Road Race
Round 3: Spanish Grand Prix
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROAD RACE SERIES
By Henny Ray Abrams
JEREZ, SPAIN, MAY 9
[I
ick Doohan crashed in practice
for the Spanish Grand Prix at
Jerez and s.uddenly everything
changed.
No longer was the Repsol Honda
rider the front-runner for hi sixth consecutive 500cc World Championship.
Instead he was a passenger in an ambulance that would take him to an infield
medical center, then to the hospital, and
finally to the airport, from which he
would fly to the United States for treatment of severe injuries. He rebroke his
right leg, which was damaged so severely in Holland in 1992, and he broke his
left wrist and collarbone (see '1n The
Wind"). He won't make his return until
the end of August, and by then the
championship will be well on its way to
being won by the first new champion
since Kevin Schwantz in 1993. Today, a
local rider certainly put in a bid for the
open spot.
Today was a day for the homeland,
with Spaniard Alex Criville not only
winning his -third straight 500cc race at
Jerez, before 150,000 highly partisan
fans, but also taking over the championship lead. That was made possible by
the 13th-place finish of Team Suzuki's
Kenny Roberts Jr., whose luck ran out in
a very big way.
After a not particularly great start,
Roberts was run off the track on the second lap by his teammate Nobuatsu
Aoki, who took the brunt of the damage.
The Japanese rider, who had qualified
second, suffered a broken wrist.
Roberts' damage came later. After
rejoining the race down in 20th place,
the winner of the first two races maQ.e
his way up to eighth on the 18th lap.
Four laps from the end, a spark plug
broke and Roberts rode the Suzuki
home to 13th place on three cylinders.
"For the last four laps, I was just trying to make the finish," Roberts ald.
One more place and he would've
been tied for the title lead. As it is, he's a
point behind Criville, 54-53, after three
of 16 races.
"It was a very, very difficult race for
me because my bike didn't work perfect
today; perhaps the wind helped a little
bit, but also the tire performance went
down and the race was not so fast - 45,
45 (l:45 laps)," Criville said. "1 tlUnk last
year was one second faster."
Not quite, but almost..
John Kocinski (19) got a flier of a start
from the second row to lead the opening
laps of the Spanish 500cc Grand Prix.
Kocinski eventually faded to a sixth-place
finish with tire problems.
