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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127844
ROAD RACE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROAD RACE SERIES By Michael Scott Photos by Gold & Goose LE CASTELLET, FRANCE, JUNE 8 ighty Michael Doohan did it again in France - his third win in a row, fifth in six races this season, and the lap record to boot. H was a little bit different, because this time he had to fight his way through after a bad start - the lights flickered off, and he paused briefly while the rest of the field took·off. But the fact· that the top Repsol Honda rider broke the lap record on the second lap while fighting through traffic says it all. Once again, he was in a class of his own: Second went to an inspired Carlos Checa on the MoviStar Honda, forging past the freshly re-injured hero Tadayuki Okada and his Repsol Honda in the last third of the race on the shortened ·Paul Ricard circuit, basking in the 'sunshine of the south of France. A good crowd - officially 30,000 but looking rather bigger - watched as Alex Criville faltered in his own pursuit, not of Doohan this time, but of Okada. The third Repsol Honda V-four rider was fourth this time, behind Okada, who was only passed as fit to race an hour before the start, after a heavy crash in morning warmup. Criville blamed a mysterious lack of power for his lackluster performance. The track claimed several crash victims, mainly in practice, and with several injuries. A truncated version of the classic circuit, it is unpopular because of a surface tha t changes grip with the weather, corners tha t are mainly very slow, and only two left-handers, which gives tires a very hard time. The results were hardly affected. It was another Honda walkover, with Red Bull Yamaha's Luca Cadalora, Honda's only challenger so far this M 18 year, retiring early on with a front-tire problem. Seventh-place Norifumi Abe on the Rainey Yamaha was the first outsider, and then only after switching to a 1996 bike. . Anthony Gobert was 10th, two places ahead of Lucky Strike Suzuki teammate Daryl Beattie, but disappointed after losing ninth on the last lap after misreading his pit board and mistakenly easing up. Fellow ex-World Superbike rider Troy Corser was 14th after another slow weekend. Tetsuya Harada won his first victory for Aprilia, and his first race for more than a year, using engine power and blocking tactics to hold back the Marlboro Hondas of Max Biaggi and Ralf Waldmann by inches across the line, and all race long. They were so close it was frightening for almost the full distance, with fourth-place Loris Capirossi with them until he lost a little ground after his front tire cried, "Enough!" But the sensation of the race for the crowd happened on the first lap, after pole-qualifier Olivier Jacque sprang away into a convincing lead, only to pull off into the gravel on the fourth corner. The engine of his Chesterfield Honda had seized solid and, after the race, worried HRC technicians were flying the electronic-control unit back to Japan to try to trace the fault. Circumstances stretched out the 125 race. Several fancied runners were out befo~e the start, including Masaki Tokudome on his Docshop Aprilia and Airtel Aprilia's Jorge Martinez, both injured in practice tumbles. This left teen-ager Valentino Rossi and his Nastro Azzurro Aprilia to impose his authority on a three-bike battle. Early leader Roberto Locatelli crashed his Axo Honda as the youngster upped the pace, while UGT Honda's Tomomi Manako dropped away behind. Australian Gary McCoy claimed third on his Marlboro Aprilia after starting from his first-ever pole position. He got away badly and lost the chance of any help from the slipstream, but soldiered on to gain the rostrum. The French 500cc Grand Prix gets stsrted at Paul Ricard with a gaggle of Hondas ready to leave the line, led' by three-time World Champion Michael Doohan (1). 500cc GRAND PRIX Doohan may have paused as the lights went green and then failed, expecting a restart, but nobody else did, and Takuma Aoki sprang into the lead on his V-twin Repsol Honda. It took only a little reshuffling, with Doohan charging through from seventh on the first lap, before there were four of the· orange-and-blue Hondas up front, in a familiar Repsol parade. The remarkable Okada, ignoring hi's painful hand, took over up front on lap four,,as Doohan was slicing inside Criville to take third. Then Doohan was in second as Takuma ran wide, and took the lead on the straight on lap eight. , He might have been there earlier, but for an unusual incident. "1 was just about to pass Tady when 1 saw a yellow flag out of the corner of my eye, and 1 hit the brakes," Doohan said. "1 didn't want to incur any penalty. 1 hit the brakes, and it took me a while to catch up with him again." Doohan's fastest lap was his eighth, as he took the lead, and though he pulled away only gradually to finish 4.2 seconds ahead, there was never much doubt about the final outcome. Criville tried to follow him through, but Okada was hard to pass, and he had problems of his own. Then his challenge ended just before half-distance. He tried to get by into the slow corner at the end of the front straight, but left his braking too late, and ran very wide to let the Japanese rider escape. Criville's problem was not tires, as it appeared, but a shortage of power. "It was the same as in Austria, wliere Mick could easily out-accelerate me. We need to find out why before. the next race," Criville said. Nobuatsu Aoki and Checa had also started well,' and were running close behind, in company with Cadalora, Takuma Aoki losing places within the group as he battled with over-hard suspension settings that spoiled his steering. Cadalora was the first to go, dropping back and then pitting, then going out again for a pointless gallop after fitting a new front tire. Checa then got ahead of Criville shortly before Nobuatsu Aoki slid off gracefully at the long right-hander at the far end of the track; escapirig without serious injury. Without Criville to get in his way, Checa forged ahead, quickly catching Okada and slicing past on the 23rd lap: At this point, Doohan was 2.9 seconds ahead, and Checa even closed up slightly before the Australian got th~ message and upped the pace again. The firsUour finished within just over six seconds. Then came a long gap to Aoki, and almost another 20 seconds to the next ba ttle, a fierce three-way scrap with Abe ahead of Alberto Puig and Alex Barros's V-twin. A last-lap sort-out saw Puig attempt to outbrake them all. He and Abe both ran off into the dirt, letting Barros through to take sixth. Abe was close behind, and Puig recovered to finish three seconds adrift.