Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128238
(Left) Lo ris Capirossi (65) leads Se te Gibem a u (1 5), M e landri (3 3), Hayde n (hidden) and To h ru Ukawa (11) a s they give chase to Rossi. (Be low ) The battle for t hi rd was th is close; with Hayde n (6 9 ) beating Gibe m a u (15) across the f inish line. T he c li nc her was his perfo rmance at Ph ill ip Isl an d , in f ront of 40 ,000 fans who braved rotten weather that started the day. " I have nev er b e f or e r i d d e n a who l e ra ce at 10 0 p er c ent all the wa y ," he admitted afterwa rd . Hi s beat en riv al s can on ly hope he nev er does so aga in . Ros si' s exc ept io nal aft ern oon was trigg er ed by a frighten ing cras h on only th e f ourth o f 27 lap s o f th e sc eni c and sp ectacular 2 .7 57 - rn i le Phillip Isl and ci rc ui t south o f M elbourn e. Th e v ic t im was A ustra li an Marlboro Du c at i rid er Tro y B ayli ss, wh o w as b attli ng for the le ad at the front of a fear some b raw ling pack. He co ll ided w ith erstw h ile lead er Marc o Melan dr i 's Fortuna Yamaha as they started brak ing for Ho nda Ha irpin , and he fell he av ily . He wa s later hel i c o pt ered to th e hospital in Mel bourne fo r c hec k s. After suffer ing a concussion but no broken bones, he was still being tre ated at the tra ckside as the pac k c ame howling up on the ne xt l ap , yello w c aut io n flag s being frantic all y waved by ma rshals . Rossi was fightin g to o ve rco me a po or start, aft er fini shing th e first lap in si xth position . The Rep sol Hond a rider didn't se e th e f lags and d iv ed past Mel an dri to t ak e th e lead. Seven lap s lat er , alerted by TV co m m ent at ors, R a c~ Directio n im p o sed a 10 - se cond p e nal ty fo r t he o f f e n se . ( R a t h e r a mild pe na lty , t h o u g h t some, afte r disq ua lific at ions to John Hopk in s a nd M ak o t o T am ad a o ve r the past two rac es.) A t fi rst , Rossi was baffled by hi s pit sig na ls. "I t ho ug ht ... ' f * * * , wh at is th is?'" he sai d . But he got the m essage and th en reeled off fo ur record -breaking laps in su cc ession , eac h fa st er than the last. H e su stain ed th e pa ce, and by th e 23rd lap he had stretc hed his adv an tage over Ma rlboro Du cati ri der Lor is Capirossi t o m ore th an 10 seconds th en k ept on p ushing to lead ov er the li ne by m ore th an 15 sec onds , corrected to a lead of 5.2 . It w as an even m ore im p re ss iv e performance tha n hi s ride ba ck to sec ond at Cata lunya , aft er he ran off th e tr ack . It was a tru e dem on stration Nicky Hayden (6 9 ) had his first real podium finish at Phillip Island. c u e ' e n e vv S • OCTOBER 2 9 , 2003 9