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ROAD RACE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROAD RACE SERIES (lett) Tadayukl Okada (7) leads Alex Crlvllle (2), Michael Doohan (1) and the rest of the 500cc PB.ck in the season-openlng Malaysian Grand Prix, held In Shah Alam. (Below) luca Cadalora started slowly but persevered to finish fourth, the first nonHonda in the results. By Michael SCott Photos by Gold & Goose SHAH ALAM, MALAYSIA, APR. 13 ig changes added up to no change at the season-opening Malaysian Grand Prix at Shah Alam today. In both 500 and 250cc classes, the defending champions claimed strong race wins. One used a different type of engine from everybody else, the other had a complete bike and team change. But for Mick Doohan and Max Biaggi, it was business as usual. Doohan's win w.as the most interesting, for several reasons. The Repsol Honda rider was giving the new version of the old pre-Big Bang "Screamer" engine its racing debut. At a track notorious for ripping up tires, on an engine that theoretically should be harder on rubber than the Big Bang, he was extending his lead hand over fist in the closing laps, while teammate Alex Criville was doing the opposite. The Spanish Big Bang rider counted himself lucky to finish, with his tire starting to chunk, and certainly lucky to save second place from new 500cc rider Nobuatsu Aoki, making a scorching debut on the Rheos NSR, an ex-Doohan 1996 machine. Most significantly, Doohan also t'-.. broke the lap record, turning 1:24.840, 0\ compared with John Kocinski's 1:25.100. ~ That was set in 1991 - the last time a factory Small Bang engine raced here. Has the whole Big Bang thing been a red ...... herring? "As the race wore on," Doohan said. l-< "The tire problem I had last year was at the back of my mind. This time, the Michelins were flawless. The new engine was a big factor in the victory, ..... ~ 6 because I didn't need to spin the rear wheel at all to get away from the other guys." Conditions stayed dry for the 500s, the last race of the day, but both the 125 and 250cc races were threatened with poor weather,. and started on a damp track. But the overcast skies kept temperatures down compared with practice, run in punishing heat and soaring humidity. Last year's winner Luca Cadalora finished fourth on the Promotor Yamaha, the only non-Honda in the top seven, overtaking rookie V-twin rider Takuma Aoki on the final lap. Neither of the new Modenas KR V3 machines finished, with Jean-Michel Bayle blowing up his Marlboro-backed Team Roberts bike on the third lap, and Kenny Roberts Jr. pulling out of a lowly position - out of the points - after a rear suspension failure wrecked his tire. Daryl Beattie also retired early, with the Lucky Strike Suzuki team blaming ingestion of dirt or debris after a firstcorner fracas. New teammate Anthony Gobert did not start, withdrawing with continuing problems with his oft-broken collarbone. . Biaggi's 250cc win was taken by a huge margin, and just as masterly as the previous three here on the Aprilia. This time he was on the Marlboro Kanemoto Honda. "I changed my bike. I changed my team. I changed everything.' But the same result," Biaggi exulted afterward, having lapped everybody from seventh place onward. The only thing he didn't break was his own lap record: With drizzle before the start and the threat of more rain, he was on cut slick tires. Tetsuya Harada, in Biaggi's old place on the Aprilia, was a distant second, unable to make any impression with his choice of an intermediate front tire. Chesterfield Hqnda rider Olivier Jacque was an equally lonely third, with a similar tire choice. Ralf Waldmann, riding with an injured right hand, rode bravely through from 10th to fourth after an early off-track excursion, fending off reigning 125cc World Champion Haruchika Aoki's Honda in the Japanese rider's first 250cc race. Italian teenager Valentino Rossi won the first and closest race of the day, fending off the similarly Aprilia-mounted former 125cc World Champion Kazuto Sakata after a racelong tussle. The lead changed hands twice in the last lap alone.