(45); 17. Noriya ..u Nu mata (43); 18. Shinya N a ka no (33);
19. Franco Batta ini (27); 20. Da ijiro Katoh (25) .
SOOa: QUALIFY ING, 1. M ick COO n 0:33.162 ); 2.
....
Max Biaggi 0 ;33.712); 3. John Kocins ki (1:33.789); 4.
Simon Cra fa r 0 :33.860); 5. Alex Barros 0 :34.106); 6.
Tadavuki O~dd. 0 :.14 .1(9) ; 7. Alt!'xCriville 0 :34.240); 8.
R Laco n! 0 :3-1.403); 9. Norick Abe 0,)4,483) ; 10. Rali
Wal(hn~nn
0:3454-1); 11. Nobuatsu Aoki 0:34.702); 12.
Keftny Robert s Jr . 0 :3 4 , ~05) ; 13. Se te C ibe rna u
0:35..389 ); 14. Carlos Checa 0 :35.731); 15. ~.uk WiIIi5
0 :36.036); lb . [u rgen van den Coorbergh 0:36.114); 17.
Craig Connell 0 :. 6.536); 18. M... t Wait 0 :)6 .6&1) 19.
1
t
;
[u.1n Borja 0 :36.750); 20. Scott Smart 0 :37.245 ); 21.
Seba stien G imbert 0:3 7.525); 22 . C a rry McCo y
0:39.(78); 23. Fabio Ca rpani (l :Jq .646).
SOOcc: G RAN D PR IX: 1. Mick Doohan (Ho n): 2.
Si.mon Crafa r (Y.lm); 3. Al exCri ville (H on ): 4. Ale x
Barros (Hun); 5. No ric k Abe (Ya m) ; 6. No buatsu Aoki
(Hun); 7. Reg is Lacon i (Yam); 8. Ma x Bta ggi Chcca
(131 /1); 5. Ale x B..l rTUS (122); 6. Simon C m far (116/1); 7 .
Norick Abe (115); 8. Nobua ts u Aoki (87); 9. Tadayuki
Okada (86); 10. Regt s Laconi (76); 11. Sete Gibcmau (65 );
12. John Kocinski (58); 13. Kenny Roberts Jr . (54); 14.
Ralf Waldmann (45); 15. [urgcn van JCTCoorbergh (38);
16. C arry McCoy (23); 17. Kyoji Nanba (22); 18. [eonMi chel Bayle (19); 19. Ma tt Wail (17); 20. Noriyu ki Haga
( 6) ,
Upcoming Round:
Round 14 - Buenos Aires. Argentina. October 25
(Left) Loris Ca pirossi (65)
lead s eventual w inner
Va le n tino Rossi (45) in the
250cc Grand Prix.
(A b o v e) Kazuto Saka ta
and h is UGT A prilla tea m
cel eb rate t hei r 125c c
Worl d Championship .
(Right) As alw ay s.
Val entin o Rossi was a
ham on the v ictory
podium - t his t ime" .
b r in g ing a penquin with
h im.
Briefl
The jigsaw is falling into place
for: Max Biaggi (rig ht ) and
Carlo s Checa to switch fro m
Hon dato Yamaha fo r ne xt
season, A nd p utting two and
two toge the r . it see ms lik ely
th a t t he revi tal ized fac to ry
Yam aha t eam may b e s pa n, sored once again by Marlboro ,
C he c a has already ad mitted
th at he is' g o ing to Yamaha .
splittin'g from Ho nda and his
curre nt team ' owner. Site Pons .
It 'w as ori ginally expected tha t
t he M o v i S t ar spo nsorship
wo uld go wi t h 'h i m . leavi ng
.
Pon s high and dry . B ut this situation has changed, with Pons now
looking to recruit another Spanish rider in a bid to hang on to the
money. This suggests that Ch eca has no need of sponsorship
money. A t the same time. though there have been no official
statements. !'"umors linking Biaggi to ~ Yamaha mov:e are gathering strength on a daily basis. It is thou ght that M arlboro sponsorship would go with him . and that M arlbo ro would prefer to spon. sor both riders in the team rather than leaving ,room for M oviSt ar . ,
Pons . meanwh ile . made a big-money offer to Sete Gibemau to
join the team and swi tch to a v -four NS R. but wa s refused , Gibernau would prefer to stick WIth the Repsol Honda team to ride the
factory V-twin Honda ,
It is not known what second MoviStar Honda nder John Kocinski will do next year. though the W orld Superbike and ex-25Occ
W orld Ch ampion has said he expects to have V -four Hondas
again, ' It's all a bit political . and I don 't -want to comment: said
Kocinski. whose ret urn to form at Phillip Island cam e happily at
co nt ract time ,
.
.
There' wen~ several no -shows in A ustralia .- a cou ple of them most
unexpe c ted . O ne o f t hese was J ea n · Michel B a y l e . w ho
blamed elbow injurie s from his first- lap crash at C atalunya, How ever. the injury was not tho ught to be that serio us. and Yamaha
had been expec ting him to turn up .. Then there was the whole
MuZ team , The machines showed up, but none of the pit staff and
engineers made the long trip. nor did rider Eskil Suter. Second
S uzuki rider Kats uaki Fujiwara was . also absent, after cutting his
arm badly . Neither Kenny Roberts nor W ayne Rainey had planned
to co me, the latter wind ing down fo r his retirement, the former
suffering from an ulcer.amid growing rumors that he may become
an absentee team owner next season as he also prepares to
retire .
