Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Road Race (Above) Valentino Rossi (46) leads the way at the sta rt of the 250cc GP. (Left) Rossi managed to hold off Loris Capirossi in their fight that went to the finis h. The Spaniard took Kocinski ea rly on lap 14 and se t ou t for Roberts, whom he'd stalk for several laps. Roberts kn ew Criville was there, an d the American dropped his lap times accordingly. "I was expec tin g a Honda, I d idn't kn ow which one," Roberts said. "Alex, of cou rse, is in a different class from the other guys on the Hondas. But I didn't kn ow if he co ul d ge t up fro nt qu ick eno ug h, and when I saw 'Criville' with 15 or wha tever laps to go , it's just the wrong guy I wanted back th er e. I can handl e Barros and th em kind of guys that bra ke very deep and can 't accelera te, bu t Alex ... I knew it' d be hard to stay w ith him or eve n pass him." Halfway in, on the 16th of 31 laps, the top four - Roberts, Criville, Kocinski and Abe - were cove red by .945 of a second, with Checa just .651 back. With 12 laps to go, there was a separation in the order, with the top three getting slig htly away. Abe was left to hold . back Checa, which he couldn't do beyond the 20th lap . Checa was in fourth now but nea rly a seco nd behind . The rest of the still-upright riders were well in arrears . Checa was o ff the track on lap 23, betw een the troublesome two lefts near the end of the lap, after briefly passin g Ab e. Th e mi scu e' was credited to arm p roblem s su ffe red in his two practice crashes. 'Briefl "The arm was bad ," he began . "During the middle of the race I could n' t feel a thin g. That's why I kept taking my left arm off th e h a n d le b a r d own th e straight." Ch eca recovered, but he was n ow o n e seco n d b eh ind Abe , th ou gh h e qui ckly closed . The pair were also right o n Ko cin sk i, a n d a cha nge seemed imminent. It came on lap 26 when Kocins ki ran wide, with Abe and Checa coming by , the lead ers we ll clear now and the laps running down. Kocinski fell we ll back to a secure fifth . His tire was des tro yed , chunked in several places . "About 10 laps from the end , I went into the second corner and the rear cam e completely around and almost highs id e d me, and it wa s o ff- th ro tt le ," Kocinski said. " It started popping and chattering and popping. It felt like it had a bubble in it. I had to hang off the bike and keep it straight up and down, otherwise it would high-side me." Checa mad e a run at Abe at the end, bu t the Japanese rider held him off and was happy to be on the podium. "O n the last lap , Checa was trying to pass, because he want ed to go to podium, bu t I wanted to go to po dium, so bi g fig h t," Abe sa id. "50 fin all y I ge t pod ium." For the leaders, there was an equa lly in tense fig h t. Criv ille never gave up, and Robert s knew he w as ther e, but he also knew how to ho ld him off. . "Thankfully, I was able to hold my lin e s; th e t i re s ha d a lot of fee l," Ro ber ts sa id . " I was s lid ing around quite a bit, and I'm su re Alex wa s, as well . The Su zuki ran good, and there wa sn 't a lot of places tha t yo u could ge t a drive on so me body and ge t alongsi de somebody to make a pa ss. 50 yo u really h ad to ma ke a bra v e m o v e to pass so me body." . Criville had seen Biaggi, Barros and Cadalo ra crash, and he d idn' t want to join them. "Each time, they fell right in front of me, " Griville said. "If this race had been the one to decide the championship, I wo u ld ha ve taken more risks. But with five wins und er my belt th is season already, I don't feel like I have to prove that I am capable of "inning." Six th went to Haruchika Aoki in a comfortable slot in front of fellow Japan-. ese rider Tetsuya Hara da . More had bee n expected from Harada and th e nimble Aprilia V-twin. bu t he never go t going - no t in pr actice, and not in the race. Tires we re the probl em , the rear slid ing from the first lap and the front by the third. When he finished , the Dunlop technician s looked over the tire, and ther e we re no visibl e signs of di s- tress, nor were ther e any w he n it was dissected , but it clearly did n't work. After falling as far back as 18th, after cras hing on the 10th lap, Barros shot throu gh to take eig h t h from Repsol Honda's Sete Giberna u on the final lap. Borja w a s 10th, in fr ont o f Garry McCo y on the Red Bull Yamaha WCM mount. "I just did what I said I would - tried to be consist en t and finish the race in the poi nts ," McCoy said. 250cc GRAND PRIX This w as stri ctly a two-rid er affair bet ween Ca piross i and Rossi, with each taking turns leading. Rossi went first, ju mping away from the po le position to contro l the race until the fourth lap, when Capirossi we nt by. By th en the championsh ip lea der was out a nd Ro ss i' s crew made s ure h e knew it. "I don 't s ee the cras h, but on my board , all lap s they say, 'Ukawa out, Ukawa out, Ukawa out', and I understand, Ukawa out," Rossi said. "I feel bad," Ukawa said. " Ii was a big mistake today. [ didn 't qualify as well as we had hoped , so I ended up pushing too hard to move forward early in the race, and I fell off. " At this point 'Rossi cou ld have taken the conse rvati ve route, riding for points and letting Capirossi lead ; bu t that isn't Rossi. In st ead, he fough t back lat e on the 11th lap , takin g th e lead fo r g ood th ou gh not by mu ch - asCa p irossis tires began to melt. Capirossi was a con- . few 'more times befo re ' he makes the decisi on to ~ome back:" . Aksland was going to consult with team owner Kenny Robert s in' the days 'aft er t ne German race t o 'decide the team's makeup.. ••• Rumors of spons o rship p roble ms fo; the KR3 team .have . .recurred .throuqhout the season. .but Aksland was able to quiet them .. He and team owner Kenny Roberts had been in England ' prior to the race to work on next year s program. The team is sponsored this year by Proton and M odenas. two separate cornpanies in' the Malaysian ORB Hlcorn conglomerate. ~ We have suppo rt from two individual companies . one on the bike' side (M od enas). and one on the car side ·(Proton); ·· Ak sland said. . "They both want to continue. We haven't been back to negotiate for next year yet. • . Ru;"ors' of ' hls demise ';'e re 'greatly ' ;agge;"'te d.: Me~cu~al Itaiian. . LUc3 Ca'dalora, who was thought to haVe permanently left rhe . 20 . .

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