Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

the last minute. As to why the Italians would want to sideline Irom the FIM . TWP . ' and Doma . the Internationa l Ro a d Okada. .instead 01 W orld Champion Doohan. it was suggested · R a c ing Teams A ssoc ia t io n (JRTAl held a ' poorly attend that with the Japanese rider out. they .could claim top V-twln ed solidarity meeting the night before the GP weekend began. honors with Aprilia's Doriano Romboni. though very little support The Extraordinary General Assembly of IRTA was convened . according to a press release. " in response to the announceTerry Rymer had a rough time replacing Scott Russell. crash- could be gathered for this theory. · ments made at Jerez by t he ' President 01 the FIM c" This ing on Friday and running off the end 01 the front straight twice announcement was that the FIM was planning to enter into an . in Saturday's moming practice session With " mechanical difficul- Top sp e e d s at the end of the Mugello Iront straight. were deceiving with the Pileri Honda 01 Alex Barros the fastest at agreement with a company owned by Formula One boss ties." according to a team mechanic: The Suzuki suffered an off 193.939 mph followed by the Fortuna Honda of Alberto Puig Bernie Ecclestone with the agreement of the Grand Prix Manuthrottle seizure the first time and Rymer thought it was seizing ( 193.442 mph) and Kanemoto Honda's Luca Cadalora (191.764 factu rers Association (GPMAl. basically the five factories . The the second time when he pulled 01 and into the gravel trap. " It' s just obvious I've been thrown in the deep end." said Rymer. a . mph). Polesitter Mick Doohan 01 Repsol Honda was sixth with a , GPMA advised their represen tatives not to attend the IRTA special meeting and released statement saying that they suptop speed of 191.39" mph. Terry Rymer.'Scott Russell's Lucky 29-year-old Londoner who is currently competing in the British ported the FIM and Dorna in' their charnplonship plans. " The Strike Suzuki stand -in. had the laster ofthe two Suzukis at Superbike Series aboard the Old Spice Ducati. Rymer said he'd 190.086 mph. just ahead of his weekend teammate Daryl Beat- · five manulacturers belonging to the GPMA have carefully con receive.d the call on Thursday aftemoon before the wee kend tie. De spite qualifying fourth-fastest, IP Aprilia's Dortano Rom- sidered all the developments leading to the present situation 'which he had off from racing: He said he'd been racing in Ireland and conclude that present ly it's .in the tiest interes ts of the . .the previous week and had planned to.build his wile a dollhouse . boni had the fourth-slowest top speed at 182.257 mph. spo rt to participate in,the race .organizatio n 01 the FIM road this weekend. "When you get' wo rk herayou've got to take it ." •Rymer had te sted the Lucky Strike Suzuki at Bmo and J erez A lessa nd rO G ra mig nl . the Italian who' won the 1992 125ec · racing Grand Prix W orld ' Championships. " the release said. last year. as well as 'Catalunya. His only previous GP appear- . World Championship aboard an Aprilia. will ride a Fast by Ferrac- The brouhaha began earlier.this year when certain members of cl Ducati at the AMA Superbike National at the Mid-Ohio Sports' IRTA announced that they were going to strike a deal with ISL. ance was at the British GP in 1992. " Riding a Ducati makes you Car Course this co ming wee kend; and all of the ot her AMA ·a Swiss promotions firm. to take over the promot ion and telelazy." Rymer said. - Riding 'one of these bikes 'takes a lot of skill. races. Grarnlqnisatd that he wanted to race in Europe. but noth- ' vision rights of the Grands PrIx. That they did it before a deal You've goi the best riders In the world. It' s going to be a difficult was in 'place is increasi ngly .beginning t o appear as ' afatal ing carne up and wouldfmrsh the seaso.n in the' U,S. instead'; weekend for me: I haveno target at all:" After starting 12th. m ~~ " . '. ." . .... .: . Rymer completed one lap before running off the track with an . Brieflv. • • a .engi~e s~i~ ure. : . ., '.. After qualifying fourth lor the 25Occ. HB Honda Germany' s Ralf Waldmann was asked Whether it would be possible to keep Chesterfield Aprilia's Max Biaggi in sight. " Here it's impossible. for us to go the, same speed ' as the Aprilia bikes. " Waldmann said after qualifying nearly two seconds behind Biagg!. "I' m sure Olivier (Jacque) and I and some other Honda guYs make very . tough race . For us is at the 'moment impossible to catch them.: Aprilia' . test rider and wild-card entry Marcellino lucchi was second fastest in one 01 his few yearly GP appearances. a fact that was not lost on Waldmann. "All the tes t riders from Honda are five seconds slower than I am. How is it possible to make a' good bike? We can not improve on the Aprilia bikes. TheY are so fur in front of us on development and this is problem." , a a Dennis Noyes; the Do";'a vice president for promotions 'who also promoted the' U.S: GP at. Laguna Seca, released a list of World Championship records in an 'attempt to show who was the best 50Cci:: rider 01 all time. For instance. the leading rider in .podiurn-apoearance percentage for the past 20 years is Marlboro Roberts Yamaha' s th ree-time W orld Champ ion W ayne Rainey. In 83 500cc starts. Raineywas on the podium 64 times. . for a 77. I -percent appearance rate. Second is Kenny Roberts at · 67.2-percent followed by Repsol Honda' s M ick Doohan at 62. 