Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

hand injury, recovered and ran across the gravel trap to rejoin in sixth, behi nd a gang of three disputing the place tha t he eventually gai ned. Luca Cadalora had already depart ed fro m the fro nt of th is group. The Red Bull Yamaha rider had been poised to clo se on the lea d ers when a cylinder stud broke, and his bike went from four cylinde rs to three. Rainey Yamaha rider Nor ifu mi Abe th en ch a rged th rough con vinc ing ly, only to drop back again in the closin g laps. In the end, FCC Honda's Nobuatsu Aoki wa s fourth, Abe fifth, and erstwhile companion Carlos Checa and the MoviStar Honda sixth, after a lively battle. Dary l Beattie and cou ntry man Peter God dard, both on Lucky Strike Suzukis, finis hed 12th and 13th, with fellow Australian Kirk McCarthy 15th for the last poi nt. By esca pi ng th e predictable resu lt , the 500cc race ou tranked the 250cc race in stun value. It was a close-run thing, however. Max Biagg i' s victory on the Marlboro Honda was a simple start-tofinish run with no cha llenges... bu t it was a sensational ride under pressure th a t re gained th e three-time World Cha mpio n the title lead in his battle against his old companion s a t Apri lia. Sundry pro blems afflicted hi s ti tle rivals. Aprilia's Tetsuya Harad a finished only fourt h, after get ting the worst of a fierce battle with second-p laced To hru Ukawa and Chesterfield Honda's Olivier jacque. Ukawa's stro ng finish wa s at least partly because, for once, the Benetton Honda's ex cl us ive Mich elin tires wo rked better than th e class-favorit e Dunlops in the heat. Marlboro Honda's Ralf Waldmann was even wo rse off. He'd arrived lead ing on points, but could only manage a seventh- placed finish , behind top privateer Takeshi Tsu jimura (FC C Ho nda) and Haruchika Aoki's works Ma tteoni Honda. Now the three rivals go to Australia, wi th Blaggi six poi nts ah ead of Ha rada a nd Wa ldmann another point adrift . Anyone of the trio could still be champion. N ew Wo rld Cha m p ion Vale n ti no Rossi (on the N astro Azzurro Aprilia) was business-as-usual in the 125cc class, po wering to his 11th win of the sea son afte r comfortably ou tpacing fast sta rte r Kazu to Sakata (o n th e UGT Aprili a). Veteran jorge Martinez was third on his Airte l Apr ilia , w ith N ob oru Ueda (on the Pileri Honda) leading the next group fro m Tomomi M an ak o (o n th e UG T Honda) to keep his chances of second overa ll alive. 500cc GRAND PRIX Okada took off in fron t in his usu al style; Doohan also managed a fast start (not a re lia ble matter ) and was in the lead by the second corn er. With Criville slotted in behind, it wa s a familiar spectacle - the three Repsol Hond as up front and pulling stead ily aw ay. It went on in this pr edictable fashion for the first seven laps, and even when Okada moved int o first place, this was s till not too stra nge. Doohan often lets riv al s a head for a s pell to see w h at they' re mad e of, a nd o n lap 17 h e regained the lead to confo rm with this pattern. That's how it looked, anyway. But it was different from where Dooh an was sitting, beca use he knew that Okad a had a di stinct horsepo wer advantage, which co u n ts for a lot at th is tr a ck, with its Simple corners and lon g front straight. just as importantl y, the Japanese rid er was faster into the last comer. (Top) Norifumi Abe ended up filth on the Rainey Yamaha. " It w as the on ly p lac e h e had a n ad vantage," Doohan said later. Doohan thought he had it covere d . On the seco nd-to-last lap, when Okada wen t past at the end of the back straight, the Aus tra lian wa s directly ahead at the next chica ne - a forceful move, wi th the bikes tou chin g and Ok ad a forced to lift. Th e Japanese rid er was already troubled wi th rear-wheel slid es, but d idn' t care about the minor collision. "Tha t is what you expect in racing," he said. With jus t one la p to go, a simila r attack by Okad a w as repulsed even more firmly, br aking into the same chicane. But there was one last d rama, and though Doohan thou gh t he ha d the last co rner co ve red, he wa s w rong . There w as just eno ugh space for Oka da to slip