Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROAD fl..... RACE .: '. .... Round 5: Italian Grand Prix .W orldC hampionship Road Race Series. Max Blaggi (1) and Marcellino Lucch i (12) domi nated t he 250cc Grand Prix, giv ing Apr ili a a 1-2 fin ish on the day. The first sidecar ra ce of th e season was a classic, with th ree chairs contesting the lead with the pod ium finish er s separated by less than a tenth of a second and the next two only another sixtent hs back. In th e fi nal r eck onin g it w a s the - Cuedel brother s, Paul and Charly, tak - Where's Scott? T eam Lucky Strike Suzuki was forced to replace Scott Russell at the Italian C P when the Georgian failed to tu m up in tim e to be entered in the race . Russell, who is still recover - 8 ing from breaking six toes during a testing crash at Le Mans just over th ree weeks ago, failed to notify the team of his whereabouts by the 5 p.m. Thursday deadline for entries. Since Russell was out of touch until Friday morning, the team had no choice but to withdraw his entry and hurriedly drafted former test rider Terry Rymer onto the team. The irony is that when Russell broke his contract with Muzzy last year, he claimed that his company was providing Rymeras the replacement rider. "I was late because I wasn't sure about my footand I had some problems at home," Russell said in his motorhome late Saturday afternoon. "I definitely don't want to ride the thing halfass any more." Russell admitted that the team didn't know his whereabouts for a day while he was in transit, but he said he "knew Terry (Rymer) was on the way. They were covered." Russell's story, however, conflicts with the version given by Lucky Strike Suzuki team manager Carry Taylor. "All is not forgiven," Taylor said. "He wasn't here when he should have been." Taylor added that Rymer was to travel to Suz u ka on Monday to test the 8-Hour machine, which he'll ride with Russell, and was diverted to Mugello. As for Russell's immediate future with the team, Taylor said, "He'll be checked out by doctors and with a bit of luck he'll be testing Tuesday (at a two-day IRTA test at Imola, Italy, the site of September's San Marino CP)." This is not the first time Russell has failed to appear. Last fall he failed to tum up for an international race at Sugo - though his team and bikes did - claiming a family crisis. The truth was, and the team later found out, that he'd chosen to attend his sister's (Sherry) wedding to Muzzy Kawasaki's Mike Smith. Following his runner-up finish in the Daytona 200 this past March, Russell chose not to attend a Lucky Strike Suzuki test in Malaysia dtin g exhaustion. Again, his team and machinery awaited him. He also missed a day's testing this past winter in Australia when he was delayed by not having the proper visa . Russell finally turned up dur ing the lunch hour on Friday, well after he could have pracr ticed, and went to the Clinica Mobile for further treatment of his broken tnt.s. As to whether he could ride or not, Russell said: "I could do it, but it wouldn't be nice. The left (foot) is slow healing, the right one is okay. I don't think I'm up to riding. I'm tired of getting needles stuck in me. I don't need all that." Russell said that he'd been to see Dr. Claudio Costa at the Clinica Mobile and that Costa could have prepared him to ride. "He's ready to shoot it up. Whatever it takes to make you ride, that's his deal. He's a good doctor, a good guy. He's not the one who's got to deal with it. I am." ing the wi n after havin g led 14 of the 20 laps, including th e last three aboard their BR Racin g Tea m LCR-BRM-Swissauto. The y we re able to stay just ahead of Dixon Racin g' s World Champions Darren Dixon and Andy Hetherington (Wind le-ADM R4) who crosse d the line 0.082 seconds back and 0.016 in front of the Pne u Boesiger Racing's Steve Webster and David Jam es (LCR-ADM R4). Dixon had led the 17th lap, then gav e it back to Gue del, with Webst er in thi rd for the last five laps. . Sch lossgo ld Racing' s LCR-BRMSw issau to -e qu ip p e d Rolf Biland an d Kurt W a lt isperg were fou rth for the fin al 10 la p s, h o ld in g ba ck th e LCRBRM Sw issau to chair of Readimix Racing's Derek Brindley and Paul Hu tchi nso n, w ho were fifth from the second lap onward . Biland was less than six-tenths beh ind Web ster and 0.078 seco n ds in