Benetton Formula One car. Within'a few laps of
teSting it at Assen, he discovered that it Was not
only not an advantage, but. detrimental to the
handling of his chair and he discarded ~ in favor
.
Chesterfield Aprilia's Max Biaggo had no one . of tne tried and tested glass.
but himself to blame for a silly practice spill that
The inaugural Austria .. Grand Prix at
ended his hopes of taking the pole position and
Zeltweg, scheduled for August 4, will proceed as
jeopardized not only his race. but the World
planned, according to members of lATA. the
Championship as well. After a showboat wheelie,
International Road Racing Teams Association,
Biaggi planted his front wheel badly and his Apri~
but not without a lot of work. With the race less
ia went Into a tank·slapper, throwing him down
and injuring his back and left hand. '1 just have a than five weeks away, major portions of the track
had yet to be completely paved and ther.e was
big pain in my back and I canriot be fast enough
still considerable construction to be done on the
to be in pole position, butI'm very happy to be in
pit complex, the garages, aDd the grandstands.
first grid (row) in this position," Biaggi said. '1
The delays. in getting the circuit formerly known
really have a big pain in back and cannot work
as the Osterreichring, but now called the A-I
very well and cannot push bike in carner like
Ring, ready have cause some to wonder if the
before. Right now ~'s very difficult for me to fin·
tests planned by the Repsol Honda team for July
ish the. race tomorrow. I don't know. I try my
10 will go off as planned.
best.' The next day Biaggi's luck didn"t improve
much at all when his crankcases broke. '1 had a
Immediately following the .completion of the
big slide in the rear tire because I brpke the
Dutch GP, a five.year project will begin which
engine and some oil came on the tire.' Biaggi
Will see a number of improvements to the historic
had taken pain·killers in order to qualify second,
circui!, including a cbange in the ·Iayout. Because
but said he would need to take something
.stronger for the race. What he got was luck, a of the growth of Grand Prix racing. and the
desire to bast car races, the pits needed to be
few of the front·runners falling off ·so that he
. substantially enlarged and will be, from the curcould end up third.
.
rent 300 acres to 700 acres.' The layout of ·the
track will be altered to accommodate the
A partial soluti.on to the power problem that has
changes, th.ougl) ~hout I!,sing the' basic characplagued Marlboro Yamaha Rai'ney's. T etsuya
ter of the track. Further plans also include new
Harada all season finally arrived at Assen in the
garages that will be able tq accommpdate Formuform of new cylinders. Harada had' tested the
la One cars, and press and hospitality facilities
cylinders at Mugello prior to the Dutch rnce, but
above tbe garages. Since the plan hinges on
said in Holland that they couldn't replicate the
expanding the pit'area, the work on the track laytesting performance. Partly because of that, 11.",
out will begin shortly.
qualified an uncharacteristic eighth'. 'We still
haven't solved the snatch problem," team owner
Playing in his first-ever soccer game, and in the
Wayne Rainey said. 'We can control the snatch
all-important position of goalie, Lucky Strike
problem with electrics. Now' we're usihg ihe
Suzuki's Scou Russell allowed only three
same ignition that we have on the ;;00.' Rainey
explained that the power hits hard from 8000 to , goals by a team of intematlonals which included
2S0cc World Champion Max Biaggi in the first
10,000 rpm. 'He (Harada) likes the rpm up there.
game of a. Lucky Strike Suzuki toumament at the
That's where the powerband takes off.' Rainey
Dutch n. Unfortunately, his team of Lucky
said that the delay in delivery makes it seem like
Strike Suzuki personnel, which included Russell's
the throttle is going from zero to 40 percent
crew chief Stuart Shenton and Daryl Beattie's
instantly. 'Iike a carb with sticking slides,' and it
replacement. Terry Rymer, managed to score
happens in the comers when he's at maximum
only one goal. Biaggi, a talented soccer player
lean angle and the suspension is at full compres·
who considered pursuing it professionally,
sion. 'Every comer he has to battle th;3t. The dif:
scored one of the goals and afterwards properly
farent cylinders change the snatch ·problem. It's
guessed that Russell had never played before.
not as rough. It makes it a 1~le longer.• More rei·
After losing to tbe Internationals, which also
evant was that he'd crashed In the morning ses·
includl'ld riders Jurgen van den Goorberg of Hoisian on Friday, losing a great deal of lime. In the
land and German Manfred Geissler, the Lucky
aftemoon he spent about a third of the session in
boys played a squad of Spaniards for third place.
the pits making adjustments and ha uses magnesium cases, weighs 3S kilos
(77 pounds) with its pair of 40mm Keihin carburetors and oil, while a similarly filled production
model. which employs aluminum cases, weighs
e.6. pounds more. lhe weight difference does not
affect the power, if the press kit is to be
believed, with both machines producing , 35 bhp
at , 0,2S0 rpm using aviation gas. New regulations mandating the use of unleaded fuel in 1997
will cause a loss of 10 bhp. Th'e 100-degree
499.7cc crankcase reed valyed V-twin is nearly
squa..... with a bore and stroke of 68. x 68.8 mm.
