Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP R AD RACE SERIES O t--.. 0\ CJ\ ...... 00 .... aJ ..c o .... u o 8 Ienge," the ebullient Biaggi said later. "I never gave up hope.of the title, and that's why we're on top now. I think my streng ths this year have been my refusal to give op and my consistency. I believe yo u should a lways be consta nt - in life, Jove and mot orcy cle racing. " There was plenty of drama behind . Harada wa s in seco nd pla ce for the first cou ple of laps. th en Vkawa took over, and then Jacq ue took o ver from him . It wa s ba ck a nd forth in th e four-bik e group, with Waldmann gra d ua lly droppin g to the back of it. By lap 10, he'd lost touch. " It wa s the same problem I've had all yea r," he explained, bitterly disappointed . "As soon as I tou ch the throttle, the rea r starts sliding. I had good top speed, bu t I was losing so m uch on accelera tion tha t it didn't help me." This left just three fighting it out, and it was a battle wi th no q ua rter. Uka wa generally had the best of it, and in the very last laps pulled a little clear. Jacqu e and Ha rad a were ve ry hard at it, so that on lap 23 a Jacqu e attack pushed Hara da w id e a nd o n to the di r ty p a rt of th e track, a nd he lost I 1/ 2 seconds . He clawed it all back for the cru cial last lap. Now came the backmarkers - Olivier Pe trucciani on his Mo hag Ap rilia and Will ia m Cos tes o n h is Ches terfield A prilia - di sputing last place af ter th e latter had an excu rsion across th e gravel trap. Vkawa slammed past with no trouble. Jacque also got through more o'r less cleanly - cool eno ug h to give Costes a little wav e (the teammates had been in a fr ie nd ly argument th e night before about wh eth er Jacqu e would be able to lap Costes), Harada, for once, was badly placed and really suffered. It looked as tho u g h Petrucci ani had d elayed hi m more, and that Costes actually let him through . Tha t wasn't how he sa w it, th rou gh th e rage of losing a possible rostrum finish. " I a m really angry with Co stes. He a nd Jac q ue a re frie nds," he sa id . " It see ms they di scussed the possibility of holding me up. " This w as hig hly u nlikely and pro vo ked a n even a ngrier response fro m Chesterfield team ma nager Herve Pe ncharal, "Anyone wh o believes tha t such a n a rra ngeme nt co uld ta ke place is a n idiot," he said. In any case, Jacqu e was 1.3 seconds ahea d across the line, an d tha t's w ha t mattered. Wa ldma n n had d ro pped back to a good ba ttl e b e tw ee n Ts uji mu ra a n d Aok i, a nd hi s lack of acceleratio n a nd the finish line's p roximity to the last co rner meant he finished be hind both of them. Stefano Perug ini was a lonel y eighth on the astro Azzuro Aprilia, four sec, ond s a hea d of Se bas tia n Porto o n th e PR2 Ap rilia. The pair had been battling wi th Noriyasu Nu rnata's Suz uki before th e Ja panese rid er fell heavily with 10 laps to go. He lay o minous ly still for a long time, but eventua lly walked away. Jeremy McWill iam s w a s 10th, bemoanin g his lack of speed from the Q VB H ond a . T h e n ca me C r is ti a no Miglioral i on lhe Axo Hond a. Yamaha's Luis d ' Antin cra s hed out in the early s ta ges, and with 10 la ps Suzuki's Jami e Robinso n retired left in a stat e of near ph ysical collapse afte r food poisoning in practice. Biaggi reclaimed the title lead at 230 po ints. w it h H a rad a now six p o ints behin d. Waldman n d ro ps fro m first to third wit h 223. Math em atically, any one of the trio cou ld win the title. Jacqu e is fourth on 185, then Vkawa on 165. Round 14: Indonesian Grand Prix (Right) Max Blagg i jumps lor joy after winning the 2SOCc Grand Prix and vaulting Int o the champio~shlp po ints lead. (Left) The 125cc Grand Prix gets started. 125c c GRAND PR IX Rossi's 11th w in was in domin ant sty le, pulling clear by only three seconds a fter an early ba ttle with fast starter Sakata, but clearly unassailable by anyon e els e on the track. Having alread y won the cha m p io ns hip, he sti ll ga ve nobod y else a chance. Sakata held on to second , with Airtel Aprilia's Jorg e Martin ez su rv iving a n earl y battle with VGT Honda's Tom omi Manako to claim third. Manako fell back into a strong fivebike scrap, and dropped to the back of it with five laps to go. !lut he timed his last-lap run almost perfectly, with only Nobo ru Veda (Pi leri Honda) ahead of him . This secu re d second overall fo r Veda, bu t Mana ko could still lose third overall to Saka ta. Masaki Tokudome on his Docshop Ap rilla was sixt h, the n Gian luigi Scalv ini on the Axo Honda, wi th Youchi Vi on the Ku rz Yamaha bring ing up the rear of the gro u p. Garry McCoy on the Marlboro-A prilia was a lonely ninth, afte r battl ing wit h Fred Peti t on the RMS Hon da before the Fren chman went off the track, rejoining lower dow n the field. Rossi' s u na ssa ilabl e lend exte nd ed still fu rt he r to 31 1 poin ts over Veda's 213. Ma nako has 174, then Sakata 159 and Martinez 116. '" Sentul Clrcu n Sentut , Indonesia Res uhs: September 28, 1997 12See:Q UALlFY1~ C : I. Jorge M.utmez n~.3Q3); 2. TOlTll i M.uulo.o (1:34.552> 3. Kazu ta 5.lk.-!ta O;34 ,b4Q); m ; 4 . Valentine Ro,,!oi 0 :34 ,7 45); 5. Mirko Gidn:o.,lnti (1:34 ,8141; 6 . M. "",ki Tokudnme 0 :34.933) ; 7. r... rT)' McCov 0 :34 .933 ); 8. Roberto l..oc.