ROAD RACE
WORLD.CHAMPIONSHIP
ROAD RACE SERIES
Aki'a (2,19.881); 24. Emilio AI7.amora (2,20.171); 25. lose
Ramon Ramirez (2:20.281); 26. Yoshiaki Katoh
(2,20.457); 27. Andrea B.llerini (UO.561); Z8. P.olo
Tessari (2:20.567); 29. Arnaud Vincent (2;20.9
); 30.
Christian MalU\il (2:24.188).
125ee CRANO PRIX: 1. Kazuto Sakata (Apr); 2.
Tomomi Manako (Hon); 3. Masao Azuma CHon); 4.
Lucio Cetthinello (Hon); 5. Nobuyuki Osaki
(Yam);
6.
Gianluigi Sca.lvini (Hon); 7. HJroyuki Kikuchi (Hon); 8.
Masaki Tokudome (Apr); 9. Takashi Akita (Yam); 10.
Marco Melandri (Hon); 11. Frederic Petit (Hon); 12.
Yoshiaki Katoh (Yam); 13. Angel ieto Jr. (Apr); 14.
Kazuhiro Takao (Hon); 15. Ivan Goi (Apr); 16. Juan
MatuTana (Yam); 17. Jose Ramon Martinez (Apr); 18.
Andrea Ballerini (Hon); 19. Paolo Tessari (Apr); 20.
Arnaud Vincent (Apr); 21. Emilio Alzamora (Apr).
Time: 41 min., 23,963 sec.
Distance: 18 laps. 65.59 miles.
Average speed: 95.06 mph.
Margin of victory: 0.156 sec.
Fastest lap: Mas.lO Azuma, 2:t6.128/96.365 mph (new
lop """rd), I.p 6.
125 (16); 4. Alex Criville (13);
5. Kyoji I'\anba (11); 6. obuatsu Aoki (10); 7. Alex
Barros (9); 8. Carlos Checo (8); 9. Simon Cmfar (7); 10.
Sete Cibemau (6); 11. Kenny Roberts Jr. (5); 12. Doriano
(From left to right) Tadayuki
Okada, Max Biaggi and Noriyuki
Haga celebrate their 2,,',,3 finish
in the Marlboro Grand Prix of
Japan.
Okada (20); 3.
Romboru (4); 13. John Kocinski (3); 14. Norick Abe (2);
15. Juan Bury. (lJ.
in Malaysia. and he will be joined by fellow test rider Norihiko fuji·
wara. Fujiwara will ride as a wild card to the BP Yamaha Racing
Team colors. The 31-year·old from Shizuoka raced a SOO in the
All-Japan Championship for eight years and was champion from
1989 to 1991. He switched to superbikes when the championship
changed and finisbed third in 1996, his last full season. Last year
he was a test rider for the VZF7S0 superbike. but he has been
tesling thE;! new VZRSOO this year.
With a little help from fanner World Champion Eddie Lawson,
Wayne Rainey has gotten back to racing, on the track. for the
first time since his paralyzing injury 4 \ years ago. Lawson built
Rainey a TZ2S0-powered shifter go-kart with hand controls. In his
two race appearances, Rainey won at Wilfow Springs and finished second to Lawson at Buttonwillow. "I never dreamed I'd
have the opportunity. to put a helmet on and focus my eyes at
1S0 mph," Rainey said. "It's changed the way I look at my situation. Being able to go aut there and compete again has trans'·
fanned my life to where I have something to look forward to on a
personal level. "
Despite being paralyzed from the waist down, Takuma Aoki
insists thai he will race again. In a statement released by the Repsol Honda team. Aoki. from his hospltal bed. said, "At the
moment. I am doing rehabilitation work at the hospital in order to
come back to the Grand Prix racing soonest." The release also
said that Aoki would be moved to the United States to coritinue
his rehabilitalion as soon as the hospital is ready to accept him
and he is granted a visa. The name of the hospital was not
released. Wayne Rainey, who suffered similar injuries nearly five
years ago. has been in touch with Ao'" and adv1sed him on where
to &eek medical help in the United States.
The switch to unleaded fuel hasn't been as big a problem as
expected, according to Team Suzuki crew chief Stuart Shen"
ton. Shenton, who heads up Nobuatsu Aoki's technical team. and
who formerly worked at Suzuki with Kevin Sehwantz and Daryl
Beattie, said they began testing the unleaded fuel the week after
the final race of the 1997 season. "Things that you'd expect to
have to change, we changed. but not as much as we thought.