Repsol Honda riders Tadayuki Okada and
Shinichi Itoh tested the production model 'at the
Suzuka Circuit in Japan the week prior to the
and lapped deceivingly faster times on
Dutch
the production than the prototype models. Both
riders were roughiy two seconds a lap faster on
the production bike'. but that was because the
prototype they tested was not their Grand Prix
machinery, but the original prototype. They only
rode fiVE! laps each on the prototype and spent
the rest ofthe time on the production model. The
closing date for orders of the new machines Is
the end of August with aelivery for the end of
January or the beginning of February, depending
on the method of shipment. HRC officials said
the normal method of delivery was by ship and
that it would·take 4S days from when they left
the factory to when they arrived in Europe in time
for the testing season. The original order is for
20 production bikes which would be revised
upward if the demand exists, The spares kit is
designed to last for three Grands Prix.
n
Yamaha officials: said that they were producing
only the parts requested by frame suppliers Harris and ROC and that no requests for complete engines had· be,," made for 1'996. They
added that they would continue to supply parts
through at least the 1997 season. HAC officials
said they would contin~e to field a factory team
in the GPs as a means of development.
tory .squad. Dun'lop's Jeremy Ferguson said that
the tires used on the Aprilia 410 V-!'.romotor Ra~lng to ride 'on their planned
SOOcc GP team next year. When told of the
ru)TlOr, .Russell slipped on his Lucky Strike Suzuki
ski cap and .responded, 'that's the first I've
heard of it.'
.
Britain's Terry Rymer, who has substituted for
the injured Daryl Beatt'e on the Lucky Strike.
Suzuki twice this year. will continue Il'I his place
in the next two races, team manager Garry Taylor said at Assen·. Already scheduled to ride next
week in Germany, Rymer has also been slotted
in for his home GP, the British. at Donington
Park on'July 21 because of Beattie's extended
convalesence from a fractured skull. •Daryl may
be back for the race after that. It's just too' soon
to say'. With the championship clearly gone.
there's no pressure on him. Now we must waii
until he is fully fit, physically and mentally, and he
is ready to race to his full ability. It's a matter for
him gnd -the doctors to decide: Taylor said.
Rymer had a busy week leading up to Assen.
The weekend prior to the Dutch
the 2g·yearold Englishman 'rode his Old Spice Ducati to a
pair of second-place finishes at the Brands
Ratch round of the British Superbike series.
From there he went to France, where· he tested.
the factory SUZUKi that he'll rlde with Doug Poien
in the World Endurance Championship rounds at
Le Mans, Spa Francorchamps, and Suzuka.
Rymer qualified 12th for the 'SOOcc GP and finished' the race in seventh after having slight
Qrake .problems that caused him to run off the
track once, 'I'm really enjoying myself and it's
great to have a chance in the British GP. By
rights I sbouldn't be here at ail. It's only Daryl's
misfortune that has given me the chance, "
RYmer said.
n
The last time a Honda had captured the. pole in a
2S0c£ GP. before Chesterfield Elf Tech 3
Honda's Olivier Jacque did it this weekend,
was at the' Argentinian GP in , 994 when it was
done by Loris Capirossi. then on a Marlboro
Pi!eri Honda.
The newest piece of paper to show up on the
press room table at Assen was the Rookie of
the Year listings and topping the chart was
Lucky Strike Suzuki's Scott Russell. His 62
points· are eight beller than Marlboro Roberts
Yamaha's Jean-Michel Bayle's 54.
In conjunction with the Honda announcement.
Michelin announced that it would commercially
prpduce a production tire for the NSR-SooV. Up
to now all of the tires have be.en development
spec, since they worked exclusively with the fee-
IP Aprilia' s Doriano Romboni admitted that
he pulled aut of the Soocc GP 'because of a
rea'lly stupid thing. I was corning through the curve Defore the final chicane, going to pass two
. riders, I ran wide and was going off the track. I
was forced··to take to.the pit lane. Mistakenly
thinking that had cost me a lap, I stopped at the
.pit~ .•
Toshi Arakaki (Yam); 20. Lucio Pederdni (ROC); 21.
Eugene McManus (Yam); 22. Doriano Romboni (Apr)i
23. Luca Cadnlora (Hon); 24. Sean Emmett (Yam).
Time: 41 minm., 29.912 sec.
Distance: 20 laps, 75.2 miles.
Average speecf: 108.693 mph.
Margin of victory: 1.496 sec.
Fastes' lap: Michael Dooha", 2:02.779/110.213 mph,lup 8.
500" WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS (After 7 of 15 round••: 1. Mick Doohon (146/5
wins~ 2. Alex Criville (93); 3. Alex Barros (83); ~. Luca
Cadalora (81/1); 5. NorifwrU Abe (68/1); 6. Scott Russell
(62); 7. Alberto Puig (57); 8. Jeon-Michel Bayle (54); 9.
Carlos Checa (44); 10. Tadayuld Okada (41); 11. Kenny
Roberts Jr. (31); 12. (fIE) Loris Capirossi/Shinichi !toh
(29~ 14. Daryl Beattie (24); 15. Frederic Protat (22~ 16.
. Doriano Romboni (21)i 17. (TIE) Juan 8orja/Jeremy
McWilliams (18); 19. (TIE) James Haydon/Lucio
PeclerdnJ (13).
THUNDERBIKES, 1. Jeffrey de Vrie. (Yam); 2.
William Costes (Hon); 3. Yves Briguet (Hon); 4. Wilco
Zeelenberg (Hon);. 5. Johnny Verwijst (Yam); 6. Gregorio
Lavilla (Yam); 7. Bernard Garda (Hon); 8. lain
MacPherson (Hon)i 9. Eric Mahe (Yam)i 10. Stefan
Scheschowlts (l
