Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

SOOcc GRAND PRIX Criville led the first lap, then pole qualifier Tadayuki Okada forged past to lead the second - but he was shaking his head violently as he passed his pit crew, and rapidly started to drop back. The drive shaft to his exhaust power-valve had broken, and his hopes of a dream Vfour debut were broken with it. The next to lead was Takurna Aoki's V-twin, the rookie riding like a man on a mission, forging through after finishing the first lap in sixth. He had Ooohan tucked up behind, while his brother Nobuatsu had pushed past Criville in to .third. "My game plan had been to hold back and let Alex (Criville) le'ad, so I could follow and then race him toward the end," Ooohan said later. "But Takurna (Aoki) must have thought it was a three-lap race the way he set off, and it was so hectic I decided to get in front as soon as possible and try and break (Right) World Superblke Champion Troy C~rser (11) made his Grancj Prix debut at Shah Alam, flnlshl,ng 13th on the i>romotor Yamaha. Here he leads early leader Tadayukl Okada. (Below) Norlfuml Abe (5) races with Alberto Pulg late In the race. of the group, with Aoki less than twotenths behind and the urihappy Ukawa falling right away in sixth. Fortuna Honda's Emilio Alzamora was seventh in his own first race in the class, prevailing after a long midrace battle'with eighth-placed Cristiano Migliorati on the Axo Honda. Fellow former 500cc privateer Jeremy McWilliams was close behind in ninth. There were only 15 finishers. Aprilia's Loris Capirossi had gotten away slowly but picked his way through to start attacking Aoki when he lost power and pulled into the pits. Stefano Perugini,.on the Nastro Azurro Aprilia, had a similar experience with a similar result, several laps earlier. There were severaJ crashes: PJl Aprilia's Kurtis Roberts was knocked off on the first lap, Idalio Gavira lasted eight more before dropping his ApriJia, and William Costes and impressive second-year privateer Sebastian Porto followed suit. The most impressive exit came from Briton Jamie Robinson in his first ride on the factory Suzuki. He was forging through the pack and had just passed teammate Noriyasu Numata to take 10th. He didn't know that Nurnata was having brake trouble - but he found out when he was T-boned from behind so hard that he went flying 10 feet into the air, lucky to escape with minor foot fractures. away." Ooohan made the pass around the outside at the end of the straight - one of the fastest corners in GP racing, and led from lap four to the end. Takurna succumbed to his brother on the. same lap; and by the time Criville managed to find a way past both of the Aokis, to take ~cond place on lap 11, the gap was already over a second. Ooohan proceeded to pull away inexorably - not so fast at first, with the gap still at 3.5 seconds at half distance, but after that at an increasing pace after setting best lap 13th time around. It was a fine display, and mistake free. CrivilJe also drew away steadily from Nobuatsu Aoki, who was locked in combat with his brother's V-twin. Then in the closing laps he was visibly slithering and sliding, and started to lose ground again. Had the race been a lap or two longer, he might have been behind Nobuatsu. As it was Criville finished less than two seconds clear. The V-twin rider, meanwhile, had also run into tire problems, while Cadalora was riding a canny race behind. Although clearly faster through the corners, he was stuck behind Carlos Checa's faster Movistar Honda, which zoomed away out of all the corners. He bided his time, waiting for a mistake, and when it came with eight laps left he squirled through and pulled away convincingly. He also caught the slowing Takuma, and Cadalora moved past on the last Jap to claim fourth place. Checa was sixth, also complaining (like everyone except Ooohan) of tire problems as he slipped back to be all but overwhelmed by his teammate Alberto Puig and Norifumi Abe, who had been tussling back and fqrth for most of the race. The three crossed the line within half a second. Spaniard Sete Gibernau was next in ninth after an impressive 500cc-class debut on the Rainey Yamaha, and narrowly ahead of Okada and Alex Barros, in his V-twin debut. Gibemau and Barros had been tussling most of the distance, with Okada nosing up between them in a last-lap spurt. Regis Laconi was 12th in another impressive debut - of course this track is good for V-twins, and it might be different at Suzuka. Promotor Yamaha's Troy Corser was 13th, steady but for an early collision and near off-track excursion. "It was so-so," the World Superbike Champion said. "But I learned a lot and I was sliding the bike a bit." Juan Borja was 14th on the Elf, battling all weekend with jerky throttle response. Jurgen van den Goorbergh 12Scc GRAND PRIX took the last point in his V-twin class debut. He was the last rider on the same lap as the leader, with only two more finishers. Bayle was the first to retire, after finishing the second lap 15th, just in the points. Jurgen Fuchs pulled out of his first 500cc GP two laps later - he'd fallen heavily off the Elf in practice, and felt too dizzy to continue. Beattie retired after six laps, well down the field and going nowhere, far from happy with his machine's performance. Then Roberts Jr. pitted with 22 laps remaining. A washer had come adrift in the rear suspension, and the tire was ruined. Alessandro Gramigni pulled in on the same lap, so far off the pace on the V-twin Aprilia that it wasn't worth continuing, while Kirk McCarthy stopped while lying 16th at half-distance with a broken battery lead. 2S0cc GRAND PRIX Expectations were high for the junior class, with a galaxy of talent poised to close up the ranks front. Unfortunately nobody told Biaggi, who led from the start and ran away. Jacque was in hot pursuit, and closed up to within half a second on the third lap. But that was only until Harada got back ahead of him next time around. By then, it was all over. Biaggi had hand-cut slicks and the others interme- diate front tires and hand-cut rears. The track had been bare ly damp to start with and it was drying rapidly. Biaggi was gone. Harada looked superb in pursuit the most stylish rider of all had transferred all his smoothness and slide control from Yamaha to Aprilia. But the stopwatches showed clearly that he was quite outpaced, and he was just concentrating on hanging on to second. Jacque was playing a similar game dropping back behind him, the leading three well clear of the field. T d wanted to fit a hand-cut front, but my team overruled me," the disappointed Frenchman said. The action was all behind, with Tohru Ukawa losing touch, also sliding around too much to do any different, so that before half-distance he was coming under severe pressure from Haruchika Aoki, the 125cc World Champion in his first 250cc race on the Matteoni Honda. Waldmann, meanwhile, was having an adventurous time. Fifth on lap one, he lost the front and ran into the gravel the next time around, dropping to 17th. In spite of braking difficulties with his injured hand, he charged back through the field to join this scrap before hal£distance. At the finish, the plucky German Marlboro Honda rider was at the head The first race of the day was also the best, even though the four-strong battle for the lead didn't last past the first four laps, when Honda-mounted Tomomi Manako and Yamaha's Youichi Ui dropped back, soon to collide with the latter crashing. They left the ApriJias of Valentino Rossi and Kazuta Sakata battling up front, and it was riveting. Rossi was on Ounlops, Sakata on Michelins, and it seemed clear that the Japanese rider was having the most trouble. But he battled gamely on, a notable hard man, while Rossi had the sparkle and inspiration to keep him at bay. First Sakata tried a breakaway, from laps eight to 16, then Rossi tried the same game, only to be pegged back in turn. They came to the last lap with Rossi one second ahead after using the backmarkers well, and Sakata sliding . and weaving as he tried everything to get back by. He succeeded at the end of the straight, running wide but grimly hanging on. Then came the last corner, and he left his braking fractionally too late. He ran wide again, and this time Rossi was ready to slip through, leading across the line by less than a second. Honda-mounted Noboru Ueda came through to take third after conquering a big group, with GP newcomer Mirko Giansanti and his Honda hanging on l'-.. ~ ..... ..... J-< 0.. < 7

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