Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 12: Grand Prix of the City of Imola Masaki Tokudome (7) leads Jorge Martinez (55), Emilio Alzamora (3) snd Valentino Rossi (46) In the 125ccGrand Prix; Tokudome won for the fourth time In 1996. Yasumasa Hatakeyama (FCC Honda) took the last point at the head of another grisly gang of four. Tetsuya Harada retired after 10 laps, having never been higher than 10th and complaining of a misfire. Nobuatsu Aoki (Rheos Honda) also dropped out of the top 10 after three laps with a broken tooth on a gear. Waldmann clawed back 25 points off Biaggi's lead, with the margin now only 12, 224-212. Fuchs has 136, Jacque is closing on 132, and d' Antin is fifth on 118. 125cc GRAND PRIX The end came on lap 10'. He had a front-wheel slide into the fast Piratella comer, ran wide onto the grass on the exit, and fell in a heap. "It's a pity. The title is going to be difficult now," he said. Waldmann didn't even know he had gone, though he said later: "Maybe Max is thinking too much about his contract problems instead of the racing." He did know that his bike setup was perfect after his practice problems, and shortly after half-distance he too~ advantage of it, breaking the lap record three laps in succession as he opened up a decisive ga p on Jacque for a fine, clear win. "Things seem to be going my way at last," he said.. The Frenchman was kept busy to th~ finish by the impressive Ukawa, riding the race of his life. Ukawa nosed ahead several times, and kept trying to the finish, with Jacque leading him across the line by just over half a second. "I'm happy anyway, because it is my first rostrum," the track novice said. Jacque was sorry to be denied his first win. "We had a bike problem in morning warmup and lost the whole session," he said. "That's why my setup wasn't as good as it should have been." The race behind was rather processional. Fuchs was alone right until the last lap, when Lucchi suddenly closed a gap that had seemed stuck at about 1.5 seconds to challenge in the final chicane. He almost made it, with the German three tenths ahead. Luis d' Antin was a lonely fourth on his works Honda; five seconds back came Takeshi Tsujimura's production RS Honda, then van den Goorbergh's similar bike. Briton Jamie Robinson was a strong ninth on the Docshop Aprilia a.nother five seconds away after leaving Davide Bulega's private Aprilia behind. Then came the survivors of a close battle for the final points; Gianluigi Scalvini (pileri Honda) ahead of Roberto Locatelli (Nastro Azzurro Aprilia), Jose Cardoso (Chesterfield Aprilia) and Luca Boscoscuro (AGV Aprilia), all within just over two seconds. Doohanin -thedry_ pack of close times, with another seven riders within the same second, and several more very close behind. Calm as ever, he laughed off the bumps. "I used to be a motocross rider, so I don't care," he grinned. But his progress as a SOO rider must now be taken very seriously, after his pole at the previous race, and because he was second-fastest in the wet here. Norifumi Abe was not so confident in the wet, placing ninth and saying: "1 don't like it. Every lap was very scary." But he was third in the dry, for his first front row of the season,' citing a mystery change in his riding style for a better qualification than usual, though declining to explain it, adding: "I prefer left-hand comers, and most of the corners here are to the left." Luca Cadalora was the last man on the front row, but fastest in the wet by a handsome margin of almost a second. He was the only rider to have raced at the old Imola, but said that was little help, with so many changes. "It's not as enjoyable a circuit as before, but it's safer," he said. Generously, he hoped for a dry race, for the sake of the fans and the other competitors. "We have a pretty good setup for the dry as well," he said. Alex Criville led row two - a brave effort after a heavy crash in morning free training, after missing a gear in one of the chicanes, left him spitting blood from a mercifully minor internal hemorrhage. More problematical was a hea..ry bang on his right wrist, which required close attention £rom Dr. Oaudio Costa, including icing every two hours on Friday night. He stayed indoors for Saturday morning's sodden free practice, but went out again in the after- H eavy rain in Imola on Saturday meant that fil'St-timers at this newly retw.med venue were left short of practice and setup time. Of course they'd