Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 2: J~panese Grand Prix WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROAD RACE SERIES started reeling off steady 2:03s. "1 had to change the rhythm 1'd got into, but every lap 1 just tried to push a little bi t harder under braking," Roberts explained. It was enough to secure his second successive win. Abe dropped right off the pace in the closing stages, afterward blaming bad slides from a wornout rain tire, and he. was even in danger from Gibernau behind him. The factory V-twin rider had passed Checa on lap seven, and he was fending off a charging Shinichi Itoh on the Lucky Strike Honda until the wild-card rider ran· way wide on lap 20, losing two places in the process. Criville had been behind Itoh after passiJ.1g Checa just before half-distance, and now Gibernau started having problems with erratic throttle response. "It must have been something to do with water getting to the electronics," he said later. • All the same, he was able to hold off the late attack from Criville - right until' the final few yards. Then, as tl1ey ran up to a backmarker, Gibernau hesitated and Criville pounced, to claim fourth by less than half a second. Checa was sixth, Itoh more than 10 seconds back in seventh. Then came Alex Barros on the MoviStar Honda, the Brazilian having pressured a lackluster Biaggi - wearing a brand-new Arai helmet painted white after his' own duck- tail Bieffe helmet suffered misting problems in the wet - for much of the race. Barros got past with five laps to go and pulled away by more than three seconds at the end. '1t was my first race in the rain on a 500 - you haven't seen the best of me on the YZR500 yet," said Biaggi later: Nobuatsu Aoki was 10th on the Suzuki, holding tha t sta tion for much of the race, although he was overtaken by newlywed younger brother Haruchika on the T~chnical Sports Racing V-twin Honda. 'The double 125cc champion had kept on moving through and was challenging Biaggi when a misfire forced him in to the pits. He had outdistanc'ed Juan Borja's Honda; then came Suzuki tester Yuba Kagayama in 12th, wipr)er of an enjoyable battle for much of the race with his old rival Noriyasu Numata, who was (Above) Shinya Nakano made no mistakes en route to giving Yamaha its first 250cc victory since the Indonesian Grand Prix in 1996. (Right) Mick Doohan splashes his way around the Motegi circuit in an effort io run down Kenny Roberts Jr. Roberts gets pole early R 20 ain was the story of the race, and of practice, with only the 125s and 500s having a dry track for the timed sessions. Threatening clouds meant that all . made maximum use of that dry track as soon as possible, and the readiest was Malaysian GP winner Kenny Roberts Jr., who set pole time early in the session. "I knew when f'd done the lap, it was good enough for the front row, and that's all I wanted~ After that I went into Tace mode, to get the bike fast for 40 minutes rather than just one lap," he said. Riding the semi-Big Bang motor, he looked neat and well-eontrolled - an impression he rather spoiled by running off the track twice on Friday and once again at low speed on Saturday. Doohan was in a vengeful mood after missing the front row and the rostrum last week, and he was still waiting for machine developments from Honda but was still fighting understeer on his "uniJnproved" NSR. He ended up three-tenths slower than Roberts. Just to prove his intent, however, he stayed out for most of the secondstreaming-wet session, running the most laps of anyone and ending up seven-tenths ahead of the next man, teammate Alex Criville. Roberts was way down after only seven laps but had already been second quickest (to Norifurni Abe) in the untimed morning session. Then Roberts was fastest in race-morning warmup, beating even Doohan's fast time of the previous afternoon. The grid may have been hit-and-miss, but it had the same personnel as last week, except that Doohan had displaced rival Max Biaggi. Carlos Checa was third fastest,' though h.e said. he was still coming to terms with the feeling of the Yamaha, and John Kocinski was alongside him. Both had been victims of frightening crashes as rain spots began at the end of the session, falling on the last comer, with their bikes continumg across the track to the pit wall. Checa's Yamaha actually hit the wall; Kocinski's fell at the foot and sta(ted to bum. Biaggi led the second row, with times ultra-elose and mere tenths separating them - from Checa in third to Sete GiDernau in 14th was covered by just a second. Alex Barros was alongside, then Regis Laconi, making a much better transition to Michelins from Dunlops than his teammate Simon C(afa(, down in 21st position. Tadayuki Okada's Honda. completed the row, and Alex Criville led. the third from Abe's Yan18ha and the two other Suzukis of Nobuatsu Aoki and Yukio Kagayama. One-race wild-eard man Shinichi Itoh was 13th when he wasn't crashing - and then came Gibemau, Juan Borja and Tetsuya Harada, who was far from happy in his first ride on the Aprilia in the rain. Jurgen van den Goorbergh was 19th on the MuZ, ahead of Jean-Michel Bayle on the downbeat Modenas; Noriyasu Numata - substituting for Luca Cadalora on the second MuZ - was 25th, and Mike Hale was 26th and last on the second Modenas. The 250cc practice was wet throughout, and semi-private Aprilia ridEOr Franoo Battaini screwed up his courage and won the lottery for his frrst-ever pole position. This is not to undervalue his achievement. Shinya Nakano tried ha'rd to depose him on the Yamaha for his home GP but was a full half-second shy. Cou'ntryman Tohru. _ Ukawa was third, just six slender thousandths slower and he too was challenging for pole when he fell. "I waS too greedy," he said. The last man on the front row was another first-timer: Jeremy McWilliams, riding a semi-works Aprilia likethat of Battaini. "The bike is really good," said the ex-Honda rider. "But it is difficuJt to set. We're still learning how to do it." . Marcellino Lucchi's factory Aprilia led row two from Olivier Jacque's Yamaha, and wild cards Matsudo and Yamaguchi - Japan's one-race men - for once beaten by the visitors. The big stars, however, were on row three. Last week's winner, Loris Capirossi, led the' (ank from last year's GP winner Daijiro Katoh, and Valentino Rossi's factory Aprilia. Rossi admitted he did not like the rain. "I have no 250 experience in these conditions," he said. Ex-12Sec man Tomomi Manako completed the row; Jay Vincent led row four. Anthony West was an impressive 17th in sJ2ite of a crash. There were 31 qualifiers. Lucio Cecchinello claiJned his first pole in the 125cc class, his Honda ahead of Roberto Locatelli's Aprilia, Emilio Alzamora on a Honda and Gianluigi Scalvini, riding an Aprilia. Last week's winner, Honda-mounted Masao Azuma, was sixth fastest, behind Mirko Giansanti's Aprilia.

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