~telli (1 :34 943 ); 9. Yoichi 'Ui IL 35.1DI1 10. Gi.tnluip Scah·in i (1;. 5.0101; 11. ; 1 oborn Ued a 11:35.148) ; 12. Juan Enrique \1.1turand 11:35.275 ); 13. Md5dO Azuma (1:35..179): I'; . Frederic I'tOn 0 :31.3531; 2.3. Willi am CO!ote:'l (1;31.742); 24, Eus taq uio Gavira (1:32.404). SOOce: Q UALI FYIN G: I. Mich.lel Doo h.ln (1:l5A74); 2 Tada yukf O ka dolll :25.882:) 3. AlcJo:, e riville (1:25.927); : Almost 50 M ichael Dooha n is now one short of a half-century of po le positions , He achieved his 49th - the 11th in succession - in familiar style. spend ing the last session wo rking on testing race rubber, then blitzing them all at the end . "I ran into some traf fic. so it wasn't a. . good as it mi ght ha ve been." he sa id . It was also pret. ty windy. he add ed . Even so. he was four-tenths a head, and his only wo rry might be if he got a slow start. "The lap times arc faster than last yea r, w hich shows the grip is better, But it's pretty slid when you get off line. and there's not too many places to overtake anyway, except under braking at the end of the straights, or drafting pas t someone." Tadayu ki Okada pu..hed through to second in the Last lap, complaining of setup problems right up until then. "Now the only problem I have after changing gear ratios a couple of times is ove r the bu mps on the last comer. The bike's movi ng aro und a la t." He pushed Alex C riville into third . the c eback rna n stro nger aga in this time. com "I can forget my hand when I'm on the bike. The problem I have is wit h m y forearm, w hich is swelling up," he said. H(' was less than a tenth dow n on Okada. having led at one stage of the sessio n. This was es peciall y enco urag ing since the fourth bike on the front row was aga in not a Hond a. bu t Dori a no Rc mboni's v-twm Aprilia . "This ic; not a good track for a V-hl.'in - all accelerati on and spt......-d. But wi th the nc w, bigger . engine, I find I am now almost as fast as the v -fours." he said . The tea m had also modified his dutch and ignit ion CU T\·I..~ to im prove takeoff fro m th e• line. so he hoped he wo uld not be left behind once again in the crucial firs t few hundred yards. as he has so often this yea.r. Luca Ca dalora moved pas t Car los Checa on the last la p to lead the second row . the times dose eno ug h behi nd Mick to place the second thro ugh 13th riders withi n one se cond of each other. Positions were decid ed by tenths as the opposition to Dooha n continues to gain strength and confide nce... just about 14 races too late for it to matter - this yea r. at a ny rate, Nob ua tsu Aok i was alongside; then ca me No rifumi Abe's Yamaha. And ano ther stro ng performance from ju rgen Fuchs put him at the top end of the third row, with track newcomer Takuma Aoki alo ngside on his twin. then Sere Gibemau - troubled by food poiso ning. a not uncommon complaint. Dary l Bea ttie was l Zth, a Fraction better than us ual afte r experimenting wit h a different chassis setup, as developed by Japanese test ride r Kagayam a. "It's a bit better. but not better enough to ma ke mu ch d ifference." he said glumly. The Modc nas pai r were further back than us ual, lacking the acceleration and top speed that rea lly ma tter h er .. . with Kenny Roberts JT. 13th a nd jea n-Mi ch el Bay le I-tt h, the Fre nchman co m menting rath er surprisingly: 'There's too much grip here. It means the V-fours can really honk up and use their power." Ther e were 24 qualifiers, \v-ith no wild ca rds. Max Biaggi could hardly have chosen a better psycho logical moment to claim his first 250cc pol e position sin ce the first round in Malaysia - and in the circu msta nces, a quarter-second margin was rather respectable after two days whc-n times had been much closer. And he was happy. ~We wo rked on a comprom ise setting, and now it is excellent," he said . "w e're looking good for the race. (Tetsuya) Harada 's Aprilia is like a.rocket - but this track isn 't all straights." Olivier jacque was second. complaining of a front-end grip problem. but happy that he had a four-tenths gap. His most taxing problem was what to do if he was in a posi tion to influen ce the cha m p io ns h ip. "I have had no instructions from Honda. I \\,;11 hav e to wait and ~. what happens. The best thing is if I can go away in front, but that won 't be \'cry easy." Harada was third . moving up only in the last session . and very glum. "We have cha ssis problems, and I can't use the Aprilia's speed, or maybe even slipstream otht'"r rideN.. bt"cau~ I am verv ..low out of the 1.1st comt'"r." Then !="Ime Ralf Waldmann. the points lead er nine-tenth s of a second behind pole a nd abo fur from confident of being in the race for the lead , "My only ad"'antdge is that I ran d lot of la ps on ra~ tirt'S. ra tht.'l' tha n getting one fast Lip on '"Oft tires ," The focus was clearly on the title b.lttle, but Tohru Uk.lwa - leading row h\.·o - was close enough to play some part in the race, less tha n a tenth behind Waldmann. Takesh i Tsu jimura was next . another tenth ad rift as tim es d osl.>d up ; then ca me loris Ca pirossi a nd Stefano Pt:'rugini. Aoki led row thrt"t:" from the oth er fast privatt'en'o Jert'Tlly McWilliams and Sebastian Porto. with Lui d' Anti n's Yama ha completing the row a nd Nu mata 's Su zuki leading the next. Therl" .. were 25 qu .l lifiers.

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