Cycle News

By R MICHAEL In Tile Paddock Scon - o und O ne in the 150m ph boxing match saw a dari ng feinting el bow-attack from Max Biaggi to Valentino Rossi. The challenger was knocked to the ropes. Manfully , he ke pt his balance and bounced back. J ust as manfully he attacked again, to emerge the victor. Now it 's second s o ut fo r Ro u nd T wo . A nd who will strike the firs t blo w? We ll , hopefully neither , be c a us e th e re comes a po int when deliberate agg res s ive b o d y contact at raci ng speeds goe s ra ther be yond th e m ischi ev ous . Opin ion s were d ivided on whether Biaggi ' s b low at Su zuk a was below the belt. TV footage wa s anal yzed in the we e k a fte rwar d, and th ere is no doubt t h at Bi agg i ad de d h is e lbow to th e width of his bike , as he forced Rossi out onto th e g ra ss, though it is not clear wheth er he actually h it h im o r not. At t h e t ime , so me thought Biagg i sh ould be black -fla gge d at o nc e . O r f ined . O r p e n a liz e d . O r somethin g - and in earlier tim es th is probably would have happen ed . T h e c urrent race d irector, urbane Engl ishman Paul Butler, took a more sanguine view . "We decided that in fact he hadn't affected Rossi's trajectory. Max may have drifted a bit wide , but he was ahead on the racing line and defending his position." It was normal aggressive ridi ng . Th o ugh the el bow, he agreed, was a bit cyn ical. Is that a strong enough word? The consequences of Rossi hitting a dip , o n t h e grass at 150 mph , are unth in k a b le at that point o n an already dangerous tr a c k. The barrier is right up by the front straight - if it had been a movie , he would have ended up impaled on the spectator fence in front of the main gra nds ta nd - and possibly exploded . Thankfully , in re al life, he backed off and got back on the road . There 's a dilemma here . Close personal riva lry is the m e at a nd dr ink of good ra c ing - a s Brit ish fa ns well k no w. The battles last year between Chr is Walker and Neil .Hodgson were as fierce as anything yo u'll see a ny wh e re . They packed the crowds in but, eventually , Brit ish officials went public with warnings to both riders against da ngerous riding. It made not a jot of difference, of course , but covered their backsides , just in case any th ing nasty did happen . I am perfectly s ure that, ben eath the smooth talking, the same procedure will follow in G Ps . Max will get a quiet ta lk ing to, du ring which he will deny everyth ing except that he wa s ho lding his ra c ing line , and the situatio n will b e closely watched . After all, as Bu tler ob serve d, o nce suc h an incid e nt has pass ed , th e real dan g e r c o mes in th e p o s s ibility of retal iation. Rossi's rea ction after the rac e was m ore amused than a ng ry. As it had been duricg the race, whe n he stuffed it in fro nt of Max a la p or two la te r into Suzu ka 's daunting turn one , the n m id -corner too k h is le ft hand off the bar long enough to g ive him the finge r. Another s ign of the Ital ian 's charmed life - being able to turn a life-threate ning situation into a laugh, in which his attacker emerged as the fall guy . And all because nothing na sty d id happen. they take this sort of behavior more seriously . Red flags , in other words , because ( t r u e enough ) th ey are preferable to red bandages. Th is posturing is as much about the perception of political power as anyth ing: Zerbi is open to accusa tions of seizing on an o pportunity to look and sound important. In fact, the FIM has little po we r in racing , having taken the money instead , so it shouldn 't be taken too serio usly. E s p e c ia lly since the meet-wagons wer en 't involve d . T hat' s re a lly the po int. Aft er t he event, if it a ll ends up all right, th e more sava ge the attack the funni er it is . Ra c in g is full of su ch m om ents , es pec ia lly in th e 125cc class , wh ere not to o long ago it was normal practice to gra b hold of your rival 's seat o n the main stra ight and give a g reat heave to get p ast. And eve n m or e e s pecially in si dec ars, where sto rie s are rife o f passengers le aning over t o t ake a s q u e e z e on an ot her outfit 's f ro nt brake. And the y c a n g et s erious . Loris Cap irossi has tw ice been a c cused and once found gu ilty of del iberate dangerous riding. He won the 250cc titl e in 19 9 8 by ramm ing teammate Tetsuya Harada into the gravel ; and the next ye ar he T-boned veteran Marcellino Lucchi on t he start -line in Italy . And yet, off th e tra c k yo u real ly, genuinely coul d hardly m eet a nicer guy. My personal favo rit e is an o ld ti m e r from 