Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Jean-Michel Bayle finished 14th to earn two championship points on the Modenas KRV3. (Above) The 250cc Grand Prix gets started with Tetsuya Harada (31) and Takeshi Tsulimura (12) get the jump on the field. 41 points, one ahead of Sakata. Third is the Malaysian GP winner Valentino Rossi with 25. The young Italian was right in the thick of it when he high-sided exiting the chicane with less than two laps to go. "It is easy to say that I should have waited to make my move, but when you are feeling that confident you just do what you fee!," Rossi said. "1 believed that 1 could win the race, now 1 just believe I'm an idiot. 500cc GRAND PRIX According to Doohan, one of the major drawbacks to the new engine is the dutch and gearbox. Downshifts are a problem, as are the starts. That was evident in Suzuka where he got away in fifth before working his way forward. 'When I didn't get off the line I didn't want to go rushing in, have somebody rush in and follow me and we'd both end up on lying on our backs in the first turn," Doohan said. "After basically two laps I settled myself down and Tady (Okada) was disappearing into the distance and then it was time to go after Tady." That was on the fourth of 21 laps with Doohan now up to second up to passing Criville. "1 caught Alex and I got past him; 1 had to kind of shove it past him," Doohan explained. "1 ran wide and he tried to go back underneath me. 1 thought we were going to have a race and let Tady get away. It settled down again and Alex come with me and we caught Tady - passing him is another thing." It took a while to catch up to Okada, who'd taken a flier at the start and had dose to a four-second lead on the fifth lap. That's when Doohan and Criville began chipping away ~d by the ninth lap they were right on him. Doohan was by first he turned the fast lap of the race and set a new lap record on the eighth - on the inside through the Spoon Curve with Criville joining him seven laps later with a pass in turn one. '1 went a little too hard at the start of the race and the result was that 1was tired towards the end of the race," Okada said. "1 was able to keep ahead of Mick and Alex quite easily for some time, bu t then I found out that 1 am a member of a very technical team. They are botll more experienced than me and they will not be easy to beat." Once Okada was dropped to third it becanle a two-rider race and Criville was persistent. He couldn't pass Doohan, but he made his presence felt and heard. Doohan had chosen a harder rear tire than Criville and found he had to alter his exits to keep the front wheel planted. 'The front tire wasn't gripping all that well 1 was chasing it," Doohan said. "You didn't want to keep it bent over too much. 1 didn't want to keep it down too long in case it would fall. One time 1 remember (Left) The 250Cc GP was won by Daljiro Kato. (Above) "was Harada (31) who led for most of the race. Tohru Ukawa (5) ended up second with Harada third. running real wide around Dunlop (corner) when 1 felt 1 had to get by him and I stuffed it underneath him. but then I couldn't keep it bent down. 1 went real wide and he tried to come back underneath me." The worry was that Criville would come back, which he did, but he slithered and squirmed on the way to the chicane and Doohan took the normal, wide, arcing line to enter the dUcane and run to the flag. '1 didn't think 1 was going to be able to lead for so long showing these guys where 1was going and what I was doing," Doohan said. On the fifth lap, Takuma Aoki passed his brother Nobuatsu and they spent the rest of the race together, gradually losing touch with the leaders and losing their pursuers. Because obuatsu didn't have enough time to set up his V-four for the race, Takuma was able to keep the V-twin in front of him, even though he, too, was having handling troubles. "It was a very hard race for me because after 13 laps the handling of the bike was not so good," Takuma said. "Although the engine ran well it was not as fast as it was during qualifying, otherwise I think 1could have beaten my brother Nobuatsu by a larger margin. Although 1 did not have the speed to match the four on the straights, 1was still able to make up time through the esses section of the track." "After about 1a laps 1 was sliding all over the place and going any faster meant taking too many risks," obuatsu Aoki said. 'The main thing was to get a race finish." Behind them came Checa and Abe, those two battling so hard that they nearly ca ught up to the Aoki brothers. On the way there they settled in to sixth and seventh, respectively, on the eighth lap with Checa unable to pull away from Abe, whose experience here is far greater. 'The last lap was my fastest and 1 had really wanted to ride at that pace for the whole race," Abe said. '1 started very fast, which was good, but I had some problems early on with the ear and from lap six I was already sliding quite a lot." "One more lap and 1 think it would have been possible to overtake the Aoki brothers and finish fourth," Checa said. ext across the line was Checa's teammate Puig, the veteran Spaniard passing wild-<:ard rider oriliiko Fuftwara on the final lap after a slow start. Both Checa and Fujiwara bemoaned the fact· that, once they got going, the leaders were gone. "1 didn't get a good start and by the time I found my rhythm 1 couldn't even see the leading group," said Fujiwara, a three-time Japan~ 500cc champion. Barros, Cadalora, Laconi, and Goddard were the next across, in single file and within two seconds of each other. Cadalora complained of a front tire problem which cropped up in the early gOing. '1 lost the front three times and had to pick the bike up with my knee so 1 had to slow down and make sure I finished," Cadalora said. His teammate Corser never got the chance. '1 crashed with auan) Borja, but 1 think we just outbraked each other a bit," Corser said of his 12-lap spill in turn one. "He went wide and ran straight on and I just went in too fast and lost the front." 250Cc GRAND PRIX This was a race that wa significantly decided before the green ligh t flashed. Three-time World Champion Max Blaggi had crashed in practice and rode with a dislocated left shoulder. Then Frenchman Oli vier Jacque crashed in the morning warmup, breaking his left collarbone. So when the race began it was minus two of its stars, though there were plenty to take their place. Most of them were Japanese and they were quickly the ones to catch. Benetton Honda's Tohru Ukawa led the fist lap in front of Aprilia's Tetsuya Harada and Castrol Honda's wild card Daijiro Kato. Then carne FCC Technical Sports Takeshi Tsujimura and Marlboro Honda's Rail Waldmann. There was a pack just behind which lost significant ground on the leaders when Aprilia's Loris Capirossi briefly stalled, causing a number of riders behind him, induding Blaggi, to take evasive action. That effectively let the front-running five get away with Jaja Racing Team's Suzuki-mounted Yukio Kagayama closing in. Harada and Ukawa swapped the lead for the first seven laps with Kato content to stay in third - the top five all covered by less than two seconds. Tsujimura led his one and only lap on the elghth with Harada falling back to fourth, then moving back up to second on the nintll lap and taking the lead halfway into the 19-1ap race as the lead six dung together. '1 was relaxed for today's race so when five or six of us were dicing for the lead at the beginning of the race I could see all the circumstance," Kato said. 'When Harada was trying to run away 1 said to myself, 1 must wait for the la t dash.''' That would take a while and in the second half of the race it was Ukawa out I:'-.. ~ ,...... ...... ..... I-< 0..

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