Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE WR O LDCHAMP IONSHIP R ADRACE SERIES O By Michael Scott Photos by Gold & Goose 30 lMOLA, ITALY SEPT. 6 , ick Doo han showed Max Biaggi - and everybody else - just who is boss at Imola. After cras hing ou t of the last race at Brno in the Czec h Republic, and ha ving to list en to th e doubter s cro wi ng, he firmly put them all in thei r p lace with a conv incing and committed 500cc Gra nd Prix victory. Blaggi th rill ed th e sma ll but high ly voca l 35,000-s trong crowd by lead ing th e fi r st three la ps on h is Ma rlbor o Honda , but Dooh an quickly fou nd his way through to' seco nd and then firmly int o first - and the Repsol Hon d a was never head ed again. Second wen t to his te am rnate Alex Cr iville after Blaggi took a tr ip across th e g ravel trap, end ing up third and und er pressu r e fr om Gresini Hon da rid er Alex Barros. , Th e re sult, which ca rne afte r improvements we re at last made to the troublesome Show a fro n t suspension, vindicated Doo ha n after his Brn o tumble, an d after he'd finally responded to Biaggi's needling rem ar ks. "It's all lies and excuses," he told an Italian new spaper on race eve. Th e only th in g Doo ha n co ul d n ' t manage was to d epose Biaggi from the titl e lead in th e World Cha m pions hi p. But there ar e just four point s in it now, with Cri ville just three more ad rift. The Round 11: City of Imo laGran dPrix bet s are on , with four rac es left - but th ere ' s n o d oubt th a t Dooh an is th e favorite of the th ree con tenders. Rain ey Yamaha's Jean-Michel Bayle w as fifth after qu a lifying on p ole for only h is second race of the yea r . Still weak after his lon g, injury-in duced layoff, he wasn' t able to stay with the leaders . Teammate Norick Abe was six th . (Abo ve) Max Blagg i (6) leads th e way an the op ening lap of th e Italian 500cc Grand Pri x. He's foll owed by Jean-Michel Bay le (12), Mlc k Dooh an (1), Alex Cri ville (4) an d Kenn y Robe rts Jr. (10). (Right ) Doohan qu ickly moved in for the kill and eventually stormed to his fi fth GP win of the season. It was a goo d day at las t for Suzu ki as well . Altho ugh top rid er Nobua tsu Ao ki was only nin th, close behind tw o m or e Rep s ol Ho nda s (of Ta d ayu ki Okada and Sete Gibernau), it carne followin g a stor ming ride after he'd been pushed d own to almos t 20th pla ce on the first lap. Bu t it was a bad day for British GP winner Simo n Crafar a nd Red Bu ll Ya maha teamm a te Regi s Laconi, the pa ir finishing 11th and 12th, respectively, and beh ind the recuper ating Ca rlos Ch eca, but ahead of his MoviStar Honda teammate John Kocinski. No r d id th e n ew Mk 2 M od e na s tri p les do much more than so ld ier on, with ,Kenny Roberts Jr. and Ralf Waldmann 14th and 15th in the first race for the new machin e. Californi an Ma tt Wait was 18th, one of only three private Ho nda twin s to finish. An up-and-d own 250cc Gra nd Pri x brought victory for 125cc World Champion Valentino Rossi, with his Aprilia te ammate Loris Capirossi p revailin g over a clo se Honda battle for second . Stefano Perugini w as third, making it an all-Ita lian rostrum. Alt hough the excitable cro wd ma y n ot all have agr eed , th e real hero of the day was T et s uya Harada . The Ap rilia rider had fall en and broken his leg in practice, but he rode on a nywa y, and was he challenging Ross i for the lead w hen he fell again on lap 17 after finding a false neutral as a result of his inju rie s . Und aunt ed , ignorin g t h e pai n, h e r an b ack to h is b ik e a n d remounted , an d se t fastes t lap of th e race on his way to a ha rd- earn ed 10th -' place fini sh . For once, the 125cc Grand Pri x was procession al and rather dull - until the last few yards . UGT Aprilia's Tomomi Manako had led fro m sta rt to fin is h, wit h tee nager Marc o Melandri and his Ben e tt on Ho n d a glued to hi s ba ck wheel. The you ngster push ed past into the last chicane, bu t Manako firml y put him back in his place on the exit to take his third win of the sea son by less than a tenth of a seco nd . A littl e way beh ind, Masao Azuma jus t held off title leader Ka zu to Sa ka t a 's UGT A p r il ia for fourth. 500CC GRAND PRIX Blaggi, Bayle, Doohan a nd Rob erts were first aw ay, th e last nam ed d ropping gradua lly back on his tripl e as the

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