Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Tetsuya Harada ~ , Q\ ,..... By Paolo Gozz i . '-!5" ,..... e tsuya Harad a was one co rner away from the 1998 250cc World Cha mpions hip . One med iu m-speed right-hand er from finishi ng second in the Gra nd Prix of Arg entina, a position that would have given him just enoug h points to earn the cro wn. His teammate and closest rival, Loris Capirossi, ho weve r, had other ideas. Coming from well be hind hi s Japan ese teamm ate, Capirossi wa s desperate an d he sim ply ... (1) .c E (1) u (1) c 22 refused to slow d ow n, ramm ing Harada and sendi ng him flying in to the gravel pit . Defeated and ang ry, Har ad a cou ldn' t believe what had happened . And ove r a month later, he still can't. Desp ite Hara d a' s wi nn in g five races to Capirossi 's tw o, the act of d esper at ion in the final comer gave the title to the Italian. Ha rada won 't ev er forget it. If tim e heals a ll w ound s, several weeks ha ven ' t d one an ything to ca lm Harada. He's angry and see ms hell-bent on staying that wa y. "Ca p ir os s i m ad e a b ig mis tak e ," .Har ad a said at the recent Aprilia test in Jerez, Spain. "He sa id ther e was eno ug h roo m on the inside to pass me, but if that wa s really the case then he wo u ld have passed me w ith ou t kn ocking me o ff . In s tea d h e to u ched me a n d th is proved there was no t enough room. The speed he arrived a t, it was absolutel y im possib le for him to get aro u n d th e curve. If he had n' t leaned on my bike, he would surely have go ne off the track. Just loo k at the ph otos of the incident before we tou ched he was upri ght, I was leaning ov er. If he had really been able to tak e the curve at that spee d, then he would have been cha m pion of the world a long tim e ago - he w ou ld hav e wo n mo re champion sh ips and w oul d have been a better rid er than Mick Doohan." In his defense, Ca piross i said tha t the co m p u te r analysis on h is Aprilia 250 sho wed that he went through that decisive com er just 1 kph faster than on the previou s lap. Ha rada isn 't buying it. "Ma ybe at the momen t of the colli-" sion he was going 1 kph faste r, but he arrived at the breaking point at a crazy s peed," Harada sai d . "H e says these thi ngs because he d oesn 't u nd er stan d anything abou t bikes." T he ne wl y-crown ed 250cc Worl d Cha mpio n a lso sai d tha t H arad a left h im ro o m u p the ins ide a nd he d id nothing but slide in to tha t ga p. "I have also analyzed the data acquisition, and I can tell you that I braked at the sa me poin t as oil the p re viou s lap , the exact point to take the curve," Harada explained. "In any case, I did n't have any reaso n to make any stra nge move - I had p a s s ed Ca p irossi a fe w cu rves bef ore, and the last time I turned mv head , ju s t be fore goi ng in to the fin~l curve, I cou ld see tha t he wa s way off and co u ld n' t ha ve a ttac ked me in any w a y. He cou ld h a ve o nl y ca u gh t u p wit h me by not braking . If Loris doesn't . understand this, then he had bett er give up be ing a rid er ." Har ada doesn' t mince wo rds . In his opi nion Capirossi made tha t mov e on purpose. Goi ng into the race, Ca pirossi had a four-point lead and he knew that even if both cras hed , he wo uld still be World Cham pion. " I' m su r e h e d id it o n p u r pose," Ha rada said. " If that wasn't the case, he. wou ld have apologized at the end of the race . Instead , he didn' t - he just blamed me for every thing. I wo uld have accepted his ex cus es and I wou ld have congra tulate d him, because at Buenos Aires he wen t well a ll the way thro ugh th e race, unlike other rou nds . The way the, cham p ions hi p wa s going, I could even have accepted a vic tory for Capirossi. But not in this way - I just can ' t accept that kind of behavior." C apirossi ga ve h is every th ing because he cou ld n' t afford to lose another titl e. In 1993 a t [a ra ma, the Italian rid er , then w it h Honda , had th e titl e sew n up but Harada had a g reat race and managed to overturn the resu lt. The se aso n afte r th at..Ca pirossi lost aga in, this time to Ma x Biaggi. Ano ther defeat wo uld have been too mu ch. This time, co nt roversy was brought o n no t only by the ma n euver , which led th e FIM stewa rds to excl u de him from th e Arg entine G P resu lt s after Ha rad a ' s p ro test. Wh at caused more furor was the fact tha t the decision was t hen a n nu lle d , upse tting eve n FIM Pr esid ent Fran ces co Ze rbi, w ho ha d s tro ng ly cri ti cized Ca pi rossi fo r his beh avior on the track. Wh at Capirossi s ai d im med ia te ly a ft e r th e ra ce was a lso con troversial. As soon as he finished the race, he told Itali an television, 'T d have kn ocked the devil himself off if he 'd been ou t the re u p fron t." Thi s clea rly ind icated tha t he had deliberately caused the inciden t. At first Ap rilia pretended no t to hear these words. O ve r th e n ext few d a ys Capirossi d idn't d o mu ch to play d own the controversy. In his opinion, thro ughout the season, Ap rili a had always g iven th e

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