Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Road Race Round 10:Czech Republic Grand Prix '999 (Left) Blaggl (2) tries to hold off the charg ing Alex Crivllle (3), Robens (10) and Nor ick Abe (5) in the early st ages of the rac e. (Above) Okada passed his teammate Crivllle on the final lap and then was joined on the pod ium by his young children. enough to be as fast as I wou ld like. Now I'm worried these prob lems will be w~ th us until the end of the season." Texan Mi ke Ha le was 15t h, sco ring his firs t point in his return fro m injury o n th e second Mod en as. Mark Willis was 16th and last o n the BSL/Modenas, anothe r 18 seconds adrift. C riv ille eked o ut a bit m ore of a p o in ts adva n tage, now o n 194 to Roberts' 143. Okada is ca tching up wi th 138 po ints. Then comes Gibemau (101), H arad a (86) a nd Bia ggi movi ng pa st non -finish er Chec a, 84-78. 250cc GRAND PRIX Th e H ondas go t off the lin e first, ....-ith Stefan o Perugini leading Capirossi and Uk a wa a fter th e first-corner s h uffle, with Cap ir os s i m o ving to th e fr ont befor e th ey were halfway arou nd . But th e Ap rilias of Waldmann a nd Rossi we re right with them, and Rossi moved thro u g h over th e next few la p s - as Capirossi d ropped back - to take th e lead from Ukawa on the seventh lap. Waldmann, after his first good start of the year, was hot to trot, and after a cou pie of swa p sessions with the young Italian he took over the front by the end of lap eight, and stayed there, unable to break away, but lookin g confident nonetheless. This was d ecep tive, because his gea rbox s lic k-s hift mechanism had failed , a nd instea d of bein g a b le to keep the throttle p inned he had to cha nge ge ar conventionally, closing the throt tle with eac h u p-shift. "Th is meant I was no t accelerating as fas t as th e o the rs , a nd I had to bra ke ver y late and keep a ve ry hi gh corner spe ed to stay in front," Waldmann said . " By the end of the race, this meant I had dam aged my tires." Neller better hose who argue that 50Occ -c1ass racin g has ne ver been better received yet ano the r boost a t Brno. For a second race in successio n, the four front row po sition s were occu pied by four d iffer ent makes of machine. Even more impressively, an d for the firs t tim e since records w ere kept in 1975, the first five we re all di fferent. Meanwhile, the firs t 11 riders all qu alified w ithin less than a seco nd, at the second- longest trac k of the year writh a la p time of more than two minutes. Kenny Roberts Jr. se t the practice pace until the closin g m in ut es of the final session, when his Suzuki was knocked down to the second row. The man leading the la te cha rge was not an established sta r, bu t Du tchman Jurgen va n den Coorbe rgh. claimi ng his second po le of the yea r (and of his caree r) on the Weber-Mu.Z, . " It was the sa me as my first pole at Barcelona," the delig hted rid er exp lained afterwards. "We had the bike se tti ngs so rted ou t in good tim e, and for th e last pa rt of the session I was able to concen trate comp letely, rid ing alon e, and run off two almost perfect laps." Va n den Goo rbergh has a lovely s tyle, s mooth an d effo rtless, a nd th e MuZ com p lemen ts it w ith top-end perform an ce as stro ng as any of the Jap an ese bik es. Th e on ly wea kness in the packa ge w as his lack of race experien ce on a V -four. "I see w ha t th e o ther g uys d o wh en the tires ge t worn, and I'm not ready to do that ye t. I still have plenty to learn," he sa id . His teammate Luca Ca dalora,' meanwhile, end ed up wa y d own in 17th, com plain ing of handling problems . Mor e importantly, the Dutchman shad ed Alex Cri ville's Honda '- by less than a tenth - but enou gh for the championship leader to feel disappointed. T en en en ~ ~ 1l E .. .. 'ii tJl 10 Ukawa stayed wit h the pai r until the closi ng stages, then lost touch slig htly. "The Apri lias were very fast here," he said 1 ter . .1 T hus th e las t- la p showdow n was between the o ther two. In fact, Rossi tried a little ea rlier, only for Wa ldmann to nip ba ck ahead, leaving the Ita lia n to ge t untyp icall y fluster ed a nd run w ay w ide af te r ano ther frui tless a ttack. But th er e was still one lap left , and Rossi was confide nt. "Wald mann wa s tak ing so me stra nge lines , and I knew I was fas ter than him on th e second p art of th e lap," he sai d later. " In fact, I wa s able to pass at th e sta rt of the last lap, and I just made sure fro m there to keep th e d oor closed. " Waldmann slumped ov er the bars in disappointment as he crossed the line .7 o f a seco nd behind after le ading for most of the race, but soo n cheered up. "We had a great battle," Waldmann sai d . "It' s the firs t time