Road Race
Round 11: C of Imola Grand Prix
ity
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROAD RACE SERIES
By Michael Scott
Photos by Go ld & Goose
IMOLA, ITALY, SEPT. 5.
rand Pri x racing was a live and
kicking at the final GP at the historic lmola circu it. Three breathtaking races clos ed the accou nt a t the
historic track, eac h with wildl y varyin g
fortu nes and eno ug h to keep a sma ll but
ferve nt 25,OOO-stro ng crowd entertai ned
all d ay. No t tha t there wer e any su rprise
winn ers, but th ere w a s m o re tha n
enoug h action, and the firs t half of the
500cc race - led for most of the time by
6
Kenny Roberts Jr. on the Suz uki - was
one of the closest ever, w ith a pack of
eigh t riders covered by less than two
seco nds.
In the end, it was Alex Criville w ho
claimed a hard-fou ght six th wi n of the
season to stretch his points lead to mo re
th an 60 points, a nd sta m p his Repso!
Hond a' s authority ye t mor e firml y o n
the Doohan-free racing of 1999 (the race
tim e was fi v e seco n ds slowe r tha n
Doo han 's win last year ). He fended off a
determined Alex Barros a nd his Movistar Hond a, wit h the Brazilian se tting a
new lap record to fi n is h jus t i nc hes
behind after 25 Japs and 76 miles of racin g a ro u n d th e sce nic s woo ps a n d
curves of the circu it so ut h of Bologna.
With a hard -ch a s in g o ric k A be
tumbling off his Ant en a 3 Yam aha o n
the 24th of 25 lap s, Marlboro Yam aha's
Max Biaggi was third, more than six seconds behind , with second Repsol Honda
rider Tadavuki Okada fourth, another
2.5 seco nds'ad rift.
Sh ort of ultimat e po w er a nd s till
co m p la ini ng about poor front suspensio n p erformanc e, Rob ert s dropp ed
back to sixt h, behind Regis Laconi's Red
Bull Yamaha . Nobuat su Aoki was sev-
Kenny Roberts Jr . (10) leads the SOOcc
race in the City ol lmota Grand Prix, held
at th e historic Imo la c ircu it in Italy. Alex
Criville (3), Tadayuki Okada (8), Norick
Ab e (6) and Carlos Checa (4) give chase.
enth on the second Suz u ki, with John
Kocinski a d istant eighth.
" It was an im porta nt win for me after
co m ing second in th e last tw o rac es,"
sai d Crivill e. "Im porta n t for me mo re
than for the cham pionship. At the end I
had to give maximum effort to beat Barros, but I succeeded."
