Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Above) Winner Olivier Ja cque leads Tetsuya Ha rada across the stripe in the 250cc Grand Prix. Harada had worked his way past leader Jacq ue only to slow toward race's end with suspension trouble . (Left) Nobuatsu Aold (18) leads Luca Cada lora (3) and Jurg en Fuchs (16). Aokl finis hed fourth behInd Cadalora. Ell· mou nted Fuch s finished shet a best-ever h, result for the French ma rque. on the first lap, escaping unhurt. Waldmann's troubl es were alread y beginning . " I ha d n u g ri p frum the front; Waldmann said . 'There was no way I could stay with the leaders." By the start of the eighth lap, he was lying sixth. 'Then I had a big slide and went down at the long turn before the back straight." He pull ed the bike ou t of the gra vel. kicked it stra ight, and rejoined in 18th. "After that , it was d ifficult," the Gennan continued. 'The crash snapped off most uf the gea r lever, so shifting was a probl em." He grad ua lly p icked his way th rou gh to 12th . "We got some poi nts, a nd tha t could make a big difference at the end of the season." At half-distance, Jacque had a lead of m ore tha n a second, bu t now Harada was clea r of the others and sta rti ng to close up. "He was fas ter tha n me o n th e s traight, so I had to push ha rd er and hard er, " Jacque explained later. "So I started to mak e some mistakes." Thu s, at the end of lap 19, he th rew aw ay everything he had regained as he lost the front wheel un the final corner. H e s tayed on board but had lost hi s speed , a nd Harada aimed past on th e inside. As the Japanese sw ep t past, he drifte d ac ross Ja cqu e ' s front wheel. Th e bikes to uc he d momentarily, a nd th e im pac t sq ueezed Jacque's fro n t brake, loc ki ng th e fro nt whee l so ther e wa s dayligh t under the rea r. He survived, however, and now the battl e bega n in e~rnest. "I d ecid ed to follow him and attack at the end, but he was very slow in some turns," Jacque said. 'Then I passed him again. But it was very tuugh un the last lap. He came by un the st ra ight again and it was harder than before to find a way past." There was of course a reason for Harada's slow comer speed. 'The suspension trouble I had in practice struck again after jus t 10 lap s a nd caused the front tire to w ear badly," he said . "When we were fighting it out at the end of the race, the risk of crashing was very high. I deci ded to settle for second because of the way things stand in the champio nship ." Uka wa was thrilled w ith his ultimately unopposed th ird , saying. 'That last lap was incredible. After the back straight, I wa s inside the com er when Ma x ca me pa s t o n the o u ts id e and Osamu Miyazaki fell heavily Luris Capirossi had gune past o n the second Aprilia befo re he could rejoin the .track, in fifth. As a res ult, Iliaggi los t the championship lead he had reg ained at Imola, with Harada moving two points ah ead. Ralf Waldmann had been wi th the leade rs in the ea rly laps, but he fell at the start of the back straight, remountin g his damaged Ma rlboro-Honda to finish 12th. . Valen tino Ross i cla imed h is eighth win in 10 races in the final race of the day at Rio. The Italian teenager led from the start, unly tu be overw helmed at half-dista nce by three Japa nese riders who had bro ken away from anot her huge pack. But Rossi foug ht back, finally dealing with Pileri Honda' s Noboru Ueda, his last rival , du ring the last lap . KUTZ Yamaha's Youichi Ui was third for his best finish of the season, fending off Tomomi Manako' s UCT Honda by half a second . The n came six riders almost abreast, from fifth to 10th place wit hin the space of less than three-q uarters of a second, with fourth place going to former champion Kazu to Saka ta on his UGT Aprilia. SOOCC GRAND PRIX Dooh an too k the lead on the first of 24 laps of the 3.058-mile circuit. "Tady (Okada) is usu all y the one whu ma kes fast starts, but he must have been held up w hil e I was able to find a gap:' Doohan said . "After that, I just did the best I could. The big problem today, for everyone, was what to do about tires. We didn't do any qualifying at 11 in the mo rning and w e had no idea what track temperature would be . Tire choice was a gamble, because they are very sensitive to track temperatures." The Australian had been pushing the front from the sixth lap. "At that point, I eased the pace a little ." He'd tried to encourage Okada to pas s to put the pressure on