Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

125cc GRAND PRIX With Azu ma ou t almos t from the sta rt, Melandr i had only to wo rry a bou t A lza mora, and a t fi rst it seeme d he migh t be safe as he moved past the faststarting Locatelli to lead from lap six to the fin ish . An d he was pulling away convincingly, two seconds ahead by lap 10, and still stretc hing. Alza mo ra wa s fif th a la p o r t w o before that , but one by one his compa nion s dropped out. Cecchi ne ll o was un accountabl y attacking Melandri and nearly knocked him off as he cras hed , Locatelli was outpaced after half-distance, and Veda fad ed unti l he fell into the hands of a battling Manu el Poggiali and Gino Borsoi, at which point he also crashed . Now ca m e that ex trao rdi na ry last lap, with its ang ry outcom e - Locatelli sa yin g o n ly : "1 didn 't w a nt to ge t in vo lve d ," after endi ng up a seco nd ad rift. Meanwhile, Poggiali fell, leavin g Borso i to a save fou rth , wit h Mi rko Giansa nti way back in fifth and Simone San na cla iming Rook ie of the Year for sixth. The re .were only 13 finishers, with Steve Je nk ne r a lso crashing out, and American two-race rookie Jason di Salvo falling on the first lap. A lza mora en ded up w ith no ra ce wins, but 227 points; Melandri brought his victory total to five for the season, but had ju st 226 points. Azuma wa s stuck in third on 190. eN Autodromo Oscar A. Galvez Bueno s Aires , Brazil Results: October 31, 1999 (Final Round) US ee QUALJFYlNG: 1. Masao Azu ma 0:50.160); 2. Ma r co Mel a nd r i (1:50.438); 3. Em ilio A lzamorn (1:50.638 ); 4. Roberto Locat ell i 0 :50.671); 5. Man uel Poggiali 0 :50.764); 6. Gino Borsoi 0 :50.843); 7. Nahum U("t1a 0 :50.893); 8. Youi chi Ui 0 :51.205); 9. Jeronimo Vid al 0 :51.865); 10. Lucio Cecc hi nello (1 :51.8( 9); 11. Cta nlu lg i Sca lvini 0 :52 .0 35) ; 12 . Rei nhard Sto lz 0 :52.063); 13. Max Sabbatanl 0 :S2.073); 14. Simon e Sanna 0 :52 .3 13) ; 15. Ivan C oi 0 :52.3(2); 16. Stev e Roberts, again (Above) Where is he? Marc o Meland ri look s bac k to see where hi s championship rival Emilio Alzamora is. Melandr i waited for t he Span iard on the fi nal lap, then tr ied to run him oll the tra ck . (Righ t) He was un suc cessful and Alzam ora 's second-place f inish gave him the 125c c Worl d Champ ionship despite the fact th at he didn't win a race all season. Okada said. "We still hav e many things to do to make the bike right." Alex Criville wa s next, after a high -speed crash had destroyed one of his bikes and;bruised his chest. He was ain , w ind and wet whit e lines between them also a late arri val among the fast times, but said: "With meant that the first da y of pra ctice was something the title settled, I am enjoying racing just for the fun ." of a dummy run . Nonetheless it had the sam e Max Biaggi was another late-comer up front , still fidname at the top of the list as on Saturday , when the final dling with sus pens ion then giving it all in the last minsession was dr y and significantly faster. That name was ute s to push Jurgen van den Goorbergh's MuZ down to Kenny Roberts [r., who took his fift h pole to win the lead the second row, from Norick Abe, two-time cras her qualifying World Championship - the next best is Carlos Checa, and Nobuatsu Aoki. Tadayuki Oka da, thrice fastest, and second in Arge ntina Juan Borja led the third row from Alex Barros, John to the Suzuki. Kocinski and Jose Luis Cardoso's V-twi n. An off-form "The Suzuki's package is good, and we had the best Sete Gibernau led row four , complaining of suspenbike ou t there today," said Roberts. "Bu t with only one ' sion problems and placing just two tenths a head of dry session we do n't have a race setup yet , and we 're Mark Willis, 14t h on th e bes t Modenas - David De going to have to make the bike better, to match the other Gea was 20th , and Mike Hale 22nd out of 24 qualiguys, because they'll be doing the same." fiers. He held his advantage throughout, with the usual Tetsu ya Harada was also una ble to conquer the conscramble a t the end of the session as people threw on ditions and shortage of time, down in 16th, wit h Anthonew tires , an d threw ca utio n to t he wi nd . Okada ny Gobert one place behi nd . But the controversial you ng top ped the usual close batch - second to 11th was wit h- Australian MuZ rider was suffering from stomach probin a second - but re peated an almost universal com- lems and did not show u p for race-morning warm-u p. plai nt. . His ent ry was thu s withdrawn. " It was just a ma t te r of ge tti ng my head d own," Valentino Rossi also crashed on the white lines during R 250cc qu alifying, but his new chassis and engine pa rts, no t to mentio n his talen t, were enough for the champion to di splace longtime leader Olivier Jacque by just two thousand ths of a second. "1 don' t need to win, but I race because I enjoy it, and for my team," he said , denying rumors that after failing to qua lify on the wet first day he had happily made plans to go home ea rly . "I missed the sho rt dry time there is no other reason," he said. Jacque was not confident for the race. "The Yamaha can d o a good lap time, and there are many places to overtake here und er brak ing . But we lack acceleration, so as at Brazil alI I can do is follow the other riders," he said . Stefano Perugini was a longside. "We have discovered a new chass is setting wit h a different fork offset that wor ks really well," he said. "I am sorry we didn't find it at the beginn ing of the yea r." Alongside him , for the first time on the front row, was Argentine rider Sebastien Porto, full of praise for the prototype prod uction Yamaha tha t has boos ted his resu lts in the latter part of the season. "I've raced on this track before in National events, but we use a s horte r lavout , so it' s not a m atter of trac k knowledge," he said : Q ..a; .c E Cll > o Z 15

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