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/127970
ROAD RAC 1998 World Championship Review E By Michael Scott Photos by Gold & Goose t was the best of years, and the wo rst of years. Seldo m can the cliche have been mor e appropria te th an after a G ra n d P rix season th a t sca le d t h e heights of tension and excitement and plumbed the depths of chaos and confusion. With five different race winners and the title lead changing hands back and forth between Max Biaggi, Alex Cri ville a n d Mi ck Dooha n , th e SOOcc World Ch amp ion sh i p needed v ery litt le manipulation of sta tistics to be d ub bed the closest in the 50 years of racing history - u ntil the cataclys m in Ca talu nya , wh ere an extrao rd inary series of events helped a determined Doohan to becom e I A 8 , UJ N l-o Q) ,..Q S Q) >o z 8 u nbeatable for a clas sic fifth time in a row . The 2S0cc class was at first deceptively dull, w ith th e Ap rilias do mina tin g co m p le tely while H on d a ' s h op e ful s flou nd ered around miles behind . By the fini sh, the interna l battle ha d become u tterly fascina ting, and it was sea led in theatrical style by an incident in the last Corne r of th e la s t r ace , wh en Lori s Ca pi ro ss i nerfed Tet su ya Ha rada off. The Italian wa s excluded for "unsp orting conduct," the n reinsta ted . He would have won the crown anyway: You wan t more tension? How abou t the 12Scc class? So close was this battl e that the cham pion still isn' t kno wn . It is either Kazuto Sakata for a second time, or Tom omi Man ak o for the first. It all hung on an appeal of the former's di s- (Right) Alex Barros won two races in 1998, but it wasn 't enough to stop Mick Doohan from winning his fift h successive 500cc World Champ ionship . (Below) Doohan (1) leads Max Blaggi (6) and Carlos Checa (8) - the two real surprises of the 1999500cc Grand Prix s eas on. qual ification on a fuel infringement - bu t he co u ld n' t w a it for th at, hunti ng his rival down in the pits after the last tan go in Argen tina for a postrace fist fight. And tha t was jus t the racing . Th er e were stu nn ing developments off the track, too, for thi s was the yea r th at GP racin g hea rd th e cla ng of it s deat h knell - at least in its presen t form, w ith growing talk of switch ing the SOOcc class to som e new fou r-stroke form ula; the year in wh ich Dorna accom plished a management bu y-ou t fro m the s tifling co n fi nes o f b e ing par t of a b a nkin g em pire; and the year in which the hith erto enor mous influ ence of King Kenn y Roberts shra nk away to not hing, as his stru gglin g Modenas project knock ed the fight au t of the former guru of racing. And it was the year in which a sw itch to u nleaded fue l raised a stra nge parado x: that cutting the power of the awe-