Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IES R A ACESER O DR ~ " ~'" '. ' J,.,_ ' " ._'..Jflo:. ~ ., ,•.~ ,:'"'_ , . , - ~, , . : : . ;"' ~.':':t. >:,":~ "We went to a harder compoun d and then basically it started to clou d-cover. Pretty mu ch - m the firs t lap out of the fro pit s, I said to the guys, 'The rea rfeels a little bit loose, but it migh t be my imagina tion ' . A nd it never got any be tter . Ever y time I tried to get on it, it wo u ld th row me ou t of the seat. But I figured the other guy s we re ju st as bad on the Michel in s, and th e hard er I tri ed , the s low e r I'd g o, a n d t h e Ya ma ha w as going away ." Oooh a n sa id th e rear tire he u sed was the same one he wo n wit h last yea r. Th e con d i tion s we re co nsidera b ly warm er th en , which is w ha t th e ti r'e need ed . "I felt like I was being held up a little bit by Nor ick (Abe), bu t whe n I go t by I reali zed tha t I really could n't go much quicker," Dooh an added . "Every time I tr ied to go a little bit qu icker, it wo uld go away - initia lly as soo n as I'd get on the gas . lt wou ld actua lly just sit the re, spinning on the slow turns. So the harder I'd try, the slowe r I actually we nt. So it was matter of, 'O kay.' Then I kn ew my race was w ith Abe, although try .to keep the pr essurli on Simo n. You never . kno w - he could make a mistake - you never give up, but we were in a totally differ ent race tod ay." Once Abe slotted into third, he wa s ther e for the duration . Like Cra far, he was able to edge away u n til he 'was a very secu re third . By the halfway point he had 2.5 seco nds on fou rth pla ce and he kept goi ng until hi s cus h io n w a s arou nd seven at the end of the race. "Aft er th e third la p I wa s, I d on't know, se co n d or third," Ab e sa id . "I can' t make good lap time s becau se rear tir e wa s easy to slide. So then Sim on pa ssed , Mick passed and I can't follow . So n ot s o good feelin g . Still , it' s the pod ium this yea r se cond tim e, so I'm happy." The race for fou rth went to the wire, and it w as the one wort h wa tchi ng . A pa ir of Alexes - Crivi lle and Barr os, both on Hondas - thought they d eser ved it. Barros held it for the first 16 lap s, then Criville took it back, cedi ng it agai n on Brieflv. .~ F:i B ~ ~ ~ 16 T he 250cc GP came d o w n t o a battle b etwee n Lo ris Capiross i (65) and Harad a (31) with Cap iro s s i taking the win w h en Harada w as f orced to sl o w on th e fin al lap. the p enu ltima te lap. Th er e were other tim es w hen Ba rro s wa s able to ge t by la t~ in the race, but never at the ~tripe. Criville's fina l attac k came in the looping left -hand Melbou rn e Hai rpi n, th e next-to-t he-last co rner. It wo ul d stick, a n d h e woul d tak e th e s p o t and th e extra points that go with it. " I did a ll I co u ld and I gav e a ll I had ," Criville said . "Th e prob lem was my bad start. I lost a lot of time on the first lap and I had to make all that up . Af te r tha t, I was lap p in g a t the sa me p ace as Ab e bu t I was too far beh ind him for it to make anv d ifference. I had some tou gh fights wi th Ma x Biaggi and Alex Barros. I ha d to close the doo r on Barros all the time to make sure tha t he d idn ' t come back at me." Barro s, li ke man y of the Mich elin men, had made th e wrong choice. The rear tire wasn't up to the task and it wa s all he cou ld d o to s tay with Cri vill e . On ce the Spaniard was by, he had no answ er. Traction problems also slowed Biaggi. The Marlb oro T eam Kan em ot o Honda rid er never got closer to the front than fifth, and attrition wo uld help him land in sixth. The result dropped him to second in the World Cham pionsh ip. "I had to rid e a d efensive race," the Ita lian sa id . "We mad e the wrong tire choice, so I had grip problems and within three la p s o f th e s ta r t I kn e w I couldn' t run with the guys up fron t. Tire 'choice, like everythin g else in 500s, is a matt er of experience and we don ' t have a lot of that at the moment. We we nt for w ha t w e th ou ght would be the sa fes t tire combination, bu t it di dn't work ou t lik e tha t. Th e bike w as slidi ng; which , isn' t always a problem, bu t w hen it did slide , I had no cont rol. Also, the sus pension wa sn' t workin g so well with a fu ll fue lload ." Like Biaggi, Suzu ki' s No bua tsu Aoki rod e by him self most of the race. Still suffering the ill effects of a practice incid ent, A o ki fou nd it hard to fin d h is rh yth m. "The p rob le m is, I ca n' t u se v ery mu ch power through my legs, so I have to rid e th e b ik e u s in g m y a r m s and u pper bod y only," Ao ki sa id . "Tha t is very, very tiring and I cou ld n' t con trol the bike as well as I need ed to. I was by myself for almost the w hole