through, and he needed no written invitation. "Once I go t into the corne r in the lead and go t around, I knew I was head- . ing for my first 5OO-class wi n," he said . Afterward, Doohan looked grim on the ros tru m, but said: "I' m not making excu se s , It was a h ard ra ce , but h e stayed upright and he won it. I knew he was going to be hard to bea t." Third was hotly d isputed vir tu ally througho ut, althou gh the ba ttle was for fourth until Criville's adventure across the gravel tra p and down to sixth place. After the first sort-out, Cadalora gave way to Checa; but the Yamaha wa s back in front of the Honda on the ninth lap, and Cada lora was sta rting to p ull clear and even clo se on Criville , It was too m uch for the mot or, apparently, and it p opp ed a s tud , send ing h im s tra ig h t in to the pi ts. Checa was now-under serio us p~ su re from No buatsu Aoki and Abe. wit h the Yamaha rider moving up one p lace on la p 19, a nd then to the fro nt of the group on lap 20, as Criville went farm ing and dropped back. Abe was riding well , and br oke free as Aoki al so passed C heca, w ho w as having problems at the cru cial exit from (Above) Kenny Roberts J r. and Jean-Michel Bayle give chase to Sete Gibernau In the 500Cc GP. Roberts Jr. finis hed ninth but an eng ine seizu re knocked his Modenas teammate Bayle out of the race. (Right) Okada celebrates his flrst-ever SOOcc GP wi n afte r a hard-fought batt le with Dooha n. the las t corner, and now grad ua lly lost ground. Abe seemed set for a seasonbest rostrum finish . But Cri ville was far from done, and steadil y picked his way throu gh from the 24th lap - past Checa, then Aoki - then bot h of them closed on the luckless Yamaha man. Criv ille regained third with one lap to sp are, and Aoki ca me wit h him to spoi l Abe's day. Takuma Aoki was seventh, the best V-twin. Sete Gibernau wa s next, narrowly fending off Kenny Roberts Jr. on the so le surviv ing Modenas. Teammate Jean-M ich el Bayle had been ah ead of this group, then at the back of it, before his cra nks ha ft seized again an d he narrowly escaped crashing. Doriano Romboni took 1Dth on the Aprilia V-twin, all his hopes of getting a good start comi ng to nothin g. He was virtually las t away from his front -row start, an d though he moved through the field convin cingly, it was nothing compared with w hat he'd expected , and he w a s so upset a ft e r th e r a ce tha t he declined to speak. Jurgen Fuc hs was 11th, jus t ho ld ing off Beattie to the fin ish by less than a tenth of a second . Th e Au st ralian had bee n lack in g e nthu sia sm as u sual, he sa id la te r, until he s p o tted God da rd ahead of him on a sim ilar bike, which mad e him try a bit harder. . Goddard himself wa s another 10 seco nds adrift aft er making an ill-judged rear-sus pe nsion change after mornin g wa rmup. "I had to wear the conseque nces - it was worst on the last corner onto the straight, which cost me plenty ," he said . "Otherwise, I enjoyed myself." MoviStar Hond a' s Alberto Pui g was 14th, with McCarthy rig ht on his back w heel in 15th . There were 18 finishers. As we ll as Bayle and Cada lora, Alex Barro s also retired, the Brazilian V-twi n rid er stricken wi th a myst eriou s handling problem . There we re no crashes, Dooh an ca n no t b e b e a ten in the championship, with a massive score of 340. Okada's wi n was important in the st ruggle for seco nd . He now hold s the positi on on 184 points; Nobu atsu Aoki drops to third on 179. Criville imp roved his fourth pos ition with 147 points, wi th Cadalo ra fifth on 129. 250cc GRAND PRIX The story of Biaggi' s race is sim ple: He got a great start, led into the first corner, broke the lap record on the secon d lap, then continued to pull away until he had a comfo rtab le mar gin of six seconds at one-third dis tance. Sounds simple, anyway, but it was a magnificent performa nce achieved with the usual brinkmanship - swi tchi ng on e eng ine into ano ther chass is, taking it carefu lly until the fuel loa d lightened, pushing on all the wa y, "I love the heat and I love the chal- r-, 0'> 0'> .... 00 .... Q) ..0 o ..... u o 7

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