Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

normal with Max Biaggi suffering from his injuries." For Fuchs it was a career best and first podium. Like Waldmann, the German also benefited from the misfortune of others. In his case it was Frenchman Jean-Philippe Ruggia who lost a certain third place when his engine seized, causing him to crash in turn one with less than four laps to go. That handed the final podium spot to the ailing World Champion Biaggi. Biaggi's race was mostly"decided on Friday afternoon. That's when the Chesterfield Aprilia rider made the foolish mistake of crashing after a wheel ie, injuring his back and left hand and .effectively ending his threat to win. He was never close to being competitive and was lucky to be on the podium, finishing about 3.5 seconds behind Fuchs. "My back was hurting a lot all the way through the race," Biaggi said. "1 just want to say that third was the best 1 could possibly do in this situation. Sometimes you can overcome the pain, and that's what I did today." Holland's Jurgen van den Goorbergh was a popular fourth, rightfully pointing out that it was the best he could do without a factory bike. It appeared the race might be stopped in the early going by a fiverider pileup that began when Regis Laconi fell. His machine was hit by Spaniard Jose Luis Cardoso who suffered a broken pelvis. That was the worst of the injuries. Waldmann completed the 18-1ap, 67.6-mile race in 38 minutes, 30.306 seconds at an average speed of 105.429 mph. By finishing third Biaggi was able to stretch his World Championship points advantage 60 points, 161-101, over Waldmann, who took over second from Marlboro Rainey Yamaha's Tetsuya Harada, 10th today on an ill-handling machine. True to form, the 125cc GP was a classic with seven different race leaders and five riders starting the last lap in a tightly knit pack. Cepsa Effeuno Mateoni's Ivan Goi began the final tour just in front of Rheos Molenaar Racing's Haruchika Aoki, Team UGT·Europa's Tomomi Manako, Cepsa Effeuno Matteoni's Emilio Alzamora, and Docshop Racing's Noboru Ueda. Alzamora came through the pack on the run down the back straight, taking teammate Goi and Manako with him, with Alzamora taking the lead on the run to the final chicane. From there to the flag is a short jaunt and Alzamora secured a clear victory by 0.728 seconds. It took the fastest lap of the race on his last go-around for the Spaniard to secure the victory over his teammate. Second wasn't as dear-cut, three riders crossing the line almost in unison with fifth place minutely farther back. Goi ended up second, 0.005 second in front of Aoki, who had but 0.057 on Ueda. Manako was fifth another 0.056 back. . Alzamora completed the 17-lap, 64mile race, run on a rapidly drying track, in 39 minutes, 8.050 seconds at an average speed of 97.971 mph. . Aoki maintains his commanding lead \ in the World Championship, holding 130 points, a full 49 more than Alzamora. Ueda is third with 79. The most exciting race of the day was the Thunderbikes, featuring seven different leaders· in the 14-lap race with four riders going for it right to the flag and 0.207 second separating first to fourth. The very popular win went to Dutchman Jeffrey De Vries on the Motoport Yamaha who led only the furious final lap and then not by much. He crossed the line 0.012 second in front of Honda France's William Costes with Yves Briguet third and Dutchman Wilco Zeelenberg was a shadow fourth on the DC Racing Team Honda. His second-place finish moves Costes to the top of the championship standings after four of nine races with 65 points, six better than Briguet. De Vries is tied for third at 45 with Frenchman Adrien Mori1Ias who dropped out today while leading. The Sidecar GP also featured a thrilling end with the top two chairs coming together within a few turns of the finish while nearly 30 seconds in· front of the field. Dixon Racing's· World Champions Darren Dixon and Andy Hetherington were marginally ahead when Schlossgold Racing's Rolf Biland and Kurt Waltisperg tried them on the inside in a late right-hander. Dixon moved down, the chairs collided, and both went spinning off the track, Hetherington getting thrown clear from the rig. He was quickly back in his place, and the pair took off and crossed the finish line 14.478 seconds in front of the Pneu Boesiger Racing team of Steve Webster and David James. The Guedel brothers, Paul and Charly, drove their BP Racing team chair to third. Biland was able to get going again and rode to sixth, with part of his bodywork missing and their tires smoking badly. The win puts Dixon atop the World Championship charts after two of seven races. His 45 points are four better than the Guedels' with Webster third at 36. 