Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ba ck in fro nt. Ka to, never m ore than half a seco nd aw ay fro m the lead , was cha rging ba ck u p - again. O n la p 10, Kato w as back in fro n t, a n d he s taye d there fo r two com p lete la ps. Okada did the d ra ft trick on Ka to dow n. th e fro n t straigh t a t the sta rt o f la p 12 a nd had the lead for w ha t would be the last tim e in the race. It was a bri ef time as well, as Ka to wen t back to th e top on lap 13. A good 30 m inutes in to the race, the leaders were hi tting thick tra ffic tha t p reven ted overta ki ng en masse. The pace slowed about a second per lap - to hig h 2:13s - but Ka to remained the leader through la p 18. Just as O ka d a used the front-straight d raft for his p assing maneu vers, Ito used the e ntrv to the ch ica ne whenev er h e wa nted the lead back. He d id so to Kato o n lap 19, an d then p icked up the pace to 2:12s to shake off Ka to . Kato d idn' t give u p ; he hung on to Ito. Kato w at che d for two laps and then p assed Ito on the back st ra ig ht, but Ito recovere d the lea d going into the ch icane. Kato w at ched so me m ore, and the n p assed Ito on th e front straight. Bu t, once aga in, at the chicane, Ito was in and out a nd go ne - fas ter tha n a nyone in the race. By la p 24, the s ta rting fac tory riders were checkin g into the pits, a nd by lap 27 fres h replacements were on all th e top bik es. Ito pitted on lap 26 an d the lead sw it ch ed to Izutsu, bu t it w as hand ed ba ck when !zu tsu pitted on la p 27. Ito' s partner Ukawa now co n trolled th e lead, a nd Ukawa quickly got up to sp eed, which put Kate 's partner Taked a at a 12-second disadvantag e. Edwards was thi rd, a nother seven seconds back a nd losi ng ground more of ten than he made it up. Fin ally, th e long-a w a it ed a r rival of Haga in th e race was fina lly over. Enterin g th e race i n 10th p o s it ion, H a ga moved up six positio ns in three laps and wa s gain i ng on e v ery one, i n d u di ng Uka w a. Ryo's te am ma te Ki tagawa, the (Right) The team of Tadayuki Okada and Colin Edwards (4) finis hed third. Here the y hold off the Suzu ki team of Akira Ryo . and Keiichi Kitagawa (6). (Be low) Sh inichi Ito and Tohru Ukawa do minated the race, leading 195 of.the 212 la ps on the Lucky St rike-backed Honda. cu r re n t p oints lea der in the A ll-Ja pa n Superbike Championship, was followin g Haga right alon g . Edwards' advantage was totally chise led awa y b y lap 40. Haga waste d n o time and passed Edwards in th e esses . A lap later, Kit a g a w a was . al so p a s t Edw ards, putting the Texan in fifth position. Haga n ow se t his sigh ts on Takeda, and in five laps he ma de u p th e five seco n d s to s eco n d p la c e . H a g a ' s fi rst attem p t a t p assing ca me a t th e Casio Triang le on lap 4 5, bu t Taked a fi r mly moved d own on Haga. A lap a nd a half lat er, Haga gave Takeda th e sa me m ove h e made on Edwards, and in th e same place. Ha ga made it two for two a nd had se c ond pl a ce . The g a p from H a g a to Uka wa, which once stood a t 32 second s, wa s now d own to 12 seconds. However, it had tak en Haga a n hour and a ta nk of gas to get th is close, and it was lime to pi t. By lap 54, the original riders were a ll on the track for th eir seco nd stin ts. Ito had a 15-second lea d on Kato. C rafar was th ird, a no ther five seconds behind a nd los ing ground . Okada w as five seconds further behind, but ridi ng qu ic k ly a n d ga ini ng o n C r afa r. Gibe rnau, w ho spent the firs t hour in the b ottom half of the to p 10 , was close eno u gh to keep an eye o n O ka d a. Ryo, the uzu ki rid er w ho loo ked most likely to be the spoiler of Honda's perfect plan, ~wa s a cou p le of seconds beh ind Gi b erna u and on a cha rge. O n lap 64, the second -p laced Honda of Kato lapp ed 12-p la ced Craggill a t the , firs t bend in Degner, a nd the n su ffered the broken chain at th e second Degn er b end . Th e works H o n d a th e n free w heeled into the back o f a slow backmarker. Kat o push ed the Honda back to the p its, w he re the tea m tried to re p lace the cha in bu t the n decided to w ithd ra w . O ka d a went u p to second , wi th Ryo third , Gi bernau fourth an d Crafar fifth. Fo u r la p s la te r, Ryo was ra ci n g with O ka d a for second - a case where Okada ha d slo w ed d o wn more tha n Ryo h ad ca u ght up. Ryo took seco nd on la p 69, and two laps later O ka da was in the p its fo r a new rear lire - five laps ea rlier tha n sc hed u led . Okada rejoined the race in th ird. Th e lead grou p p itted over laps 77 to 80 , e xc e p t Ryo, w ho stayed o u t o n cou rse until his Suzu ki ra n out of gas on lap 79 . It was a m is take th a t cost the tea m three laps. Thus, on la p 81, with a ll th e second riders now on co u rs e, Uk a w a h e ld a n even on e-min u te adva n tage on Barros. Barro s was a sca nt 2.8 seconds in fro n t of Haga, who was 35 seco nds in fro nt of Edwards. Twen ty seconds after Edwards Ito and Ukawa · rain or shine F O all who soaked and suffered through the typhoon in r the unforgettable 1997 Suzuka 8 Hours, the last sight anyone wanted to wake up to on qualifying day was rain. Yet rain it did , almost continually through the day. The one break in the precipitation ca me during the lunch period. The track nearly dried during this time, but the douds were only recharging themselves and more rain was imminent. Most of the experienced riders who were lucky enough to be in the first afternoon ses sion went o ut on slicks or cut slicks, and enjoyed the 10 minutes of the day when the rain wasn't falling, riding from one dry patch to another. Fortunately, both Ito and Noriyuki Haga were on the track at this time and giving it a serious go. It was classic cat-andmouse, with (to pulling crisply off the corners and pink-haired Haga making up all the lost ground on the brakes. Then the rain came, and Ito owned the best time with 2:12.3]7, and Haga was a quarter-second behind at 212.542. "It was wet during the first official practice in the morning. and I didn 't push too hard," Ito said . "Then the track was drying up at the beginning of the afternoon session, so we changed to slick tires for some quick laps before it started to rain again. 