Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

W orld Championship Road R ace S e ries Round 7 : Dutch Grand P rix with arm and le g co n t u sio n s, a shame -fa ced Checa shou ldering the blame for a he adstrong e rro r with a full tan k. "I did not want to let the leaders get aw ay ," Ch e c a s aid. Later t ha t same lap , and fo r t h e s ame reaso n , Crivill e c ra s h e d ou t , p ushe d wide at the c hica ne by Shinya Nakano 's Gauloises Ya ma ha . Thi s left Haga at th e front o f the group , his best run yet a t a favorite ci rc uit. Beh ind hi m , Na ka n o and Ukaw a were swap pi n g ba c k and fo rth , Jurgen van den Goorbergh was stuc k right on the ba c k on th e Prot on , a n d Sete G ib ern au' s Su zu k i wa s c a tch ing u p afte r he 'd been pu shed off on the first lap by Ukaw a . By la p se ve n , Nakano wa s at th e fro nt of the group , and one lap later Gibemau was with him, both starting to stretch aw ay . But the Suzuki couldn 't qu ite match h is pa c e , a nd had lost to uch when the J apanese class rookie caught up to World Champion Roberts, now almost fou r seconds off the leader s. Robe rts m ana ged to fend off the Yamaha for th ree laps , the n Nakano was ah ead , and held on to a s lender advantage to the finish. Gibe rn a u wa s fo ur seco nd s away in se v enth , with Uk awa nar ro w ly ahead of va n den Goorbergh , and the Dutchman disappointed tfiet th e e nd of th e ra ce came s o unexpectedly . "I c ou ld e asily have pass ed Ukawa , but he would have passed m e back on the stra ight, so I wa s wa iting until the e nd befor e I did it," the Proton KR3 rider said . Hag a was a no t he r three s e c o nd s down in te nth, with a lo ne ly O livie r J acque 11 tho J ose Luis Ca rdo s o was 12th, th e factory V-fou r Yama ha ride r narrow pr e va iling in a race- long ba ttle w ith B rit ish t e e na ger Leon Has lam . Ha sl am , in only his fo urth 500cc ra ce a nd h is first s ince injury in France , ride s a production V-twin, and had furthermore broke n h is right littl e finge r in a race-morning warm - up c ra s h. S ince he also outq ualified and outraced form er d oub le 12 5 cc champion Haru chika Aok i on the TSR Honda twin , it wa s an excellen t ride fo r the son o f Ron . Aoki wa s two tenths behind over the line . Australian Anthony We st took th e fi n a l poin t , com ing t h ro ug h a ft e r s low in g on the first lap wh e n he thought his motor was a bout to sei ze . Mark Will is was 16t h on the on ly Puls e V-fou r to finish , ahead of Barry Vene man (Honda) a nd John Stigefelt (Sa bre V-fou r). J a y Vincent' s Pulse went ou t with clutch trouble on th e first lap . Th e champ ion sh ip b e c a m e m ar gin all y clos er , wi th Ro s s i' s lead shrinking to 21 po ints a nd less th a n a one -ra ce cu sh ion , 13 6 points to Bia g g i's 11 5 . C ap ir o ss i ha s 9 7 , while Nakano moves up to equ al no n-sco ring Abe, both on 74 . Ba rro s has 73 and Cr iville 62. 250cc GRANO PRIX Th e ra in had s topp ed and t he damp track wa s dryi ng rapidly as th ey lined up . Even s o , only McW illiams dived in to c h a nge t ires b e fo re the warm-up . Almost all the re st ha d fit te d a full wet fron t, and a "light we t" (no t quite an intermediate) rear. It didn 't take ve ry long to see tha t thi s w as th e w ron g choice , wi t h McWilliams ta king an immed iat e le ad on the dry line , Marco Melandri hang ing gr imly on behind , and Ka toh off the line qu ic k ly , but imm ediately d ropping ba c k , tho ug h s till th ird a t the en d of la p one. Ha rad a was struggling, h is carbu re to rs flooded , 14th at the en d of la p one, and it never got mu ch better for him . McWilliams too k thr e e seconds ou t of Melandri on the s e c o nd lap , fo ur s econds th e next time , a nd carried on in th e sa me wa y un til he had a cush ion of 14 sec onds. "Afte r that , I just tr ie d to keep the gap," McWilliams said. "The tires had gone away and th e bike wa s m oving Noriyuki Haga (41) came back f ro m a horrendou s pra cti ce crash to finish 10th on the Red Bull Yamaha. 