Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROAD RACE SERIES (Left) Luis d ' A nt in (9) leads Haruchika Ao k i (5) an d J er emy Mc William s in t h eir battle f or fourth p lace. (A b ove) Valentino Rossi crashes out o f the 250cc GP on the opening lap. tou ch with the leaders. He was running alone just befor e half-d istanc e when he wa s joined by a gang of three. The flying Gibe rna u had passed fir st Checa and then Bayle, and they followed him up to the japan ese rid er's back wh eel. It was a frustra ting time for Gibe rnau , rid ing way above his practice form at a track that shou ld not favor a downon-po wer V-twin . . "I w as faster th an Abe 'round th e co rners , but he is good on th e brakes an d much faster on the straigh ts, so I jus t could n' t ge t by him : ' he said after fin is h ing a ten Ih of a secon d beh ind him . The retu rnees could n' t keep the pace and had already started dropping back w he n Che ca ni p pe d past Bayle on lap 14. They gradually drop ped back and sp read ou t as the race wore on . Chec a was justifiab ly proud of sevent h. "It's like a victory for me: ' he said . "I was fighti ng against myself ra ther tha n my rivals. Now 1 kno w I can be back at the top level aga in." Bay le wa s not di s sa ti sfied with eighth. "Af ter such a long tim e not racing, I'm pleased. I'm sure things wi ll get better: ' he said. Hale and hearty riders behind them cou ld not be so sanguine, thou gh Laconi had a goo d ru n throu gh to nint h a fter finishing the first lap 13th. Rober ts, six seconds behind, said he could do no better on the Mk1 Mod en as, "With a fu ll fu el load, yo u have to · ride the old bike real smoo th, and they could pick me off: ' he said . "At the end I was do ing bett er lap times." Eleventh-placed Crafar was far fro m happy. . "There hasn 't been too mu ch posit ive abou t the weekend - but a t lea st after the race I know the problem is no t really with me: ' the New Zealand er sai d. "We have a bike probl em here, and we hav e to fix it whe n we test tomorrow .' Ao ki, who fini shed 12th, ha d a lso dropped back fro m the group, yet again suffe red rear-b rake prob lems. He uses th e brak e ex tensively wi th the power on, to impro ve tracti on, and a lthou gh they had some new material after their prob lems in Germany, it had an erratic resp on se th at mea nt he couldn ' t keep his pace up. But few peopl e were as disappointed as Ralf Waldman n, who started from the front row only to drop to right near the back. "The bik e was 'sl ow ou t of th e co rner s, and the sp eed-shifter wasn' t working, either: ' he sa id. "Halfway through the race, I killed the ignition and restart ed it, w hich reset the electronics. Then I started passing peopl e." Aoki jus t man aged to hol d hi m off over the line. Sut er was 14th after an undisturbed run on the Mu Z; Kocinski secu red the last poi nt after a comp letely lackluster weekend, p assin g van den Go orbergh for the place wit h only tw o laps to go. "I am not en joying thi s one bit ," he sa id la te r . ''I'm la p p in g th e GP bike s lower th a n m y s u pe r b ike. I kno w Honda can build a bik e that will work for me, and I kn ow I have to be pa tient. It' s hard, but I am prep ar ed to wait ." ju an Borja's V-tw in Hond a was next tea mma te Ga rry McCoy did not start, after break ing his leg in a hea vy cras h in mo rnin g warmu p. The n came new bo y Fujiwar a's Suzu ki, the 23-year-old rider ha p p y jus t to have finis he d his first European race a n d hi s fir st race o n Michelins. Th er e were 21 fini sh er s, with Scott Sma rt b rin gin g up th e rear b eh in d American Ma t t Wa it. Fa bio Ca r pa n i crashed ou t on thefirst lap . Th e cha m p ionship ba ttle is now as tense as at an y time . With five races left, Biaggi ha s ret a ke n the lead , w it h 173 points to Criville' s 162. Doohan has 160. Then co me s Checa on 115, an d Barros o n 87, w it h Crafa r droppi ng back to sixth on 80. 250cc GRAND PRIX The Ap rilia dem on stration race started off bad ly for Valen tino Rossi. "I thou ght I cou ld get a goo d result here, an d I was figh ting w it h (Lo ris) Cap irossi for the lead when I ran wide on the fourth corner," he said . "Bu t (Stefano) Perugi n i was a lready ther e, and we touched ." He w en t fl y ing , w h ile Peru gini stayed wheels d own and ran across the gra vel trap . Th e Honda rid er rejoined, but any h opes of a g ood resuIt w er e gone . In fact, it was Lucchi in front after the firs t lap, from Harada and Capirossi , but the vet er an test rid er had taken a bad tire gamble, and was third one lap later - a fte r an ou t-o f- th e -s a d d le moment - and grad ua lly dropped back. The o the r tw o s w a p p ed back and forth for a while before Har ada se ttled in fro nt on lap six. He was soon a second clear, bu t then he slow ed. "It was very wi nd y, and it upset my con centration, so I eased the pace a bit," he sa id . ' . That gave Ca pirossi the chance to get back on to him , and in front at the start of the 14th lap . But w h ile the Ita lian's bike wa s handling bett er, Capirossi said, "Tetsuya's eng ine was faster, and tod ay second place was the best I could do." Harada had retaken th e lead on lap 16, w ith Ca pi rossi almost appearing to let him by, as if pr eparing for a last-corner a ttack . But he only dropped further and furt her behi nd , finishing mo re than five seconds down. The cl o s est a n d bes t ba t tle was between McWilliam s on the prod uction H ond a and the wo rks bikes of Uka wa a nd Aoki. Both j ap an ese rider s never gave up tryin g to get ahea d and , in fact, Ukawa d id nose ahea d briefly a couple of times. But McWilliams was not to be b e aten , a n'd h e ld th e o r d