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 RACE (Left)Simon crater was a surprise winner of the Britis h 500Cc Grand Prix in his rookie season in the class. (Above) Roberts Jr . and the M odenas leads the Suzuki of Nobuats u Aoki. (Right) Jean·Michel Bayle had an up-anddown season that had more downs than ups. Here, he walks away from a crash. , Lr) C'-l I-.. Q) ..0 E Q) . ;> o Z 10 Biaggi a t Brno, with an ex traordina ry first-lap lapse, crash in g out for a third no-s core, whi ch put him th ird , a lso behind Criville. From then until the end he was d evas ta ting, successfu lly disman tling h is rivals and win ning every race . The balance was redressed by some good luck w hen bot h Criville an d Biaggi no-scored in the final European round in Ca talunya, and when th e cance llation o f th e Brazilian GP denied them a chance to catch up. Crivi lle was one of the greater beneficiaries of the power-down fuel, tho ugh his package st ill lacked bo th mat u rity (two unforced errors spoiled his ru n of ros tru ms) an d aggr ession . He was the forgotten man of the championship . The glory was taken by glamour- boy Biaggi, who really got up Doohan's nose in every possible way . He never did man age to beat Mick on the track , but he produced a bravura performance anyway, starting with his victo ry from pole positio n at Suzuka a nd running right throu g h to the over- the- top w heelie after his seco nd victory at Brno, w hich ca me close to a p erilous grou nd -loop with pote n tially disastro us co nseque nces. .Biaggi was a ragged thir d at the next race, at Imola, w here Doohan delivered a bli s ter in g a nd ca refu lly timed p re race news pa per in terview a ttacking Biaggi' s " p las tic" person a lit y and his stri ng of specious complaints, excuses and self-aggra ndizement. Later, on Sky TV, he added : "He 's a crybaby . Maybe he 's lo o kin g for spo nsors h i p fr om Kleenex." Biaggi responded in feist y manner , sugges ting, "May be Mick' s get ting a bit old." Bu t hi s season sta r ted to come apart at that point. H e was le ad in g th e nex t race a t Barcelona, with Barros a clos e second an d Doo ha n sta rting to loom thr eateningly from beh ind , when he was given a highly controversial stop-and-go penalty for inad verten tly passing under yellow flags a fter a first-corner inci den t that had already eliminated Criville. He chose to ignore it, to ignore the subsequent black flag of disqualification, and to behave afte rwa rd as if he'd won the race . Of course, he hadn' t. Doohan had. He hadn' t bothered to overtake Biagg i because he knew he'd already been disqualified . Imola had been the turning point; Ca talunya was the cataclysm. Biaggi put paid to his last cha nces . with a p ractice crash in Australia. By then, Brazil had already been canceled . He could only save second if he beat Cr iville in Argentina - and, as at other tight and bumpy tracks, he was off the pace. The n Criv ille ob liged by crashing au t. For so me reason, he 'd chosen the ha rd -to -ride Screamer engine (as used only by Doohan) at the easy-to-crash cir- ' cuit, a nd Blaggi was second after all. This ma d e him the top rookie s ince Kenny Roberts wo n the title at his first attempt in 1978. This would not seem to reflect well on his rivals - but racing is full of ups and downs, and many of them sough t th e latter ou t with p rac tice d ease -and unerring accu racy . Checa ha d been a contender after win ning in Ma d r id ; th en he suffered serious internal inju ries in a p ract ice crash in Brita in, losi ng his spleen an d nearly a lot more than that before making a mira culous recover y fro m threat- ene d par al ysis and re tu rni ng , v is ibly weaker. H e jus t hung on to fourth overall by one point from Ba rros , a nd will jump ship from Honda to Yamaha for next season. Barros was a revelation after switching back to a Vfour . Slow to ge t going, by the secon d hall of the sea son he ha d t h e package to his likin g, and he regularl y cha llenged for the lead by the finish - an amaz ing ren aissance for one of the most experienced 500cc riders on the grid . The battl e for best non-Honda even" tually went to Abe, afte r yet a no ther season of flawed promise. If he cou ld focus more clearly, he'd be a fine competitor. As it is, he s truggles th roug h practice and only gets going fast on race day . In Argen tina, for ins tance, he went from 17th on th e grid to fou rth in the race. How mu ch bette r would he do if wen t fas te r sooner? Even so , he outpointe d Br i tish GP w inn e r Crafar, whose re turn to the 500cc class (he ran h a lf a seaso n .as a priva teer in 1993) sho wed a rider of strength an d maturity, wit h doubtless more to come in 1999. As for the res t, Okada was eig h th overall after missing a chun k of the season w ith wrist injuries sustained in the fou rth GP at Muge llo; Aoki had a hard yea r wit h a bes t finis h ' of fo ur t h . De tu n ed b y a heavy Assen p r acti ce cras h an d working throug ho u t the year to unl ock the pot ent ial of the new Suzuki - fast, but with a yery sen sitiv e chassis - he barely saw the light of day all seaso n. Laconi was 10th aft er some good showings and his ow n injur y problems early on; Gi bernau w a s 11 th when after receiving the fou rth chassis fro m the factory - he came to grips w ith the on ly really fast V-twin ou t there. There were some real sob stories. Kocinski's retu rn had eve ryone read y to wai t w hile the fo r mer 250cc World Cha m pion a nd 500cc GP w inn er regain ed his familiarity with GP racin g. Howeve r, for this reason and that, he never did catch up w i th t he sc r ip t. In terrupted mi dseaso n b y a finge r in jury, his bes t all year was fou rth in Fra nce, a nd h is GP future mu s t once again be in doubt after he finished 12th in the series. Mod ena s h ad a h ard -lu ck seco nd year. Having lost rider Bayle to Yamaha a nd m ost of th e Marlboro ba cking to Bia ggi , th ey s truggled o n, ek in g ou t s p are p arts wit h th e vibrat ion-prone Mkl ve rsio n whil e th ey w a ited and waited for th e Mk2 versi on (with balance shaft, althoug h no extra power) to be re ad y. It arri ved at the end of the