time in a breath-taking finale. Around 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, the RC45 ran into trouble for the first time. Mertens rushed into the pit with a problem he couldn't really locate. It took his French technical crew some minutes to discover that a part of the chain tensioner had broken. "I had heard a strange noise right from the beginning of my turn," Mertens said. "But 1 had not the faintest idea of what it was." The pit stop took some 10 minutes, and the lead was brought back from five laps to two. Four hours before the end, Mertens was still leading, from Rymer, Moineau, Guyot and Bosch. A final twist of fate was expected at 2 p.m. when the rain, once again, started to pour down. '1t was a bad time to make a wrong decision," Simeon said. "I remember 1 was still wondering what to do when 1 rounded La Source. At the last possible moment, 1 turned into the pit lane, and dashed to my crew. 1 asked them to put full rain tires on. The intermediate Michelins had given me a hard time during the nightly showers, and 1 did not want to risk a crash. And 1 knew that the rain tires would last until the end of the race, even if the track would dry up on the last laps." Simeon's gamble turned out to be the only correct one; Rymer made a pit stop two laps later after he gave up hope that the rain would stop. With the gray clouds gathered over Francorchamps, he had no choice but to pit and finally drop his last ambition of taking the victory. Mattioli/Mertens/Simeon won from Rymer/Battistini/d'Orgeix and Moineau/Bonhuil/Gomez. In the championship point standings, Mertens and Mattioli are leading with 12 points more than Simeon. Both championship leaders will try to gather some more points at Suzuka in another few weeks, while Simeon is hopeful that team owner Guignabodet will take a second bike with him to Japan. The diminutive Suzuki dealer has every reason to perform well in the championship - due to his excellent result in Assen and his victory at Francorchamps aboard the Guignabodet Honda, the Suzuki importer is not so hot anymore to continue his contract with Simeon. At the same time, Guignabodet was scheduled to meet with the Honda France people the week after Francorchamps in order to try and get some extra support from them. Vieira isn't going to Suzuka, which means that the official RC45 will not be used during the last weekend of July. But will Honda (France) be willing to send a fifth works bike to the 8-hour race? It might help a privateer to win the World Championship title... CN 24 heurea de Liege Spe-Francorchempa, Belgium Reeult8: July 16, 1995 1. Mattioli/Mertens/Simeon (Hon); 2. Rymer/ Battistini/d'Orgeix O

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