Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE WR O LDCHAMPIONSHIP ROAD RACE SERIES Wet and Dry: The Dutch 500cc Grand Prix was splh Into two pa rts when rain fell. (Left) Michael Doohan (') gets the jump at the start of the dry portion. (Below) The wet race gets started with the same leader. By Michael Scott Pho tos by Gold & Go os e ASSEN, HOLLAND,JUNE 28 ir k Doohan ca rv ed hi s name a little deeper into the Dutch dikes on Saturday, winning two races to claim one victory - his 40th. With chief thr eat Al ex Crivil le o u t in jured , the Repsol Hond a rider dealt with the rem aini ng rivals with his usual ease. He had alrea dy left Carlos Checa's Mo vista r Honda tra iling when the red flags came out after 12 of the 20 laps, in respon se to a sho we r of ra in . Th en he came thro ug h to lead the second leg as well, to make dou bly sure. But he was in an angry mood , after a weekend d uri ng which persistent passing sho wers caus ed freq ue n t in terruption s, although th e 500cc race was the only on e to be stopped. . Th e s ta r t h a d b e e n d e lay e d by fiv e m i nute s t o acco m mod a te t h e clos ing m in utes of practice fr om the Formula One ca r GP in Fra nce fiv e m in u tes th at may' ha ve b een cr ucia l. " If ou r race had .started on time , we w ould ha ve co m p le te d e no ug h laps before the rain started to ha ve reached a resu lt," Doohan said . "We had to take racing risks as a resu lt of that delay. The second leg was pretty dangerous at first , because it w as obvious ly go ing to d ry ou t, and most people took the ga mble of intermediate rea r tires." The traditionally hu ge Assen cro wd was not put off by the weather. Officially, ther e were 103,000 fans around the atmospheric circu it, with its lon g, 3.75mil e lap taking th e bik es through continual swoops, swerves and kinks. Many came to cheer on local hero Jurgen van den Goorbergh, who had qualified o n the front row of the grid - the first pri vate Honda V-twin rid er to do so . His race las ted on ly two laps, before he seized while lyin g well up in the top > 10. 20 Second went to Checa, after he'd stepped forward to take the Spanish sac. rificial-hero role vaca ted by Criville. Do ri an o Ro m bo ni w a s a popu la r third , giving the Aprili a V-twin its first ro st ru m fi ni s h . The pro ject is in it s fou r th ye a r , but th e n e wl y upsi z ed e ng i ne h a s m ad e a ll th e d iffe re n ce . Romboni only gained th e pl ace on the last lap . He'd ga mbled o n cu t slick tires for the restart, with almost every body e lse o n w et fronts an d inter m edia te rear s, and was left behi nd in th e early laps. By th e finish, however, with th e track almost completely d ry, he was the fastest man o n the circuit, knifing up through the top 10. The rain brought heartbreak to Norifumi Abe, however. Th e so-far-lackluster Rainey Yamaha rider had vaulted .beyond his practice form to hold third position when the first leg was stopped. He was unable to do anything like that in th e rai ny restart, d ropping to ninth overall. The res ta rt di d the Mod enas team a favor. The y'd promised a big ste p fo rward a t Asse n, with lightweight new parts cutting more than 17.5 pounds off tota l weight and with im proved internal airfl ow to a revised airbox. No improvement was obvious in practice , with both riders plagued with misfir ing . But the w et race ga ve Kenny Roberts Jr . the chance to shine on the Marlboro-backed mach ine. While teamma te Jean-Michel Ba yl e retired, Roberts was classified eighth, equaling Bayle 's previous bestyet resul t. The 250cc race wa s a bitter two-bike battle, won after a to-and-fro last lap by Aprilia' s Tetsuya Harada from Ra lf Wa ldmann and his Marlboro Honda, with Loris Ca p iro ss i dropping away with a misfire to finish third. A potentially bigger battle was d e n ied th e crowd, firstly when pole-qualifier Olivi- er Jacqu e thr ew away his Che sterfield Hon d a w h ile leadi ng ha ndsomely o n th e third lap, sho rtly after breaking the lap record , and secondly by th e misfortunes of Max Biaggi. Bia gg i wa s le ft behind before th e warmup lap , with mechanics still workin g o n th e front of h is bike. He was pushed into pit lane, and started fro m there at the back of the field . Even while he was chargi ng into the top 10, officials decided that the original infringement mechanics working on the bike too late merited a stop-and -go penalty, and signa ls were hung out to call Biaggi in . He ign o red them; after he'd done so three times, disqualification became mandato-ry and he was black-flagged out of the race. The non-finish handed th e title lead to Waldmann. Va lenti no Ro ssi an d h is Nas tro

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