Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROAD RACE SERIES (Left) Biaggi ended up finishi ng th ir d after a ru n thro ugh a grav el tra p. He w as st ill abl e to hol d off Alex Barros (9) and Jean-Michel Bayle (12). (Above ) Valentino Rossi (46) t ries to keep Tetsuya Harada (31) at bay . Rossi won his second c areer 250cc GP when Harada crashed. pulled ou t all the stops to also ge t past Gibe rna u on the last lap, and they finishe d within less than a second . Ao ki was especia lly pleased, having mad e yet ano ther suspension change in the morning that a t las t improved his troubleso me front-end feeling. "The bike was the best it' s been a ll yea r - still 90 percen t, but a big improvement," he said . Cra far had finally fou nd his rh ythm to wa rd th e fi n is h , s tayi ng ahea d of Laconi a n d Kocinsk i. Th e la ckluste r Ame rica n co m p lai ned of too-soft suspension and hoped for bette r th ings afte r fo rt hco mi ng tes ts at M ugello befo re the next race . Roberts trailed home in 14th; Waldm an n got a s hocki n g s ta r t and onl y gradually p icked up the pace, catching and passi ng Kat suaki Fujiwara on the seco nd Suzu ki on ly in the closin g laps . Then came the privateer V-twins, Borja well ahead of Wait , wi th Fabio Carpani one lap d own . Pao lo Tessari' s ancient Paton retired aft er seven la p s; fou r mor e twins followed him in to the p its: Bernard Garcia, Se bas tie n Gimb ert , Jurg en v a n de n Go orbe rg h and Scott Smart. Su ffering fro m influenza, Eskil Sut er also re tired after a n impress iv e s ho wi ng on th e MuZ. The top th ree in the cha m pions h ip closed up agai n - Biaggi has 189 poi nts, Doo han 185 and Criville 182. Checa has 121, Barros 100, wi th Abe sixth on 88. 250cc GRAND PRIX Th e reviva l of th e Honda s la s ted beyond an un usually good practi ce performance, wi th Stefa no Peru gini , Tohru Ukawa an d Olivier Jacque taking off in the lead for the first lap. Both Ha rada and Capirossi had gotten away badly, finishing la p one in 10th a n d 12th res pectively, w h ile Marcelino Lu cchi, lying six t h, crashed o u t o n la p two when his bike jum ped ou t of gea r mid comer. But Rossi was fourth, just behind th e Hondas, and it took him just on e mo re lap to ge t into a lead that he never lost. For the first nine laps or so, it wa s relatively p lai n sa il in g, but Harada wa s on a major cha rge, a p pa re n tly not Brieflv... - Title rivals M a x B iaggi and M ick Dooha n embarked on a war of words in Italy ' a public conflict that has been brewing for several race s. Doohan ope ned the ho stilities , in an interview wit h the influential Carreiro della Sport newspaper. " If he's as good as he says he is. he'd be much furth er ahead." Doohan was quoted as sayinq . " I've had tough rivals before . Max is always looking for hampered at all by his freshl y bro ken leg - Alpinestar had mad e him a specia l boot overnig ht to acco m mo date th e lightweig ht pl a st e r cast - a n d on lap 10 he powered past Perugini int o a close and cha lle ng ing seco nd p lace. He stayed inches behind Rossi, p us hing and probing in a dangerous fas hion. All wa s not as it seemed , however. "Because of my injury, I was having trouble changing gear, and I often fou nd neutral by mistake," Harad a said later . On lap 17, he did it once too often , ran into the Rivazza comer too fast, lost the front, and slid off. Surelv that wo uld be the end of that. • at so. Apparently obl ivious to the p a in , he ra n to p ick up hi s b ike , remounted an d rejoined , down in 10th position. He wa sn't able to improve on that , but he did set fastest lap of the race as he tried to do so . Afterward , he said, " I h a ve no idea whe re 1 found the streng th to do that. " Th is left Rossi u nmolested to press on for his seco nd win of the year. He was able to slow and play to till' crowd and still finish with bette r than 2.5 seconds in hand . "I thought w hen Harada arrived that if I kept push ing, he migh t have so me problem because of his injury: ' he sa id. Perugini dropped back after half-distance, on ly to be ca ugh t aga in by the othe r tw o fa st wo rks Hon d as; Jacqu e was n ow ahead of Ukawa, a n d they joined batt le, slowi ng eac h other d own in the process. By now , slow sta rter Capirossi had come to terms wi th a n off-co lor mo tor a nd h e closed on the Hondas and passed two of the m in one go int o the Tosa Curve' on lap 17. W hen he saw Harada fall, he was inspi red to take maximum advantage. He disposed of Perugini one lap later and kept on pushing to the maximum to take second. There wa s on e m ore d ra m a , a s Jacque sudd enl y slowed radically with th ree laps left. At the same time , Ukawa got ahead of Perugini, only to be firml y pushed back again. Jacque wa s losing more than seven seconds per lap as he battled with a bike whose hand ling had gone to po t. drawback to machine development. because of the limited feed .. . the possibility of a sat ellite team. Only one fact ory rider - Simon back available to designer s and engineers. But he wo uld not conCrafar - had been confirmed for next year. . firm the signings. "W e are having talks with Junio r and W illing. and with other people. too . I cannot say anything definit e at this The stro ng performance s of J e an-Mic hel B a y l e since hrs stage. - he said. return two races ago also strengthened his chances of staying wi th the fact ory . alth ough Norick Ab e's posi tion must be less The move would seriously diminish the beleag uere d Tea m secure . Yamaha ' s retu rn to strength has radically changed their Rober1s, wh ich already lost another senior engi neer.. Mike Sinpositi o n co ncerning sponsors. It is thou ght that if Checa dec ides clair, at the beginning o f this season. Sinclair ret urned to Yamaha . joining Team Rainey . W illing and Sinclair between them are credit- to mov e . he will bri ng MoviStar sponso rsh ip w ith him . wh ile Biaggi would co me with M arlboro mon ey . After tw o ye ars with out a exc use s . W e have exac tly the same bikes . He ' s ly ing to make himself look better. He 's insecu re . He wan ts to appear strong in fron t of the fan s. He wo rrie s too much abo ut his perso nal appea r- ed WIth much 0 1 the concept and overall design of the three-cylinder Modenas. sponsor . Yamaha now may be able to choose between two. ance . Max is a product. not a person . He rides very well. and he knows how to get the best from the bike. But he thinks too much K e nny Roberts said that he inten ded to con tin ue raci ng next year With the Mk2 version of the triple. ·We may have two riders next season. but we may have none.