1. Robert s' had the highest career Winning percentage at 37.g-percent. winning , 22 0'1 58 ·starts. Next came th r ee-time W orld Champion Freddie Spencer at 32 .3·percent . takinq 20 of 62. races. then comes' two-ti me W orld Champion Doohan who so l ar has won 28 01 his 95 500 GPs. Using a urnform point system. Rainey has the highest points per start at' 17.39. Spencer has the highest pole percentage for any 'rider with' 30 or more starts at 41c 9-percent., taking the top spot in qualifying 26 times out of 62 tries : Repsol Honda's Doohan is, second at 33.7. followed by .Iohnny Cecotto at 32 .3 . Robe rt s also own s the fastest-lap percentage for 30 or more starts. clocking a race best in 24 of 58 starts for a 4 1.3-pilrcent record. well eclipsing Doohan in second Who has had the fastes t lap 29.5 -i>ercent of the time. 28 of 95 starts. . Randy Mamola will be back on 'a factory bike the weekend of The Italian GP was sponsoned by Polini. an Italian high-perinrthe French GP at Le Mans. But he'lI be a few hundred .miles mance.fum which exports two-stroke hop-up parts to 36 counaway at Mallory Park in Engla'nd aboard the works Heron Suzuki Forme r 25 0cc W on d C hampio n' C h r i st ia n S a rro n . who tries. and also is the inain sponsor of the Pileri Honda team 'of RG500 that he won the British GP at Silverstone on in 1981. . retired from Grand Prix racing at the end of the 1990 season. 50!Jcc competi to r A,,!x Barros. The company. owned by the 'and rode to ,second in the championship tbatyear wearing .the had a 28-lap demonstrat ion and test ride on the Elf 500 at the brothers Polini, Carlo. Franco . and Piero, produces a full line 01 number 10. "It 's fun'riy deal because the .Iast GP bike I rode Paul Ricard circuit in southern France last week. Sarron. who performance products - pipes. heads. clutches. cylinders. gear- ' was (a Yamaha VZRSOOl for Kenny :CRobertsl at Barcelona on finished third in th e 1989 500cc W orld Championship. was ·boxes. carbs. etc. r for scooters and motorcycles up to 125cc. December 12. so it'll be funny to compare that to something I' doing camera work for a French televis ion statio n with a camera and they also build their own scooter and 40cc mini-rnoto.i the ". rode 16.years ago. " Mamola said. He also said thatGeorqe strapped to his back. "The setup 01 the machine was not per'. Dream Bike 911 . With about 300 .000 scooters sold each year in Beale. who owns two 01 the ex-Mamola 5OOs. as well as an fect for me and in particular the gearbox was difficult lo r me to ' ItalY. mostly to teenagers who are all looking lor a performance extensive collection of racing exotics.,has offened to sell him the .operate smooth ly be cause when I raced I ch ang ed down -advantage. thefr promotion 01 the GP was considered a natural. bike. The demonstration'ride is one of several that will be run as through the box while (Juan) Borja operates in the' opposite Th'ey also back an enduro team and promoted the' Italian Super- . part of a 40th anniversary celebration'for 'the track in Leicester" . direct ion; " Sarron said. ~ However. I do think the potential 'of cross at Genoa this past winter. shire that will also include a number ,01 races. Among them is a the machine is good . ~ French man W illiam Cos tas. who con. . pair of Past Masters,of Mallory Triumph Speed Triple races that. . tests the Thunderbike Trophy series aboard a Honda France F- , .Repsol Hc'nda's Tadayuki Okada w a's forced to go the hospi- will feature. among others . Gary Nixon. Jay Springsteen. and _, 3. may' race the Ell as a wild-card entry in the French' GP at Le , tal after being floored by a virus that had struck most of the rest . fOI1118r W orld Champion Phil Read.·There wiU also be the Rush-. Mans in June. . ' . ' . . ·of the team .followfng the Japanese GP at Suzuka.. Okada rode . den Query Trophy vintage .race, with two-time AHR~. 500cc on Friday. ' but missed both .sessions on Saturday because he Premier Champion Stephen MathewS and 350cc GP Champion : Michael Doohan's fourth 'win in a rciw at the Mugello clrcuit sent was exhausted and sick to his stoma ch. Okada was back on . Chuck Honeycutt aboard George ' Beale G50 Mat c hleases, the .historians searching through the record book s. The last .Sunday and was second lastest in the mOrning warmup. Just Mamola is currently an on-air reporter lor the Eurosport televi" 500cc rider to win four ina row atany trackwasformer W orld ' behind teammate Doohen.: and li nished the race an exhausted .. sion broadcast s ' of the ' Grands Prix 'and will do all 'of the Euro- · Champion Barry Sheene. who won at the Anderst orp cirCuit, seventh. W hen'Okada went down it immediately revived the stopean round s. except France . He said 'that noth ing had been · In Sweden six consecutive times from ,1976 through· 1981: As ries ofsusplctous food poisoning . thatfelled Kenny Roberts' at . de cidedyet on the last tw o ov er seas ' round s in Brazil and · 10r 'Mugello. Doohan 'said: '"It really 'is a good 'track and Honda ' 'lmola in 198 1. Robe.rts wasin the championship hunt when he . Argentina. ' . ' ' : works well here and I really do feel at home here. This is,the first · place I won after I injured myself, I have ,a lot of good memories got to Imola: only to fall victim to ,a stomach ailment that forced ' him out of the race. The same.ailmeni struck Randy Mamola's Atte mpting to sta nc h the bleed ing from thei r prema ture · .from here: To win it four times straight the last l our times. has ' .. ' -. ' .. .' then-girlfriend. but only after she' swiichei:lmeal s with Mamola at announce ment ol .trying to wrest th e .World Championships · been fantastic." a . . 11

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