One obvious thing is that lubrication is less and It bums differently
than the rocket fuel we used to use. The changes In the enginemanagement syslem IS gett,ng around that problem_" Shenton
said he couldn't say for sure how much difference the sw,tch
made to engine power since the team has made substantial
improvements to the motor. "Top speed, maximum throttle, max,mum horsepower is a Itttle bit down. Acceleration is where we
were with last year's bike. In 12 months' time. we'll be back to
where we wer.e. "
Yamaha's Grand Prix manager, Shunji Sakurada. said that his
team had benefited from having to use unleaded fuel in the
YZR2S0 that they ran ,n Ihe All-Japan Championship last year.
They began development on the SOO at the beginning of the 1997
season using regular pump fuel. "In all ranges there was a loss of
horsepower, especially at the peak from 11.000 to 13,000 rpm.
After seeing that. we tried to improve the shiJpe of the exhaust
port and the !,xpansion chambers. We can recover the bottom
and the middle. We still couldn't catch up on the peak power. We
also had to reduce the compression ratio. "
Upcoming Rounds:
Round 2 - Johor, Malaysia, April 19
Round 3 - Jerez, Spain, May 3
Kenny Roberts Jr:s Modenas KR3 was fitted with a distinctive
tail section and fairing for the first practice session on Friday. but
it was replaced with last year's more traditional unit for qualifyin9
and the rest of the weekend. "It made it go around corners so
weird," Roberts Jr. said. "It's such a different feeling. We need to
be able to test it. We tested it for half a day in Spain and it was
the same thing and we didn't know the bike settings." Roberts
Jr.'s teammate Half Waldmann chose to forgo the new piece from
the start. The bodywork, which had had beE;!n de.signe·d by Lotus,
significantly improved 10p speed.
Regis. Lacon; had a short weekend in Suzuka after breaking his
right ankle in a crash during Friday's ahernoon qualifying session.
The Red Bull Yamaha rider crashed on the sixth lap at the end of
the long front straight when he accidentally backshifted to first
gear, tumbling well through the gravel trap. "It's not good," he
said. "i high-sided as i went into the first turn but I don't under·
stand why. I'll have to have a look at the da.ta with my engineers. I
wasn't really pushing. My.hand is not such a problem, but Ihe
ankle is." In addition to breaking his ankle, he broke his left ring
finger, sprained his right hip, and dislocated his left little finger.
Laconi w.ill miss the Malaysian GP in two weeks' time, but is
e~pected to return for the first European round at Jerez on May 3.
Red Bull Yamaha WCM racing director Peter Clifford said there
were no plans to replace LaGOni in Malaysia.
The best press releases in the paddock continue to come from
the MoviStar Honda Pons team. In their GP preview, this caption ran with a photo of John Kocinski looking at his helmet: "The
helmet is an essential element for a racer and. of course, it is also
compulsory. John Koci~ski is very pleased w,th his helmei this
year. There are times alone on a break when he opens his heart
to it, perhaps waiting for some good advice because this part of
his gannent stays with him during long passes almost on the edge
of time. Because things atlimes can also have a heart." The hel"
met had no comment.
Carmelo Ezpeleta, Ihe managing director of Dorna, the GP
rights holder, '"lid that he wouid Ilke to see the World Championsh,ps return to the United States. but that there were obstacles
to overcome. "We have a good chance to go back to the
States," Ezpeleta said. "Kenny Roberts lost a lot of money and
Doma lost a 101 of money. If the race track is safe. w.e would go.
We are trying to improve interest through television, Speedvision
and Fox. If we go back 10 the United States, we want to go to the
proper city with a proper contract. We looked at Homestead in
'9S" "
The FIM made the. decision to revert back to last year'. starting procedure for Ihe first two SOOcc races because of a lack
of power for tire warmers on the starting grid. The new proce·dure had the SOOcc riders sitting on the start line with Iheir hel·
mets off for five minutes as a way of increasing television exposure for the riders. Because Japan's electrical current runs at
110 volts, and the teams use 220-volt tire warmers, there wasn't
enough power near the start' line to run the warmers. The "leams
carry converters to use in their garages. Malaysia, the sight of
the second race, runs at 220, but the FIM decided to wait until
the first race at Jerez, at the beginning of May, before instituting
the new format.
