Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

RQ\D RACE World C~artlpionship Road Race Series .. Time: 32 min.. 3.269 sec. DiJt.ance: 14 laps. 52.6 miles. Aver~ge sp~: 98.502 mph. Mougin of victory: O.Oll sec. F"'e" lop: William Cost... 2:13.332/102.733 mph, lap 8. THUNDERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP POI T STANDINGS (After 4 of 9 rounds): 1. William Castes (65/1 win); 2. Yves Brigue' (59); 3. (TIE) Adrien MoriJlas/Jef!rey De Vries (45); 5. Bernard Garda (42); 6W~CO Zeelenberg (29); 7. Stefan Scheschowitsch (27); 8. Gregorio Lavitla (26); 9. (TIE) Mauro MeregaUi/lain MacPherson (25); 11. (TIE) Eric Mahe/Pere Ribal Stephan< Mertens (21~ 14. Mar< Garda (l8~ 15. Enrique de luan (13); 16. Johnny Verwijst (11~ 17. Phil Boriey (9~ 18. (TIE) Fred Bayens/Oriol Femandez (8); 20. (TIE) M. Luque/Frank Heidger (6). SIDECARS: 1. Dixonl Hetherington (ADM); 2. Webster/James (ADM); 3. Guedel/Guede.l (Swi); 4. Klaffenboek/ Patter (AOM~ 5. Abbott / Biggs (ADM); 6. BUand/Waltisperg (Swi); 7. Kumagaya/Hopkinson (Swi); 8. Boesiger/Egli (ADM); 9. Wyssen/Wyssen (Swi~ 10. Bohnhorst/Rosinger (ADM); 11. Reddington/ Crone (ADM); 12. Galross/ Berglund (NGK); 13. Schlosser/Herzog (Swi); 14. Lauslehto/Hofsteenge (ADM); IS. Webster/McIntosh (ADM); 16. Smit/Den Hartog (Kra~ 17. Remse/Koe1sch (ADM); 18. Janssen/ Hanni (Str); 19. Brindley/Hutchinson (Swi); 20. Gray/Pointer (ADM); 21. Willford/Bloemsa (ADM~ 22. Baker/Stopleton (Yam~ 23. Brindley/Whiteside (Yam) 24. Newman/Zillman (ADM). Time: 37 min.. 5.854 sec. Distance: 17 laps, 64 miles. Average speed: 100.35 mph. M;ugin of rictory: 14.478 sec. Fastest lap: Dixon/Hetherington, 2:07.802/105.882 mph, lap 15. SlDECAR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINCS (After 2 of 7 round.): 1. Dixon (45/1 win~ 2. Guedel (41/1); 3. Webster (36~ 4. BUand (23~ S. Abbott (21) 6. (TIE) Wyssen/Kumagaya/Boesiger (16); 9. Klaffenboek (13); 10. Brindley (11); 1 \. Reddington (10); 12. Schlosser (9); 13. Bohnhorst (6); 14. (TIE) Janssen/Galross (4); 16. (TIE) Gray/Webster (3); 18. Lauslehto (2~ 19. Remse (1) (Above) Repsol Honda teammates Alex eriville and Michael Doohan celebrate their 1-2 finish In the SOOccGP. (Right) Emilio Alzamora won /I thrilling 125cc Grand Prix. Upcoming Rounds: Round 8- Nurburgring, Germany, July 7 Round 9 - Donington Park, England, July 21 Criville breaks Schwantz's record fter being the stand~rd for five years, Kevin Schwantz's 1991 lap record at Assen finally fell, but only after a massive effort from Repsol Honda's Alex Criville on the final lap of the second qualifying session. The Spaniard, who'd been down in third place toward the very end, clicked off a new lap record of 2:02.262 (110.679 mph) around the 3.61mile Circuit van Drenthe, knocking nearly two-tenths off Schwantz's mark to take his second consecutive Assen pole and third pole position of the year. "I couldn't be more satisfied with the way qualifying has gone for me, because getting the fastest lap did not come easily," said the Spaniard, who won his first 500cc GP here in 1992. "There was so much traffic about all the time and it was only on the very last lap that I found a dear space and was able to ride to the limit. I'm also pleased with the fact that I have got quicker and qUicker during each of the four sessions and then ended up with the perfect lap." The man he relegated to second was something of a surprise. IP Aprilia's Dorlano Romboni had his Aprilia 410cc Vtwin on the pole with less than five minutes to go in qualifying and, in the end, was happy to have consistently been at the front in all four sessions. The Italian pointed out that he was third, first, second, and second in the four practice and qualifying sessions on what could be the fastest track this year, and one that should certainly favor the more powerful Japanese Vfours. It was his fifth consecutive front-row start, and he thought that despite the high speeds he could utilize the vtwin's advantage to gain his first-ever rostrum position. "The track is different, few straights, and you are only really hitting top speed for the last hundred meters, and what they gain there I can hope to make back up on the brakes," the Halian said after turning a time just 0.077 second slower than Criville's, despite being nearly 8 mph slower on top-speed. CriviUe and Kanemoto Honda's Luca Cadalora shared top-speed honors at 178.466 mph, with Romboni topping out at 170.574. A Round 7: Dutch Grand Prix As for running lap times in the 2:02s for entire race, Rombom didn't see that happening. "2:04 will be more like it, and even on the twin maintaining the pace for 20 laps will not be easy, but here I think it should be easier for me than the fours." World Champion Michael Doohan was about four-tenths of a second behind Rombom in third on a track that he clearly doesn't like. Assen, where