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Road Race Round 16: Argentinean Grand Prix WORLD CHA MPIONSHIP ROAD RACE SERIES By Michael Scott Photos by Gold & Goose BUEl'lOS AIRES, BRAZIL, OCT. 31 ......, enn y Roberts [r., son of a legend , wrote ano ther chapter in his ow n story tod ay, winni ng a thrill ing Argentinean Gra nd Prix to fini sh second ove ra ll in th e World Champions hip. The Suz uki -mou n ted "Am erican Express" had started from po le for the fifth time th is ye a r, a nd led from th e first lap until th e penultima te. But he wa s u nder severe pr essure throu gh out from Ma rlb or o Yamah a' s Ma x Biaggi, wh o finall y mad e an attack that stuck with one lap of the 2.697-mile Buenos Aires circui t to go. Now it was Robert s's turn to turn up the heat, and with half-a-lap left Biaggi crumbled. A little too generous with the throttle on a trac k with a notoriously bu mpy and slippery surface, he narrowly man a ged to save a near high-sid e, only to run off the tarm ac for a wild rid e across the gr ass as the steadfast Rober ts slip ped through for the win . " I don't feel I pressured him int o a mistake," Roberts generously said afterward . "In fact, I don't think he made a en g: c - .8 E '" > o z 12 mistake. He was just trying to win the race, and so was I. Biaggi for his part ad mitted : "It wa s no t fu n to go on to th e gra ss a t that speed . I feel quite lu cky to finish second ." Ant ena 3 Yam aha's Norick Abe was th ird , reversin g th e order of an ev en more thrilling race a week before in Rio. Ano ther tw o seconds back , Marlboro Yama ha 's Ca rlos Checa managed to get past new World Cha mpion Alex Criville for fourth, bu t Criville's Repsol Honda's team mat e Tadayuki O kad a w asn 't so fortu na te. Oka da cras hed out of the race after touching one of the circuit's controversially slippe ry white lines, dropping to th ird overall in the ch a mpi ons h ip after challenging for the title for most of . the season. In an ultima tely p rocessional 250cc GP , Chesterfield Yamaha ' s O li vi er Jacque claimed his first win of a seaso n interrupted by ea rly in jury, with title runner-up'Tohru Ukawa and his She ll Advance Ho nda moving past a fading new cha mpion Valentino Rossi for second. Th ird wa s still enough to secure the Constructors' title for Aprilia, But the focus of the da y was on the smallest class, where Spain gained a secJI ond Wo rld C ha mpion in it s for mer co lo ny of Argen tina , w he n Em ilio Alzamo ra finished seco nd in the ope ning race of the d ay. It was eno ug h for th e 125cc Via Digita l H onda rid er to d ef eat teena ge s ta r and toda y' s ra ce winner Marco Melandri and his Benetton Honda by just one point - after one of the mos t extrao rd inary last laps eve r seen. At the start of it Melandri had a lead l of 2.5 second s, ...ith third- place Roberto Loca telli another 4.5 seconds be hind . Then Melandri slow ed an d sa t u p, to wait for hi s torm en to r, a nd w he n he caug ht up it looked for all the wo rld as though he was tryi ng to knock him off as they almos t collided at one point and Alza mora narrowlv saved himself. ot so, ins is te d t he 17- year-old Melandri. He'd just been trying to slow Alzamora to give Locatelli a chance to finish second , which wo u ld have tipped the title the other wav, But race officials considered his blata~t mov e to be "riding in an irresponsible ma nner causing danger," an d fined the teena ger 10,000 Swiss francs; while observers wondered why he hadn't mad e the move somew hat earlier, and in a less obvious ma nner. Alzamora had an even stronger opi nion, bargin g rig ht into Melan d ri's postrace TV interview and wagging his finger in his face. "This ," he sai d , "is yo ur last wa rn ing." Th e focu s w as o n th e tidd lers all wee ke nd, the last unresolved cha mp ions hip, with the three title conten de rs qu alifying side by side on the front row of the grid . The third rid er wi th a shot at the title was Benett on Playlife Honda' s Masao Azuma, but he ran off the track and out of contention on the fir st la p afte r h is .e n g in e died fo llowing ye t another bad start. O ne b y one Meland ri ' s p oten tial allies fell b y the waysi d e - Lu cio Cecchinello crashed ou t on the eighth of 23 lap s of the twisting, pa rkland circuit , actually kn ock in g Melandri' s back wheel as he tried and failed to take the lead. Cecch inello' s Gi vi Honda teammate oboru Ueda a lso crashe d out, a fter dropping back from th e leading group. Locatelli simply lost touch as the race wo re on. Alzamor a won the title without winn ing a ra ce all y ea r - th e onl y o th er champion to claim the title wit hout winn ing a race all yea r wa s the fina l SO cc