- Roberts said. " In my position. I have to walt until the end of the season and see wh o is stili availab le . " about his appearance . and loves him se lf too much. I' m not impre ssed by that. - Expanding on the theme. Doohan continued. " It' s all lies and excuses . He says I have a different bike . That's not true. They 're exactly the same. I'm nobody' s enemy until I get out onto the track - but Max started it. " Biaggi responded: " I haven 't read the art icle . but I understand the situati on . I gues s Mick is not used to so much pressure this late in the season. Perhaps he is gett ing too old. He says our bikes are the same. but they are not. He has a completely different engine. the Screamer inste ad of the Big Bang . It is not available to me beca use I am no t a fact ory rider. Maybe it wo uldn't make me faster , maybe It w uld. I do not have the chance to try.- Honda' s lineup is also not yet settled. though Mick Dooha n has Meanwh ile. second Modenas rider Ralf Waldman n is besieged with offe rs. In the 500cc . 250cc.and Superb ike classes . The fourstroke link IS With the factory Kawasaki Superbike team. he visited ' at the previous round at the A I -Ring in Austria . His 250 suitors ind icated that he expects to stay on for one more yea r at least. Tadayuki Okada' s place in the team is far from certain. while it is thought that current 250cc rider Tohru Ukawa may move up to the 500c c class to take over the facto ry V-twin. Current V-twi n rider Sete Gibern au. who has performed bett er than expected . may become a prime target for S,tO Pons' team. If they lose C heca to Yamaha and manage to secure suffic ien t fin-ancial back- ing. John Koci n s k i is unlikely to stay with the team afte r his disappointing comeback season . unless HRC keeps the faith and pull strings on the talented but erratic American's behalf. are venou s propo sed or existin g Aprili a teams . incl udi ng th e works -backed DocShop tea m. curr entl y fielding Jurgen Fuch s. Waldmann has said. howeve r. that he wants to stay in the 500cc class and most likely will Join Yamaha importers Kurz WIth a proposed - satellite - V-four team. using 1998 motorcycl es. . M ax Biaggi arrive d at Imola spo rting a fine cro p of fres h grazes o n his arm and body aft er a mount ai n ·bik e crash near his home at Monaco . " I fell off going down hill - it was very painful. but Iuckily I was not seriously hurt ;" he said. The silly season start ed 10 get serious at Imola. with Suzuki lead ing the w ay with a pair of signings that cut a swa the into Team Roberts. Althoug h not officially conf irmed. it is believed that not only will K enny Roberts Jr. move to Suzuki next year. but so will chief engineer W arren Willin g . The pair are not expected to displace anybo dy at the Japanese fac tory te am , which wi ll incr ease its strength to three ride rs , as well as add another layer o f o n-trac k enginee ring expe rt ise to the so -far frustranno ques t Ya ma ha is also on the prowl for riders. wit h rumors link ing many of the top names to the resurgent manu facturer. Honda riders Max Biaggi and Alex Criville are both thought to have had talks with Yamaha. wh ile Yamaha has already approac hed Ca rlos Checa before the British GP in July , where he crashed heavily and suffered life-threatening 'internal injuries . The Span ish rider made a to mak e their new RGV5 00 V -fo ur becom e fu lly competitive. C urrent rider Nobuatsu Aoki already has a contract for next seaso n. whil e late sta rt e r Ka tsua ki Fujiw ara - a preseaso n i~iury vic tim • rem ains a cand idate for nex t 'year . Team manager G arry lio . visiting from Japan. anno unced at' a press conference tha t there would be the same num ber of fact ory Yamah as next yea r as Taylor has fr equ ent ly co mplamed that hav ing oniy two rider s 32 remarkable recov ery to retu rn for the Czech Republic GP . and talks resumed. " I want to make a decision before the Catalunya GP in two weeks.-. Chec a said. Yamaha racing chief Toshimitsu thts . tw o with the factory team (now run by Wayne Rainey) and two more for the Red Bull-backed WCM team. There was also (co mpared wi th seven or more ridin g Hon da V -fours) is a serious Former Repsol Honda rider T akuma Aoki . who is confined to a wheelchair after breaking his back in a preseason shakedown run on the latest version of the V-twin, visited lrnola, and told a press conference that he still dreams of returning to racing. The possibility seems remote. but he said: ..My mind is always on racing. and I feel my condition is improving." Aoki, the middle of the three Fireball brothers. explained how he crashed in very cold conditions. after almost saving a high·side crash. He hit the trackside barrier. but only at a relatively low speed. He was conscious throughout. and knew immediately he was seriously injured. He has been under several d~ ferent types of treatment. including an herbal regime in Ch ina, and is . still receiving daily treatment. "After the accident. I told my brothers that they should just carry on enjoying racing.- he said.

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