Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

tu rn tw o . Th e b ik es touche d , a n d Doohan h a d a h airy m oment. It took h im another l ap to get by, an d by then the steadfas t Criville was almos t 1.5 seconds clear. From then on it was mainly about the two identical Hond as, Cadalora taking a supporti ng rol e to a g rueling battle. Since Doo han took a second off the gap in th ree more lap s, and kn owing him as we do, conventio na l wi sd om sai d th at he shou ld ha ve been able to pass Criv ille fa irly easil y. He was also holdin g visib ly tigh ter lines in a race some what below lap-record pace. But then ag ain, m aybe n ot. Criv ille was u sin g all th e road, bu t he was steady as a rock, with no sig ns of get ting flustered. Now came the extraord inary sight of wa vi ng fa ns ap pearing tr a ck side . But the race went on. Do ohan wa s bid ing his tim e, waiting u nt il ju st yar ds bef or e th e lin e at the very last bend, a tight left-h and hairpin arou n d the en d o f th e pits . Th en h e stayed off the brakes a frac tion longer, force d himself up the ins ide, an d sta yed there by force of cha racte r as much as any th ing . , Cri ville was not givi ng u p . He laid his bike d own alongside Doohan's and opened the th rottl e. The tactic may eve n have been success fu l if Do oh an h ad been e asier t o intim id ate. But h e wo u ldn' t give an inch, and Criv ille w as off line . It was all too much for the tires . The bike snapped side w ays, threw him viciously ove r th e hi gh side, an d narrowly missed land ing on him as it cartwheeled into the gravel. . Ca d a lo ra was 2.6 se co n ds behind across th e lin e. Okada had been w ith him and chall enging for the first half of the race . He got ahead briefl y on lap 11, but was put firml y ba ck in his place. He decided to settle for what was then fourth, since he was sliding and chatt ering, his practice tir e problem s unsolved. Behind them it was all action all the way. Beattie p layed no part. He and Rombani h ad both regained the track, right at the back, but he lasted only one and a half m ore laps before th e rear skipped out at the final comer and he fell heavily. . "The first off was m y mistake ," Beattie said ru efull y. "The second one happened so quickly. It 's possibl e 1 may have p icked up some gravel in the fairin g , cir ma ybe 1 w as just trying too hard ." He'd fractured his right he el and a bone in his back, and skinned his left arm . It w as en ough for Rombon i. "1 w as having a lot of troubl e staying on th e track b ecause of fro n t-w heel chatter," said the Ita lian . "1 cou ldn't hold m y line, and I was last. I decided it wasn' t worth continuing." As Barros dropped back w ith tir e problems, the Yamahas of Capi rossi and Roberts were coming through. Both had started badly, the Italian 10th at the end of lap o ne, th e Am e rican 13t h a nd among the privateers. It w as Rob erts wh o mad e th e bigge st impres s ion, char ging th rough so he was soon not only with the group follow ing the lead ers, but actu ally in front of it, pass ing Barro s and Bayle in on e lap. He 'd chosen soft tires in order to make an early charge, b u t he ' d hoped to do it fro m slightly farther ahea d . As the race wore o n, he a nd Capirossi m oved ahead of th e grou p , bu t Roberts' tires were now well past their best. "1 tried everyth ing to stay ahe ad of (Loris) Ca pirossi, but I had so little grip that by the last laps I cou ld hardly open the throttle," said Roberts. Capi rossi h ad timed h is ru n w ell , an d he moved ahead w ith nine laps to go . By the finish he h ad closed u p to wi t hin 2.4 s e co n d s of the t r oubl e d Okada, ju st mi ssing a second rost ru m of the year. Rob er ts fell victim to Puig on the final la p . Bay le was a lo n e seven th , happy ju st to finish after the crash the day before. "My arm was painfu l," he said. Barros had drop ped into the clutches o f slow starter Shi nichi Itoh, w ho h ad ea rlier passed -the injured Carles Checa's V -four, an d had the Spa niard tucked u p tight beh ind. The three spent the second ha lf of the race locked togeth er in another close battl e. Barro s fended off Itoh by less th a n half a second, Checa losin g touch at the finis h. This wasn' t all the excit eme nt. Juan Borja's Elf was holding station in a lone 11 th, but a littl e w a y b a ck Jeremy McWilliams was making the running in a fierce privateer battle that at one stage had five of them locked togeth er. At the finish Jam es Hayd on had taken control, with Frenchm an Fre d Protat and McWilli ams o n h is ba ck wheel. Se an Emmett dropped out of this battle but cl a imed th e la s t poin t, Eugene McManus had also been with them and was 16th, wi th 20 finishers . Dooh an now leads the championship w ith 72 poi nts, with Cadalora m oving up to second on 55. Bar ros has 48, Abe 40, with Checa, Russell, Bayle, Criv ille an d Puig all close behind . 