Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

gave it to o much rea r brake, and it stepped right out and threw him off. "I made a mis take - but it's only those people who never take any risk , that never make any mistakes," he said later. ow Robe rts had caught McCoy and O kad a, and with five laps left a battle ' royal commenced. On lap 27 Okada and Robe rts had passed the Australian, but it seemed the Honda rider had a narrow advantage. Then he chucked it all away on the penultimate time round the final ben d , r unn ing wide so both of th e m went past. Th ey held th is order to the finis h, a disappoi n ted O ka da slowing acr oss the line and saying later, "It was my mista ke, but in these cond itio ns it' s jus t as easy to cras h as it is to do a good race." Th e ne xt pair of Yam a ha s had been losin g grou nd s tead ily, Checa nip pin g past Abe on lap 18 and hold ing on to the end . "I am jus t glad to finish after crashing twice. I had to be ve ry carefu l," he said later. ( Abe in tu rn said, "I cou ld n' t ge t pa st Checa beca use there was only one dry line at the end ." He was just over a tenth behind him. " Biaggi had been losing grou nd hand ov er fist behind them, complaining of p oo r handling on h is intermed ia tes. Mean while anoth er qu artet had been battling beh in d him, un til Juan Borja 's Movista r Honda cras hed ou t, s plitting them up and lett ing Kocinski esca pe up front. He closed right u p on Biaggi, bu t was also qu ite unable to find a way past, finishing righ t on his rear wh eel. The othe r tw o, Repsol Hond a's Sete Gib ern au and Movistar Honda's Alex Ba rros, d id manage to swa p o nce o r tw ice, Gibe rna u co ncedi ng to Barros with four laps to go, only to nip back in front on the last lap. Harad a was way back in l l th, his Vtwi n failing to enjoy the condi tions; then came No buatsu Aoki , having a terri b le afternoon on the seco nd Suzuki, unwilling to be agg ressi ve w ith ze ro g r ip. Se bas t ia n Gi m bert's Elf H onda wa s 13th, Spa nis h 500cc first-time r David d e Gea 14th on the Mod enas, last rid er on the sa me lap as the lead er s. Tea m ma te Mike Hale claimed the last poin t. Su rprisingly, there were n ot ma ny crashes. In add ition to Borja and CrivilIe, Ma rk Wi llis was the on ly other, d roppin g th e BSL Mod ena s afte r six laps. Jurgen va n den Goo rbergh retired his MuZ wit h a dead engine. TeamU 'date W orld champion-elect Alex Crivi lle wi ll stay wi th the facto ry Honda team next year, after r ea ching a verba l agreement on the first day of practice in Valencia . This is no t su rprisi ng, bu t it is important mo re by defau lt - this is the first time for five years at least that the annual round of sig ning did not have to wait until Mick Dooh an ma de his decision first. Mu ch still d epends on Mick however, not leas t on whe ther or not he will rid e, and whe the r or not he will put together his own team. One possible scenario, still bandied about at Valencia, was that Mick could field a team for 250cc su perstar and champ ion-elect Valentin o Rossi. This would be a n a ttrac tive package for sponsors, even if Doohan is not one of the rid ers . Lori s Capiros si has been offe red a b ig-m on ey three- yea r Du cati Superbike co n tract, in an a ttem p t to lure th e former 125cc a nd 250cc cha mpion and 500cc GP wi n ner away from GPs to the four-stroke series - and after his problems in GPs he mig ht accep t. "He wo uld prefer to sta y in GPs ," said manager Ca rlo Perna t. "Bu t the mon ey is very high , and he has had a lot of tro uble in GPs:' Capirossi was sacked by Ap rilia las t year after kn ocking off cha m p ion-d esign a te Tetsuya Harada in the last race, and suspended for two races this yea r after a start-line collisio n at Mugello. The recruitment move is thought to be a deliberate a tta ck on the GP seri es by Italian Superbike se ries promoter Maurizio Flammini. Several other major teams are already settled. Suzu ki's ann ual hopes for a three-rider team have again corne to nothing, after manager Garry Ta ylor flew to the facto ry a fter th e last round, They already have Kenn y Roberts and Nobuatsu Aoki under contract. Taylor also scotched rumor s that Suzuki might su p p ly a sate lli te tea m next sea son - Alex Barros had been nam ed as a po ten tial rider. "We will only ha ve ou r factory team," he said . Marlboro Yamaha has their tw o riders on two -year contracts - Max Biagg i an d Carlos Checa. Red Bull Yama ha is engaged in replaci ng their lost sponso r, Red Bull, pu lling ou t at the en d of the season. One possibili ty is t40bil 1, which wa s present at Valencia . 'W e'd been talk ing to them for a lon g time," said manager Pete r Clif ford . I Howe ver, the remain ing places at !-!RC remai n to be filled . Sete Giberna u is likely to be offered a place, while Tadayu ki C riv ille's lead shran k by 20 p oints, 219 to Rob ert s ' 173, no w p ut tin g o n so me p ressure for th e last four races. Okada has 164, Giberna u 114 and Biaggi 109, with Harada (94) ha ng ing o n to sixth from Kocinski (90) and Checa (89). Tohru Ukawa (4) had the wet conditions mastered. The Japanese rider took the win to gain valuable points on championsh ip leader Valentino Ross i. Here, Ukawa leads Brit Jeremy McWilliams (9). 