I've ridd en with Ros si, so now he knows I can ride." Behin d Ukawa, akano had finally m an aged to get a bit of a break over his teammate Jacque an d the fadi ng Perugini , finishi ng four seconds clear. "1 am d isappointed to m iss the podium, but pl eased with th e way the bike we nt," aka no sa id . "We worked hard on the suspens ion and it was very good, and the en gine felt stro ng." Jacque w as jus t ahea d of Perugini, and delighted . " A fte r quali fying badl y I co ul d n' t im agin e the ra ce wo uld go so well, " Jacque sa id . "Whe n I ca ugh t Shinya I didn't want to put him under too much pr essure, because he has a championship position to think about, and I d on 't. " Capiros si was a no the r nine se co nd s ba ck a t th e fini sh a fter dropping back There were others there too w ith the same opinion, as "It's a diffi cult tra ck, and a nice tra ck, but it will be hard to win," Criville sai d . "(Max) Biaggi and Roberts the class of '99 jostled for position. Everyone on row two had won at least one GP. Tadayuki Okada wa s alongside ha ve both been very consistent." It had taken the Spaniard until the end of the session Roberts, th en ca me Carlo s Checa - enjoying the new Yamaha frame but no t the latest forks - then Alex Barros. to ge t som e confide nce in his tires and se tting s. Biaggi was alo ngside, with all his times not only close Norick Abe led row three from Joh n Kocinski, then but also fast, and he wa s looking qu ietly confident for Nobuatsu Aoki, with times so close that a whisk er made all the diff erence. Even the last man 'on row three, Garry the firs t time all year. "1 ha ve been run ning consistent tim es while testing McCoy, w as not far off th e pa ce, th e little Austra lia n tires, and that's good news," Biaggi said . "We have the clearly ge tti ng m ore to grips wit h th e big V- four as he new ch assis and forks wo rking we ll, wi th much more gai ns race expe rie nce. Th e sweepi ng corners and lack of low-speed sect ions feel fro m the fron t - and I know we can mak e them even favo r the sweet-ha nd ling Ap rilia in the 250cc class. But be tter wit h mo re time." The last man on row one was Tetsuva Ha ra da, th e althoug h new po ints leader Valentino Rossi had a new Aprilia again sho....ring that a lack of cyli nders -is no d is- improved chassis here, it was Ra lf Wa ldm a nn w ho advantage on a fast tra ck. Only on the final stee p ru n u p claimed po le - his firs t since 1997, ru nning strings of conthe hill did he feel any power d eficit , which he coul d sis tent la ps o n his fact ory Ap rilia to delig ht the la rge easily mak e up with the bike's better han d ling th rou gh contingen t ol Ge rman fans . The only othe r problem to the mid-speed and fast corners. He admitted he'd set his solve was his d ifficul ty getting off the start line . "1 have pra cticed hundred s of starts in the break," he good time on qualifying tires "as w e have d on e all year," bu t nonetheless felt im p roved chassis se tti ngs wou ld sa id, only half-jokingly. Lori s Ca piro ssi was next, less than a tenth down , but give him a good chance of ano the r podium. All this pu sh ed Roberts - fast est on the firs t da y - to looking hairy on his Honda . . the second row of the gri d, after he (like many o the rs) "This tra ck needs sm oo th rid ing, and my style is very ran into tra ffic problem s in the closing minutes. He put a aggressive," he explained , rather su perfluous ly, after brave face on it. New engi ne parts meant his bike wa s cras h ing o n Saturd ay m ornin g a nd co m ing close to accelera ting better o ut of the corners; new suspe ns ion d oin g it again in the afternoon. Ross i wa s alongside, finall y, tak ing tim e to ge t th e parts had improved th e balan ce, an d he'd been abl e to arri ve at race se tt ings ea rly and run throu gh th e ti re new chassis workingright - by reverting to old settings. combinati on s as we ll as test end urance and whether the He might have grabbed pole, he said, but for a mistake impro ved h andl in g wou ld s u rvive wh en th e tires . "trying too hard" at the end of the sess ion , "We lost a lot of time today working on settings." became wo rn , " Yo u a lways wa n t th e fr ont row, and w e m issed Stefano Perugini filled the front row, his first frontthat," Roberts said. "But I' m no t as disappointed as my row qu alifying effort on the factory Honda this year. "It crew. Th e bike is more ready for the race than earlier this takes time to get used to a new bike and a new team. year, and I can get the win, o r at least a podium, from Now I feel more confident: I think for the rest of the yea r the second row." I can expec t better results," he said .

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