Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127967
ROAD RACE , WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROAD RACE SERIES Mick Doohan won the final SOOcc Grand rI Prix of the season in Argentina. It was his eighth win of the 14-race sea son. By Mich ael Scott Photos by Gold & Goose BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, OCT, 25 hings se ldom go smoothl y in , Argentina, Sure enough , the fina l race of 1998 was marked by sha mb les, argu ments, protests, exclu00 sions - and even a fist fight between two 0\ 0\ time, the riders after the race . ,..... lem s we re ge nera tedThis the Gra ndprobby Prix ~ ' reg u lars ra ther than th e venue, and it made for (to put it kindl y) a colorful finOJ ish to the season . ' ..0 Sym p tomatic of the p roblems is the fac t that we d on 't ye t know w ho has OJ :> wo n the 12Scc World Championship. It o may be UGT Honda's Tom omi Manako, who rode a bri lliant rac e to take a fine vic to ry, o r it ma y b e UGT Ap r ili a's Kazuto Sakata, who ha d already cele- T ... E Z 6 • bra ted victory at the last round in Australia before bein g exclu ded on a fue l infr inge me nt. Tha t issue will be finally decid ed next week, and the title hangs on the ou tcome. The fist fight was betwe en those two, af ter Saka ta wen t to Ma na ko's pit and accused him of somehow being responsible for the problem. But that was mild co m pared with w ha t happened in the 2S0cc Grand Prix, where factory Ap rilia rid e rs Lori s Cap ir os si and Tetsu ya Harada ar rived in Argentina four poi nts apart, with the Italian in front. Capirossi was on p ol e but r ode a flawed race, and on the last lap he was third , with Harada second - until th e last corn er, wh en Capirossi went flyin g in ' at a n abs u r d speed and kn ocked Ha rada off. The Italian stay ed on to finish secon d , but Harada's subseque nt protes t agains t his unspor tin g conduct was u p h eld , a nd t h e FIM stewards excl u ded Ca pi rossi from the resu lts . However , since Harada had not scored, Capirossi remained World Cha mpion albe it wit h a nasty tast e in his mouth. Mean while, Capirossi prot ested agains t the exclusion, and he may yet have his po ints restored . The 2S0cc GP was won by Nas tro Az zurro r ide r Va le n tino Ro ss i - h is fourth wi n in a r ow in a first ye ar of 2S0cc racin g in which he has never finished off the ros trum . Even with five non fini shes, Rossi was a clos e se cond ove ra ll , ju st three p o in ts b e hind Ca p iros si , a fte r th e older rid er' s 20 poin ts from tod ay's race had been take n away. The SOO race wa s relat ively tame by cc co m pa rison'. Mick Doohan bl asted off in to the distance for his eig h th w in of the season, with Repsol Ho nda tea mmate Tadayuki Oka da defeati ng Gresini Ho nda rider Alex Barros for thi rd , and with Rain e y Yamaha 's Noric k A be r fourth. rr Meanwhile, Re p s ol H ond a ' s Alex Criville, rid ing a Doohan-style "Screamer" .engine for the first time, cras hed ou t. of a strong position , while slow qu alifier : Max Biaggi and his Ma rlboro Hond a led , I a huge gang over the line for sixth. This settled their cham pionship ba ttl e, with Biaggi cla iming second to be the bes t SOO cc- class roo kie s in ce titl e winner Kenn y Roberts in 1978. A s m a ll crowd o f 20,000 en joye d , su nny sp ring weather to watch all thi s in th e first ra ce in Buen os Air es since 1995, at the municipal circu it on the out- .' skirts of the capital city. The dry wea th- r: il