Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 2: Japanese Grand Prix WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROAD RACE SERIES Alex eriville (3) finished fourth, holding back the advances of his V"twin-mounted teammate and fellow Spaniard, Sete Gibernau. substituting for the absent Luca Cadalora on the MuZ. Numata was six seconds i?ack at the finish i?ut comfortably clear of Jose-Luis Cardoso on the second TSR twin Honda. Only then carne Tadayuki Okada, who had been all at sea on his Repsol Honda with terrible wheelspin problems. Sebastian Gimbert, Markus Ober, Michael Rutter and Mike Hale on the ··.fl' . , r'le '1".Y .. B . . ' . I 22 second Modenas filled out the 19 finishers without points; Jean-Michel Bayle abandoned his Modenas out on the track with electrical problems, Jurgen van den Goorbergh's MuZ suffered similar gremlins for an early retirement, and a highly disgruntled Tetsuya Harada pulled in on the Aprilia V-twin, judging his Dunlops tq be completely inadequate for the conditions. Thus surprj~e title leader Roberts extended his points lead, while Doohan moved into second - 50 points to 33. Checa has 30, Criville 29 and fifthplaced Barros 18. 250cc GRAND PRIX With front-row qualifier Jeremy McWilliams left in the pits, unable to start after ignition trouble struck on the back: difficult access via. a single two-lane road through the hills, As' a result. ·the or.ganlzers a're able to sell tickets for only half of II! Ii·.' the full 30,000 grandstand capacity. in order to avoid terminal" traf-' fic jams_ Not that"grandstand spectators can see much. - only the _ . S.uzuka is finished as a GP circuit. and the Japanese GP will start-finish 'straight, separated from them by the width of the oval henceforth be held at the new Motegi facility, close to thll popu- 'tr;>ck straight. and its pit lane. The full oval is, however, visibl~_ lous Tokyo -area. if a decision not to homologate the .old track. remains in force. The 9riginal plan was to. alternate the race - Motegi's naWre is mainly stop-anc!-go, with three U-bends and between ihe new track and the old. but a document issued by FIM several other slow comers - but fears that this would favor Honsafety officer Frarn;o Uncini uneqoivocally states that homologa- das and lead to dull r'cing were not realized_ "It's, about 5O-pertion. will be withheld from Suzuka. on the grounds of safety. This ~ent stop-and-go, but the rest is flowing and there are some fast was',a shock to the.GP paddock. which has been prepared to tum corners - it's not that Ilad to ride, - said pole qualifier Kenny a blind' eye to some of thl! dangerous' areas of the old track ROQerts Jr_ Many riders enjoyed the hard braking required for the because in other ways it is such a magnificent circuit. With a vari; three very slow comers, while the surface was sufficiently wellety of comers induding the famed "130W left-hander at the end drained to cope with even a considerable deluge on Saturday of the straight. Suzuka has always' been popular with, riders and afternoon. The feelings of non-riders were not so favorable - mainteams as a place where riding talent counted for as much as Iy liecause of the extreme inconvenience of time.consumlng travmachine performani:~. Close' !?OOcc racing was more frequent el. as well as cramped and primitive press-room and other' facil" than ~therwise, a. valuai:>le commodity in recent times. "Irs ties. strange that the track is not safe for GP riders. but it is safe. f6r the Suzuka 8 Hours race,: said one disgruntled Honda team man, Mick Doohan's new NSR Honda arrived at last for the second • GP - but after a short run, a disappointed World Champion put It , Honda owns both Suzuki> and MoteQi. . . ' away!'gain. "I test~d the bik!, once In the winter, and 1 made 'Motegi is a vastly impressIVe' track, comprising a.fuil Indy-style'. some suggestions what it needed, HRC have made 'some oval as well as !tie 2'.977-mile road racing track, which passes out changes, but tbey seem to be in the wrong direction," said beneat~ the ban~ing and back again via a'pair of well-lit unqerboohan, "In any case, the qike couldn't be raced, One thing was pa'sses, Compared ;with Suzyka, its major advantage - apart, fro[T' the radiator. 1\ didn.'t leak or anything, but it was just tacked the better safety inherent with, its more modem design - is its - together and wasn't up to' racing sRec. So there wasn',t much proximity to Tokyo" less, than 100, miles by.road: Its capacity fo~ point in testing it anyway, - Doohan has complained for some time pulling crowds was clear from tbe start, with 30,000 spectators , abcut a lack 'of development.to the NS,R. "I always said that when claimed for the second day 0'1 practice wner/manager, denied thai he plans to get involved in racing again in the United States. "I'm really enjoying being at home," he said. Luca Caclalora was a Motegi IIO-'sho\or, taking his new Team Blland MuZ squad by surprise. After retiring from the fil'St race last week, Cadalora decided to go home, saying, "We are way behind in our test schedule in comparison to the other factory teams: and under these circumstances it is not possible for me to show the bike's true potential. I a'm convinced that we can run with the leaders on tracKs where we have a 'similar base tc start from', but it is impossible to .make up in'four,short practice sessions what the others did in days and, days of tllstlng. I'donot want to lose my motivation in a -fight that we cannot win. I decided to skip'this race and get ready to attack again in Jerez. - This was somewhat at odds with his earlier statements of his 'strong belief in "th'e passion' of the. . .. Continued on paj?e 24

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