250cc GRAND PRIX die mo men tarily one lap late r, d ropping him out of the leading pack and leavin g him struggling wi th a misfire. Ja cqu e rem ounted an d ca rried o n, ge tting back into the poi nts, but a han d le bar mad e th e throttle s tiff, and his foot rest was missing. Whe n h is hand we nt numb after 20 laps, he gave up the un eq ual struggle. All goo d news fo r Ukawa , w ith Na ka no riding tentat ivel y so th at th e Honda ma n was ab le to s tart fo rgi ng away. Th ere was to be n o easy rid e, how ever, as McWilliams go t pa s t th e Ya ma ha q ui te easi ly o n la p five and closed right up on thel eader by lap 10. U ka w a w a s a b le to fe nd h im o ff . Mea nwhile Ralf Wald m a n n' s Aprilia had also joined the group, if a little distantly , wh ile Ba t ta ini was ch a rg in g th ro ugh from 11th on the firs t lap. He caug ht and passed Wald mann, now losing g ro u n d , o n la p 12, a n d was o n McWilliams two laps later, passing him qui te easi ly and eve n closing on Uka wa, thou gh in the closin g laps his very soft tires forced him to slow on the dryin g track. Ca pi ross i h a d s ta r te d we ll , b ut dropped back in the early laps. Now he too wa s on the move, and .he had caught and pa ssed Waldmann w he n the German rid er ran on to the di rt and w as forced to bale out. "I was hea d ing for the barrier so fast ," he sai d later , after being trea ted for con cussion. Th e Ita lian qui ck ly closed th e tw oseco n d g a p to M cWilliams, w it h Na ka no sticking to his back wheel as he ga ined con fidence. Th e Irish rid er was now in trouble, havin g fitted a na rrower rear rim for t he wet, a nd one by o ne they go t passed. He still had a safe fifth, bu t that was not eno ug h, and he cras hed out on the first corner one lap lat er. The fro nt men carried on to the finish, Ukawa delighted with his fine win, punching the air as he crossed the line. "The bik e setu p was fantastic today," he said . "I was sHding a little toward s the end as the tires wo re thin, but it was not . a problem." Batta ini was as happy wi th his beste ve r G P fi n is h ; Ca p iro ss i a lso w it h third , an d mor e valuable poi nts. "It wa s ve ry easy to cr as h today , and I was Nakano led away, and all go t throu gh the first corne r sa fely. ot so the seco nd . Ukawa had pushed thro ugh to the fro nt by th en , bu t had a s lide a nd slowed. Behind him Rossi d id the sa me, onlv to b e clobbered fro m behind b y Ja cqu e, w ho had no wh ere to go . Ja cqu e fell, Rossi cont inue d , only for his engine to O kada may be ea rma rke d fo r a sep a ra te new team with a Japanese sponso r. Pu tati ve teammate could be All-Japan Cha mpion ship sta r and former wildcard GP winner Daijiro Kato h. There is uncertain ty ove r the future of two other teams . MuZ sponsor Weber has threatened to pull ou t, after the d ebacle this year wi th Luca Cadalora; whi le Team Roberts is mo re than anxious to secure back ing for either their Mod en as tripl e, or possiblya four-eylinder ma chin e. We ber, a self-made m ul ti-mill iona ir e engi neer ing firm ow ner, was known to be unhappy with Cadalora wh en the onaga in / off-again Italian rid er pulled out of the first two rounds of the season. Matters came to a head at.Assen, when Cadalora again pulled ou t for no a p p are nt good rea son, a nd it was reported that he had been sacked as Simon Crafar took over the rid e for th e British GP. Cadalora returned for th e next ra ce, ap parently agai nst Weber's w ish es; but now has gon e again a ft er wit hd ra wi ng fr om the Czech Republic G P. "A t th e mom ent , our chan ces of conti nui ng next year are about SO/ SO," sai d team boss Rolf Biland . Modenas also has problems caused by an acu te sho rtage of riders, which makes it difficu lt to attract spo nsors. An tho ny Gobert's proposed rid e in the Au stralian and Sout h African GPs as Cadalora's rep lacement is in jeopa rd y, as strife wi th in the MuZ team rages over the issue. Team manager Rolf Biland is insistent that he sho uld be given the ride, while team sp onsor Alfred Web er and MuZ boss Petr-Karel Korous a re equally insis ten t that he shou ld no t. Co ntroversy has long followed the 24-yea r-o ld rid er , s ince before he was sac ked by Suz u ki for failing a drugs test in 1997, and the proposed GP retu rn is no excep tion. As Gobert left his U.S. Superbike team fumin g a t the final round at Pikes Peak, failing to turn up for a race where he could have p lay ed an im portant ro le in helping his teammat e Ben Bostrom w in th e t itl e, te leph one lin es be twee n Ge r ma n y, Switzerla nd and Au stralia were hu m ming. Gobe rt' s entry wa s accep ted by IRTA and Dorna, but Biland said , "I don' t kn ow yet if it will go ah ead." The rid er will hav e to pass a com p ulsory FIM d ru g test in any case - a cond ition of his license after his test failu re. "If he fails, the n ou r ga rage door will n ot be open to h im," said Biland . But Biland is under considera ble press ure from his bosses, w ho have threat ened to w ithd raw the en try if Bila nd goes ahead. 25

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