fron t of Brin dley. Th e Cuedels completed the 20-lap, 65.18-mile race in 39 minutes, 58.498 seconds , at an average speed of 97.92 mph. And their win gives them the top spot a fte r th e first o f seven ro unds in the Sidecar World Cha m pionship w ith 25 po ints to Dixon's 20 and Webster's 16. Chesterfield Elf Tech 3's Ru ggia an d Nas t ro A zzuro Ap ri lia 's Rob e rt o Locatelli. At the end of three the top five were spreading ou t - Biaggi in fron t of Lucchi, Ja cque, Wal dm a nn an d Fu ch s, with Rug gia and Loca te lli clo se b eh in d . Ano ther gap to MX On da's Luis d' Antin and No bua tsu Aok i, who were soon run d own by Marlboro Yamaha Rainey' s Harada, making u p for a bad start after qu alifying nin th . Lucchi br oke free on the fifth lap and, thou gh he trailed Biaggi by 2.1 seconds,' w as 5.39 in front of Waldmann, with Ja cqu e hot on hi s tail, then a ga p to Fuch s, Ruggia, Locatelli, and Harada up to eighth after the fourth la p; Aoki was right behind, then came d' An tin. Halfway into the 21-lap race, Biaggi had a 3.454-second lead; Lucchi was up 9.19 seconds on Waldmann with Jacque close by; Fuchs w as ano ther 5.39 back with Locate lli and Ruggia chasing, and Har ada holding off Aoki in eighth. Th e on ly a ctio n in th e to p si x wa s am on g Ruggia, Locatelli, and Fuchs, the trio going back and forth wi th Fuchs in front u nt il th e 13th lap whe n Locatell i and Ruggi a both came by. Th en Fuch s took the spot back on the 16th lap and , a lap later, Locatelli was ba ck to seventh and soo n out. . "Th at w a s very d is a p p o in ti ng, " Locatelli said. "Everything was going so well and it wa s ju st one of those stupid little failur es that stopped us, a tiny linkage in the exhaus t-valve system ." For the most part, the race was processional to the end. Biaggi w as c<;lmfortable with a gap of abo u t five sec onds , his lap tim es two' seco nds slower at the end than the begin ning as he sped to fourth win of the year. Lucchi, meanwhile, was all alone. Waldman n held off Jacqu e, and Fu chs stay ed ahead of Ruggia after Locatelli' s troubl es on the 17th lap . "What a pain. I mi ssed my first pod ium b y a fr a cti on o f a s e co n d ," sa id Ja cqu e . " Wa ld m a n n ' s b ike w as a bit faster th an mine, so I decided to st ay behind him to save m y tire s for the en d of the race. I knew w here I could make my attac k on the last lap, but unfortunately Waldmann slow ed su d de nly in the middle of a fast tum and that forced me to run off line, on the slippery part of the track." H arad a mov ed up to seventh with Locatelli's departure and set off for Ruggia, w hom h e trailed by two se conds with thr ee laps to go. Aoki was well off th e p ace at th is point with pl enty on d 'Antin. - Th e on ly sig n ific an t change at th e front was fo r six th, with Harada ru n nin g down Ruggia and beating him by 0.034 seconds whil e coming within 0.032 of Fuchs. "T he problem was th e sa me front end an d front tire trouble whi ch we had in practice," H arada said. "I di dn't want to crash, but when I saw I w as catchin g Ruggia and Fuc hs J jus t deci ded to ge t my head down and go for it." 2S0c c GRAND PRIX SOO c GRAND PRIX c Ch esterfie ld Elf Tech 3's Jacq ue got the jump on the field but Biaggi was in front by tu m on e and pulling away. On hi s firs t flying lap Biaggi lowered his ow n la p re cord a nd h ad a second in hand . He dropped the reco rd aga in on the th ird la p, to a 1:54.295, nearl y tw o seconds tinder his old record (1:56.188), and his gap w ide ned. Jacque gav e ch a se but w a s soon caug ht by Aprilia test rid er Lucchi, who took ove r second on the second lap. Further back HB Honda' s Waldmann was running alone, th en teammate Fuc hs, Doohan flashed in to th e lead at the sta rt , leading a qua rtet th at qu ickl y broke away from the pack, but not for lon g. Teammate Criville came by on the second lap; Capirossi was in third with Cadalora in fourth as th e top four left the res t behind. ' An oth er la p w e n t b y a nd it wa s Doohan in fron t for two, th en Cr iville for thr ee, then Doo ha n again. By now it w a s th e seven th lap an d the lead ers wer e u su all y si de b y si de on th e straigh ts. Cadalora was just in front of Capirossi, and Beattie, who didn't start

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