Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Road Race Round 8: B ritishGrandP rix WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROAD RACE SERIES By Henny Ray Abrams Pho tos by Gold & Goo se CA5fLE DONINGTON, ENGLAND, JULY4 ~.fl he eve ning b efore th e Britis h Gran d Prix at Donington Pa rk, @ Alex Criville ins isted he wasn't s uperstitious . Yes , as a pra ct icin g Cat ho lic he ma de the sign of the cross every time he go t on his Repsol Hond a , bu t that was more spiri tual than superstitio us. If there was one th ing he felt funny a bo u t, it w a s t h e numb er 13 . Aft er today's perform an ce, he's going to have to live w it h it, a t least for tw o weeks. Ra cin g in h is 1DO th 500cc Gr and Pri x before a weekend crowd of 25,000, the runaway cha m pionship p oin ts lead er padded his lead w ith a contro lled and not pa rticularly fast wi n, the 13th of his career, over teammate Tadayuki Okada on an intermittently overcast d ay in the British East Mid lands. The Spaniard had started badly, kn ifing th r ou g h the field with precis ion before taking over the lead on the 11th of 30 laps. Unable to sha ke early leader Oka da, a nd a lso sta lked by Ap rilia 's Tetsuya Harada, who had a spirited rid e on the V-twin, Criville co ntro lled the slow pace, then fended off a d etermined assault by Okada in the penultimat e corner to win his fifth race of the yea r, this one by .536 of a second . "I was very consis tent and trying to be ther e and eve ry one wa s pushing very hard and Tady (Okada), on the last lap he passed me and it was very close, no cras h , bu t m y p ositi on was d ifficul t there," said Cri ville, who will go for wi n nu mber 14 at the German GP on July 18. In the end he com pleted the 3D p, -la 75-m ile race in 47 minutes, 6.290 seconds at an average speed of 96.776 mph, well off the record of 96.226 mph set last year by Simo n Crafar. Harad a was .456 of a second back in th ird , hav ing rid den his heart ou t on a mac hin e that was clea rly overmatched . The Japanese rider used stunning comer sp eed, es peciall y in th e fas t d ownhill !7fl '" '" '" J?:o ~ 6 sectio ns where he made more than one bold pass, to keep close. Th e cost was tire wear and, as the race neared its end, he didn't have the sid e grip he need ed to keep pace . . "It was rea lly hard for me because my bike, we were running the same lap times as in practice," Harada said after matching his season-best finish . " My bike just needs a little more accelerat ion and I think Aprilia can provide this." Marlbo ro Ya ma ha Ra ci n g Tea m ' s Ma x Biagg i was a lo n e fo ur t h after nem esis Regis Laconi ran into the back of him and cras hed his Red Bu ll Yamaha WCM machine wit h less than five laps to go. Blaggi was never able to lead but had loitered near the lead ers before tra ctio n proble ms d rop p e d him at th e ha lfway ma rk. " "I w as s till pretty close to Cri ville and the o ther tw o g u ys (Okad a and Harada) when Laconi and I ca m e together at Red ga te (the first turn )," Biaggi s a id . " H e crash ed and I was lu cky to stay" on, bu t the impact damaged the rear end of my bike. Something wasn' t right from then on." Less tha n a second covered fifth through eighth, with MoviStar Hond a Pons' Alex Barros lead ing the pack in front of An te na 3 Yarna ha-D' Antiri's Norick Abe, MoviStar Hond a Pons ' Juan Bo rja , a n d Te am Suzuki's Kenn y Rober ts [r., a vas tly disappointed eighth. Roberts ran second for the first nine laps before his machine aga in let him down. On ce the tires we nt, there wasn't eno ugh in the mot or and handling for him to kee p u p , and he progressively slid backw ard. "I expected we would go well a t this track, but we seemed to be ou tgunned in every departm ent ," Rob ert s sa id . "I go t a good sta rt, and I cou ld hold my position until the tires went down . Then I tried to stay consistent, but it was hard for me wa tching gu ys pa ssin g me who I "know I shou ld beat quite easily." T h e e n d r esu lt w a s tha t h e w as kn ocked down a peg in the cha m pionship tables. At the mid point of the 16- race seaso n, Cri ville has a yawni ng 41point lead , 154-113, over O kada, who leapfrogged over Rob erts into second . Robert s hold s third with 102. Kanern oto Honda ' s John Kocin ski finished nin th after taking a lO-second s to p -a nd -go penalty for jumping the start. After serving his penalty, on the sixth lap , Kocinski dropped as far back as 18th befo re recove ring to take nint h, still bedeviled by the un d erst eer problems he's faced all season . 