Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Aoki took the lead early on the last lap with Tokudome going up the inside into the double-left before the start-finish li ne. But h is m om entum ca rried h im ' wide and Aoki took back the lead, just in front for the run down the front stre tch. That turned out to be the w rong place as the 25-year-old Tokudome drafted by to win by 0.099 second for the second win of his caree r. Marlboro Ap rilia Eckl' s Peter Oettl finished third, 7.260 seconds later. " W it h two laps to go I h ad a big moment braking int o the chica ne and I kn ew my tires were fini shed," Tokudo me sa id . "I also knew that Aoki would try everything to beat me on the last lap an d that it would be very difficult for me to fight back. So 1 just tried to keep concen tra ted and maintain my speed, but swea t wa s running down my face and in t o m y right eye. It w as burning so much th at 1 wa s squ inting through my left eye only arid I could h ardl y see anyth ing. Th at wa s wh en Ao ki came b y. Luckily for me he had a big slide in the last corne r an d 1paid h im back." The Aprilia-mounted Tokudo me finished the 26-lap, 64.06-mile race in 41 minutes, 38.797 seco nds at an av erage speed of 92.291 mph. The margin of victory, officially 0.099 seco nd, w as about two bike lengths . With a pair of seconds in the opening two ro u n ds, Aoki lea ds the cha mpi onship with 40 points, two better th an Toku d om e and seven ahead of N astro Azzu ro Ap ri li a ' s Stefa no Perug ini, eight h today after running off the track twice and sufferi ng engine trou bles. 250cc GRAND PRIX Harada led off the start, with Frenchman Olivier Jacque an ear ly second on the Chesterfield Elf Tech 3 Honda, then Biaggi, d' Antin, and Waldmann. Another lap and it was Biaggi chasing Harada, a ga me that would play out for the rest of the 28 laps. Harada had the faster bike in practice, but it didn't show in the race and Biaggi wa s a shadow second mos t of the race. Though he was able to pa ss from time to time it was on desp erate brakin g. and he would run wide in the nex t bend with Harada easily staying in front. The first time Biaggi made the pass stick w as on the 12th lap, but Harada was a close second and returned to the fron t on the next lap . "Wh at 1 did was get in front of Max and keep Max behind me," Harada said. "If Max was in front, there was a chance for him to get away. My tactics today were to getin front and ride my own race." He did just that for several more laps, with Biaggi coming by again on the 21st for just one lap. The Italian' s tires were go ing by then, and he knew he couldn't hold on. '1 tried my best but Harada was very hard to pass and my rear tire was sliding around a lot over the last few laps, so 1 decided to accept seco nd and finish the race," Biaggi said. "It seems that Harada 's tires had a longer life than mine and his bike is mu ch better th an before. 1 think we ha ve a lot of work to do ." On the 25th lap the gap from first to second was 0,548 second and it grew a few tenths the next lap before shrinking slightl y. On the. last lap Biaggi was close. The n came his ru n-in wit h Scalvini and any chance h e had to close, and there wa sn 't mu ch, was gone. For his part, Harada said: "It wa s a hard battle and th ere is a lot of confidence between us. It was not as exciting as it looked." Waldmann moved into th ird on the fou rth lap and pulled away fro m the (Left ) Barros (7) whe elies his Pller l Honda afte r fini shing second behind Doohan. The Brazlll an leads , the 500cc Wor ld Champ ions hip aft er two rou nds. (Abov e) Loris Caplrossl (65) success fu lly held off Alex Cr lvlll e (4) for th ird place : Carles Checa (24) gives chase. field with su rp rising ease. There wasn 't much to his race after that and he was glad for it. "I knew in ad vance that it would be a very hard race for me, as 1 am still not lOa-percen t fit," he said. "At the start, sud de nly the world began turnin g aroun d rn e v.d u e to th e acceleration, probably still a result of the crash, wh ere 1 fell heavily on m y head. But after 1 slowed down for i! moment everything wa s fine again. My bike wa s ve ry fas t compared to the other Hondas, so it was not too difficult for me to cover the other Honda riders." The best race of the day was the one for fourth, with five rid ers going at it for much of the race and swapping sp ot s constantly. Jacque led the pa ck for the first half of the race with Rheas Molenaar Racin g' s N obuat su Aoki behind, then Team Benetton H onda ' s Tohru Ukaw a, d' Antin, and HB Honda' s [urgen Fuchs. Halfwa y in , d ' Antin m o v ed into J fou rth, with Aoki pressing and taking the spot with four laps to go. D' Antin wa s by on the next tour and held on at the finish by a scan t 0.044 second. A few seconds back came Fuchs, the German rider having worked his way up stead ily in the final few laps and holding off Ukawa by the nearl y unmeasurabl e margin of 0.003 second. Jacque had been pressing, but lost any chance at staying close when he ran