1993, at the terrifyingly dangerous Osterreichring. Alex Barros , the nut from B ra zil ( w e ll, he was younger th e n) , was on for a third place, but was s lowed thro ug h the twis ts on t he la s t lap by the lat e Juan Lopez -Mela , a Spanish privateer he was lapping . He was so inc e ns ed that, instead of getting on with the business of whizzing over the hill a t high speed for the last time , he not onl y tried to run the other guy off the track , but he was actually aiming p unc hes at him . Wayne Rainey ne arly ran onto the grass trying to avoid all this , bu t laughs to th is da y as he remembers how he was gifted a valuabl e rostrum finish . eN ������... i ' it lIad b n a lIIovie, lie .",ould lIave ended up i pal d on tile spectator 'ence in 'ront til ain grandstand." 0' Then , however, the FIM president Francesco Zerbi chipped in. Writing in a flor id style ( Dr. C laud io Co s ta woul d be prou d) , h e add re s s e d an open letter to both riders , exhorting them to remember their pos ition a s e xamples to the world, and promis ing (ba s ic a lly) to have a word with the race official s , to ensu re that next tim e ��� salt Lake Supercross ��� Japanese World Superbike I e n .. _ s ��� Tennessee GNCC/HS ��� Belgian MX GP 104 MAV2 ,2001 ��� c u e ��� World Trials Opener ��� World Mini G rand Prix 30 YEARS AGO... MAY 11, 1971 Eve n thoug h the riders ar e p ict ur ed mos tly wa lking the ir bikes down the hill on the cover of Issue 1/17, their goal was to go up the slip pery s lop e : it just took most riders a few times before they ma de it. The event was a n AMXT Ben e fit Motocross as Cam egie Cycl e Park in live rmore, California , and Bob Grossi won all three Op en Sen io r motos in the dr izzly rain, eve n com ing close to lapping Bob Bowers in the third mota - and he was in second place . J ohn DeSoto (Mai) dom inated th e 250cc Sen ior class , ju st as Gross i did the Open class , winnin g all three motos ... J .N. Roberts (Hus) defeated all 755 riders who showed up at the Master Links MC Hare ��, Hound in Kramer Corners, Ca lifornia , finish ing more th an a minute ahead of Whitey Mart ino (Hus), who led early and finished second... Chuck "Feets" Minert (BSA) gave the kids a run for their money in the 500cc Expert class in Pomona, Califomia, and he would have won it o n his big, th umping BSA if it weren't for a last-lap get��off. CMC number one -plate holder Mike Cra m (Ma i) beat Minert to the flag for the win. 20 YEARS AGO... MAY 6, 19S1 Red-white-end-blue- clad Ke n ny Ro be rt s graced the cover of Issue i/17 , after Yamaha strayed from th eir yellow-and -black color scheme to white and red . In Roberts ' first race on the newly pa inted machine at Donington Park, he finished fifth. while Randy Mamo la (S uz) ran aw ay wit h the victory .. . Bob Ha n na h (Yam) and Mark Barnet t (Suz) split victories at the Pontiac Supercross Doublehead�� er. Hannah won Saturday's event. ahead of Ke nt Howerton (Su z) a nd defend ing cha mpion Mike Bell (Yam), and Bamett won Su nday's event in front of Bell an d Howerto n, respectiv ely . Barnett led the Supe rcross points standings by 26 after nine rou nd s .. . Suzu ki RG50 0-m ounted Marco Lucchinelli won the Imola 200 road race, defeating Kenny Roberts (Yam), who finished second... We feat ured a two-page photo sprea d com memorating the life of the late Stanley Michael Bailey Hailwood , who died in a car acci dent after years of dom inating road -racing and automobileracing events and championships. 10 YEARS AGO... MAYS, 1991 Te a m Yam ah a ' s Damo n Bradshaw got revenge for his loss at the Cha rlotte S u pe rcross - his home race by sailing to victory in Dallas, and across the c over of Iss ue 1/17. Kawa saki te ammates Jeff Ward a nd Mike Kiedrowski ro unde d out the podi um. The combined East/West 125cc main was led, almost to the end, by Brads haw's tee mmate Jeff Emig, only to be passed late in the race by a cha rging Jeremy McGrat h (Hon). McGrath 's Eas t Coa st teammate Jeromy Buehl finished a dista nt third... We ran a photo of Marlboro Yamaha 500cc GP competitor John Kocinski getti ng arrested after crashing out early from the 500 cc USGP. The charges included reck less driving, fleeing an officer and resisting a public officer... Some of the stars that shone bright eno ugh to win at the NMA World Mini Grand Prix in Las Vegas, Nevada, we re Danny Sm ith (Junior Cycle Stock 9 ��11) , Ricky Ca rm ich ae l (80cc Stock 9��11 , 80cc Modified 9��11), Robbie Reynard (8 0cc Stock 12-13, 80cc Modi�� fied 12��13), Craig Decker (80cc Modifi ed 14�� 16) and Ezra Lusk (125cc Stock Pro). >

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