him, "but w hen it cam e to it, he couldn't." Okada's smiling response was to say: "It is difficult to pa ss Mick. I was pushing hard unde r braking, b u t he was pushing even ha rder. But th is was a good race for me . Nuw I wan t to take the next step forward and win." This pair q uic kly outdistanced an excellent battle for third comprised of five b ike s in th e early stages, unti l Ra l ne v Yamaha's Se te Gibernau and Bayle fell awa y behind. That le ft fast-starti ng Abe under severe pressure from Nobuatsu Aoki, the inspired Fuchs, and Cadalora . Auki tuuk to the fro nt of the group un la p nin e; one lap la ter Ca dalora was ther e and, as the race wore on, he and Aoki drew away slig htly, with Abe then dosing up again in the last laps . Meanwhile Auki headed the group once mure un lap 21, with Cadalora waiting his cha nce to get back in front on the next lap . "The bike was going very well. It was very com pe ti tive," Cadalora sa id . "U nfo rtuna tely, I mad e risky fro nt-tire choice, which meant .I had to hold back a little. Othe rw ise I cou ld ha ve gone f as ter." : Aoki was just under a second arrears at the finish, wit h Abe right un his tail. This re presented improved fortu nes fur forme r Japanese CP wi nne r Abe , who said , "It felt really good to be up at the fro nt for a whi le, thuugh I'm still no t too happy with fifth place. I was third her e for the last two years." Gibernau ha d lost to u ch with th e grou p because of engine problems. "It los t power a co up le of times; then it fi nally stupped on lap 14," he sa id, deeply frustrated after the weekend had gone we ll to that point. Bayle was meanwhile circling steadily, the bike slower than in practice because. after an engine blow-up in the morning, they were running it richer for safety. Now Romboni was catching up . "I got a good start, but at the first corner I had su ch a big wheelie, lots of people came past," Rumboni said. 'Then I had a couple of big slides. I had to be pati ent until the fuel load got li ghter, then I could move forward ." He had Barros with him by now, and the pai r of them passed Bayle, the Aprilia rid er fina lly ga in ing a sma ll adva ntage in the clos ing laps for a safe seven th. The other two ba ttled tu the fin ish . "Bayle's bike was faster than mine, so I had to work reall y hard to gel a head on the second last lap," a bitterly disappointed Barros said. "He was right with me, so I took a different line into the last corner to mak e sure he could n' t get past - bu t it took me onto the slippery part of the circuit, and I crashed ." He tried to res tart, bu t a handlebar and the gear lever had broken off, and he had to reti re from his hom e GP within sight of the flag. Regis Laconi rod e stro ngly to ninth, d rop pi ng o ff the back o f th e Ba rros group a t ha lf-d ista nce as all three of them passed the fa di ng Gobert, who wa s just sold iering on to the finis h. "O n the six th la p , I tr ied to p a ss Bayle," th e Au s tr alia n said . :' 1 went inside, but as I hit the brakes, the forks bottomed a nd th e front wheel tucked unde r and I nearly crashed. I had cou ple more momen ts, so I decided I'd have to calm down and get the bike to the finish." He wure rig ht through h is knee slid er in the proce ss, u si ng it to help hu n the machine. In the last lap s, he fought off a challenge from Jurgen van d en Goo rbergh's V- twin H onda , the Dutchman taking 11t h. Ano the r 16 seconds ba ck ca me Kirk McCarthy in h is last rid e on th e ROC Yamaha, two seco nds clear of Beattie's wo rks Suzuki after pas sing him just after half-distan The equally lacklusce. ter Alberto Pu ig was 14th, with the final poi nt going to Lucio Pedercini's ROC. Juan Borja cra shed out afte r 14 laps, running well down on teammate Fuchs. Kenny Roberts Jr. retired w ith 18 laps left. 'The front sus pension went completely solid; he said. "For sure I would have cras hed if I'd stayed out there." Doohan now need finish onlv sixth at the next r ace tu be fu u r- tim;' Wurld Champion with three races to spare. He now has 245 points. Okada is second on 129, Aoki has 126, the absent injury victim Criville 102, and Luca Cadalora 85. a 250cc GRAND PRIX O li vie r Ja cq ue led fro m th e s ta r t, openi ng up a small bu t useful lea d, as Biaggi, Harada, Ukawa, Waldmann and Ca pirossi swapped back and forth, all pulling s teadily a way from the lon ely St efano Perug in i. Yamaha-mounted

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