'T he problem is, there is nothing the team cou ld d o," Kocinski said . "Whe n the b ike is a t its best and I d o su perhuman things, I can jus t kee p m y nose ou t of the wa ter. It's just too much. " The SOOcc GP was a race of attrit ion, -wi th just 11 finishers among' the 22 sta rters. Joini ng Laconi amo ng the non finishers was his Red Bull Yamaha WCM teammate Garry McCoy, the victim of a spec tacular high -side; the Aoki brothers; Suzuki's obuatsu, wh o crashed on the first lap with Proton Modenas's Jamie Whitham; a nd FCC TSR's Haruchika, who stopped with an off-song engine; th e Ma rlboro Yamaha of th e crashing Carlos Checa ; and a few others . Riding a superb tactical race, Aprilia's Valentino Rossi wo n the 250cc GP, using a daring inside pass in the O ld Hairpin late in the race to take advantage of the de teriorating rea r tire of Elf Axo Ho nda's Loris Capi rossi . The ra ce had begun und e r clouds tha t turned to rain on the 11th of 27 laps, bringing ou t a red flag . At th e time , Ros s i was n om in all y in fr ont o f Ca pirossi. w it h Ches terfield Tec h 3 Yamaha's Shinya Naka no in th ird an d Jerem y McWilliam s fourth. The race was gridded from the positio ns at the end of th e ninth lap, wi th Rossi on the pole and in the lead off the start. Capi ros si we nt to the fro n t in God dard's Corn er, the final hairpi n leading onto the front straight, on the 13th lap, t ho ug h h e k n e w h is H o n da wa s n' t working as well as it had in the first part of the race. . Pole s itter Tadayuki Okada (8) leads the fray at the start of 500cc British Grand Prix. He's being chased by M Biaggi (2), ax Norick Abe (6), Tets uya Harada (31) and the ;est of the pack at Donington Park. The two Italians pulled away, with Capirossi us ing the accelera tion edge of the Hon da to stay marginally in fro nt of the bet ter-handling Aprilia of Rossi. It la st ed until the 23 rd la p , w hen Rossi stu ffed his way under Ca pirossi in the Old Hairp in, a d ow nhill right, early in the lap. From there he flew , quic kly ga in ing over a seco nd, w hich h e ' d st re tch to 1.648 at its most, an d end ing at 1.216 seconds. Since he was s lidi ng badly, Capirossi couldn't gi ve chase and preferred to take seco nd . Nakano ended u p third, 8.162 seconds back, with She ll Advance Team's To h ru Ukawa fourth, riding with the aftereffects of a virus, less than a seco nd behind. "Th e win, Rossi's fourth of the year, allowed him to inch closer to Ukawa in the cha mpionship race. At the halfway poin t in the 16-race season, Ukawa leads Rossi, 147-140, with Nakano in thir d at 112 and Capirossi fou rth at 102. The 12Scc GP spa rkled for the firs t 22 la ps be fore Benetton Playlife's Masao Azu ma took contro l enteri ng tu rn one, Redga te Co rner, wit h a little help fro m Emilio Alzamo ra. Th e pack of fou r was sud denly one a n d t hree , wi th Givi Ho n da LC R's No bby Ueda, wh o'd been passed for the lea d , ta n g li n g wit h Via Di g it a l' s Alza mora . Robert o Locatelli was a t the back of the pa ck on the Vasco Rossi Racing Aprilia. Wi th h is pursuers chopp in g eac h other up, Az uma pulled out ov er a second in one lap to secu re th e wi n, his fifth of the season. Second was a seru m on the final lap , wi th Ueda and Alza mo ra pa ssi ng a nd repassing each other repeatedly . It came d own to th e Melbo u rne Ha irpin, the penultimate corner. Ueda led goi ng in,

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