Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World Championship Road Race Series Round 10: Czech Grand Prix making some progress, but I just couldn't make any headway," he said later. "In the end, the tires weren't really that bad ... but I could have Garry McCoy was lighting up the reartire and I_king like his old self In qualifying starting on the front row - but ended up 13th In the race with tire problems. done with carrying more corner speed." Wild card Ryo was a lonely 14th, then a distant Ha rada claimed the last 250cc GRAND PRIX point, staying a tenth clear of Regis A flier for Elias from Porto, but by the end of lap two Nieto was leading from Melandri and Rolfo, with Elias and Porto behind and soon to lose touch. Rolfo was inspired, while the pace was fairly slow, and he zipped past Laconi's Aprilia after battling most of the race. Both were suffering Dunlop tire problems, and they beat only wild card Guintoli (Gauloises Yamaha), another 10 seconds adrift. Gibernau was in full-on mode, however, and took three laps to catch up the 1.6 seconds on Capirossi and attacked immediately, diving inside with conspicuous courage, and taking only two more laps to get ahead of Checa as well. His next target was Ukawa, and he set about him with the same vigor, though he said afterward: "It's very difficult for us to overtake, because we don't have the same power as the others." This was true enough, and Ukawa manfully resisted him. Then, with five laps to go, the gap suddenly opened up again. Gibernau's front tire was sliding now. "I felt I was going to crash for sure if I kept pushing, so I had to slow my pace," he said. By now, Ukawa was third, after the drama up front. The three-strong procession had started to liven up a little after halfdistance. Biaggi tried to break away, gaining a gap of better than six tenths on lap 13. Rossi responded directly, and was starting to push almost alongside at some points, while Kato had started to lose touch, over a second behind. Soon, surely, Rossi would be ahead and on his way to another victory. Not so. Instead, on the 16th lap, he suddenly slowed abruptly and looked at the rear of his bike at the bottom of the hill. The TV cameras showed shards of carbon fiber flying off the back. It was his smashed hugger, and from that point on he was touring, diving straight into the pits. His team quickly changed the rear, and he went out again, right at the back of the field. To not much purpose, however, and soon afterward he pitted again to retire. Kato was already 1.5 seconds adrift of Biaggi, who kept pressing on to stretch the gap to the finish. The first two places were settled; and the next four, with Ukawa unmolested, and likewise Gibernau - behind him the fading Checa and Capirossi. There was plenty of excitement for the others from the start. Most espe- 16 SEPTEMBER 4, 2002' cue • cially for McWilliams. He got off the line well, but was pushed almost to last in the first corners. Back against the wall brings out the best in the 39year-old veteran, and he embarked on one of the rides of his life on a bike significantly slower than his rivals, but faster through the tums. "I had to take a lot of risks - the only place I can pass anyone is halfway through the chicanes," McWilliams said. He was passing one or two riders almost every lap for the first half of the race, and by half-distance had already dumped Roberts and Abe (having a desultory battle) and was up to eighth and pulling clear. But a gap of more than five seconds to Capirossi was just too much, and he had to be content to be only the second two-stroke. "I'd have liked sixth rather than seventh, because I think we deserved it," McWilliams said. "The Bridgestones have improved so much - they were grippin' for 90 percent of the race." Only in the last laps did he have to slow down. Teammate Aoki had gotten away well between the Suzukis, but his different style and setup meant he had tire problems from the beginning, dropping behind Roberts and Abe, and then finally succumbing to no front grip on lap 12, crashing out unhurt. Abe kept going for eighth, while Roberts was slowing even more. "My rear tire c~unked from lap six - promoted by our bad setup, and every time I opened the throttle, the bike would snap sideways," he said later. Barros and Jacque were running together and caught and passed the American quite easily before the end, consigning him to 11th. Jurgen van den Goorbergh was some ways back in 12th, then McCoy, just never on the pace after being pushed back in the early laps. "Three laps in, I thought I was n e _ • • Not much change in the championship, however - Rossi's no-score cut his lead to a still awe-inspiring 80 points, 220 to Ukawa's 140; with Biaggi closing on 134, then Checa (96), Barros (94) and Abe (90), with Kato now seventh on 80. Perhaps it shouldn't have been so, given the record of the rider and of the machine, but nonetheless, Daijiro Kato's first-time performance on the 211 RCV V-five Honda was so extraordinarily impressive that he was the surprise of practice. Even though he didn't manage to hang on to pole. That went to Bmo specialist