250cc GRA ND PRIX Biaggi' s s tory is soon to ld . He led from start to finish in famili ar masterly style, taking a lead of more than one second at the end of one lap, and continuing to stre tch it to a yawning 10 seconds by lap 10 and 12 ticks by the finish . It was hi s first win at Jerez, and he w as a little surpri sed it had been so e a sy . "I'd cho sen harder t ire s to be strong at the end of the race, but I was able to go away from the be ginning an yway," he said . This decisive defeat of his rival Harad a at a track wh ere the Jap anese rider did th e sam e to him in 1993 and 1995 was a massive boost to his confidence. Waldmann and d'Antin led the early pursuit, the Spaniard n o s in g ahead briefly on the se co n d lap af ter Waldmann slid and ra n wide, only to narrowly escape crashing himself afte r a lurid slide, dropping back to fou rth beh in d the Germa n and the Yamaha of Harada, w ho h ad m ade a goo d start from th e seco nd row. Wa ldmann got back ahead of Har ada for an other few la ps, but the Japanese ride r was on the boil, and wh en Har ad a regaine d seco nd pl ace on lap eig ht, he stayed th ere to th e fini sh. "My m ain pr ob lem tod a y w as no t my in jured ha nd ," Har ad a said. "It was the tim e I . lost for bike setting by crash ing in prac· tice. Max was so fast today 1 don 't know that I cou ld have cau gh t him anyway." Waldmann would ha ve liked to have tried. "I made tw o mistakes and Harada passed me twice," Waldman said . "Tha t allo we d Max to get away earlier on . But m y tire choice was not good, and I was rea lly sliding around at the finis h." A brief glimmer of excitement in the final p r ocess ion came from his teammate Fuchs, who had started well and paced himself so as to preserve his tires. In th e last lap h e closed righ t u p on Wa ldmann, who narrowly repulsed his attack. " I h av e to apologize to m y te am m ate," Wa ld mann said. " He w ou ld have passed me if I had n't blocked him. But I di d want to finish third." Fuc hs w as man eno u gh to be thrilled with a career-best fourth, putting himself firmlyon the rather sparse 1996 250cc map. Another full 13 seco nds back came th e be st s cra p o f the ra ce, betw e en detu ned practice cr asher Jacque, fas t sta rte r d 'Antin and test-injury victim Toh ru Ukawa. The a ll-Hond a tri o pu t on a go od scrap, with Jacque dropping aw ay in the closing laps after a big slide an d Ukawa vali antly defeating d' Antin by less than two-tenths. Jean Philippe Ru ggia was a distant eighth after a rotten stan; British Aprilia privateer Jamie Robinson an impressive ninth, narrowl y ahead of fellow Aprilia privateer Lu ca Boscos curo. Then came 5e te Gibe rnau, Sebastia n Por co and th e rest, wi th just 19 finis hers. Biaggi claimed a solid 3D int lead -po ove r Harada, w ith d'Antin thir d overall, then Jacque, Waldmann and Fuchs. It' s early yet, but it already looks as thou gh th ei r a ll fig h ti ng over se co n d p la ce unl ess Harada's lu ck turns soo n. 125cc GRA ND PRIX Th e first race of th e day sa w much chan gin g o f fortunes and d eveloped into a classic 10-bike battle for the lead . Th e usu al bunch of circumstances saw this whittled down to five at the flag , cros sing the line within a quarter of a second for a photo finish . The lead chan ged hands frequently; the same was true of the next 10 positions. Emilio Alzamora was up fro nt m ost of the time, bu t Katzuto Sakata, Ha ruchika Aoki, Nobo ru Ueda and Jorge Martinez also had the pleasure at one tim e or anoth er. Akira Saito h's chanc es evaporated on lap 19, when h e lost h is pla ce in th e group with a cras h, remounti ng to finish last. To th e crowd' s sorrow , Martinez In the final corner on the final lap, Crivllle crashed out of his battle with Doohan, lea ving the World Champion to ride to victory ahead of Cadalora. . we nt w ith just two laps to go, crashing heav ily shortly after tak in g the lead for the first time: After the thrilling finish, both Aoki and Alzamora thought they h ad won. Onl y Aoki wa s correct, by 0.025 second, with Ueda, hard-charging Rossi and - Sakata almost abreast with th e w inn er. Doubl e r a ce w inn er thi s seaso n Ma s aki To k u dom e he ad e d the next pa ck, le ss tha n th r ee seconds adri ft, he ading .th e sim ilar works Apri lia o f Stefano Perugini by a quarter of a second. Then came ers tw hile fro nt-ru nne r Tomomi Man ako, wh ose Honda had all but fall en b ack to b e over taken b y Yosh iako Ka toh's Yamaha . Similar ba ttlin g groups mad e up a good propo rtion of the 24 finis hers. Luckless Gar ry McCoy adde d a nonfinish to an aw ful weeken d after setti ng third -fa ste st time a t IRT A tests th e weekend before . His main problem was illness, but he fou ght back the fever only to be left m iles behind at the start. He battled on, onl y for the bike to fail at the halfw ay ma rk. Aoki's victory was either masterful or lucky . His record would suggest the former. It was his first win of the year, but second everywhere else gives him the title lead at 85 points to Tokudome's 73 . Ue da le a d s th e res t on 49 , wi th Perugini the first European, on 46. THUNDERBIKE TROP HY The ope ni ng ro u nd of the Thunderbike trophy saw pole qualifier Will iam Costes triu m ph in a close battle wi th fel-

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