race, so it was d ifficu lt to pace mys elf. I am ve ry hap py that the race is over, and consideri ng the circumstances, the position is not so bad ." Re d Bull Ya ma ha WC M' s Lac o ni inherit ed eigh th wh en Roberts Jr. went out with power-valve problem s. "Three thi ngs ha ppened," Robert s Jr. explai ned . "We' re not really su re wh y. Maybe there was an air leak, but one of the cylinders was running on going into the corne rs. It did that in qu alifyin g and th e m orning warmup a n d go t worse during the race. The pow er valve broke. We kn ew that. O n the first lap aro und Craner Curves it turned three millimeters. I lost 11 or 12 k's (about 7 mph) on the two straigh ts. I was beating myself up to s tay with them. Then the powervalve bracket broke. I could not concentrat e on any thing bu t tryin g not to fall down." "Unfor tu na tely, I was still su ffering with the fro n t end ," Laco ni sai d aft er ge'r. It wo uld be done early the next week. he believed . He also said that he wasn ' t sure if he would be able to ride in the Suzuka 8 Hours race on July 26 . On Friday. Car los C h eca was forced out of the British G P when he crashed in Friday morning's practice ses- sion . suffe ring inte rnal injuries . The Sp aniard wa s taken to Q ueen' s The Sout h A f ric an G r and Prix will ret urn to the FIM calendar Hospital. where his spleen was removed. Checa took a turn for the next year , wit h the addit ion of a race at the beg inni'ng of the ye ar wo rse on S unday evening. He developed a blood clot on the spine at a new 2.87 -mile mul tipurpose faci lity in We lkom in the Free with severe complications and there were fear s o f pos sible lo ss of State provi nce's Goldfields region. Speaking' at the British GP. sight and the possible lo ss of use of the left side of his body . His where the anno unce ment wa s made, Webster M febe. the Free parents wer e being flown in by private plane on Sunday night. State Minister of State. said that they had decided to pursue the Grand Prix ..becaus e of the economic and soc ial benefits associJuan Bor j a . the Spaniard riding in p lace of Kocinski, cra shed aled with holding such an eve nt. M y view is that spo rt should about 15 minutes before the end of qualifying. breaking the middie bring abo ut deve lopment where it is needed th e mo st. " Mfebe hnger of his left hand and dislocating his shoulder. That put him said t hat one of the challenge. is the immense poverty and lack of opportunity ..among black peop le, It is sport thai is going t o bring . out of therace. Team owne~ Sit o Pons uninten tionally insulte d his rider . " J uan did what we expected from him . Because he is a fearabout change w here it is needed the most. in the area Of the go ld less ride r. he wanted to dem onst rate his value. We are not disapfields of South Africa . W e. as a gove rnment. have to ensure that poi nte d, although we feel bad not having any bike on the track .we bring abou t opport unity o f development and bet t er life . " tomorrow . " C heca' s injuries will kee p him out of the J uly 19 Ger Bobby Hart sl ie f. w ho is t he CEO o f Pbak isa .: t he co rpora tio n man G P at the Sachsennnq. Borja doesn't know if he 'll be fr t, which is building the track and staging the eve nt. said that what they 've done is incorporat e a Las Ve gas-style ·banked tri -oval in Repsol Honda' s T adayuk i Okada also missed the British G P. the circuit. though no ne of the banking is used for mot orcy cles and will also miss the follow ing 'German GP· due to injuries sus and the ' road course is not fully incorporated within the 1.5-mile, tained' in a pra c tic e cras h t he pr evi ou s week in Holland , The tri-oval. The cos t of the project. w hich includes various layouts as well as other spo rting facilities. is about $ t6 millio n. The blac ktop ' Ja panese rider tore ligaments when he tw iste d his right ankle . Though he came to Donington. he quickly discovered he couldn' t will be done at the end of September. but the first race wi ll 'not be sit comfortab ly on the bike. He left for Japan on Friday afte rnoo n until M arch 27 . 