Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

For a third race in succession, a Japanese rider takes the award - Daijiro Kato, who has taken just three races to become a serious threat in his first season in the premier class. Kato, who completely dominated the 250cc class last year and broke Mike Hailwood's record for the greatest number of wins in a season, may only ride a 500 against the powerful new 990s - but at Jerez only Rossi could beat him. A man of few words, Kato prefers to let his results do the talking, saying only after the race: "I'm proud of this achievement - 1rode very well, even though in the last part of the race I had some problems with grip." His aim for the season is far grander than just making a good start to eam a V5 fourstroke next year. "I'll keep my concentration on the title, which is my real goal," he said. Asked if he expects to get a V5 before the end of the year, Kato gave a small smile. "I never rode it, but I can say it is extremely fast," he said. Kato, 25, who dropped the final H from his Surname this weekend, is an enigmatic character. Married with one son of 16 months, he lives in Misano, Italy, dUring the season, and in Tokyo when he isn't racing. The 17-time 250cc GP winner's hobbies include "sleeping" and playing on his computer, and even his fellow countrymen find him oddly shy and reticent. His rivals just find him very, very fast. World Champion Rossi celebrates his second victory of the season aboard the new RC211V four-stroke, which is undefeated so far this year. Garry McCoy (8) leads teammate John Hopkins (21) and Jacque (19). McCoy was given a five-second stop-and-go penalty for passing under a yellow flag, dropping him to the 15th position and moving his teammate Hopkins up to 13th. went into the dirt, leaving third to close spectator Emilio Alzamora (Honda), with Battaini fourth. MDtDGP Rossi led into the first corner, but his fuel-heavy four-stroke was no match for Barros' two-stroke, and the Brazilian led the first lap from Ukawa, Rossi, Kato and Roberts, who had a flier from the third row. Roberts attacked Kato into turn one - only to find himself in all sorts of trouble. "We need to improve our backshifting and clutch system before I can ride aggressively, and that was the perfect example," Roberts said. "I braked pretty deep, the rear locked up, and I couldn't feel what gear I was in. I damned near took out Rossi, which was entirely my own fault." Rossi narrowly stayed wheels down on the track as Roberts raised an arm in apology and resumed the chase behind Biaggi, who was unaware of being signaled to take a stop-and-go penalty. Up front, Ukawa easily blasted past Barros on the second run down the back straight and settled down for a long spell up front. On lap four, Rossi did the same to Roberts to take third, and took two more to do it again to Barros, this time down the front straight. The difference between his four-stroke and the two-strokes came under initial acceleration, and was strikingly large. At this stage, almost a quarter into the race, the leading trio had a lead of almost two seconds over Capirossi, but it was shrinking fast; while Kato was ahead of the fading Roberts and also closing up. Before half distance, they were all together, five bikes within 1.3 seconds with Kato picking his way through: Ukawa, Rossi, Kato, Barros, Capirossi. Some ways back, Checa was heading the next gang of Abe, Aoki and Roberts, losing ground as he soldiered on for a safe finish. Then a big gap, and slower-starting Gibernau was fending off McWilliams and Harada's Honda, with Laconi's bellOWing Aprilia another ways back, and then van den Goorbergh's Honda under pressure from Hopkins. A disconsolate McCoy was closing from behind. "Starting from the back of the grid makes it hard to get on the pace, and I was struggling again with right-hand cue I e corners because of my leg," McCoy said later. Rossi was hovering inches behind Ukawa, clearly poised to pass, and he did so into turn one on the 17th lap, quickly opening up a gap of more than a second as he charged away to another assured race win. Ukawa was coming under pressure from Kato by then and succumbed five laps later, the red two-stroke Honda also pulling away steadily, though not close enough to think about challenging Rossi. By now, Barros was beginning to lose pace a little, his tires shot. Capirossi was more than ready to take up the challenge and passed Ukawa for the first time into the final hairpin on lap 24. This was the signal for a desperate battle. Ukawa used his power to attack unsuccessfully into turn one, then Capirossi ran wide at the far hairpin and Ukawa powered ahead on the exit. Loris attacked again at the last hairpin, but Ukawa accelerated narrowly past across the line... and so on and on, a game of tactics and effort that was finally resolved when Ukawa successfully defended his line into the last hairpin for the last time. Barros had dropped away by the finish, then came Abe, relieved of the almost race-long frustration of crawling all over Checa's Yamaha in the turns only to be blown away again on the straights when the red bike stuttered to a stop on the far side of the track. "It's better to break down on the last iap when you are sixth than when you are first," Checa said philosophically. Aoki had lost touch with Abe after a storming ride, then slowed on the n e _ S • MAY 15, 2002 29

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