22 JULY 11, 200 1 • cue I EO n e .... s Shlnya Naka no (5 6) didn 't get away with the lead pack, but he did manage to move around Kenny Roberts Jr. to secure fifth place In what Is an Impressive rookie season of !I00cc racing for the Japanese star. a ro und . I was wor ried I wasn 't riding fa s t enough , but I re a lize d that if I c ra s hed the n J a n Witteveen [Aprilia racing bos s ] would hav e m y life." By now , his challe nge r was Alzamora , wh o had c om e s urg in g th rough from 13th on lap one on his s lic k s . He took fourth of f Roberto Ro lfo ' s p rivate Aprilia o n lap t hree, th e Italia n soo n to run into gear-sh ift ing pro ble ms and re tire . Now he had o nly Yam ah a rid er David de Ge a in fro n t of him , and h e c aught a n d pa ssed h im at the s t a rt of lap five , and th en both o f t h e m pas s ed Melandri , whose heroics on we t tires were to no avail. Alzamora co u ld matc h McWilliams's lap times , b u t cou ld m ak e no impres sion on h is lead, a nd the y finished separated by 16 seco nds in spite of McWillia m s' slow final la p , waving to the c rowd and thoro ug hly enjoy ing h is first , long -a wa it e d GP win. De Ge a was a splend id thi rd, on his h an d -cu t slick s , though he c am e un der threat in th e closing la ps from Aprilia privateer Sylvain Gu intoli, who was less than a second behind at th e end . Franc o Battaini was fifth, moving th rough in clos e compa ny with Diego Giug ovaz un t il th e Spaniard crashed ou t. Mel a nd ri was sixth , a long way ba c k , but equa lly well clear of Luca Boscoscuro 's Aprilia . It was a good ra ce for pr ivateers , with Ric c a rd o Ch iarell o and Jeronim o Vidal (b ot h Ap ril ia ) a n d Da vid Tomas (Ho nd a ) scra p pi ng it o ut to th e fin ish , after overtaking th e fad ing Katoh in the closing stag es . Ka toh was th e last rider not to be la pped , with Alex Hofm ann 12th , de Pu ni et , Po rt o and Wild C a rd rider J a rn o Boesveld tak in g the final p o in t s . Hara da p itte d fo r a ti re cha nge, a nd finish ed 24th. Ka to h still m an aged to extend his points le ad over non-scorer Hara d a , 136 to 121 . Melandri is thi rd o n 88, Loca telli (out of the po ints today) fourth on 73 , and Rolfo on 7 1. McWilliams has leaped up to sixth, on 68 . 1 2 5 c c GRANO PRIX E lia s b u rs t a way from th e s tart , the track damp , but Bor soi was pa st before they were ha lfway round , and Poggiali a lso as they pa ss ed the pits for the first t ime. Pe opl e had been running off the track from the firs t corner , Pablo Niet o's Derb i o ne of them. Then it wa s Pogg iali's turn . on th e s e c ond lap , spinn ing and fallin g at the second Duikersloot - a pair of doub le rig h t s at the most di stan t po int on the circuit, and the corner that cla im ed the mos t vict im s . Azuma wa s way a t the ba c k , a nd crashed befor e finishi ng th e thi rd la p, po litel y runn ing ba c k to the tra c k to pick up the gr ass and gra ve l he ha d s tre wn ov er the ra cing line . Up fro nt, Borsoi he ld th e lea d , with French Aprilia rid er Vincent ma king h is wa y up to a s trong s e cond , J enkn er beh ind , with E lias a c lo se fourt h and Ui on h is back whee l. Cecch inello was a lso c o m ing up to jo in the party , still a little way back but going strong - until, on lap s ix, he slowed suddenly and cruise d to a stop. . By th a t stag e, Jen kner was just lo si n g to uch with the fro nt - ru nners, and Ui losing touch with him . Up front , Vincent was le an ing hard o n Bo rsoi, e a c h setting fastest la p so far s ixth time around, with Elia s watch ing a little way bac k to see wha t wou ld develop . Wh ich was t hat Borsoi would fall o ff a t Du ike rsl o ot , leavi ng Vince nt more th an a second ahead. Eli as closed up promptl y , t h e n sli pped p ast into the s e cond 'co rn er to le ad for two more laps . Th en he a p pe a red to let the Frenchman past a ga in , and with six la ps left h e was content to stick inches behind , clearly the more comfortable of the pa ir. With two laps rem ai ning, h e kic ked aga in, passing easily into the

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