1999. and that will be a car race. Hart slief said to rest in advance of tes tinq the S uzuka 8 Hours bike. " I crashed that they had also had discussions with' the Indy Racing League again atthe las t race , in Holland. and I injure d my foo t. " he said. and NASC AR . W hat he envisions for NASCARi s not brin ging • H RC are rea lly co unti ng on me 'to win the S uzu ka 8 Hou rs ov er t he current W inston Cup dri ve rs. b ut 'to crea te a sort o f endurance race . They ·are no t wi.lling to hav e me risk ano ther NAS C AR South Africa, w ith a special interest in truck racing. crash at eit her this Gra nd Prix' or the next one. in Germany. Also. this rest will give me the time I need to fix my physical co nditio n in The rash of injuries in the 500cc c lass co ntinued in Britain; wi th Team M oviStar Honda Pons being the most s nakebitte n. Joh n , time for t he 8 Hours race. I go back to Japan to day. There. I will Kocinski decided not to come to England after suffer ing hnger be doing eve ryt hing I need to do to imp rove my condit ion.: injuries during practic e for the previous week's Dutch GP. From his home in Modesto. california. Kocinski called a Spanish joumalist at Yamaha Team Rainey' s Jean-M ich e l B a y l e decided the -rue s-' Donington Park to say that he hadn 't yet had a. s kin graft on hi s hnday prior to the' British Grand Prix to sit it out. according 'to team taki ng eighth - 14 seconds beh ind Aoki. "We haven't really got it se t up well all we ekend , w hich made the race very difficu lt. But apa rt from that, every thing is good . If we can ge t it so rted out, I think I can be right up there." A t so me dist an ce behi nd came the rest of the 15 finishers, all on Hond a Vtwi ns. Dee Cee Jeans Racing Team's van der Goo rberg h was the firs t of them , followed by Smart, and Berna rd .Garcia on the Tecmas Honda Elf. 250cc GRAN D PRIX Harad a jumped to the front, followed by 125cc World Cha m pi on Valentin o Rossi, bu t not for long. The Italian teenager high -sid ed his factory Aprilia on the third lap while ru nning in second place. " I thought I had practiced the corne r where I cras hed eno ugh, and thou ght I cou ld get thro ugh very fas t an d maybe ge t to th e fro nt ," he sa id . "There is a bump on the wa y in, bu t I knew abollt it. The only d ifference was, [ had hard er tir es on and perha ps that' s the reason that I crashed so sud denly." Tha t ga ve Harad a so me breath ing ro om un til he was s hortly jo in ed by Capirossi. " I had to work through in the early laps because, thoug h [ didn't get a bad start, it wasn't so good , and I finish ed the first l ap in abo u t sixth," Capir ossi said . " I was pu shing very hard to ca tch up when [ saw Valentino fall, so I was more carefu l." Th e two m ad e s h o r t wor k of, the field, pulling awa y wi th ease. Capirossi too k the lead on the seven th of 27 lap s a nd held it u n t il th e 24th. Ha r ad a sneaked up the inside in MacLeans Corner, a rig ht -ha nd er, and made it stick. He ' d tried a lap e a r li er, o n ly to b e repa ssed on the exit by Capirossi. Now it wa s time to ge t awa y, w hich he tri ed to d o immediatel y. Capiro ssi , owner W ayne Rainey, Rainey also said that Bay le wo uld sit out ' the G erman round and wo uld be replaced by veteran Yamaha test ride r Kyoji Nanba, the 35·year-old Japanese who started the seaso n for the Rainey team , " dean- Michel is much, much better now and he wanted to ride at Germany. but I want him to do a two- day test to get confident on the bike before he races. " said Rainey. " Nanba cou ld be good in Germa ny on a track that no one know s. I won 't be there because I' m going back to th e States now to relax. I'm going to get bac k in my kart. and to try water-skiinq for the first time. and then I'll be back for Imola. " Swis s rider Eskil Suter. new ly recr uited tothe MuZ t eam , decid ed to skip the second qualifying sess ion and nearly sat out the race afte r crashing in Friday's timed qualifying sess ion. Suter chipped a bone in his left wrist and hoped that taking Saturday 's session off would give him tim e for the injury to heal. He'd tried riding 'in the untimed morn ing sess ion on Saturday. but wa s two seconds off the pace . " It is not so much the pain that. slows me down. but it is very diffic ult to reach and control the clutc h lever with a hand th a t 's sw ollen, - he sai d. In t he race, he had an exhaust-valve proble m on the lower cylinder pair of the MuZ 500. and spen t a great deal of time in the pits having it repaired. He we nt bac k out for 10 laps before decid ing that the pain 'in his left w rist w as too, grea t. Australian Ga rry McCoy finish ed 13th aft er crashing his Shell Advance Honda V -twin in a f20-mph co rner and thenremounting. , " I p ushed down hard w ith my knee t o get th e bike bac k up through Craner. but then I wa s on the grass and I didn 't dare hit th e brak es." he exp lained. '" nearly Wiped' out t he 1OO-me te r signs and I co uld see I wasn't going to stop. I just went headfirst into ,the barrier. My mouth was full of stones and stuff. " S uzuki team manager G arry T a y l or said he tho ught the tea m would continue with on e rider, Nobuat su Aoki, for the German Grand Prix. wit h the pos stbihty that Kat suaki Fujiwara wo uld be ful ly rec overed from his preseason injuries to join the team for the first time at the Czech G P in Bm o: .

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