By Michael Scott
Photos by Gold & Goose
rou d su pe rs ta r, scou rge of t he
250cc clas s, racing hero, eleva tor
and then va nqui sher of Ap rili a,
cro wd - p leasing ent e rtainer, reclu sive
eni gm a - Ma x Bia g g i is a ll of th e se
things and much more. But nobod y was
prepared for the impact he wo u ld ma ke
in 1998.
Switchi ng to the 500cc class af ter a
reco rd fou r straight wins in 250s - th ree
with Aprilia, the last one on a Honda the 27-year-old Roman came in right at
the top. Riding a factory V-four Honda,
backed by Marlboro after a last- minute
deal that included his '97 team boss Erv
Kanerno to. Biaggi s ta rted testi ng la te
and cras hed in his first outi ng . But by
the time he got to Suzuka for open prerace testing befo re the Japanese GP, he
was the fastest ma n on the track.
He qualified on pole posi tion for the
firs t race at Suzuka, the n we nt out and
won it in utterly domi nant style . The
king of the cla ss , Mick Doohan, could
onlv watch from the sidelines after first
running off the track in a rare error, then
suffering a terminal engine blow-up.
Since the n, for the firs t third of the
season, Biaggi has qualified on the front
row for every race, led severa l of them,
and finis hed on the rostrum four times
ou t o f five . He led th e cha m pions h ip
until a rela tively p oo r, fifth in France,
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