Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

; ROAD RACE_W_o_fl_dC_h----,ampionship Road Race ~eries: Round 7 ~ ~ ~ ~ :> '" = >'" o f-< o ::t 0.. Alessandro Gramigni (8) leads Bruno Casanova (3) and the pack during the 125cc GP which was won by Casanova. The top seven were covered by just over a second. Wayne Rainey chipped a bone in his hand and twisted an ankle in this highside. Pier-Francesco Chili (7) won the 250cc Grand Prix after holding off Loris Reggiani (U) and Massamiliano Biaggi. All three were Italians, and all three rode Aprilias. 14 Alberto Puig's Aprilia, with the Japanese rider moving ahead in the closing stages. Seventh place saw a great deal of drama before being won by Noboyuki Wakai in his first 250 GP, standing in for the injured Wi leo Zeelenberg on the Lucky Strike Suzuki. The Japanese rider personally had a steady race, while erstwhile companion Jochen Schmid dropped back, and Capirossi disappeared backwards with fuel starvation problems. But Wakai's Suzuki teammate Hem Torrontegui was having a dramatic time. He'd been up as high as seventh in the early stages when he'd tangled with Shimizu on the entrance to the first chicane. The contact with the Honda pushed on his brakes, and though he managed to avoid crashing he ran straight through the chicane. Held back by the flag marshal, he. rejoined in 20th place, to embark on a marvelous comeback "ride, proving that the Suzuki has good top speed. Among his victims was Schmid's Yamaha, with the German forced to give way in a clash at the first chicane, rejoining out of touch. Wakai also succumbed, but stayed behind the identical Suzuki, overtaking him in the last lap. It is the first time that two Suzukis have scored points in the 250cc class since the factory comeback; and Wakai (having scored in the earlier 12Sec race) is the first person to take points in two classes on the same day since Jorge Martinez in 1990. Capirossi was ninth, and Bruno Kassner (Aprilia) 10th, taking his first championship point. It should really have gone to Carlos Lavado, had he not outbraked himself on the way into the stadium section for the last time, but perhaps that was poetic justice, for the Gilera rider was blamed for having knocked Stefan Prein off in a spectacular crash at the second chicane. (The second Gilera, ridden by Ruggia, retired after two laps.) Cadalora's championship lead was cut, but he is still 50 points ahead, with 130 to Reggiani's 70. Brad! has 57, Chili 52, and the remarkable Biaggi 43. 12See GP Hockenheim's wide open spaces may dwarf the speed of the littlest GP machines, but not so the talent of the riders. There were seven of them in the leading group this time, and all of them made it to the finish line, covered by just over one second. It hardly mattered who led when and where, since it was the last lap that decided matters - but for the record it was Bruno Casanova's Aprilia in front from the start, with Dirk Raudies's fast Honda taking the lead on the run back to the stadium to control lap one. Casanova was in front next time 'round, by when Noboru Ueda's Honda had crashed out of the front group, leaving the rest to put up a brilliant display of TV racing, drafting on the straights, splitting three abreast into the bends, and all looking for every chance to take control and break free. It looked as though last year's winner Ralf Waldmann and his Honda might do so after he led for the first time on the sixth lap, and stayed in front for the next three. But whatever inches he managed to gain here or there soon disappeared again, with Raudies getting back in front. Alessandro Gramigni (Aprilia) also took a tum at leading; while Fausto Gresini (Honda) had a go (inadvertently, no doubt) at knocking Ezio Gianola off in the stadium section, dropping the double race-winner to the back of the group with four laps left. But it all came down to a mad scramble at the finish, when the various tactics saw a variety of cornering lines and much weaving from side to side to try and break the slipstream. Gresini's charge won him the lead as they ran through the last chicane. But Casanova would not be 'denied his longawaited first GP win, and outbr.aked his countryman into the stadium section to lead to the flag. Gresini was second, Waldmann third, then came Gabrielle Debbi.: (Honda), Gianola, Raudies and Grarnigni. And the crowd stopped holding its breath. Wild card rider Stefan Kurfiss was eighth, and Noboyuki Wakai took ninth, shOWing he hadn't slacked off his 125 effort in favor of the forthcoming 250 race. Casanova moved to a close second place in the championship, with 