250cc GRAND PRIX By the end of the first of 18 laps in the 250cc race, it was clear that the winner would come from either the HB Honda Germany or Chesterfield Elf Tech 3 teams. Two riders from each team made up the front with the tearns swapping the lead in the early going as the quartet left fifth place behind. At first it was HB Honda's Waldmann in the front, then Chesterfield's Jacque, the two going back and forth and edging away from their teammates who had a similar fight of their own. Waldmann led laps three and four, Jacque lap five, then Waldmann again for two before giving way to Jacque at the halfway flags. By then they had over three seconds on the battle for third, that pair clearing out from Biaggi who was well alone in fifth and hoping for a quick end to the race. To start the second half of the race Waldmann again took the point, though only for a lap. By now it was raining on some parts of the track and dry in others and Waldmann was having second thoughts about continuing, motioning to officials as he crossed the finish line late in the race. "This is a big problem at this circuit. It rains sometimes in one place while in others it doesn't," Waldmann said. "I even lifted my arm once to tell them to stop the race, but then the rain stopped again. From that time on it was just a question of finishing the race without any mistake." For him it was easy, for Jacque less so. Early on the 14th lap Jacque crashed out of the lead after his rear wheel slid out. "1 tumed around to see where Waldmann was and I saw he had slowed down. I was just going to do the same when the rear wheel let go suddenly like I was on ice," Jacque said. "It was awful because I was on my way to my first win with just a few laps to go." The crash allowed Waldmann to set . it on cruise control, the fight for third taking place about six seconds behind him. That race was decided in favor of the HB Honda rider also, but for a different reason. Going into the first tum on the 15th lap, Ruggia's rear wheel slid out, but it wasn't rider error. The engine had seized pitching him over the top and onto his head. He was quickly up and unhurt, but out of the race and off the podium: "My engine seized as I was going into the first tum," the Frenchman said. "It's a real shame because the bike was running much better than yesterday, as I showed at the start of the race. I saw the drops of rain and Olivier's crash, so I really didn't want to take any risks. My bike wasn't as fast as the other three, but I felt 1 could easily pass Fuchs on the last lap to take second. I knew where I was faster than him." Ruggia's exit guaranteed that Fuchs' . second place wouldn't be challenged. "It is an incredible feeling," Fuchs said. "For me it is the reward for a long time of hard work. At the beginning I was able to follow Ralf and Olivier, but already after three laps I noticed that my rear tire was going down completely. I am not sure whether I could have kept Ruggia behind me, so it was really a relief when he was out. The last lap, when everything seemed to be settled, became very, very long for me, but the Barros (7) leads Crlvllle (4) and Doohan (1) early in the race. Doohan worked his way around both riders to take his fourth win In a row and the 31 st of his career. feeling of seeing the checkered flag was unbelievable:' Relief was also on the mind of Biaggi at the end. The two-time World Champion could not have hoped for a better result and was better than eight seconds up on fourth place at the finish. That was Dutchman Jurgen van den Goorbergh, who thought he might take a run at Biaggi until the rain increased in intensity. Van den Goorbergh had crashed in the morning warmup and thought better of it, settling for what was easily his best result of the season. Fifth was something of a serum, four different riders going at it to the bitter end, the prder changing on the final lap after the pack had lost one of its own two from the end. Doria Benetton Honda's Tohru Ukawa crashed out of fifth position after getting rammed by MX Onda-SSP Competi tion' s Luis d'Antin. Ukawa suffered a small fracture to the thumb of his left hand and was out of the race. D' Antin continued on to finish sixth, a spot behind Mohag ApriIia's Eskil Suter, who passed him on the final lap. The last rider in the pack, Rheos Molenaar Racing's Nobuatsu Aoki, came home seventh. Edo Racing's Osamu Miyazaki got the better of Docshop Racing's Jamie Robinson for eighth, the pair separated by a 10th and only a second in front of Marlboro Rainey Yamaha's Tetsuya Harada, whose setup was well off. 500cc GRAND PRIX H9nda Pileri's Alex Barros got the jump on the 24-rider field, taking the Repsol Hondas of Criville and Doohan with him, the top three making a clean early break from the pack. Using an inside line in de Strubben, a looping 180-degree left that leads onto the back straight, Doohan was by Criville and into second. A lap later and he did it to Barros in the same spot, but the Brazilian answered back on the back straight and managed to hold the .spot. The. pair played out the same act again on the fourth lap and it wasn't until the sixth that Doohan was able to make the pass stick. That time he did it on the brakes at the end of the front straight and was cleanly away. The next lap Bar-

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