Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Azz urro Aprilia took ye t another brilliant 12See win, his fifth of the year. He ti med his cha rg e perfectly to p revail over a tight pack of eight w ho had been changing places almos t throughout the whole race. Rossi's victory came at the expense not only of hi> companions on the rost rum, UGT Honda 's To momi Ma na ko a nd UG T A p rilia' s Ka z u t o Sakata, but also of early leader Ga rry McCoy on the Marlboro Ap rilia, w ho ' seized in the middle of the gro up. SOOcc GRAND PRIX The two legs were so d ifferen t fro m one another, with only the man in front in commo n, that the fans really d id get two races for the pri ce of one. Che ca took the first break from th e sta rt, was pa ssed by Dooh an into the first corn er, bu t prom p tly passed him bac k und er bra king a t th e end o f the back straig ht. He went away for the next thr ee laps, wi th Dooh an d roppi ng back by mor e tha n a second in th e se cond Jap. This was only a temporary aberration, however. By lap four, Doohan was right on the Spa n iard ' s back w hee l a nd eve n alo ngsi d e h im , then wen t fir mly past under braki ng a t the chicane at the end of lap five. And that was more or less that, as he started to pull away stea d ily to accrue a margin of 3.5 seconds at the end of lap 11. The battle was for third. The group ha d ini tially incl ud ed va n d en Goorbergh, fifth at the end of lap one, bu t he was soon to pull off the track, his V-twin engine locked solid. This left Romboni trying to fend off Alex Barros' V-twin Honda as well as th e V-fou rs of Ta dy u ki Okada a n d No bua tsu Aoki. Mean while, Abe ha d sta rte d w ell a nd ta gged along to g et mixed in with the battl e. By the si xth lap, the Yamaha rider was at the front of the grou p, the other three right up behind for what would surely be a fine battle. And Abe was still in front on th e 11th lap, with Okada, Aoki and Rornboni, in that o rder; behind him wh en the race wa s stopped. Takuma Aoki was losing gro und behind them; then came another loose group - Albe rto P uig h ea d in g Ju a n Borja's Elf and Dary l Beattie's Suzuki. The red flag ca me ou t p ro mp tly as the rain star ted falling - Assen orga nizers do , after all, have plenty of experience in this regard , and the sta tu tory 30minut e pause saw mechanics fitting rain tires to most bikes, then sw ap ping the rears fo r in termediates as the clo uds clea red above. By the time the res tart came, the track was still wet, but it was obviously going to be d ry before th e remaining nine laps were completed. Now thin gs got confusing, with po sitions on the road not necessarily reflecting positio ns in the race. Thus, while Barros got a fly er on h is V-twin and char ged away to an impressive lead , he was barely in the top 10 on aggregate time. Behi n d the Bra zili a n , ri ders w ere slitheri ng around as the hot- heads took a d van ta ge o f the co nd itio n s . Chie f among them was Anthon y Gobert, reveling in the slides as he swep t aro u nd the outside of Dooh an to take second on the road at the end of the back straight.' He had Barros in his sights when he felt a su d d en bump fr om behind. It w as Bernard Garcia , riding the injured Regis Laconi's V-twin Honda a nd also going gangbus ters. The bump sent Gobert onto the grass on a fast co rne r. "1 was lucky not to fall," Gobert said later . He rejoined well back, his chance of glory gone. (Above) Doohan (1) leads Carl os Checa (9)early in the dry port ion of the race. (Left)Doriano Aomboni (1) was the surprise of the weekend, finishing third on his twincylin de r Aprilia . As the track dri ed , so too did the normal order reim pose itself. Dooh an had been steering dear of the novices; then, as things got sorted out, he moved forward. He was second ahead of Checa by the sixth lap , and quickly closed down on Barros to pass him and lead for a second time that da y. Behind, Checa wa s embroiled with Borja (u ntil he fell) and Pu lg, the othe r s c h asing a long b ehi nd . But t h e actua l b a t tles d idn 't ma tter m uch , a nyway - especially not For Taku ma Aoki, who spun out in the wet in the ea rly sta ges. Th e fina l time she ets gave th e tru e story: Doo han, Ch eca and - at the last gasp - Rombo ni in third, his intermediate tires com ing thr ough really good at th e finish. Nobuatsu Aoki was fourth, then P1,Iig, Barros, Beattie (only his second top 10 of th e yea r) and Rob erts, who'd had his best race of the yea r in the second leg. Fuchs was ninth for his first points of the year; Abe was a disillusioned 10th; then came the brave Garcia; then Okad a, slipping ba ckward in the second leg on fu ll wet tires; then ca me Gobert, Troy .Corser an d Borja , w ho re mounted to take the fina l point. Ba yle h a d retired w it h a no ther e ngine failure; Luca Ca dalora al so dropped ou t, the Italian suffering from steering probl ems so bad that, on th e first lap, he'd run wide on the last fast left and been forced to take to pit lane. He ran s traigh t th rou gh the pi ts to rejoin, but only tem porarily. Doohan's poi nts ga p over the absent Criville is now a yawni ng 68 poin ts, 170102. Nobuatsu Aoki mo ved back into thi rd on 80, with Okada on 78 a n d Checa up to fifth on 70. 250Cc GRAND PRIX Bia ggi's d rama began befo re Ihe s ta rt, as the number-one bike was remo ved from the grid into pit lane. In his absence, Jacque took the immediate lead from pole position, and was pulling away impressively when he crashed on the third lap. "1 lost the front wheel. I hadn' t even s ta r ted b raking yet," Jacque said. "I changed my tire choice to a hard er compound before the race, and I think that w as my mis take." This left Wald mann narrow ly in the lead, with the two Aprilias right on his tail, Capirossi ahead of Harad a. Then , on the seve nth lap , the Japa nese rid er went ahead of the Italian, and started to lean on Waldmann . This situation did not change until . the final lap. The Germ an saw the Aprilia's front wh eel several times, on each side , but was obd urate in his refusal to gi ve w ay. The g ame w ent on even as Ca p irossi dropped slightly behind by abou t a second, and then was suddenly losing groun d han d over fist. "Wit h five la p s to go, my eng ine we nt on to one cylinder," Capirossi said. "1 w a s ve ry lu cky to ' fi nis h at a ll , because as I crossed the line it stopped. I think it was a sparking plug. " Tha t he rem ained third shows how far ahead the trio of riders were. And the two up front we ren' t done yet, laying on a last lap to remember. Harada su rp rised nobody when he did move firm ly past a t the end of the back straight. He was surprised, however, when Waldmann passed him straight ba ck o n the w a y ou t. Ha ra da moved ahead once more into the double rights at the far end of the track. Then Wald m ann pulled a s tu n ning ou tb ra king move into the last fas t left. Too stunning: H e ra n w ide, and left an ope ni ng for Harada to get back. He won his second race in success ion by a quarter of a second. "Wh en Ralf cam e ba ck at me, I was worried ," Harada said. "1 tho ug ht I' d attacked too early. I had to wait for a mis tak e, and lu cki ly for me he mad e one." Waldma nn was happy in spi te of his d efeat. "It was a really exciting and enjoyable race, and also a fair and safe race," Wald m an n said - an ob v io u s d ig at Jacque, with whom he had almost collided in Aust ria in a last-lap duke-out. Tohru Ukaw a never had a chance of catching the ail ing Cap irossi , since he als o had mechanical problems . Alo ne for most of the race, he was still almost 20 seconds arrears at the finish an d losing gro u nd to Stefano Perugini, who was chargin g at the finish on his Nastro Azzurr o Aprili a after prevail ing over Takeshi Tsu jimura, wh o was sixth. Chesterfield Honda's William Costes was an impressive seventh, coming out on top of a four -bike battle with Yama h a ' s O samu Miya zaki and QUB H onda ' s Jeremy McW ill iams, whose exhaus t split to spoil his challenge in the d osing miles. The fourth man had been Suzuki's Noriya su N uma ta, but he pit ted with eng ine tr ouble with two laps left. A long list of reti rements incl ud ed Jamie Robinson and H aruchika Aoki. The Japanese rider had crashed heavily in morning warmup . He did it again in the race, taking Robinson out with him. Wa ldmann's consola tion for coming in seco nd wa s the cha mpionship lea d , 118 poin ts to Biaggi' s 111. Harada is 21

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