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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127792
ROAD RACE World Ch~mpionship Road Race series . . By Michael Scott Photos by. Gold & Goose NURBURG, GERMANY, JULY 7 npredictable superstar Luca Cadalora came back into Grand Prix.racing with a bang at the Nurburgring on Sunday; claiming a fine fighting Win - his second this year. One week ago, the nowand-then brilliant former 125 and 2S0cc World Champion pulled out of the Dutch GP early on because he was unhappy with the bike's handling. In Germany, he led the early laps, and rather more crucially the last ones. As a defeated Michael Ooohan said later, "That white Honda can go pretty fast - when it wants to." Doohan was second by just twotenths, with Repsol Honda teammate Alex CriviUe right on his back wheel. Ooohan's failute to make it five wins in a row left him angry - because it followed an atypical blunder. He mistook the number of laps because he couldn't read his pit board - echoing an identical error made by Wayne Rainey when he was disputing the Japanese GP with Kevin Schwantz. He timed his attack for the last lap, and was just getting ready for it when he saw the checkered flag instead. "1 don't say 1 could have beaten Luca today - but I'd like to have tried," he said later. Lucky Strike Suzuki's Scott Russell was fourth after qualifying on the front row for the first time this year, narrowly defeating an inspired and very impres- U ~ ~ ~ 0\ ,.... t-..~ ,.... ~ ;:::l ....... 6 Round 8: German Grand Prix sive Kenny Roberts Jr:s Marlboro Yamaha. At the midpoint of the race the leading five had been packed together, in a SOOcc spectacle not seen for some years. Roberts' teammate Norifurni Abe was sixth,opj-pping countrymal1 Tadayuki Okada's V-twin RepsoLHonda at a track where the lightweight V-twins had been expected to do rather more. Doriano Romboni, riding the V-twin Aprilia, had qualified on the front row, for the sixth successive race - but the Italian crashed on the second lap while in a strong seventh place, breaking the navicular bone in his wrist and making himself a dubious starter for the British GP in two week's time - another track where the Vtwins should shine. . The race was red-flagged seconds after the start after a massive accident on the warmup lap left dirt, debris and an ambulance on the track. It had all started on the sighting lap, when wild card Michael Rudrbff fell off his works Suzuki, leaving gravel on the track.ยท On the warmup lap, Belgian rider Laurent Naveau fell on the dirt, and his bike cannoned into Terry Rymer's Lucky Strike Suzuki. The pair were sent looping through the air, but the Briton returned to pick up his spare for the restart in spite of an injured ankle and broken finger, only to crash again in the race, without further injury. At least the rain stayed away, until the last laps of the closing race of the day, the Thunderbike Trophy. By then, however, the damage was done. There was bad weather throughout practice, a major factor in keeping crowd attendance down to a disappointing 34,000 over the full three days. HB Honda's Ralf Waldmann won the undying admiration of his home fans by becoming the first German winner at the new Nurburgring, opened in 1984. to replace the spectacular but dangerous original track in the Eifel mountains. His second race win in succession came after the closest and most exciting 2S0cc race of the year, with five riders disputing the lead for most of the race. Marcellino Lucchi, substituting for the injured Roberto Locatelli, crashed out; then while Olivier Jacque and the Chesterfield Elf Honda put the bad luck of recent races behind him to take second, Waldmann's teammate Jurgen Fuchs rode a brilliant last lap to defeat Max Biaggi after changing places three times on the last lap. Biaggi's fourthplace finish broke a 17-race string of rostrum finishes for the defending champion, who was still riding hurt after his practice crash at Assen last week. Japanese Ditter Plastic Aprilia rider Masaki Tokudome took a fine third win of the season in the 12Scc race, where the controversial chicane played a crucial part, rather surprisingly without causing any crashes. The Ditter Plastic Aprilia rider led for almost full race distance, the only one not to use the shortcut, only to be passed with three laps to go for just that reason. Now he had a guide, and he fought back on the last lap to push Ste- fano Perugini of Nastro Azzurro Aprilia to a close second, with title leader Harachuki Aoki of Rheos Honda biding his time to move thrould! brilliantly from the back of the eight-strong leading group for third. Assen winner Emilio Alzamora of Cepsa Honda was fourth, then Valentino Rossi of AGV Aprilia and Peter Oettl of Marlboro Aprilia, the first six covered by just over two seconds. Dutchman Jeffrey Devries won a second successive Thunderbike Trophy race, once again picking his way through the wreckage to do so. There were only 17 finishers from 29 starters as spilled oil from engine blow-ups was then followed by the long-threatening rain. On Saturday, defending sidecar World Champion Darren Dixon won a good race from Klaus Klaffenboek and Steve Webster. 500cc GRAND PRIX It all got off to a false start, with officials ineptly allowing the race to begin with the track still partially blocked, and with an ambulance parked alongside. After 20 or 30 seconds, the red fl ags came out, and fine fast starts by Cadalora, Russell and Ooohan were all for nothing. Warmup crash victim Laurent Naveau was out, but Rymer limped back to the pit and jumped on his spare, set up for the wet, and joined the warm-up lap from pit lane. Off they went again, with Cadalora once again in front chased by Criville,