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 a t a track th at he, almost a lone of the to p ri ders , re all y e njoys . H e never co u ld ca tch Doohan, but he never gave u p try ing, and he b ro ke the lap reco rd on the p enultima te lap as he pulled to w it h in less tha n five seconds of the w inner. " I wo n m y fi rs t ra ce o u tside Japa n h er e, a n d [ tried 100 p e r cent for t h is one," he said later. Cri ville n ever d id pass Barros, Then h e was s u d den ly gone - falli ng off as pa in fr om his pra cti ce -cra s h inju r ies sta rte d to tell , . "I lost fee ling in m y forear m , and it b e came in crea s ing ly ha rd to bra ke," C ri v ille sa id . "T h e n I lo ck ed u p th e w h e el a n d fe ll. I am v ery a n gry w it h m ys el f, beca u se I had secon d p lace in the cha m pionship in the bag." A h u g e g a ng so m e w ay b e h i nd d emonstra ted the difficulty of p a ssing h ere . The y di d s w a p b a ck a n d fo r t h q u ite a bit, b u t the effort m eant th ey s tu ck to g eth er. La coni and Gibernau were a t th e head a t half-distance, but it was a hi gh-clas s a sse m b ly, and b y th e fi n is h A be h ad broken through t o escap e up front. Biag gi led th e rest o ver the line, w it h the Ya ma has of La coni a nd Jean-Michel Bay le right behind, followed by Checa's M o viStar H onda, with Gi berna u jus t losing touch a t th e back . " T h a t was fa n t as tic," sa id Bia g g i. " W h en [ saw A lex C riville w as o u t, 1 s la cked o ff because it was very tough and I o nly needed two points to be se co n d overa ll. Then I cha nged m y min d a nd sta r ted racing again." So m e wa y ba ck , John Ko cin ski to ok 10th af te r getting th e better o f a threewa y b a ttl e with Kenny Roberts Jr .' s M odenas and Nobuatsu Aoki' s Suzuki th e la st-named never getting going after experiencing clu tch tr ouble a t the start. Norick Abe chased down the pack ahead of him, movlnq .pest Bayle, Biaggi and Laconi to finish fourt h. -: sions with' Ferrari." Biagg! said. ' "We jus t have to decide ':"here : . and when the tests will be . And ii won't just be a few laps for fun. It will be a full day's serious testing. l.metdohn Surteestthe only ' man to have won motorcycle and car World titles) at the car GP at lrnola, and he told me I'm the only bike guy who could come to 'Formula One and win. But he sa id I must make the move quickly, and notspend too much time on motorcycles . I told him I have a . job to do in 500s - then maybe I will do someth ing about Formula .. One ." ,. ' s uddenly r~alized ho"; lonely I was going to be ."ยท Haineysaid. "I''''; not ready to just whee l out of the spo rt, but I'm not sure what' my role wlllb e.'!'ll take all of next se ason 'off, and then see : Mr. lio (ya ma h'a's .racing boss) is co ming to my housefor a m e eting dur- ing ' the w inter to - d i s c u s s : p os s i b ili t i e, s. '~ It is worth noting that Kenny Roberts: who was Rainey's team bossfor six yea rs Gncl ud-' ing his three titles) , was not invited to the dinner,.Roberts had a falling-out with Yamaha before breaking away to build his own . machine , the Modenas, . ' In Mike Heilwood's days .' tires were famously .':round and black. " Not anymore : with"M ichelin making.'up a special.souvenlr se t for Mi ck Doohan in their own blue-and-yellow livery - the . blue outer layer cut to reveal a yellow under layer, picking out his name and the dates of his five World Champions hips . . .. ' Both Michelin and 'Dunlop are cutting bi'~k their commitment to racing. with the French firm pulling out of the 250 "and 125cc classes altogether beginning next year , and Dunlop dropping out of the.500cc class . Michelin said they planned to 'conce ntrate on 500s (where they dominate) and World Superbikes (where they , won the title this year), and insisted the decislonhad nothing to do with their poor results in the smaller classes . Their last 250cc .title was with Luca Cadalora in 1992 . Likewise Dunlop, which supplies only Red Bull Yamaha out of the V-four teams , though they are used by the three-cylinder Modenas and several V-twins. They blamedthe eco nomic s ituation. es pecially in J apan - most of their 500cc-c1as s tires are made in J apan. while those for the s maller cla sse s co me from ' Fo rt D unlop 00 0\ 0\ ,...... -:::1" .... Q) .0 E Q) ;> o z 8 in Britain. How eve r, their rec ent lack of s uccess (the Brit ish GP win this year was their first since 1995) 'a nd the negative comments 'of the riders must have helped to sway the decision. . Next yea r's GP calendar. a nnounced at the FIM congress in Ca pe Town, has 17 race s - t he most ever. But one of them is only a re se rve rac e , whi le the re re mains a quest ion mark over othe rs. es pecially the Brazilian GP,.canceled a t the last minute this year to cut the 1998 tally to 14. The res erve race is the Portugues e GP. in August. Spain still has three races. with J arama dropped from the calendar to be r eplaced by the new Valencia circuit. It is one of four new tracks , with the se ason . starting at Se parig in Malaysia o n April 18, and moving on to Twin Ring Motegi' in J apan, bot h brand-new co m pl~xes . The otherriew trackis at