Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Lor is Capirossl (65) and Tetsuya Harada (31) too k their batt le fo r the World Champ ionsh ip all the way to t he final set of corners. The n all hell broke loose. thought I • Orange County Triumph's Paul Harrell wins AMA Pro Thunder Series Title. becaus e -he' d been mu ch closer wh en his eng ine sudd enl y seized up and he ran off onto the grass . It started again, and he rejoined, but he was nursin g it home as Ukawa a nd Rolfo caug ht up, the former getting ah ea d wit h fiv e la ps left , o n ly fo r t h e Fr en chm an .to nip p a s t aga in on the final lap. Later, wi th Capirossi ' s excl u si on , they we re all promoted one more p lace, giv ing Rolfo fourth - his best result in an impressive first season. More th an 10 seconds back, Jerem y McWilliams and the QUB Hond a prevailed over a racelong ba ttle, w ith the ' tw o Suzukis of Noriyasu Nu mata and [ohan Stigefelt having their best race of the year just beh ind him. Franco Battaini's Yamaha wa s at the back of the ga ng. Luc a Boscoscuro's Honda led Takeshi Tsujimura 's Yamaha for ninth, wit h David e Bu le g a 11 t h , o u td is ta n ci n g im pressive local rid er Diego Giugovaz on th e Docshop A p rili a a fte r th e G P first-timer had survived a hairv nea rhigh -sider. . Ed Yam aha 's Osa mu Mivazak i was 13th, Ulsterman Woolsey Coulter (substi tuting for the in jured Jay Vincent on t h e Pad getts H ond a ) w a s 14th , a n d Fren chman Matthieu Lagrive took the last point. There were 19 finish ers . . Haruchik a Aoki coas ted to a stop out on the circuit with two laps rem aining h e had been s trugg li ng s ome w ha t in 11th. Stefa no Peru gi ni and the lu ckless Seba stia n Por to bo t h pi tted wit h mecha nical problems. Luis d 'Antin and Yasu Ha takeyama bo th cras hed out. Capirossi ma y yet get his 20 points back, but it won 't affect the overall outcome. He already had just enoug h to win, with 204 p oints, while th e remarkable Rossi moved up to a close second on 20l. Har ad a has 200; if he had been ab le to p ick up th e bike and fini sh, he wou ld almost certai nly have saved the title. Ukawa ha s 145 po in ts , Jac que a nd Aoki both have 112, with Jacque getting fifth overall because of his better finishes. 125c c GRAND PRIX Tru imph's first Daytona win in over 20 years .ond dom inated the highly competitive series with 6 wins by Curtis Adams a nd severa l strong finishes by Michael Gage. Three world speed reco rds. A na tional series championship. And a hot new Daytona on the way to dea lerships a ll over the country. We're looking forwa rd to running more of these ads. Soon. For your Ioco deoler, coil 1 8DO-RIDE TRi or see our website - www.triumph.co.uk l Every new Triumph comes with en unli mited mileage two yeor warranty, one yeor Free rccdside c ssistcnce and one yea r membership in RA T. C l 998 Triumph MoIo'9'C1 Amerloo lid. es . UG T H ond a ' s Tom om i Man ako broug h t a dull 125cc GP ali ve with an amazing victory, closing down a big ga p in the last laps aft er it see me d a ll was lost. The ride of h is life also wo n him the World Cham pionship - probably. In fact, the poin ts cha rt shows Kazu to Sakata as the winner - but onl y provisio nally, if the poi nts he lost (afte r being d isqualified from the Australian GP when a fuel sam ple was fou nd to be illegal) are restored . He has appea led, and a fina l decision followi ng a seco nd laborat ory fue l test is expected this week though it wou ld be a surprise if the pr evio us tes t failure (by massive amou nts of lea d a nd octa ne ratin gs ) co u ld be found to be wrong by enoug h of a ma rgi n to make the fuel legal. Saka ta was a distant fifth today, with the other two rostru m places goi ng to longtim e race lead ers Marco Me land ri and Lucio Cecchin ello. It was a race of extrao rd inary tactics. Saka ta led away but cou ld n' t hold the pace. Bu t when Melandri an d Cecchinel1 went away ahea d , he worked hard a t 0 slowi ng the pace so that they we re soo n almost five seco nds clear. Every tim e Manako we nt past, Sakata wou ld force hi s way back in front, a nd a huge g ro u p s ta r te d to pile up. Th en Au stra li an GP w in ner M a s a o et::J 0\ 0\ ,...... ~' l-< 0,) .c E 0,) ;;:- o z 11

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