Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD·RACE WORLD CHAMPIONSH IP ROAD RACE SERIES Round 13: Australian Grand Prix awa rded his first GP w in b y .025 of a secon d, w ith M anako secon d . T w o and a h alf secon ds b ehind , Sakata led Yo u ichi, Vi, Roberto Loc atelli a nd Lucio Cecch inello o ver th e line. Fourth was enoug h to secu re Sa ka ta a secon d W orld title . "This was harder tha n la s t time: ' he said . " I was ju s t one Aprilia against a lo t of very fas t Hondas ."' Sakata h as 218 points and has won, but second is hotly disputed between Manako a nd Melandri with 218 and 182, r e sp e ctiv e ly . A zuma has 12 2 and Cecchinello sits on 114. 1:\ P hillip Island P hillis Is lan d, Austra lia Resu lts : October 4, 1998 12Sce QUALIFY ING : 1. Mar co Melo n d r! 0 :40.490) ; 2. To mo mi Manako (1:40.582 ); 3. Kaz ut o Sa ka ta 0 :40 .60 8) ; 4. Ma sec Az u m a (1 :40 .747); 5. You ic: i Vi 0 :40.886); 6. Mirk o C iansant i 0:40.968); 7. h Yoshiaki Kat oh (1: 4 1. 0 19) ; 8 . Arn aud Vin cen t (1:41.060); 9. Iaros ta v Hates 0 :41.137.>; 10. G ia n lu igi Scal vini (1:41. 192); 11. Noboru Veda 0 :41. 314 ); 12. Lucio Ce ccb inefl o 1:41.343 ) ; 13 . Frede r! c Petit 0 :41.48 1) ; 14 . Andrea Ba Jlc rin i 0 :4 1.589) ; 15. Jeron i mo Vid a l 0 :4 1.6 88) ; 16. Masak i Tokudome (l :41.69 8); 17. Roberto Loca te ll i (1 :4 1.742); 18. Iva n Coi 0 :41. 759) ; 19. G in o Borsoi (1:41. 783) ; 20 . An ge l N ie to Jr . (1:41.90 3); 21. Steve [enkner 0 :42.291); 22. Em ilio Al z a m or a ( 1:4 2.3 22 ) ; 23 . J uan Ma tu rana (1 :42.73 1); 24. j.1Y Tayl or (1 :42.741); 25. A nd re a lommi 0 :43 .600 ); 26 . Anth on y W e st 0: 43 .886); 27. Peter Ca l v i n 0:44.41 3) ; 28 . A les s a n d ro Roma gn o l! 0 :44.991); 29. Judd G reedy 0 :4S.132); 30. C hcd ryia n Breeland (1 :45.394). 12Sec G RAND PRIX: 1. Masao Azuma (Hen): 2. Tom omi Ma na l o (Hen): 3. Mar co Meland ri IHon): 4. Kaz u to Sakata (Ap r); 5. Youic hi Vi (Yam); 6. Robert o Locatelli {Ho n): i . Lucio Cecchi ncllo tH on ): 8. Jaros lav H u l es ( Hon) : 9. C ia nluig i Sca lvi n i (Hen) : 10. Gino Borsoi (Apr); 11. Ivan Goi (Ap r); 12. Mirk o C iansa nti (H on) : 13. An ge l Ni e to Jr . (Ap r); 14. Fred er ic Pe tit (Hen): 15. Stev e Ien kne r (Ap r); 16. Masa ki To kudome (A pr); 17. Ju an Mat u ra na (Ya m) ; 18. Noboru Ve da (He n): 19. And rea Ballcrin i (Ya m); 2O J.lY Taylor He n): . 21. Emilio A....amo ra (Apr); 22. Andrea lommi (Hen): 23. . Peter Ca lvin (Ho n). Time: 38 min., 56.336~'C. Distance: 23 b ps , 63.71 miles Average speed: 97.932 mph Ma rgin of victory: .00 25 sec. (Above) Second pla c e ended up going to Crafar on h is Dunlop-shod Yama ha . (Right) The 250cc Grand Prix gets under way with the pack being led by the fa cto ry Yamaha of Sh inya Nakano. Apr ilia's Tetsuya Harada (31 ) and the rest of the fie ld g ive chase. Lucky 7 tor Doohan Q 00 0\ 0\ ,...... ""'~ ,...... I-< Q) .n o ..... u o 34 u a li fyin g was dominated by the w eath er - dry throughout, but coolon bot h days and increasingly windy as practice wore on. As a resu lt, almost all the best times came from th e firs t afternoon, and the best of them came from Mick Doohan, for his seventh po le of the season. Riding conspicuously ha rd throughout (so what else is ncw Z), Doohan dominated from the start. He was the fastest in every session except the last , when - reali zing that his pole time was unlikely to be br oken - he concentra ted on testing tires . Not one to oom plain about the pressure of racing at home, he did say that he preferred th e pressure of the cha m pions hip helping keep his co nce nt ra tio n high - he cra shed out of the ra ce here w hen he'd al ready won the title last year. "That was because of a lapse of concentration," he said . "I was trying to please the crowd . It's easier when I'm trying to please myself ." Ma x Biaggi was second, half a second d own - not mu ch of a gap at a long track where slip s trea m ing dictates results more th an practice times. More signif ica ntly, he crashed in the final session, compre hensively damaging his preferred bike. "I hit a bump, and the front folded:' he said . "I hope they can fix it: ' Th e surprise of the weekend wa s John Kocinski . After a seaso n in which the Su pcrbike WorJd Champion had seem ed to be fad ing away back ward, he was as good as gold, running fourt h and then thir d on the first d ay, th e tim e that s tood for his first GP front-row s tart since h is return. He was far from anxious to talk about mu ch . "It's a ll a bit political. and the last thing I wa nt is some guy asking m e questions," he told a packed p ress conference before giv ing a terse su m mary ofan awful season w ith low qua lifying position s pu tting him back among ride rs