off th e track on the final lap. He was back on witho ut losing a spot, takin g eighth, one be tt e r than Argentinian Sebastian Porco . "I found myself at the back of a group comprising d' An tin, Aoki , Fuchs, and Ukawa, and on the last lap 1 tried to pass one or two of them. But 1 made a inistak e trying to get by Uka wa and went onto the grass," Jacqu e said. 500cc GRAND PRIX It' s hard to ascr ibe excitemen t to a race which didn't see an ord er change in the top 10 for the final 26 o f 30 lap s, but not to do so would deny th e leaders th eir du e. Doohan .w as in front from Barros an d there was the inevitable feel'in g tha t it was only temp orary . It wa sn't. . Barros, s h ow in g th e so r t of s ty le which made him such a hot comm od ity sev eral yea rs ago, matched the World Ch ampion whee l for wheel, w ith Doohan taking note of it during the race, as he had in practice. ' "All weekend 1 w a s lookin g at th e tim es and Barros was th e most consistent at s tring ing laps together. Other guys would do one or tw o laps, Alex was stringing a series together," Dooh an said, and Barros agreed. "All weekend 1 try to make the race lap by lap, constant laps, and I know at the front try to push the first 10 laps," Barros sa id. " I know after the last 10 laps, sure, I have some problems. I try to sa ve the tires at the b egin n ing of the race, but 1 have some problems the last five laps. 1 try to push to make pressure and get him back but we come up on lapped riders. He pushed and my tir es mo ved on the wheel." But Doohan didn't know that and was waiting for the last-lap surge. "I raced Alex like that b efore at Assen," Doohan said . "It felt like he did have a little reserve. I didn't want to pull out my reserve. After we got into traffic it was now or never. The last two laps I put my head down and pulled a gap. It wasn't worth going for a lap record." The gap, first to second, was less than a second with three laps to go, then 1.7, 2.7, and 3.227 at the end. Doohan set the fastest lap of the race on the 27th, a time that didn't mat ch his pole-settin g qualifying effort. Third place was basically decided on the fourth lap . Th a t' s when O kad a' s Honda e xpire d with und ia g n o sed engi ne tr oubles and Cap irossi moved into the spot. He seemed una ssailab le at first, pull ing out a gap of better than two seconds m idrace befor e Crivill e started to take it back. The gap narrowed gradually until the end wh en it looked like his podium finish was in danger. "Early on in the race I pushed really hard to stay wi th Mick an d Alex, but I bega n to run into some front tire pro blems," Capirossi said. "After my crash last Su nd ay, the most im portant th in g w as to finish, fo r myself, fo r Yama ha an d for th e team. 1 decide d that th ird was okay . Then I saw that Criville and Checa were catching me so 1 had to start pushing again to keep my thi rd place." Cri vil\e was catc hing h im certain ly, but th e h eat w as taking its toll on his ri ght h a nd w hich was o pera te d on a week earlier after a spill. He was able to . pull away from fellow Spaniard Checa only to see his ru n at Capiross i blunted by traffic. "During th e rac e 1 s ta rted getting . Cap iro ssi reall y quickly, but was unlucky due to m an y ba ckmarkers, " , Criville said. He was sliding more than he wou ld have liked and attributed it to his hand injury. " It slid a little on the rear tire bu t 1 think it has to do with my bruised hand, as I st ill have very litt le sensitivity on the braking hand wh ich is injured. That effect I could not control, but otherwise the bike performed very well." Well enough to pull away from Checa at the end after bein g h ounded for the first 25 laps. Checa was conten t to finish fifth to his more experienced rivals and take fourth in the championship. "The reason 1 couldn't try to fight for a rostrum finish was that 1 was close to my limit and I just preferred not to risk," the 23-year-old Checa sa id . "I wasn't comfortable behind Criville becau se he was faster ou t of the comers and then 1 had to brake too hard to get back behind him. We'll try next time ." Cadalora's race began lonel y and got lonelier. At the beginning he tried to stay with the leaders but knew that he wasn't up to it, so he settled into sixth to collect the poi nts at a track he never came to grips wi th. "Here is not the place for us, " the 31yea r-o ld Ita lian said . "It's just that the feelin g was not right. Yesterday in the afternoon the bike was working really good. 1 do n' t understand wh y it wasn't right today." He did say that he was su ffering from a stiff neck and that it didn't ge t any better. "I sus pect it's a trapped ne r ve or so me t hing a n d it made m e weak in the race. 1 was h avin g tro uble con trolling the bike: so there w as nothing 1 cou ld do ." Russell ran in seventh for much of the l-< rac e, his bike never really right on a 0.. track that demanded perfection. "The tires were sliding around at the end of the morning practice and tha t' s 12 .... -< 7

• Cover