Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

,. ROAD RACE Grand Prix WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP • ROAD RACE SERIES Tadayukl Okada (7) gets the jump on the 500cc Italian Grand Prix, leading Alex Criville (2), Takuma Aoki (24) and Carlos Checa (8) on the opening lap. (Below) Michael Doohanwon the 37th 500cc Grand Prix of his career, tying him for second on the all-time list with Mike Hailwood. By Henny Ray Abrams Photos by Gold & Goose SCARPERIA, ITALY, MAY 18 hile the rest of his Repsol Honda teanunates fell by the wayside, Michael Ooohan just steamrollered on, winning the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello in completely dominating fashion before a crowd of 60,000 on a sunny day in Tuscany. it was his third win of the season and fifth win in a row at the circuit in the hills just above Florence. And he reached yet another milestone in his increa ingly illustrious career: The win tied the 32-year-old Australian with Mike Hailwood for second on the aUtime 500cc win list, with 37. Only the inestimable Giacomo Agostini and his 68 wins.ue ahead. "As for the record, history's there to be broken," Ooohan said. ''I'm sure someone will come along one day and win more races than me." The most important number, however, is 17 - that's the number of points he's vaulted in front of teammate Alex Criville in his quest for a fourth consecutive World Championship. He now has 95 points to Criville's 78. Nobuatsu Aoki is third at 54. After a disastrous start, Red Bull Yamaha WCM's Luca Cadalora fought his way through to second, 10.056 seconds behind Ooohan, but another seven-plus seconds in front of FCC Technical Sports' Nobuatsu Aoki. It was an especially gratifying result for the Italian Cadalora, since his team's been in near-constant turmoil since the start of the season and this was the team's first race in Red Bull colors. "1' m going to be trying to get the best position, basically" Cadalora said after his botched start. "I was just thinking, 'Pass more people, pass more.' Finally, I was not hoping for second place for sure. They sign me for second on the board. Second, that's nice. " The race was not without its excitement, however, and the Repsol boys, not only Ooohan, provided it. The quartet of factory Honda riders established themselves out front early on, before dropping away one by one. First to go was Alex Criville, who ran off the track while running in third on the ninth lap, dropping back to 12th. He recovered to finish fourth, less than two seconds behind Aoki. Two laps later, while leading Doohan, Tadayuki Okada made an unbelievable save of a certain crash, but he hurt his wrist in the process and rode slowly back to the pits. Too much throttle caused a near highs ide and the Japanese rider was spit out of the saddle to a nearly vertical position, smashing the windscreen. He came down on the left side of the bike, both feet dragging along the ground at over 100 mph before fighting his way back into the saddle. Okada cracked a bone in his left wrist, but is expected to be ready for the Austrian GP in two weeks. "He got on the gas too hard and the bike snapped sideways," observed Ooohan, who was just behind at the time. "I was lucky he didn't take me out." That left Takuma Aoki in second, but not for all that long. On the 16th lap, he crashed the V-twin Honda in turn one. Cadalora jnherited second, Aoki third, and Criville soon fought his way back to fourth. There were a few best finishes here. Lucky Strike Suzuki's Daryl Beattie had his best of the year, taking fifth just in front of the Honda V-twin of Hond,! Gresini's Alex Barros, also his best placing. Yamaha Team Rainey's Norifumi Abe was seventh, having run higher before running off the track and losing a number of spots. Then came the Modenas KRV3 of Jean-Michel Bayle, his eighth th Marlboro Roberts' team's best by two placings. He was followed by Yamaha Team Rainey'~ Sete Gibernau, the young Spaniard posting his third ninth of .the season. Regis Laconi was 10th on the Tecmas Honda Elf V-twin. Aprilia's Oorlano Romboni was next, after running off the track very early in the race. Then came the Aussies, Red Bull Yamaha WCM's Troy Corser leading Lucky Strike Suzuki's Anthony Gobert and WCM's Kirk McCarthy. After sitting out the first three races with a broken collarbone, Gobert was happy to get his first GP points. The second Modenas of Kenny Roberts Jr. didn't finish, an ignition problem the likely culprit that put him out when he was running in 12th on the 13th lap. And neither of the Movistar Honda Pons bikes ·finished. Carlos Checa lost the front end while running seventh on the seventh lap and Puig pulled in because he couldn't concen'trate. Kanemoto Honda's Max Biaggi won the most exciting race of the day by outriding a pair of fellow Italians in a race that came down to the run from the final curve to the flag. It was obvious toward the end that an Italian was going to win this one; it was just a question of which one. Aprilia's Loris Capirossi and wild card Marcellino Lucchi, the Aprilia test rider, both had the lead at one point, with Capirossi leading into the final corner. But he ran wide in the sweeping left and Biaggi took the initiative; scooting under him for the side-by-side run to the flag. Lucchi made a run also, hoping to pass Biaggi, but unintentionally passing Capirossi instead when he split the two factory stars at the stripe. "This is the home place for us, because we are all Italians and nobody wants to give up on the last lap," Biaggi said after winning for the second time this year and reclaiming the championship points lead. In a best-case scenario, championship leader Tetsuya Harada of Aprilia retired on the third lap with engine troubles. "A few times they pass me and it looks like very easy but they were going 100 percent, 110 percent," Biaggi added. "1 get a few slides on the rear tire and even when the tire dropped down I don't slow down. That's the only way to keep the lead. 1 saw Lucchi's bike is very . fast, maybe the fastest here today. 1 don't know, I just give 100, 110 percent to stay there." The margin was .050 of a second, with Lucchi .068 in front of Capirossi for third. The win, Biaggi's second of the fourrace-old season, catapults him to the top of the championship point standings with 75 points, 13 more than Marlboro Honda's Ralf Waldmann, who ran with the leaders for the first three-quarters of the race before dropping off and finishing four seconds back in fourth after a lack of top speed caused him to abuse his tires. Harada retains third with 56 points, 20 better than Chesterfield Elf Tech 3' s Olivier Jacque, a lonely fifth today -15 seconds behind Waldmann. Team PJ1 Oils' Kurtis Roberts was having his best day in GP racing until he highsided violently in a right-hander on the sixth lap, tumbling end over end into the gravel trap. He was running 17th at the time, but was in the thick of a battle for 13th. Roberts said that he didn't have the power to pull away on

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