The new works 250= Y ama h a made a seco nd GP appearance
at Phillip Island ami d co nsi derable interest. The new VZ R has
trouri,c ed the new but flawed NSR Hondas at home in J apan. but
this wa s a first'chance for a co nfrontat ion with the dom inant Ap ril·
ias on alevel play ing fie ld , Ridden by new All-Je pan Champion
, S h i nya Nakano . the Yamaha qualified on ' the fron t row o f the
grid . in among the Italian machines. The VZR is expected to return
to GP racing next , year (see be~ow) after tw o seasons with only
production racers.
replied , - Maybe you sho uld get another jo b,- ,A trackside banner
on race day read. ." MAX WH O?-. and also bo re a black flag with
'the numbe r 6,
.
D orna manag ing director ,CarmelD Espeleta has suppo rte d
.race director Roberto Nosett o' s decision to impo se a sto p-end-go
penalty - thou gh he admitted his ow n first kriowledge atCa talunya '
. had corne from wa tc hing the. EurosportTv race repo rt , Privately:
howe ver. he is understood to be very displeased with the ,deci" sion, which effectively ruinedthe closi ng sta ges of a very close
French 'H onda rider O livier,Jacque is the favori te candidate for
champ ionsh ip stru g gle. and N o set tos position, may be under '
some threat.
'
th e, Yamaha 250 ride , after a dismal season on th e ' slow new
Honda , Sources close to J acqu e' s Cbesterfi eld-sponsored team'
said that they were close to a deal but we re waiting until the end
Rumors that the Argentine GP would follow the canceled Brazil
of the' seaso n befor e making a final commit ment. Na kano is also ' GP into oblivion were discounted 'at Phillip Island afte r it w as '
exp ected to co mpete in GP s next year. possibly in a two-rider
reve aled that t he Brazilian race ' sp onsors. t he c ity o f Rio de
team' with .Jacque.
'
Janeiro . had offer ed to help w ith frei ght costs. The cos ts of trans- '
porting a full jumbo- load o f bikes and suppo rt gear woul d have
N o matter wha t the points situation. the 500 cc W orld Ch amplbeen shared between the two races , and it was feare d that the '
onship cannot be confi rmed at Phillip Island · with another possiBuenos Aires orqa ruzers might not have had the whe rewi thal. to
pick up the whole bill. 'Argentina will defini tely go ahead. - said
ble, appeal pending from ,Max Blagg;"s team concerning his con,
Doma managing direc tor Carme lo Espeleta, :
'
troversial disqualification from the last round at Ca talunya ,
Biaggi. along with Alex Barros. was given a sto p-and-qo penalty
for overtaking under the yellow. flags - but the Italian ride r defiantly
O ne-race works S uzukrnder Mark Willis made a good imp'r~s
sion at Phillip Island , The Aust ralian Superbike competitor was ridignored the instruction. as well as the subsequent black flag of
ing the irijured Fujiwara' s mac hine. and he qualified 15th in his
disquali fication . to lead the field home , Barro s obe yed . los ing his
first-ever ride on a two-stroke. riding wi th an weakened shoulder
leading position but rejoi ning to finish seven th. Both riders subseafter breaking his collarbone eight weeks before. But new Au squently appealed. but they were overruled in the week before the
Aust ralian race by the AM ' s inte rnational disciplinary co urt , How - .t ralian S uperbike C hampion M arty CraggiU's ho me GP was an
ever. according the A M statement, - Both riders may lodge an
abbrevia ted affair. Riding the DocShop Ap rilia. he cras hed on the
appeal.. . to the International Tribunal of Appeal wi thin 10 days :
first day and broke his pelvis ,
Barro s' team had decided not to appeal. after receiving' assu rances that the rule book would be made more specific · presently, , Pre-race publicity in Australia featu red Kiwi rider Simon Crafar
rather than all-Australian hero M ic k D oohan. This is business as
the punishment for yellow-flag infringements is at the discretion of
usual , after a spat so me years
between promo ters and
the ,race direc tor : Biaggi' s team had not yet decided . and were
await ing further legal advice, Doo han. meanwhile. took the opporDoohan's commercial organization concerning the level of fee to
tunity to remind racing folk that prior to the new racing reg ime . the
be paid for this publiCIty.
punishment for overtaking under the yellow flag was instant disqualifica tion ,
The dreams of J u rgen van den Goorbergh to have a V -four
500 for next season will come true : with the Dutch rider signing
up for the revised M uZ team. The much-changed team sees the
The rout ine pos tq u a l ifying pres s c o n f e ren c e wasa lively
affair. wi th bo th Doohan and Biaggi pres sed on the incident at the
departure o f chassis builder' Serge Rosset. with multiple sidecar
last race . Doohan described the circumstance s without once narnchampion Rolf Biland taking over as tea m manager. A new chasirig Biaggi. w ho wa s silti ng alongside him at the conference table,
sis. possibly built in Britain. will be an Impcrtant part of the new
package, 'The Mu Z is alrea dy very fas t. ' said a happy J urgen..
He spo ke only abou t ' ano ther rider Twho had ignore d the flags ,
. , People look up to international spo rts men . and If they' are seen
' W e need to wor k on the cbass is side. and I believe it can be
made co mpetitive ,- His brother Patric k w ill also be part ' of the
to ignore the rules ; it's a pretty bad exampl e.' he had said earlier,
'
'He also took the chance to remi nd people that though Biag gi ' team.
cro ssed the line ahead of him . he had been catching him up fast.
The S o uth ' A f rican GP has bee n ' moved from the start of the
and only backed off when there wa s no need to try and overtake,
season to the end. Rejoining the Ca
lendar next year at a new cirBiag gi said little. but re sponded sharply when this interviewer
asked if he had purchased , - or even seen · the souvenir black
cuit at Welkom. between J ohannesburg and Bloemfontein. the
flags with his raci ng number six that enterprising Phillip Islan d
race will probably take place on October 8. Origirially an Ap nl date
tr aders we re se lling to the crowd , 'You are a funny guy: ,he
had been penciled in.
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