1991 United States motorcycle Grand Prix

The 1991 United States Motorcycle Grand Prix was the third round of the 1991 FIM Grand Prix motorcycle roadracing season, held on the weekend of April 19–21, 1991 at Laguna Seca Raceway. This event featured no fewer than four American riders on competitive equipment, plus two more on B-level machines, during the era of U.S. domination.

  1991 United States Grand Prix

Race details
Race 3 of 15 races in the 1991 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	April 21, 1991
Official name	United States International Grand Prix
Location	Laguna Seca Raceway
Course	Permanent racing facility 3.520 km (2.187 mi)
500cc
Pole position Rider Wayne Rainey Yamaha Time 1:26.464 Fastest lap Rider Wayne Rainey Yamaha Time 1:27.040 Podium First Wayne Rainey Yamaha Second Mick Doohan Honda Third Kevin Schwantz Suzuki
250cc
Pole position Rider Luca Cadalora Honda Time 1:29.030 Fastest lap Rider Luca Cadalora Honda Time 1:28.912 Podium First Luca Cadalora Honda Second Wilco Zeelenberg Honda Third Loris Reggiani Honda
Sidecar (B2A)
Pole position Rider Alain Michel Krauser Time 1:32.023 Fastest lap Rider Alain Michel Krauser Time 1:32.212 Podium First Steve Webster Krauser Second Alain Michel Krauser Third Darren Dixon LCR-Krauser

500 cc race report

QUALIFYING -- Kevin Schwantz wasn't getting the drive he wanted out of the corners in practice on his Suzuki RGVr500. "Rear wheel grip is definitely our biggest shortcoming. We're trying different combinations of raising and lowering the front and rear ends of the bike," Schwantz commented. He ended third-fastest in qualifying, later joking: "'The easiest way to correct our problem is to steer the front wheel in the direction of the slide."

Australian Mick Doohan, Honda's number one man, encountered front-end difficulties while trying to secure a decent grid positive for the race. "I'll lay it in and it wants to run wide. I can't get it on a tight enough line," Doohan complained. Mick's race-day plan was to gear the machine down, so as to better allow the power of his NSR500 to turn the bike by drifting the rear Michelin.

Four-time World Champion Eddie Lawson told reporters he was spending a lot of time supporting his Cagiva on his knee because his front end was pushing fairly often. Lawson continued to adjust settings and qualified his Italian machine just behind Doohan.

Keen attention was paid to reigning 250cc champion John Kocinski, who was race-favorite Wayne Rainey's new teammate on a 500 at Marlboro Roberts Yamaha. He hustled his bike around Laguna less than one-tenth of a second slower than Rainey in practice. "The knowledge of riding the 250 doesn't pertain to riding a 500 - it's a totally different animal," explained Kocinski. "You've got a lot more braking to worry about and the acceleration areas are a lot different. You've got a slower apex speed, a much faster exit and a faster entrance too, so everything's got to change." Kocinski's fourth and third place finishes in the opening races of the season indicated that he wouldn't have much trouble transitioning to the more powerful machine, though. And like Rainey, he considered Laguna his domain.

As expected, Rainey qualified ahead of Kocinski on pole position. "You've got to attack this race track. Bike set-up is critical here and some of the other guys had problems," Rainey observed. Less than one second covered 1st through 5th places on the starting grid.

RACE—For the main event Schwantz donned an Arai helmet custom painted in army camouflage as his personal tribute to the U.S. troops who risked their lives for operation Desert Storm. The rear of the helmet featured a caricature nicknaming him "Stormin' Kevin Schwantzkopf" in a nod to American general Norman Schwarzkopf.

After the green light Schwantz and Rainey touched going over the turn one crest. Schwantz dove into the turn two hairpin first, followed closely by Rainey and Doohan. Rainey slipped inside Schwantz at the entrance to turn three. Schwantz changed his line to put the Suzuki side-by-side with Rainey heading toward turn four but Wayne had already begun to stretch a lead as they powered through the infield. Through the Corkscrew the order was Rainey, Schwantz, Doohan, Kocinski, Lawson and Wayne Gardner. Doohan had a problem coming down the hill and lost a few places. One lap later Rainey set the fastest time of the race, working his Dunlop tires to the limit, getting sideways out of the turn two, and pulling away steadily.