e r as th ey crossed the line cove red by just over a half-second. ior I am not .sure howstro nq I wi]'1 be, a 'fuH race . but! am feel i':l9 works NSR fo r the last two races. The endurance-racing specialist. who won the Spa 24·Hour race during the same period .' was . ready for,i t now . - Bayle . claimed his first and only so occ-c lass . even slowe r on the factory machine. ' " We , have mutually agreed pole at Bmo last year . " I like the track . because yo u need to know that his sty le does not suit a, 250." said team boss Herve Ponhow to brake very we ll. With all the hills. it's a,bit like supercross witho ut the. bumps, - he jo ked. ."But I think it is the' Yamaha that The ret urn to G P racing afte r the four-weekend break also' marked , charal. Co ste s' spot was filled by 19·year·old French newcomer Matt hieu Lagrive. ' likes the track as much'as I do . " the. return of a" number .o f absentees. Riderwi se. not" only' was . , Tadayuki Okada back afte r his long absence. but also Carlos The return of Carlos Checa was heroic. afte r the SPanish rider Suzuki' s n e w rider. KatsuakiFujiwara , made slow start to ' Checa , after a remarkable recovery from his D onington Park lost his spleen aft er sustaining internal inj uries at the British G P. , his full-time career, The 23-year-old ex-All Japan Superbike rider , practi ce 'inj uries and his teammate .John Kocinski .- returni ng has ridden in only one GP 'in the past, leading the opening laps of '. and then suffering postop erative co mplications that th reatened the M oviStar squad to its original lineup. paraly sis and visio n problems, He was not expec ted back thi s the' .JapaneseGj> as wild card in f 996 before succ umbing to season. but made a co mplete recovery and has bee n working gearbox problems. Injured 'in Au stralian tes tsbe fore the season, It was the same at Suzuki, where ~O rig inal contracted rider Kat· hard to regain fitness. " I have lost four kilogra ms (nine pounds), the co ntracted rider made his racing return at the Suzuka 8 Hours suaki Fu jiwar a took up the seat aiongside N obuatsu Aok i afte r and I am still weak." he said, " I can do fast laps. but for the ful l race before co ming to his first GP 'of the season at Brno. Strug.having missed the firs t nine races bec~use of a preseason injury. race I wou ld be happy with a top-10 finish. " He came close to disgling so mewhat wit h the switch to a two-stroke on, M ichelin tires (he has only ever raced on Dunlops). the cheerful rider quipped, aster in practice, when he was high-sided violently on slow cor Ya ma ha welcome d b ack .Je an nero then chased down the track by his blaZing fuel tank . He " It's like everyone else 'is swim ming in a river, and I've just been M ichel B a y l e . who has also missed , esca ped further injury but retired for the rest of the day. Checa. thrown in fully clo thed." the full season so far after sufferi ng a who won the M adrid GP afte r showinq strongly in the early part of concussion in a preseason tumble: The. the, season. was understood to be close to signing for Yamaha ret urn of t he Team Rainey rider has The n ew M o d enas made a troubled deb ut after . testing success : been repeated ly defe rred as the linqer-. n ~xt year when the crash interrup ted negoti ations . fully in the break. O n the first day of pract ice. Kenny Robert s Jr .'s ing concussion made it impossible for bike seized going into the first turn at more than 125 mph. precipi· .the former off-road supers tar to ride for C heca 's teammate John Kocinski , w hile recovered from his tating the Am er rcan's a bruising but no t seriously injuriou s trip hand injuries. is still a iong way from being out of the woods , The more than a fe~ laps at a.time. . through ' the gravel trap. "The team don't know why it seized: Wo rld Superbike Champion has promised all seaso n that when he ' said Roberts, who had suffe red another breakdown in the mornThe rac e 'also saw th e lo ng-awaited gets the bike to his satisfaction. he wil l be up with the front-r uning : " Until w~ do 'know , it's been put away and l'llride the old arrival of the Mk2 M o d e nas . with an ners. However. he has been put in the shade by Ch eca, and in' bike." Later. Kenny Roberts Sr. said. " We need to resize one of all-new three-cylinder engine and chas, Brno he was still struggling at the back of the factory -bike pack .· . the crankshaft main bearing journals," sis, There was' also .a slight retu~n from Honda, w ith revisions that Ralf Waldmann also switc hed back to the old bike 'as aprecau- . brou ght their all-new twi n-crank NS R25 0 closer to being more . Jean-Michel Bayle's comeback. like Checa's, was impressive. co mpetitive,than ever so far in its first year. . ' The ex-Honda : ex-Aprilla.. ex-Ya maha, ex-M ode nas rid er pro ." tionary measure. and managed to wheel it onto the ,front row ,of nounced himself fit after setti ng impressive times in test s at Brno the grid fo r his first time. The new bike reverses the cylinder locaB ut Brno meant fare w ell to seco nd C he ste rfield Honda 'rider du'ring the break , and he proceeded t o qualify on the front row of tion, with two pots upward and the cente r cylinder pointing down: William Costes. who struggled early on to get the pace on the ' , the 'grid,' '' 1don't like to talk about the last six months, " he said. " I 'A balance shaft tames the t riple' s near-crippling vibration . making · product~on Honda. befo re taking over the injured Olivier .Jacque 's co uld not ride a motorcyc le prop erly'. and it was very hard for me. ', the unit slight ly longer and requirin g a 'new 'chassis. The new Briefly.-,..---_~ -.v • a a a 8 . . . - . ' . "

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