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2001 Grand Prix Road Racing Series: The End Of An Era has been going on to note that two of the prime candidates for Terminal By MICHAEL SCOTT PHOTOS BY GOLD & GOOSE ny way you look at it, this is the end of the line for the racing twostroke as we know it. Oh sure, they'll carryon in the smaller classes, and even in the 500cc class after the fourstroke prototypes hit town next year. But (if it all goes to plan) the smaller classes will continue to lose importance gradually, and the 500s will wither and die for lack of support from the factories. And in the unlikely event of any upstart independents causing any trouble to the new breed of multi-valve marvels (like the threecylinder Proton, nee Modenas, or the V-four Pulse, nee MuZ/Swissauto), they can easily be crippled by weight or fuel limits, or some such artificial means. That will make sure they get themselves dead and buried, just like the factories planned it. A Thus we stand .at the end of an era. The 2001 Grand Prix season marks the end of the 500cc class racing's yardstick of supremacy since before World War One. This year's 500cc World Champion will be the last of a line that started with the birth of the series in 1949. The riders - or, if you prefer, their machines - are the terminal TwoStroke Titans. And that means this year's racing will be just that little bit more spicy, for this is a title really worth fighting for. It gives some indication of just how long this particular two-stroke game 26 APRIL 11,2001 • cue •• Titan are the sons of former racers who rode bikes broadly similar to and direct ancestors of today's V-four monsters. Kenny Roberts Jr. has already secured the first ever fatherand-son 500cc champion combo in GP racing, and is anxious to secure a double, just like dad (who then went on to score a third consecutive win, (Alghtl World Champion Kenny Roberts Jr. will defend his crown in 2001 on his Telefonica MoviStar Suzuki In what will marl< the end of the two-stroke era in the premier class of Grand Prix road racing. (Below) italian Valentino Rossi Is the man most are tipping to give Roberts the hardest time in his title defense. (Bottom) Max B1aggl is hoping to tum a highly successful run of preseason tests into a championship in 2002. back in 1980). Graziano Rossi never did win a 500cc race, but his son Valentino remedied that twice in his first season and starts his second with the clear target of becoming the first Italian and only the second rider (after Britain's Phil Read) to win 125, 250 and 500cc titles. Roberts' title defense will not be easy - his MoviStar Suzuki was the least-favored and least improved of the factory V-fours in preseason tests and, while that situation is not beyond remedy, he can't afford to wait too long. Rossi's V-four Honda, in his favorite yellow version of Nasn e _ s