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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127743
ROAD RACE World Championship Road Race Series Round 10: Czech Republic Grand Prix. (Left) MlchH' Doohan (1) pa_ _rly leader NorIIuml Abe (17) to t1111e over lit the front of the Czech Republic 500cc GnInd PrIx; eventual win.Luca C8dalora (2) g1v. . ch.... (Below) Dary! Ballttle (4) had to fIgfll through tram • bIId etar1 to finish third; here he leads BrazllI.n AI.x Crlvllle (9). By Henny Ray Abrams BRNO, CZECH REPUBUC, AUG. 20 na stunning reversal of fortune, Marlboro Roberts Yamaha's Luca Cadalora was propelled to victory in the Czech Republic Grand Prix by a new generation of the Dunlop tires which he'd been dismissing all season as inadequate. But the victory was nearly taken away when rus Yamaha YZR500 was found to be slightly underweight during the post-race tech inspection. After taking ills first pole position of the year, the 30-year-old Italian, mounted on Dunlop tires front and rear for the first race during the European campaign, ran down race leader Michael Doohan on the 14th of 22 laps to take the lead. It was after that, though, that he was most impressive, breaking Wayne Rainey's lap record on the 16th lap, then lowering it even further on the next tour. After feeling a vibration in the engine in the final laps, Cadalora slowed, but still beat Repsol Honda's Doohan to the line by 4.148 seconds in front of a crowd of 85,000 at the Brno Circuit. A post-race teardown by the Marlboro Yamaha crew revealed that the YZRSOO's crankshaft seal had developed a leak, causing the bike to smoke in the final laps as oil leaked into the combustion chamber. "They did a great job during the weekend, and two weeks ago when we were testing in Mugello, to find some good material to be competitive here," Cadalora said of the tire crew. "For sure it's been a long time and today is a great day for me, for us, for the mechanics who work so hard this year without satisfaction." l1") Ironically, it was World Champion 0'1 Doohan's Michelins that let rum down. 0'1 The Doohan crew gambled on a rear tire ..... choice and just past the midpoint of the race he found it was too soft. Cf) "I flicked it in hard and the back end ti came around," Doohan said. "I had to pick it up early out of the corners. "Luca and the Yamaha were working ...... exceptionally well and the Honda wasn't a match for it really today, especially in the second half of the race. I'm not sure why, it seemed to be a little bit I o ::s .3 6 different today than yesterday, but we seemed to overwork the tires." After duffing the start, Lucky Strike Suzuki's Daryl Beattie began a charge to the front that saw rum move into third place just past halfway. That was as far as he got and he was clo e to nine seconds down on Doohan at the end. More importantly, ~ lost four more championship points to Doohan. With three races to go, Doohan is out front, 190-171. Cadalora is third at 135. In winning for the first time since the last Grand Prix of 1994, in Catalunya, Spain, Cadalora completed the 22-lap, 73.74-mile race in 45 minutes, 28.726 seconds at an average speed of 97.285 mph. He also established a new lap record of 2:02.812, eclipsing Rainey's mark of 2:03.266 from 1993. The drama came when his bike was weighed at 127.5 kilos (280.5 pounds), 2.5 kilos (5.5 pounds) under the legal limit of 130 (286 pounds). But since there is a two kilo allowance, the bike was thought to be half a kHo under, about 1.1 pounds. The FlM jury met for about two and a half hours after the race ended, then issued a one-line statement which read: The weights of the first 3 mechines (sic) were checked. All machines were found to conform to 1995 FlM GP regulations." The statement was signed by Jack Findlay, Techmeal Director. Fourth place, in what he considered his best finish of the year, even though he'd finished there twice before, was Marlboro Team Pileri Honda's Loris Capirossi. The 22-year-old Italian battled his way forward from seventh place to take fourth with six laps to go. He said that, with a little more practice, he might have been on the box. Repsol Honda's Sruruchi Itoh was the man