he had his career-threatening injury in 1992, and the follOWing two tracks, Nurburgrmg and Donington Park, are three of his least favorite circuits, so he wasn't upset at not taking his fourth pole position of the year. "This circuit doesn't particularly like the way I ride," Doohan said. "1 think about this race track more than I do others as far as the complexity of it aU." He'd run almost an entire race distance on the tires he selected lor the race and only went for the one quick flyer at the end, coming up just short. Even so, it was the package he was looking for and he felt he was very dose. "This morning we fixed the suspension problem we had yesterday which was making one of the bikes shake around a lot," he said. "We run the suspension a little harder than normal here, because the bike is forever loading up and unloading with all the camber changes and the crowns in the middle of the road." All that was left to do was sort out the engine, which he hoped to do overnight. "It'd be good if we could leave here just finishing the race," he concluded. Fitst Yamaha honors went to Marlboro Yamaha Rainey's Loris Capirossi, the hard-luck Italian who has had a difficult time finishing races this year. Starting on the front row would be a help, he admitted, but the race was a completely different story and he had to hope for the best. "This year, for me I am not very lucky, and for me it's important to finish," he said. Team owner Wayne Rainey echoed his feelings. "What's important is to finish now, and I would take 10th place happily. To finish well he'll need a good machine under him, and he went back and forth in practice trying to find one. He'd used an experimental bike in the afternoon and, though it took time, he was able to make it work." "Yesterday and this morning J try a different chassis and also many different settings of suspension," Capirossi said. "Only this afternoon did I return to the same old bike and the best solution for this bike. 1 think my bike now is perfect and for tomorrow is not a problem. I am happy because my bike the last 20 minutes is good and very easy to ride." The second row was Honda-Yamaha-Honda-Yamaha, the first Honda being the V-twin Repsol machine of Tadayuki Okada who had spent the day working on comer speeds. "The alterations made the handling of the bike much different to yesterday, but once I had got used to that I was able to improve my lap times." They were sufficiently improved to keep him ahead of Marlboro Roberts Yamaha's Jean-Michel Bayle who'd recovered from a 120 mph crash in lbe morning to take sixth-fastest. The fifth-gear spill left him only bruised and cut and didn't prevent him from holding onto his front-row spot for much of the session and improving his lap time from Thursday by over 1.5 seconds. Kanemoto Honda's Luca Cadalora struggled to qualify seventh with continuing chatter problems that he hoped to iron out in the morning warmup. Kenny Roberts Jr. was the last man on the second row, riding for the second race in a row with a stress fracture in his right leg that had not been instantly diagnosed. The Marlboro Yamaha Roberts rider, who missed the first two races of the year after breaking his leg during testing, reinjured it when he fell during a test at [mola when a water hose broke. "It take a while for that kind of fracture to show up. I can feel it on the bike, but everyone has to ride with pain sometimes. I guess it's my turn," he said stoically. Honda Pileri's Alex Barros was ninth-fastest in front of Fortuna Honda Pons teammates Carlos Checa and Alberto Puig. Barros had a slew of problems induding a stomach ache, a bad tire choice, and an inability to help his mechanics sort out his suspension. Checa crashed on the fourth lap of the second session and had to resort to his second bike while Puig couldn't improve on his time from the first day. Terry Rymer, riding the Lucky Strike Suzuki in place of the injured Daryl Beattie, was 12th best in his second race on the bike and still clearly getting used to it. He was still about to finish three spots ahead of teammate Scott Russell who, despite listing Assen as his second favorite track to Su~ka, wasn't getting on well with it. "I'm broken up:' Russell said. "I was really looking forward to this track and expecting a good result. I still feel that way, but it's going to be tough from the fourth row of the grid." Russell further said that chassis settings which had worked well during extensive testing in Barcelona weren't working here and they had to play catch up after wasting time. "For the final session we went back to the standard settings we've raced with earlier in the season. That's something we know we can work with, but we're way behind in terms of getting the suspension and settings right."

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