PREVIEW
World Championship Road Race Series
By Michael SCott
Photos by Gold & Goose
(Above) Three-time
250cc World
Champion Max
Blaggl finds
himself on a new
bike, with a new
sponsor, and in a
new team for 1997.
(Left) Three-time
SOOcc World
Champion Michael
Doohanis
expected to win his
fourth title in 1997.
Again, his biggest
challenge should
come from his
Spanish teammate
Alex Criville
(below).
-
ake your seats, ladies and gentleiJ1en, for the Miel< and Alex show.
It features an Old Master and a
New Pretender. It has a clash of
machine types (though you can't a~al
ly see the clifference). It has a suPporting
cast of eager wanna-bes, rangmg m status from nearly-men to almost-stars,
with a fertile field of maybe-let's-seeriders in between. And, way out in left
field, Anthony Gobert.
On second thoughts, don't take your
seats. Rather, heed the usual warning.
Stand well back from the barriers.
The rivalry between the two RepsolHonda works men overshadows the
coming Grand Prix confrontation, over
15 rounds in almost all four comers of
the world. Michael Doohan and Alex
Criville finished last year in Australia
with Doohan clearly on top, champion
again for a third year in succession; but
with the younger Spaniard now snapping so hard at his heels that the ISsue
J
