Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Tadayuki Okada (2) ended up finishing second behind Biaggi. (Right) Four-time World Champion Mick Doohan had a miserable day, running 11th before finally pulling out with a broken crankshaft. (Below) Max 8iaggi - all alone in front of Suzuka's roller coaster. where he rode until he hit the tire barrier head on, crashing, cartoonlike, in a heap. He remounted to finish 14th. That left second to Haga - or Okada. It was Okada taking the inside line on the exit of the fast left before the final chicane sequence that gave him the spot Haga was third. CrivilLe got the better of Yamaha Team Rainey's replacement rider, Kyoji Nanba, to finish fourth, the Spaniard barely beating the Japanese veteran who hadn't raced for two years. It was also Nanba's first-ever race on a 500cc machine. Team Suzuki's Nobuatsu Aoki was alone in sixth after some first-lap drama. Seventh place went to Honda Gresini's Alex Barros - back on a Honda V-four following a 'year on a V-twin Honda after he edged out MoviStar Honda Pons' Carlos Checa and Red Bull Yamaha WCM's Simon Crafar. Sete Gibemau, who replaced the injured Takuma Aoki on the Repsol Honda V-twin, was well back in 10th place. Then came Kenny Roberts Jr., the top finishing American. His chances on the Modenas KR3 were ruined early when he had to avoid a multiple-rider crash in the chicane. John Kocinski's return to 500cc racing was anything but smooth. The MoviStar Honda Pons rider was given a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for jumping the start, then assessed a second penalty when he entered the pit lane well above the mandatory 85 kph (52.8 mph) speed limit. The pair of penalties landed him in 13th. Matt Wait' race was even rougher. The FCC Technical Sports rider was taken out by Team Suzuki's replacement rider, Keiichi Kitagawa, who was avoiding the same pileup that slowed Roberts Jr. Wait said it wasn't Kitagawa's fault, as the Japanese rider simply had nowhere to go. But his handlebar fell into Wait's radiator and punctured it. The CaUfomian remounted, but his Honda NSR500-V seized soon after. By virtue of his win, Biaggi leads the World Championship after the first of 15 rounds. His 25 points are five better than Okada's 20, with Haga third at 16, though this will be Haga's only 500cc appearance of the year. The 250cc GP was an all-Japanese wild-eard affair, with the top three visiting riders pulling away from the field from early in the race - and only their countryman Tetsuya Harada could make a run at them. For the second year in a row Castrol Honda's Daijiro Katoh took the win, . this time managing to say just in front of BP Yamaha Racing's Shinya akano and YESS Racing Team's Naoki Matsudo. K:atoh was first across the line on every lap from the third to the 19th, but the trio was so tigh t, and swapped places on the track so often, that it was anyone's race. It was only when Nakano nearly high-sided in the chicane on the final lap, forcing Matsudo to back off, that Katoh's win was secure. "Many people told me I was lucky to win the race last year, so this year I tried to stay on the top from the start," said Katoh, who was aboard the completely redesigned NSR250 - a motorcycle that now features an oversquare, twin-crank, Rotax-like engine. Harada ran into carburetion problems on his Aprilia and that forced him to settle for fourth, about 33 seconds in front of Chesterfield Elf Tech 3's Olivier Jacque. Sixth went to Team Suzuki's Yukio Kagayama, another wild-card entry, narrowly in front of Aprilia's Loris Capirossi. Eighth through 15th were covered by 1.6 seconds, with Antenna 3 Yamaha's Jose Luis Cardoso leading the pack. Katoh has the points lead, but with none of the podium finishers contesting the World Championship, it's Harada's fourth-place finish that's most relevant. With 125cc World Champion Valentino Rossi moving up to the 250s, the 125cc class was wide open, as was the .last lap, when the winner was decided. It had come down to a three-rider race, with nominal teammates Kazuto Sakata and Tomorni Manako just in front of fellow Japanese ace Masao Azuma. UGT Bikes-Pesaro's Apriliamounted Sakata made the pass in the fast left approaching the final chicane, with Saka ta protecting the vital inside line in the last sequenc~ to hold on aild win by .156 of a second. Azuma was third, a scant .045 of a second behind Manako. 250cc GRAND PRIX Jacque led off the start, then was bumped back to second, to third, then fifth, where he would languish for the entire race. Out front, it looked like just another round of the All-Japan Championship. Ka toh moved to the front on the third lap, just before the final chicane, dropping Benetton Honda's Tohru Ukawa back to second in front of Nakano and Matsuda. By the seventh lap the three wild cards were out front; Ukawa was fourth; then came Harada, who would pass Ukawa on the next lap and move up toward the leaders. When the halfway point was marked, on the 10th lap, Harada was about a second back, but about 3.6 seconds in front of Ukawa, who would drop out with mechanical problems in just a few laps. That would leave the Japanese quartet all alone with no challenge from behind. The race would be won here 'and the racing showed it. Katoh managed to maintain the top spot, but second place went back and forth on the circuit - not, however, at the finish line. Matsudo took it on the 11 th lap and held it until the final lap, when akano made his move in the left-hander leading up to the final-turn sequence. Matsudo considered a counterattack, but ran into traction problems. "[ was thinking of trying to pass on the last lap, but I got a little bit confused," he said. "My front slid a bit and I was trying to keep my momentum going to stay second, but akano was

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