VOLUME 58 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 14, 2021 P141
old road racer from Australia,
was brought in by the Marlboro
Dealer Team to contest the race.
"I remember being a little
cocky when I got out there,"
Doohan says. "I'd been doing
quite well in Australia, and it was
my first year of superbike racing.
I got out there and went reason-
ably well in qualifying, but I think
my teammate [Michael Dowson]
and [Marco] Lucchinelli and
those guys... I was surprised
how fast the Ducati was going
because I'd never seen a Ducati
perform like that before."
The first of the two legs began
just after rain drenched the
opening ceremonies. Doohan,
who had qualified fifth for the
race, took the early lead, only to
crash.
"In the first race, it was raining,
and I got to the lead and fell off
on the first lap," Doohan says.
"I picked it back up and got to
third, and then I crashed again.
That was it. I stopped."
New Zealander Gary Goodfel-
low won the race, while Doohan
was credited with 31st place, a
result that didn't please his team
manager one bit.
"Warren Willing was the team
manager at the time, and he laid
down the law a little bit," Doohan
recalls.
But under drier conditions,
Doohan was able to show what
he was made of. Yamaha's
Fabrizio Pirovano blasted into the
lead in race two, while Doohan,
who came from inside of row
two, was mired in the pack. But
Doohan's fortunes would change
again as the result of another
crash—this time, not one of his
own. Stephane Mertens dropped
oil on the track, and on the next
lap, Marco Lucchinelli hit the
slick spot and went down, leav-
ing Doohan's Marlboro teammate
and fellow Australian Michael
Dowson with nowhere to go.
Dowson crashed as well, his Ya-
maha disintegrating and bursting
into flames, forcing the race to
be red flagged.
When the race was restarted,
36 riders were on the grid to do
battle for 22 laps. Pirovano again
got a blazing start, but this time
Australia's Robert Phillis and
Doohan came with the Italian.
Phillis was the first to pass him,
but Doohan soon passed both to
take over the lead. After staving
off some pressure from Virginio
Ferrari on the Honda RC30,
Doohan and his Yamaha pulled
clear to take an important victory.
"I won it, and won it quite
easily," Doohan says. "Within
two weeks, Honda was at my
door at home wanting me to sign
with them. I won the next race
in Australia and then went and
tested the Yamaha [GP bike].
Then I signed for Honda when I
went to Fuji to do an F1 race. And
Yamaha wasn't too pleased. I
signed with Honda on a Saturday
and had to race for Yamaha the
following day.
"Everything I did in Japan in
1987 and '88, I couldn't put a foot
wrong, and that sort of steered
me on the path to go Grand Prix
racing."
Judging by the five 500cc
World Road Racing crowns that
he went on to earn before retir-
ing after another crash, it was a
good path to take.
CN
Success
Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives
Doohan's first major win was a
World Superbike race in Sugo in
1988 aboard a Yamaha.