all rome here for two days after the Italian Grand Prix in May, and had some base suspension settings and gearbox ratios to work from - though the grip had actually decreased since. then when the track was cleaned the week before and lap times now were a second or more slower. "The grip should come back when some rubber's been laid down, so it'd be stupid to change anything for the way it is now," Michael Doohan said. That was on Friday, when he was on the pole position again for the sixth time this year; and that's the way it stayed, with Saturday turned instead into an exercise in brinkmanship among the puddles, and everybody working instead on finding settings for a possible wet race. 20 Doohan had dominated the dry session, his lead broken only once by the increasingly impressive Jean-Michel Bayle, and then only briefly. Tn the end he had an advantage of half a second. He made light of that "It was only a Friday time, so it doesn't mean that much for the race," he said. Doohan was sixth-fastest in the rain, but again that didn't mean too much. "How hard do you want to push in a wet practice?" he said. '1f it's a wet race, Yll just be going for a finish. The safety's pretty marginal in the dry, and the wet really hishlights it." Bayle ended up second, at the head of a noon, placing 12th. Then came Scott RusseLL running well over the bumps, but worried about the difficulty in finding a setlfp compromise that would ride With front-row qualifier Perugini out on the warmup lap, Tokudome took off in a le;td he held for four laps as a gang of nine sorted themselves out in pursuit. These included Peter Oettl (Marlboro Aprilia), Lucio Cec~ello (GP3 Honda) and Youichi Ui (Yamaha) until Oettl stopped with engine problems and the other two crashed out. The next up front was the wildly exciting Valentino Rossi, with Alzamora, Martinez, McCoy and Tomomi Manako (UGT Honda) prominent in pursuit. At half distance, the group broke up a bit as Rossi made a bit of a brake, only for Martinez to catch up and get by. Then the others all joined up again, with Tokudome getting to the front to make a convincing attempt at a breakaway. But this didn't work either. The crowd was set for a thrilling finale as Rossi took the lead again with two laps to go. But it didn't last halfway around the next lap, he suddenly slowed slightly, but enough for the others to come piling past once more. A spark plug was giving him trouble and he was clearly seriously short of power. them smoothly Without leaving the bike unsettled in. the crucial transition between power-on and braking and in the comers. "Setup makes so much difference here to lap time - but we found a good setup after Bmo that means it's not pushing the front too much." He was seventh in the wet. Then came Tadayuki Okada's Honda twin, the Japanese rider still battling with setup, and again using the old-style front forks. His problems now have shifted to the rear. "It slides every time you open the ttu:ottle," he said. Carlos Checa completed row two on his NSR.500, but was a doubtful starter after crashing on Saturday moming and dislocating his collarbone, a painful injury that was treated at the trackside. Alex Barros was next,.then Shinichi ltoh and a troubled Kenny Roberts Jr., trying to catch up after crashing and n;rissing most of the earlier JRTA tests, with Alberto Puig completing row ttu:ee. Then came local lad Loris Capirossi, who grew up only a few miles away, but was battling with a bike that wobbled and shook aD the time the throttle was open; Terry Rymer was next, in probably his last works Suzuki race this year, then Doriano Romboni, back on the Aprilia V -twin, but still not fully recovered £rom his German GP Wrist injury. "I will try and finish, but 1 can't ride the bike to the maximum," he said. Lucio Pedercini was 16th and top privateer, with Jeremy McWilliams less than two tenths behind. Then came Juan Borja, still troubled by his Czech hand injury, but enjoying the debut of Elf's Big Bang engine. There were 27 qualifiers, with Australian Paul Young second-last and one of several pe0ple to tumble in the rain. One thing was dear from the abbreviated. dry practice in the 2SOcc class. This trae\< suits Hondas much better than Aprilias. The result Tokudome led the last two laps, with Alzamora displacing Martinez for a close second on the final lap. McCoy was just losing touch at the finish, but passed the fading Rossi for a season's-besl fourth. Then came