Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

in his foot. He raced anyway, bu t cou ld d o no bette r th an 1 Oth , 18 seco nd s behind ninth-placed Veda. Last yea r's w inner McCoy mi ssed 11th behind Frenchman Fred Petit by less than a tenth of a second . 0 Circuit Shah Alam Shah Alam, Malaysia Results: March 31, 1996 (Roun d 1 of 15) 125« QUAUFYlNG: 1. Kazuto Sakata (1,)1.285 ); 2. Dirk Raudies (1:31.410); 3. Emilio Alzamora (1:31533); 4 . Stefano Perugini (1:31.627); 5. Tdmomi Manaka (1:31.738); 6. Jor ge Martinez (1:31.760) ; 7. Ha ru ch ika Aoki (1:31.840); 8. Yoshiaki Kato h (1:31.958); 9. Masaki Tokudome (1:3 1.986); 10. Pe te r oau (1:32 .014) ; 11. Akira Saito (1:32.187); 12. Manfred Geissler (1:32.253); 13. Valen t ino Ro s si (1:32.283); 14. Noboru Ue da (1:32.33 4 ); 15 . Ga briele Debb ia '<1:32 .584 ); 16. Lu cio Cecchinello JU2.S89); 17. Iaro sla v Hul es (1:32.792); 18. Garry McCoy (1,)2.944); 19. An drea Ballerini (1:33.104); 20. Jo se Da vid de Gea (1:33.236 ); 21. Loe k Bodeli er (1:33.400); 22. P. Tessa ri (1:33588); 23. Y. U; (1:33.598); 24. Darren Barto n (1:33.622); 25. S. Crudani (1:33.752); 26. I. Goi (1:33.778); TJ. J. Sarda (1:33.917): 28. Frederic Peti t (1:34.356); 29. Angel Nieto (1:34593 ); 30. C. Chee Ho u (1:36.142); 31. Y. Said (1:36.871); 32. C. Yan Kit (1,)8 .169);33. Y. Tan g (1:39.031). zsoe e QUALIFYING: 1. Ma x Biag gi (1:25.795); 2. Tetsuya Har ad a (1:26.284); 3. Oliver Jacque (1:26.m); 4. da y. Backed by Italian br ew ers Nastro Azzurro, the 21-yea r-old need ed all the fizz and plenty of head to prevail in a de sperat e last -lap battle as defending champion Harachu ki Aoki forced h is way up b etw een h im and one-ti me lead er Peter Oettl in the closing bends. Perugini had led the early stages, but d ropped behind Oettl when hi s se miau tom atic slick-shift system failed, and he had to relearn how use the clutch and throttle on upshifts. A gang of nine in close purs uit was th inned o u t when Jorge Martinez crashed, HB Honda's Dirk Raudies clattered to a stop with 12 lap s to go and Noboru Veda fell back. Then Tokudom e and Alzamora followed Aoki to close the gap on the lead ers. Aoki had the best tactics, finishin g second; with Tokudome fourth behind Oettl, lap record holder Alzam ora fifth, the group covered by 1.2 seconds. Class newcomer Valentino Rossi and his AGV Aprilia lost touch to finish sixth. Krona Ap rilia's Kazuto Sakata had qualified on pole position, but fell heavily in morning warmup, breaking a bon e (Abover) Luca Cadalora whee lles to victory, his first on a Honda NSRSOO. (Right) Cadalora (center) . celebrates with Alex Barros (left) and Checa (ri ght). V-twin Victory? S ensa tion in the steamy heat came when Honda's new lightweight V-twin fulfilled its preseason threa t with Tadayuki Okada's (right) first-ever pole position. Diving inside the V-fours in all the turns, the deep low- revving exhaust sounded a mocking note as he led from the start to sit pole on the first afternoon with a stu nning 1:23.987 the fastest-eve r official or unofficial tim e, a n d o ne seco n d insi d e Michael Doohan ' s '95 po le time. "It's like a 250 to rid e, but better," grinned the usu ally grim- faced Japanese r ider. "Th e ch a ssis is stiffer and gives a really good feeling. And then there ' s the extra power." Doohan got some revenge in the fina l session, hottest and most humid yet, with track temperatures at more than 120 degrees, when he was fastest. But the times that mattered had alreadv been set, with new Honda riderLuca Cadalora second overall, more than half a second down on Okada. Doohan was philosophical. "As long as I'm on the front row, it's okay," he said. "We' ll wait and see what happens in the first 10 laps with the V-twin. It's no different when you 're racing how many cylinders the other guy has. You just try and beat him." Okada's crucial point would be the run to the first corner. If overwhelmed in the first yards, he would find it hard to regain ground. "We've practiced starts during th e tests, taking the time from the line to the first corner. The Vfou r and the twin were more or less the sa me," he said optimistically. A thi rd V-four H ond a, ridde n by late cras her Alex Criville, complete d the front row, which wo uld be staggered for the firs t time to gi ve m o r e adva n tage to the fast er qu ali fiers. Loris Cap iros si a n d h is Marlboro Rainey Yamaha led row tw o, after crashing twice when other riders brought him down . "I like this bike too much," he grinned after running second to Doohan in the slower second session. "Last year it was hard to go fast on the Honda, but these times came really easily." He had Alex Barros's Honda alongside, then Norifumi Abe, who moved ahead of teammate Jean-Michel Bayle to be the better of the Team Roberts bikes. MAR Doriano Romboni put his V-twin Aprilia eighth, but crashed in race-morning warmup and w as ou t of the race. Then came Bayle and Carles Checa, ahead of Shinichi Itch's V-twin Honda. With Daryl Beattie out, Suzuki's problems continued. An off-tune Scott Russell ended up a disgruntled 13th, although he recovered his spirit somewhat when he was fourth in morning wa rmup. Juan Borja's Elf-ROC was 15th; there were 25 qualifiers. Max Biaggi dominated 250cc qualify ing throughout but it was narrowly do ne. '1 br oke an engine in the last session, ha d to p ush the bi ke back, then watch m y mechanics. They were fantastic. They changed the motor in half an ho ur, and I was able to go out again and get pole position back ." Times were faster than last yea r, an d his challen ger wa s old rival Tetsuya Harada, coming up with a seventenths improvement after sorting ou t the steering geometry. "I like the new Michelins a lot," he said. The front row was filled by the hot French teammates, youngster Oliver Jacque just a tenth ahead of vete ran J.P. Ruggia. "We help each other a lot," said Jacque. "On ly when the race starts will be begin to fight each other." Former Shah Alam winner Haruchika Aoki led the all-Honda second row from Luis d'Antin, Jurgen Fuchs and Tohru Ukawa, with Jurgen van den Goo rbergh top privateer, leading row three. There were 32 qualifiers - slowest Ralf Waldmann, who broke his collarbone in pre-race tests less than two weeks before. He tried to come back with the injury plated, but "it was too painful, and I had to stop:' he said.

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