aga ins t whom he d id n't enjoy ra cing. Among other th ings, he noted , "I almost go t my finger cut off:' But he d id like the track, pointing ou t that it was "where I won my firs t World Champions hip (the 250) in 1990:' Another thing he didn't mention (unlik e every other rider) was the wind. Let Doo ha n speak for all . "It's rea lly bad into the first corner," he said. "It gets under the fro nt of the bike . At places where I can usually go flat out, I've had to brak e or back off just to load the front wheel." Simon Crafa r completed the front row, returning to the front at "the nearest thing" to his home GP . The re as on why was sim p le. "T he Yamaha is a goo d bike at every track, but this one is like Doni ngton the Dunlops work rea lly well here: ' he said . He had no t tried the d ual-co m po un d fronts tested by some Vtwi n riders, but clea rly he ha rd ly needed the m, ru nning margina lly faster th an Doohan and Alex Crivl llc in the las t and wi ndies t session. Alex Barros led row two, aga in loo king s trong as his end-of-season revival continues : Tadayu ki Oka da was alo ngsi de , an d then came Criv iIle, the trio covered by less than two- tenths. Both HRC riders had star ted slowly. Last yea r' s winner, e riville said, "I've nev er had so mu ch trouble a t a circuit as here: suspension, tires, brakes - everything seems to be giving us a hard time :' Regis Laconi finished the row, one of only five rid ers to improve in sp ite of the wind . Abe led row three from Rail Waldmann, Nobuatsu w Aoki and Kenn y Roberts Jr. Set e Gibernau led row four , ridi ng in pain after falling on the first day, bu t also improving non eth eless. Carlos Checa finished up 14th, a doubtfu l starte r; He'd crashed heavily in the first timed sessio n, and he did not come out at all on Saturday. One place lower was 22-year-old Australian Superbike ride r Ma rk Willis, mak ing good usc of hL on e-off rid e o n the second factory Suzu... ki. He cut 1.3 seco nds from the firs t to the second da y, gaining co nfidence but remaining cautious . A recent injury had left him somewhat w eak , and he was find ing th e bike need ed all th e muscle he co u ld mu ster . . Aussie w ild ca rd Craig Connell pu t the spa re Sh ell Advance Honda V-twin into 17th, ahead of American Matt Wait and his own teammate Borja, bo th V-tw in regulars. Ga rry McCoy essayed a few laps o n both days, bu t wi th his right leg still in a cast, he too w as not expected to mak e more than a lap or tw o of his home race, if that. At las t, a challenge to th e Aprilias in 250cc q ualifyi ng: It came from outsider and wild-card entry Shinva Naka no, last see n as run ner- up at th e japanese GP, and having won the Ja pan ese championship in the in terim. And he was ridi ng a factory Yamaha, the first time the YZR has raced a t a GP this yea r since the seco nd round a t Suzuka . It wa s a close cha lleng e, too . The three Italian bikes still occupied the front row , but he wa s in third place among them . Loris Capirossi was on po le for a seventh time, happy with his bike and everything else . Still in with a title chance, his task is simp le; Win both last races. "It will not be ea sy: ' he sa id . "(Tcts uy a) Harada is a very tou gh advers ary. But Australia is lucky for me. I won my firs t 125cc World Champion ship here in 1990, a nd my only 500 race at Eastern Creek: ' He'd d eposed Valentino Rossi from pole in spite of the wind in the last sessi on, and by four-tenths. Then came Nakano, a little surprised , and he admitted to taking advantage of a time when the wind dropped briefly at the end of the session. "The Aprilias seem faster than the Yamaha, but the Yamaha handles better:' he said . Harada wa s at th e far end , but he was visi ted by bad luc k once again. Aside from his sore-foot troubles, he go t so methi ng in his eye in th e las t session, and tho ug h th e sha rd w as re moved , it left his eye watering so badly that he could n't ride p roperly, and he we nt to hos pital in nearby Cowes for special trea tment. Then ca me a second row full of facto ry Hondas, s till only seventel'ths down at a track that takes the emphasis away from sheer speed and hands much of the potential back to the ride r. Anki was fractionally fast er than Olivier Jacque, Tohru Ukawa and Stefano Perugini, the row cov ered by a quarter of a ",-'Cond. 12S« WO RLD C"SH Ir POINT STANDINGS (After \3 of 14 ro u n ds) : 1. Ka zut o Si1kilt,l ( 218 /4 wi ns); 2. Tom om i Manako (192/4); 3. Marco Melandrt (182/ 2); 4. Masao Azu rna 0 22/l}; 5. Lucio Cccchmcllo (114/1); 6. Mirk o C i .l n ~d n t i (03); 7. Masa ki Tok udumc (89); 8. Robert'o Loca te lli (87); 9. Gia nlui gi Scal vi ni (83); 10.

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