Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127854
Chesterfield Honda's Olivier Jacque was a dis tant third, prevailing in a race-long battle against Tohru Ukawa on the Benetton Honda. Bu t w hile vic to ry put Waldman n right back in the title chase, the day was d isastrou s for Max Biaggi. Battling (as h e ha s a ll season ) aga ins t h is fro n twhee l chatter problems, he crashed out uni njured , but deepl y depr essed . Nastro Azz urro Aprilia's Valentino Rossi took his ninth wi n of the year in the 125cc race, luc ky to stay on board after a fearsome ba ttle with two Japan- (Right) Okada lead s Doohan in their ep ic battle In the Sun British Grand Prix. (Below) Luea Cadalora (3) was near the front early bef ore ignrtion problems knocked him bac k. Here he leads Barros and Nobuatsu AokJ. ese riders, which concluded when one of them, Tomomi Ma nako on the UGT Ho nda, atte mpted a fina l outbraking a ttem pt into the la st ha irpin, only to cras h; the second, Docsho p Aprilia ' s Masaki Tokudome, had na rrowly lost tou ch with this pai r and inherited second, his best finish of the yea r. Sev en seco nds arrears, Marlboro Aprilia 's Garry McCoy los t th ird place to Pileri Hond a ride r No bo ru Ueda after ru nning wide in the crucial final hairpin. • SOOcc GRAND PRIX Barro s and Abe led off the line, but by the end of the first IaP the two Repsol Y-fours were between them, Ok ad a in seco nd . Dooh an took that p osition the next time through the Melbourne Loop penultimate hairpin, and was lead ing by lap three , with Barros' Y-twin hold ing sta tion impressively behind by virtue of its strong comer speed. By th is time Carlos Checa h ad al rea dy cr as hed ou t at th e tri cky Macleans righ t-h ander , his th ird suc h non-finish in succession. It took until lap five for Okada to get through to second, and until lap six for the V-fou rs to start to pull awa y. Now it seemed there wo uld be a typical 500cc ra ce, Dooha n perha p s lettin g O ka da through for a while before getti ng ahea d again to up the pace. Tha t is what happened, with the japanese rider pushing ahead from laps 21 to 24. What made it d ifferen t was that it was a t lap-record pace, both riders nudging under the longsta nding Schwa ntz standard of 1991. In the last five laps Doohan did reimpose his au tho rity, but only narrowly, and he was obliged to break the record once an d for all on his final lap to make sure of the win. Even then it was by less th an a qua rte r o f a seco nd, th ou g h Oka da admitted to a few miscues. "I made a couple of mistakes on the last two laps because [ was trying too hard - but it was a good race anyway:' Okada said. The battle for th ird had been relentless , even afte r Barros' extraordinary move on Abe. "If he 'd been ahead of me, " the Brazilian rider said later, "we'd have both gone down." But it seemed to observers that Abe certainly had been ahead and had bee n taken completely by surprise. He had been lucky not to fall in his extended high-speed run across the grass. and most uncharacteris tically we nt loo ki ng for Ba rros a fte r the race to con front him. (Barros was luck ily abse nt a t the ros tr u m ce remon ies.) Th at was at half-distance, by which time Cada lora' s hard tires had sta rted to settle d own. He quickly closed a twosecond gap on Barro s, brin ging Nobua tsu Aoki up with him, and the three were tog ether from lap 18, wi th Cada lora taking the lead two laps later in a way that de mons tra ted the Y-twin's ultimate w ea kness: rela tively poor acceleration . Ca da lora hou nd ed Barros throu gh the last three slow corners, and then surged past along the front straight; and though Barr os d id fight back a nd ge t ahead again, the Italian took control once more wit h four laps left, taking advantage of a sho rt spell when Aoki also got ahead of the V-twi n. With tw o laps le ft , it all changed w hen Ca da lora sudden ly slowed, hi s Yama ha on th ree cylinders . A sparkpl ug lead had come loose and shorted o ut, an d he rap idl y dropped away, as Barros Sec ured third and Nobuatsu Aoki fourth . Less than 10 seconds behind, Beattie had bee n holding station. '1 couldn't have done those lap times in a group, but when [ had the track to myself, I could keep consistent:' Beattie said . • It was one of his best races in the year, and he was "only a second away from catching Cadalora at the finish, The nex t group had been broken up by Doria no Romboni's Aprilia as he cut th rou gh in fam ilia r s tyle fro m a slow sta rt. Alberto Pui g had followed him on the MoviStar Hond a, bu t crashed out with six laps remaining. He and team mate Checa were the only fallers in the race. Juan Borj a finished less than three seconds down, wi th the disgru ntled Abe pushing hard on his heels. Then came Tak uma Aoki, tro ubled by the sho ulde r injury he incurred in Brazil, a t a track where th e Repsol V-twm might ha ve been expected to excel. Hopes of a good ho me race for Modenas came to nothing, with Jean-Michel Bayle out, and Kenn y Roberts Jr. drop- ping back to 11th, still struggling with the Ma rlboro bike's hand ling. Kirk McCarthy wa s 12th in his firs t works-bike ride, saying later, "1 sta rted to enjoy it later in the race." There were just 18 fin ish ers, w ith Regis Laco ni o u t a fte r so m ebody knocked his chain off in the first corner, Gobert retiring early, and Sete Gibern au . also pulling in a fter pitting for a stopand-go penalty afte r jumping the sta rt , then bei ng pulled in again for speeding in the pit lane. Second place in the championship is still in dispute, although Doohan's 270 points mean he is unassailable. Okada now has 149, Nobuatsu Aoki 139, and the still-absent Alex Criville 102 . Cadalora is catching up quickly on 96. 2S0cc GRAND PRIX A brilli an t race, defi ned b y the superb speed and tactics of Ha rada vs. th e dogged resis ta nce of Wa ldmann. This time, how ever , Harad a didn't wi n. Ca pirossi leaped away from the pol e to a three-lap lead - initiall y over Waldmann, Uka wa, Biagg i, Jacqu e and Harada. The firs t th ree drew away for the first couple of laps, but Harada was ha ving none of th is and sliced through to displace his tea mm ate on the fourth lap . Wald mann slotted in between the tw o an d, by the 10th lap, a clear pattern had been established : H a ra d a w a s in fro n t, d o gg ed b y Waldmann; Capirossi was losing touch, a nd a littl e w a y ba ck the rema in ing Hondas were hard at it - Jacque leading Ukawa and Biaggi. The battle for the lea d was compelling . It was dea r that the Aprilia had s peed and accele ration, b ut that the Ho nda was better under brakes. Then on lap 11, Harada sudde nly seemed to slow, letting Wald ma nn through at the end of the back stra ight, only to power decisively past him soon a fterward down the pit straight. Was he trying to demoralize the German? If so, it didn't seem to work, for they resu med station at once, with Waldmann getting in front again to stay on lap 18. Two laps later cam e an unexpected event: Harada braked too late for the chicane and ran straight across the gravel inside the second apex. He had lost more than 2.5 seconds through what he admitted late r was an error, and with on ly seven laps left, that would surely be eno ug h for Waldmann to win. But agai n Ha rada s ho we d his skill, reeling off three or four d evastatingly fast laps, including a new lap record, to dose the gap to nothing again wit h two laps left. Then the y really got d own to business for the last 2.49 miles. Ha rada' s b es t pass ca me after the "Ol d Hairpin." Usi ng a corner lin e of great imagination, he passed Wald mann eas ily without even being near him on the tra ck. But Wald ma nn s tuck in his slipstrea m, and outbraked him into the chicane . Just two bends left. At the first of them, a r igh t-ha nd