Kocinski soon settled down to low 1:27 times that rivaled his teammate's but didn't get by Schwantz into second place until the end of lap 5, squeezing him out on the brakes going into the turn eleven kink before the front straight. Two laps later, perhaps a bit too eager to close the gap to Rainey, Kocinski highsided out of the hairpin. Unhurt, he attempted to rejoin the race. "I got it started again but it didn't sound too good," Kocinski lamented. "I think it may have got some dirt in the motor so there was no use going on."

Schwantz inherited second place with Mick Doohan snapping at his heels after recovering from his miserable first lap. Doohan's Michelins began spinning on lap 4, so his lines were quite different from Schwantz's, who was great on the brakes but still had no drive.

"It was obvious that I was slowing him down," Schwantz said later. "Every time I looked back I just saw a big number three, I couldn't see any sky or anything. I ran as fast as I could but when the front started chattering I had to let him by." Doohan took over second on lap 21. By this time Rainey had an insurmountable lead so Mick held his Honda steady in second with Schwantz bringing the Suzuki in a comfortable third.

The scrap for fourth place was lively as Jean-Philippe Ruggia, Gardner, Lawson, and his Cagiva teammate Alexandre Barros interchanged positions several times in a four-man freight train. Ruggia finally pulled ahead of the group with Lawson finishing fifth. Barros chased Lawson home, with Gardner charging across the line in seventh place after a brief off-track excursion in turn six where he had crashed twice before in the previous two years. Juan Garriga, Adrien Morillas, and Didier de Radiguès rounded out the top ten.

Salinas-native Doug Chandler parked his Roberts B-Team Yamaha early in the race due to mechanical problems.

According to Michael Scott, Kocinski was so upset after his crash that he drove away from the track recklessly and refused to pull over when stopped by a policeman; he was arrested and sentenced to community service.

500 cc classification

Pos.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Grid	Points
1	Wayne Rainey	Marlboro Team Roberts	Yamaha	35	51:19.361	1	20
2	Mick Doohan	Rothmans Honda Team	Honda	35	+6.974	4	17
3	Kevin Schwantz	Lucky Strike Suzuki	Suzuki	35	+16.603	3	15
4	Jean-Philippe Ruggia	Sonauto Yamaha Mobil 1	Yamaha	35	+19.931	10	13
5	Eddie Lawson	Cagiva Corse	Cagiva	35	+21.851	5	11
6	Alex Barros	Cagiva Corse	Cagiva	35	+25.091	7	10
7	Wayne Gardner	Rothmans Honda Team	Honda	35	+35.069	6	9
8	Juan Garriga	Ducados Yamaha	Yamaha	35	+43.188	9	8
9	Adrien Morillas	Sonauto Yamaha Mobil 1	Yamaha	35	+53.613	8	7
10	Didier de Radiguès	Lucky Strike Suzuki	Suzuki	35	+1:03.059	13	6
11	Rich Oliver	Marlboro Team Roberts	Yamaha	34	+1 lap	14	5
12	Robbie Petersen	Marlboro Team Roberts	Yamaha	34	+1 lap	15	4
13	Eddie Laycock	Millar Racing	Yamaha	34	+1 lap		3
14	Cees Doorakkers	HEK-Baumachines	Honda	32	+3 laps		2
15	Niggi Schmassman	Schmassman Technotron	Honda	31	+4 laps		1
Ret	Doug Chandler	Roberts B Team	Yamaha	22	Retired	11
Ret	Sito Pons	Campsa Honda Team	Honda	10	Retired	12
Ret	John Kocinski	Marlboro Team Roberts	Yamaha	6	Retired	2
Sources:

250 cc classification

Pos	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Grid	Points
1	Luca Cadalora	Honda	30	45:07.590	1	20
2	Wilco Zeelenberg	Honda	30	+6.074	4	17
3	Loris Reggiani	Aprilia	30	+15.044	2	15
4	Carlos Cardús	Honda	30	+19.352	5	13
5	Masahiro Shimizu	Honda	30	+25.933	9	11
6	Andreas Preining	Aprilia	30	+38.725	8	10
7	Martin Wimmer	Suzuki	30	+50.153	3	9
8	Helmut Bradl	Honda	30	+53.263	6	8
9	Àlex Crivillé	Honda	30	+59.804	11	7
10	Jochen Schmid	Honda	30	+1:03.512	12	6
11	Jean-Pierre Jeandat	Honda	30	+1:18.138		5
12	Carlos Lavado	Yamaha	30	+1:25.047	10	4
13	Doriano Romboni	Honda	30	+1:29.149		3
14	Harald Eckl	Aprilia	30	+1:29.756	14	2
15	Stefan Prein	Honda	30	+1:37.767		1
16	Jim Filice	Yamaha	30	+1:39.633	15
17	Bernard Hänggeli	Aprilia	30	+1:40.754
18	Urs Jucker	Yamaha	30	+1:46.428
19	Leon van der Heyden	Honda	30	+1:50.358
20	Jaime Mariano	Aprilia	30	+2:03.170
21	Nick Ienatsch	Yamaha	30	+2:18.506
22	Chris D'Aluisio	Yamaha	30	+2:22.648
23	Rick Kirk	Yamaha	30	+2:32.444
24	Corrado Catalano	Honda	30	+2:38.468
25	Jon Cornwell	Yamaha	30	+2:50.132
26	Mike Sullivan	Yamaha	29	+1 lap
27	Ian Newton	Yamaha	28	+2 laps
Ret	Pierfrancesco Chili	Aprilia	24	Retired	7
Ret	Alberto Puig	Yamaha	17	Retired
Ret	Frédéric Protat	Aprilia	16	Retired
Ret	Kevin Mitchell	Yamaha	15	Retired
Ret	Allan Scott	Yamaha	10	Retired
Ret	Rick Tripodi	Yamaha	7	Retired
Ret	Paolo Casoli	Yamaha	1	Retired	13

Sidecar classification

Pos	Rider	Passenger	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	Steve Webster	Gavin Simmons	Krauser	30	47:03.220	2	20
2	Alain Michel	Simon Birchall	Krauser	30	+9.465	1	17
3	Darren Dixon	Sean Dixon	LCR-Krauser	30	+29.100	5	15
4	Rolf Biland	Kurt Waltisperg	Krauser	30	+32.018	4	13
5	Markus Egloff	Urs Egloff	Yamaha	30	+40.265	8	11
6	Steve Abbott	Shaun Smith	LCR-Krauser	30	+43.759	6	10
7	Ralph Bohnhorst	Bruno Hiller	LCR	30	+53.794	10	9
8	Paul Güdel	Charly Güdel	LCR-Krauser	30	+1:17.234	11	8
9	René Progin	Gary Irlam	LCR	30	+1:26.511	9	7
10	Masato Kumano	Eckhart Rösinger	Yamaha	30	+1:26.781	13	6
11	Barry Brindley	Grahame Rose	LCR-Yamaha	29	+1 lap	12	5
12	Frank Voigt	Holger Voigt	Schuh-Spezial	28	+2 laps		4
13	Alfred Zurbrügg	Martin Zurbrügg	Yamaha	27	+3 laps	15	3
Ret	Barry Smith	David Smith	Windle-ADM	23	Retired
Ret	Theo van Kempen	Jan Kuyt	LCR-Krauser	20	Retired
Ret	Tony Baker	Simon Prior	LCR-Krauser	18	Retired
Ret	Derek Brindley	Nick Roche	LCR-Krauser	15	Retired	14
Ret	Egbert Streuer	Peter Essaff	LCR-Yamaha	10	Retired	3
Ret	Yoshisada Kumagaya	Bryan Houghton	Krauser	9	Retired	7
Ret	Werner Kraus	Thomas Schröder	ADM	9	Retired
Ret	Gary Thomas	Gary Twenstrup	Krauser	3	Retired