1 am quite happy that I got the fastest time." c Haga, se ond fastest on the day, was bumped by the officials to third overall for qualifying, since the "A" and "B" group qualifying results are combined A-B-A-B-A-B, rather than on rank order of all best lap times. "I we nt for a quick time but it started to rain, so I missed my opportunity to go top," Haga explained . Second overall in qualifying was Honda's Daijiro Kato, the pole holder from the 1997Suzuka 8 Hours, and twice the winner of the 250c Grand Prix race at Suzuka as a wild-card rider. c Kate's best lap, a 2:16.716, came in the last morning session as the rain was tailing off and the bikes were starting to dry off the racing line . "I am quite ha pp y that I recorded the best time of my group," Kato said, "I want to go for pole position in tomorrow's Special Stage, but I don't want to ruin my chances by crashing. so it is hard for me to decide how to go." Fourth overall was Akira Ryo, now riding for Suzuki after years with Kawasaki. His time of 2:]6.716 was also carded in the LIst session of the morning. Another Suzuki grabbed fifth: Yoshimura 's Toshiyuki Hamaguchi, who took advantage of the brief "dry-ish" period in the first afternoon session and went 2:]4.675. Ne il Hodgson ' s partn er Hit oy asu Izutsu p laced the ir Kawasaki sixth overall in qua lifying with a 2:18.459, another time from the late morning. Seventh was Kawasaki's Martin Craggill from the first afterno,?n group at 2:15.4]7. Tada yuki Okada , ridin g in the fina l morning group, placed the Honda he was sharing with Colin Edwards eighth overall with 2:18.486. "Both session s toda y were' dif ficult," Edwards explain ed, "bu t in the aftern oon , parts of the track were dr y and other part, were soaking wet. I thought it had dried enough to change to an intermediate tire, but on my first lap I got to Spoon Curve and it was raining heavily : ' "I didn 't get as many laps done as I would have liked," Scott Russell said. "I was looking for a lap time before the rain came down. It feels like I haven't done any laps all week, so 1 really haven't got the feeling for the bike." Those with bumps and bruises were Simon Crafar, a faller in Dunlop Curve in the morning, and Sete Gibema u, who wen t down in Spoon Curve in the afternoon. 'They're telling us it's not broken," said Crafar about his left ankle. "1high-sided and got some height, all right. My feet were way above the bike and the landing gave me a bashing. It's my (left) shoulder that's hurting me more. The bike's heavier than my GP bike and 1 have to push on to the handlebar hard and quickly to get it to tum left. The pain is like jabbing myself with a knife." As in World Superbike, qualifying at Suzuka is just to find out who gets to race, and who goes to the Special Stage session on Saturday. Unlike World Superbike, Suzuka takes the top 30 teams, and each team gets to send out each rider for a hot LIp. Results are ranked on the fastest rider's time. The dry track conditions on Saturday made the SpecialStage a - go. But there was only a short 2Q-minute warmup practice before things went for real. With the lack of dr y track time the da y before, it was not surprising that the Japanese riders ruled the day. The fastest Special Stage lap went to the 60th and final rider, 31-year-old Shinichi Ito, with 2:10.115. Section times showed Ito' quickest through the final third of the la p, a section that includes the tricky right-left chicane. Later in the press conference, when asked about his performance by a Japanese journalist, Ito said, "I first went to the toilet, and from there I was verv ~~ . " ' Seco nd qui ckest was Ito 's nemesis, No r iyuki Haga , at 2:0.399. Haga was slower than Ito through all three measured sections of the track. "Of course we wanted pole, and we lost it," said a stonefaced Haga. . Hitoyasu Izutsu brought the Hodgson-Izuts u Kawasaki in third quickest at 2:10.479. Izu tsu was the fastest rider through the twisty first third of the track, and his run was spoiled when he drifted wide into the dirt on the exit of Spoon Curve . Daijiro Kato was the fastest rider through the hairpin and fast sweeping come rs in the middle section of the track, docking a 2:10.4%.Then came Akira Ryo, another fast rider through the chicane, with a 2:10.748. Edwards was the fastest non-Japanese rider, at 2:10.933 good for sixth overall. 'The rear Michelin I used was unbelievable," Edwards said. "It helped me get that lime, without a dou bt. ButI'm just happy that the Special Stage is over and 1can look forward to the race tomorrow ." Seventh and eighth went to the Takeis hi-Serizawa Kawasaki (2:11.045) and the Yoshikawa-Haga Yamaha (2:11.393), respectively. Russell's 2:11.504 moved the Russell-Fu jiwara team from 17th overall in qualifying to ninth overall. "I knew 1 cou ld go quick," Russell sa id confi dently. "1 thought 1 could do 2:10; actually , in my mind, I was thinking 2:10. The bike was perfect for me. I haven't felt that good all year. I've been sleeping all week, and now, I'm there."

• Cover