Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 14: Brazilian Grand Prix By Michael Scott Photos by.Gold & Goose '-0 0'\ 0'\ rl -0 ..... l-< (]) .g U o 20 JACAREPAGUA, BRAZIL, OCT. 6 ick Ooohan showed everyone just why he is three-time World Champion at Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. Racing on the bumpiest Grand Prix track in the world, the Repsol Honda star won one of the best races of his glittering career, recovering from a cruise across the grass to pull back not only onetime leader Norifumi Abe but also his own teammate, Alex Criville. Ooohan finally passed the Spaniard again in the final lap to win by less than haH a second. The way he'd done it, it might as well have been half a month. Once again - as is becoming usual in a vintage late season - the 500cc race was the best of the day. Far better than the shambles of a venue deserved, and watched by a pitifully small crowd running to thousands rather than tens of thousands. At least the threatened flooding rain held off, and the race took place in humid sunshine. . Ooohan's win came after a three-way battle. Abe had just moved into the lead when they ran up behind backmarker Toshi Arakaki on the Paton. Abe was balked and was slow midcorner, forcing Ooohan to swerve over the curb and into the greenery to avoid a collision and giving Criville the chance to claim a handy lead with seven laps to go. Ooohan lost more than three seconds, but rode like a demon to reclaim the deficit, surging past Abe, then turning the tables on Criville with a determined and successful last-lap attack. "That was an unbelievable race," Ooohan said. "It intrigues me how riders like Arakaki get an entry into GPs. Riders like that shouldn't even be in a national race. But on the last lap Criville made some mistakes, and I was able to take advantage of that." Catalunya GP winner Carlos Checa was fourth, alone until the closing stages; then came Piled Honda's Alex Barros, playing his usual role of road block, with four riders piled up behind in a pile of frustration. In fact, the Brazilian's machine wasn't actually slow, just hard to pass, and had pulled them up to Kanemoto Honda's Luca Cadalora. Bar- ros finished ahead of him and only half a second behind Checa. Behind Checa came Marlboro Yamaha's Jean-Michel Bayle, Tadayuki Okada's V-twin Repsol Honda and Scott Russell, on the only Lucky Strike Suzuki in the running after Oaryl Beattie had pulled out of the race Friday with complications to his wrist injury. Reigning Formula USA champion Chris Taylor, riding the WCM ROCYamaha of injured James Haydon, did not start after crashing in the final practice session when he was caught out by the delayed response of the carbon-fiber brakes. He fractured a bone in his wrist, and though he went out in morning warmup, it was swollen and painful and he decided not to race. Chesterfield Elf Honda's Olivier Jacque claimed his first Grand Prix win in convincing style - while defending champion and points leader Max Biaggi threw the title race wide open for the final round in Australia with an extraordinarily rash and unnecessary error, crashing out in the early stages for a noscore while his challenger, HE Honda:s Ralf Waldmann, was second. The Italian's lead has been cut to just one point after his third crash in five races: a reminder of a win-or-crash past he seemed to have put behind him. Waldmann was given the place by his teammate Jurgen Fuchs, who had been narrowly in front for most of the race, but slowed on the last lap to obey team orders and let his compatriot through, spoiling his own chances of defeating Jacque for third overall. Oefending 125cc champion Harachuki Aoki took one step closer to his second championship with a resounding victory in the 125cc class, breaking the lap record repeatedly as he broke the spirit of his pursuers, leaving his major rival Masaki Tokudome to third. Cepsa H.onda's Emilio Alzamora was second, staying with the flying Aoki until near the end. Tomomi Manako, the other title challenger, crashed out of the leading group spectacularly with 17 laps left. Australian Garry McCoy was a close fifth behind Jorge Martinez after a storming ride through the field fro)TI a poor start. (Above) Norifumi Abe (9) leads Michael Doohan (1) and Alex Crlville (4) in the Brazilian GP. (Below) Eventually, it was World Champion Doohan taking the win. 500cc GRAND PRIX Ooohan led from the start, and within three laps the three of them were pulling away, Abe glued on behind, Criville on his back wheel, Cadalora losing ground to delay the pursuit. Checa, inspired, by his last-race win, got by the Italian on lap four and closed up on the leaders, but by half-distance he was losing ground, At the same time, Abe started to put more pressure on, and Ooohan responded. Both broke the lap record on lap 10, and though nobody changed places, it was a fine spectacle of 500cc racing. Abe actually 'got inside and ahead of Ooohan briefly on lap 15 into a fast lefthander but the Australian left his braking a touch later and slammed the door in his face. Abe tried the outside on the next lap, around the fast left at the end of the long back straight. He seemed to have failed, but into the next corner Ooohan made a slip and ran wide, and the Yamaha was in front and even seemed as if it might pull away a bttJe. Abe never got the chance to find out. They were dosing fast on the Paton, and in the absence of any blue flags, Arakaki did nothing to get out of their way. Thus Abe was a btUe off-line, and Ooohan had to brake sharply to avoid hitting him, then pick the bike up and run off onto the grass. He was always in control, but by the time he.got back he was behind Arakaki once more, to give him a furious hand signal as he blasted past shortly thereafter, and Criville was narrowly ahead of Abe. Th.e gap was three seconds as they finished the lap, andwith seven more to go might have been enough. But Ooohan has often commented on the inability of his nearest rivals to go out ahead of him and stay there, and now the younger riders proved him right. Abe was by now sliding badly, and was losing ground on Criville; but Ooohan was riding furiously, closing up to 1.7 seconds next lap, eight tenths the following time, then slicing past under braking at the end of the front straight as they began the 21st lap,

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