Capirossi displaced for fourth, the Japanese rider taking fifth after his rear tire went off halfway into the race. He finished about three seconds in front of his teammate Alex Criville, who had his hands full with Aprilia's Loris Reggiani, the Italian scoring rus best finish this year on the V-twin 400. Eighth place went to Fortuna Honda Pons' Carlos Checa, the Sparuard scoring his first 500cc points while filling in for injured teammate Alberto Puig. He was less than a 10th in front of Kanemoto Honda's Alex Barros who struggled with rear-tire problems, despite using the same tire as Capirossi. World Championship Motorsports Neil Hodgson was ninth, making good use of his first outing on the works Yamaha with Dunlop development tires. Hodgson passed the still-injured Scott Russell and the Lucky Strike Suzuki on the final lap. "I'm not happy at all," Russell said. '1 never was able to get the bike really right all weekend after missing the testing through injury and it felt kind of harsh. My physical condition wasn't good either. My left arm is weak and it's hard to muscle the bike around." Among the non-finishers was Marlboro Roberts Yamaha's Norifumi Abe. The 20-year-old Japanese rider led the first two laps, dropped back to third, then crashed out of the race on the seventh lap. Marlboro Rainey Yamaha's Tetsuya Harada set new lap records on the final two laps, but it wasn't enough to stop Chesterfield Aprilia's Max Biaggi from taking his sixth win of the season in the 250cc Grand Prix. The 24-year-old Italian led all but laps eight through 10 of the 20-lap race, though never with any degree of comfort. Harada put in the strong bid at the end, only to come up 0.156 seconds short, about two bike lengths. "Today was a great day for us, the bike worked well and our suspension settings were e aclly right," Blaggi 5a1d. "During the first few lap [knew that Harada was pu hing me hard, 0 I slowed down a little and Jet rum pass so I could watCh him for a while. That allowed me to ee where I had the advantage and then I passed him and worked hard to get away and win." HB Honda's Ralf Waldmann was a distant third, 13.266 seconds back, after joining the top two in an early breakaway. The German faded briefly, then made a second charge at midrace, only to drop back precipitously at the end. Fourth place was the race of the class, a five-rider pack swapping and shuffling on the final lap with Spaniard Luis D'Antin diving under Team Agostini Honda's Doriano Romboni in the final corner to take the spot. Romboni was next across, half a length (0.20 seconds.) back, and a 10th in front of Elf-HBndaTech 3's Jean-Philippe Ruggia. Another two-tenths back was HRC's Tadayuki Okada, just in front of Marlboro Team Rainey's Kenny Roberts Jr. Roberts Jr. had started badly, but was able to join the battle for fourth with five laps to go. He was briefly up into seventh, before dropping just back of Okada. Blumex Rheos Racing's Nobuatsu Aoki filled out the top 10. Biaggi's win increased ills points lead over Harada to 44 points, 213-169, with three races left. He need only score six points in the next race to claim his second consecutive World Championship. Waldmann is five points behind Harada, with Okada fourth at 102. After an infusion of new parts from the Aprilia factory, World Champion Kazuto Sakata won his second 125cc Grand Prix in a row, leaving a fight lor second while leading every lap. By the end of the 19-1ap, 63.68-mile race the Team Krona-Aprilia rider was 7.496 in front of second place. From second to fourth was covered by less than half a second with World Championship leader Haruchika Aoki crossing the line fractionally in front of Docshop Racing's Akira Saito, with GP Team Ditter Plastic's Masaki Tokudome half a wheel behind in fourth. Blumex Rheos Racing's Aoki still leads the World Championship by a large margin, 181-127, over Sakata after 10 of 13 races. Schlossgold Racing's Rolf Biland led all 19 laps of the Sidecar GP to claim his fourth straight victory. World Champion Biland, 44, with passenger Kurt Waltisperg at his side, claimed the 78th GP win of his career, racing his LCRBRM rig to a 2.6-second victory over Britain's Steve Abbott.