Rossi and Manako, with Austrian GP winner Ivan Goi close behind. Aoki had stormed from last off the grid to 11 th, closing on the leading group, when his gear linkage broke on lap seven. Loek Bodelier (Mobil I-TNT Honda) retired after six laps and little progress. "There was something wrong with the bottom end of my motor," he said. "But the biggest problem is my motivation after this terrible season." . Aoki has 164 points to Tokudome's 161, with the series shaping up for a fine championship flourish. Manako has 135, then Alzamora 125 and Perugini 121. (N FerrarI Circuit Imola, ltely Results: September 1, 1996 (Round 12 of 15) l2See QUALIFYING: 1. Jorge Martinez (2:00.818); 2. Valentino Rossi (2:01.206)i 3. Stefano Perugini (2:01'.498); 4. Emilio Alzamora (2:01.522); 5. Masaki Tokudome (2:01.866); 6. Peter Delll (2:02.086); 7. Lucio CecchineUo (2:02.27S); 8. Garry McCoy (2:02.316); 9. Youichi Ui (2:02.507); 10. Noboru Ueda (2,02.S28); 11. Manfred Geissler (2:02.585); 12. Tomomi Manako (2:02.851); 13. Ivan Goi (2:02.880); 14. Kazuto Saleata (2:02.956); 1S. Yoshialci Katoh (2:03.014); 16. Darren Barton (2:03.0ll4); ]7. Gabriele Debbia (2:2:03.544): 18. Herri Torrontegui (2:03.551); 19. Jaioslav Hules (2~03.551); 20. Frederic Petit (2:04.098); 21. Jose Sarda (2:04.216); 22. Loek Bodelier (2:04.251); 23. Dirk Raudies (2:04.380); 24. AkiTa Saito (2:05.067); 25. Paolo Tessa~ (2:05.083); 26. Luigi Ancona (2:0S.314); 27. Angel N,.to (2:05.499); 28. 1. Crememoni (2:0S.582); 29. M. Cucchiarini (2:0S.887); 30. A. Zappa (2:06.034); 31. Andrea Ballerini (2,06.095); 32. Haruchika Aoki (2:07.706). 250cc QUALIFYING: 1. Max Biaggi (1:54.078); 2. Oliver Jacque (1:54.104); 3. Jurgen Fuchs (1:54.274); 4. Tohru Ukawa (1:54.469); 5. Jean-Philippe Ruggia (1:54.640); 6. Marcellino Lucchi (1:54.682); 7. Nobuatsu Aoki (1:54.684); 8. Christiano Migliorati (1:54.774); 9. Regis Laconi (1:SS.0S2); 10. Ralf Waldmann (1:55.184); 11. JUTgen van den Coorbergh (1:55.265); 12. Luis d' Antin (1:55.310); 13. Oliver Petrucciani (1:55.406); 14. OS3.mu Miyazaki (1:55.74]): 15. Davide Bulega (1:5S.796); 16. Jamie Robinson (1:SS.932); 17. Eskil Suter (1:56.040); 18. Takeshi Tsujimura (1:56.130); 19. Yasumasa Hatakeyama (1:56.151); 20. Luea Boscoscuro (1:56.320); 21. Jose Luis Cardoso (1:S6.412); 22. Roberto Locatelli (1;56.448); 23. GiovarU Scalvini (1:56.490); 24. Tetsuya Harada (1:56.602); 25. F. Ballaini (1:56.730); 26. Sete Gibemau (1:56.986); 27. Sebastian Porco.(1:S7.07S); 28. Christian Cogan (1:57.131); 29. R. Rolfo (1:58.349); 30. G. fiorillo (1:59.483); 31. Christian Boudino' (2:00.258); 32. Jose Barresi (2:02.612); 33. F. Colli (2:04.07S). was much closer qualifying times than are usual this year, with the front row covered by less than four tenths, and the first nine within the same second - more like the way 250 racing used to be. Even so, it was Max Biaggi on the pole, but the points leader was far £rom confident. "It was just one' lap, and 1 had to ride so hard," he said. "I was watching the Hondas and they are much easier here. With the vicious throttle response of the disc-valve engine, the bike is difficult with all the bumps." . Things were worse still in the rain, when the »ike was jumping out of gear. Again, he was fifth, nonetheless, and said he planned to take his inspiration from Michael Schumacher's victory in the last F-l car Grand Prix at Spa. "He had a lot of problems in practice and S!iU he won the race," Biaggi said. The usual phalanx of Hondas would be trying to stop him, led this time by Oliver Jacque, less than a tenth slower, and much more consistent, even though he did crash in the wet. "I didn't push too hard for the lap time there is more to come," he said. Then came Jurgen Fuchs, with a similar story, after being balked on his atiempt at improving on his best lap. He also had fallen in the rain after touching a white line, Put was confident all the same. Then came Tohru Ukawa, on the front row for the first time as he continues to find form as the season wears on, and in spite of having missed the IRTA tests through injury. The AUJapan champion has taken time to impress, but this was his second race up with the front men. Ra.iney Yamaha's Tetsujra Harada was a thoroughly dispirited 24th. The team cited various problems, but the real reason is a total lack of motivation and complete disillusionment with his Miche1in-shod Yamaha. There were 33 qualifiers.

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