World Championship Road Race Series
Final Round: Rio Grand Prix
RIO DE JANIERO, BRAZIL, NOV. 3
And the final victory went to the Nastro
classes to 39, equal with compatriot
Azzurro Honda star by .143 of a second.
It was Rossi's 11th win of the season,
Carlo Ubbiali, nine times 125 and
250cc World Champion in the '50s,
bringing his career total in all three
By MICHAEL SCOTT
PHOTOS BY GOLD & GOOSE
sixth overall with 39 GP wins.
alentino Rossi crowded another
feather into his already wellplumed cap at the Rio Grand Prix. He
started the season by winning
Honda's 500th Grand Prix. He won
the Suzuka 8-Hour race mid-season.
He won the last-ever 500cc World
Championship in Australia three
weeks ago. And now he is in the history books again as the winner of the
last-ever 500cc GP.
It was close, in a race rendered
rather shambolic when rain started
falling on the fifth of 24 laps of the
3.083-mile Nelson Piquet circuit outside Rio de Janeiro. The red flags
came out with pole qualifier Tohru
Ukawa and his Repsol Honda leading
from Kenny Roberts Jr. and his Telefonica MoviStar Suzuki.
It was still wet for the restart, but
drying quickly. By the finish, Marlboro Yamaha's Carlos Checa seemed
to be in control, his bike fitted with
cut slicks. But Rossi had finished a
couple of tenths ahead of him in the
first leg, and closed in the last corner
to cross the line almost alongside the
Spaniard.
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NOVEMBER 14,2001 •
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Today's was a doubly impressive win
because he had chosen an intermediate front tire, and was fighting frontwheel slides almost all race long.