69 points to Waldmann's 84. Gianola and Gresini are equal third on 61 points - at least one of the title battles is still open. SidecarGP The last race of the day deserved better support from the crowd, only a few of whom stayed to watch Steve Webster/Gavin Simmons pursue a desperate race-long battle with Klaus Klaffenbock/Christian Parzer that was only resolved in the fmal sprint to the flag. Webster took his second win of the year by less than three-tenths of a second. Rolf Biland held second for most of the race, but while he'd been happy early on with haVing found extra power, it turned out to cause problems stretching the chain, and he dropped back to eighth. This left a close battle for the last rostrum place between Darren Dixon and Yoshi Kumagaya, with the Englishman taking third by a second. Ralph Bohnhorst, winner here last year, defeated the Guedel brothers by a similar margin for sixth. There was good scrapping down the field, but leading light Egbert Streuer retired a t the end of the first lap with crankshaft problems. (N Results 125 QUALIFYING: I. Rail Waldmann (2:18.346); 2. Ezio Gianola (2: 18.6(6); 3. Bruno Casanova (2:18.744); 4. Gabriele !>ebbia (2:19.894): 5. o;rl< Raudies (2:20.007); 6. Peter Oetll (2:20.182); 7. Oliver PeLrucciani (2:20.213); 8. Alessandro Gramigni (2:20.133); 9. jorge Martinez (2:20.517); 10. oburu Ueda (2:20.693); II. Fausto Grosini (2:20.762); 12. Nobuyuki Wakai (2:20.930): 13. Oliver Koch (2:21.021); 14. Kazuto Sakata (2:21.607); 15. Carlos Giro (2:21.672); 16. Hisashi Unemoto (2:21.692); 17. Maik Stief (2:21.776): 18. Lock Bodelier (2:21.793); 19. S'ela" Kurfi" (2:21.853); 20. Hans Spaan (2:21.999): 21. Alain Bronec (2:22. 108); 22. T. Shimizu (2:22.226); 23. Alex Waibel (2:22.637); 24. Kinya Wada (2:22.750); 25. julian Miralles (2:23.029); 26. Ari Molenaar (2:23.175); 27. Oliver Kohlinger (2:23.530): 28. Manuel Hernandez (2:23.549); 29. Giovanni Palmieri (2:23.877); 30. Luis Alvaro (2:23.966); 31. Robin Appleyard (2:24.798); 32. Peter Galvin (2:25.002); 33. Steven PaLrickson (2:25.366); 34. Heinz Luetbi (2:25.601); 35. Mauro Vitali (2:26.068); 36. Hans Abold (2:26.158). 250 QUALIFYING: I. Massamiliano Biaggi (2:06.630); 2. Loris Reggiani (2:06.927); 3. Helmut Bradl (2:07.134); 4. Pier-Francesco Chili (2:07.205); 5. Luca Cadalora (2:07.929); 6. Loris Capirossj (2:08.488); 7. Nobuyuki Wakai (2:08.549); 8. Carlos Lavado (2:08.849); 9. Herri Torrontegui (2:08.902); 10. Masahiro Shimizu (2:09.063); I I. joch"" Schmid (2:09.284); 12. Alberto Puig (2;09.424); 13. J.P. Ruggia (2:09.483); 14. Stefan Prein (2:09.619); 15. Bernd Kassner (2:09.762); 16. Doriano Rombonl (2:09.772); 17. Andy Preining (2:09.780); 18. P.V.D. Goorberg (2:JO.156); 19. Paolo Casoli (2:10.181); 20. Q"los Cardus (2:10.496); 21. Eric Suter (2:JO.684); 22. Harald Eckl (2:10.908); 23. Adrien Busshard (2:11.082); 24. Bernard Haenggeli (2:1 LJ40): 25. Frederic Prota, (2:11.218); 26. j.V.D Goorberg (2:11.684); 27. Erkka Korpiaho (2:11.740): 28. L. D'Antin (2:J 1.843): 29. Jean Jeandal (2:11.979); 30. Ari Stadler (2:12.108); 31. Katsuyoshi Kozono (2: 12.580): 32. Yves Briguet (2:12.702); 33. M. Gallina (2:12.891); 34. v. Baehr(2:12.981); 35. RenzoColleoni (2:13.477): 36. Bernard Cazade (2:14.378); 37. E. Bischoff (2: 14. 750). 500 QUALIFYING: I. Michael Doohan (1:58.325); 2. Wayne Rainey (1:59.731); 3. Kevin Schwanu (2:00.064); 4.. john Kocinski (2:00.310); 5. Doug Chandler (2:00.572); 6. Wayne Gardner (2:00.677); 7. Alex Barros (2:00.686); 8. Eddie Lawson (2:01.200); 9. Juan Garriga (2:01.393); 10. Alex Criville (2:01.57 I); II. Niall Mackenzie (2:01.703); 12. Randy Mamola (2:02.664); 13. Peter Goddard (2:02.710): 14. Tierry Crine (2:03.042); 15. Miguel DuHamel (2:03.162); 16. Corrado Catalano (2:03.990); 17. Serlle David (2:04.040); 18. T. Arakaki (2:04.402); 19. F.ddlC Laycock (2:04.516); 20. DominiqueSarron (2:04.525); 21. Michael Rudroff (2:05.159): 22. Kevin Mitchell (2:05.261); 23. juan-Lopez Mella (2:05.284); 24. Simon Buckmaster (2:05.409): 25. Gees Doorakkers (2:06.641); 26. Niggi Schmassman (2:08.038); L. Pedereini (2:08.906); 28. C. Areiero (2:08.912); 29. Marco Papa (2:09.489): 30. Peler Graves (2:09.510): 31. Joseph Doppler (2:10.093). SIDECAR QUALIFYING: I. BilandlWaltispeTR (2:09.960): 2. Webster/Simmons (2:JO.222): 3. SLreuer/Brown (2:10.566); 4. Klalfenbock/Paner (2:10.628); 5. Guedel/Guedel (2: 11.195); 6. Busiger/ Leibundgut (2: 11.500); 7. Bohnhorst/HilJer (2:11.987); 8. Abbott/Smith (2: 12.325); 9. Kumagaya/ Houghton (2: 12.386); 10. Dixon/Hetering'on n

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