Max Biaggi, in the closing minutes, by less than a tenth of a second. He had broken the two-minute barrier and taken seven tenths off his pole time last year, riding the sleek. newly faired Ml Yamaha, but rejecting the latest chassis revision to stick with what he knew. "The new one may have more possibilities, but we need more time to find the setup," he said. Kato ended up second, ahead of Valentino Rossi, with both of them also below two minutes, and the first six inside last year's pole. His performance had been remarkable from his very first lap on the V-five, which he had ridden only briefly at HRC's very slow and tight Tochigi test track. From the very start he was up among the fastest and challenging for pole, and seemed to have achieved it as ever, he did admit that the four-stroke was "much easier to ride than I expected - a fantastic machine." He had barely made changes, he said, having the luxury instead of concentrating on leaming the track and concentrating on tire choice. Team owner Fausto Gresini commented that Kato seemed to be more motivated than usual, and might just be a better four-stroke than two-stroke rider. Kato had his own angle: "On the two-stroke, it was harder to set the bike, and on the four-stroke, you can think about winning." Rossi was close, but behind, and putting a brave face on it after losing lime searching for settings on the first day. "I missed my chance for a fast lap at the end of the session because the pitboard said three minutes, but doesn't show the seconds. It was only just over three, and not enough time for another lap with this long track." He made light of the new opposition, but his facial expression suggested he might be feeling the pressure. Last man on the front row was two-stroke mounted Garry McCoy, back from injury in full feisty form and riding with all his old sideways verve. "I was a little surprised that the two-stroke was so competitive here, but it will be a hard race," he said. He was using the latest 17-inch Dunlop front (rather than the usual 16.5), and said: "It seems to have more feel, though it might not work at every track." Loris Capirossi's two-stroke led row two, less than two hundredths slower after a run of typical on-the-edge laps. Also back from injury (and newly wed), Capirossi was disappointed to miss the front row, but happy with his performance after breaking his wrist badly at Assen. "Apart from the pain, I still need to recover some fiexibility. It will be a matter of time," he said. Carlos Checa was alongside. persisting with the latest chassis on the Marlboro Yamaha. "We've really reduced the front-end push, but I'm still not totally confident braking into tums, and mid-tum. We need more stability. But I think I can run with the front group," he said. TImes were still close, with the first seven inside last year's pole. And the seventh of them was the ever-surprising John Hopkins, whose Yamaha was always quick and who jumped up at the finish on qualifying tires. He continues to impress in his first season, better than two tenths ahead of Tohru Ukawa's factory Honda in eighth. Sete Gibemau led row three on a first-day time achieved following Rossi. He spent the final session endurance and tire testing, having lost the chance to do that in the morning with two off-track adventures after his Suzuki's throttle stuck open. "I was going for race pace rather than grid position, and in that respect we're not too bad," he said. Alex Barros was alongside, in similar straights after falling on Saturday morning. "It spoiled our plans for the afternoon, and I'm still trying to get the settings right," he said. Then came Shinya Nakano's Yamaha, narrowly ahead of Jeremy McWilliams's Proton. The three-cylinder rider, conspicuously fast through the turns, had been sixth on day one, but lost out on his banzai Saturday lap, losing both front and rear and falling off. But before he hit the ground, he managed to push the bike back onto its wheels with his elbow. "I was really lucky - but not so lucky with the lap lime," he said. Jurgen van den Goorbergh led row four from Nobuatsu Aoki's Proton, both on Bridgestone tires and Aoki gaining respectable speed after switching to a wider front rim. Then came the off-color Yamahas of Olivier Jacque and Norick Abe, with Tetsuya Harada leading row five from Regis Laconi, Kenny Roberts Jr. and Suzuki wild card Akira Ryo. Roberts had an explanation for his lowly position, after missing the German GP for surgery to his right arm. "Neither of my bikes have settings I've used before, and I don't have any feedback, and every time I push I feel as if I'm going to fall down. We persisted because we thought we might find something good, but for the race I'm going back to what I had at my last race, at Donington Park, to look for some spark of confidence that can ignite the whole thing." He had a slip-off on the first day, and added: "It's lucky I had the operation on my arm - otherwise, I might have been 20th." Wild card Guintoli (Gauloises Yamaha test rider) and the similarly mounted Pere Riba filled the field.

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