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o n n I 0 road race World C h a m pi o n s h ip Road Race Series Round 15: Australian Grand Prix The re were severa l surprises in quali fy- Proton's Jeremy McWilliams holds off the advances of Kawasaki 's Gany McCoy in the MotoGP. of th e true depth o f h is ability and w ill do n o h arm to his n egotia ting pos i tion, at a time when he is st ill de la yin g signi ng up fo r next y ea r. Honda wants to keep him ; Yamaha w ants to needing a d i squa li f i c a t i o n a head of snatch him; Du c ati is i n the market him. as well . T h ey will su rely have to dig " I really wanted a legitimate podi um , and n o w I' v e g ot o ne , " he said deep into thei r pock ets. After the race, Rossi rode th e lap of hon or with a flag carrying the number 7 later. He had passed Te lefonica MoviStar of the late Ba rry Sheene, a final honor H o n d a ' s S et e G i b e rn a u on the l a st to t he British cha m pion who died of la p , the pair outpacing f ifth -placed cancer earlier this year after a weekend Tohru Ukawa and h is C am e l Honda . filled w ith many formal tributes. '. " He was a magic p e r s o n and was t op Yamaha i n sixth , narrow ly changed a li ttle bit the w hole sport. " defeat ing d'Antin Yamaha's Shiny a Gauloises -sponsored O livier Jacque Ross i said . "When we came back , I Nakan o . Fortuna Ya maha 's Carlos ha d a st ra n ge feel in g , to rea lize he Chec a was eighth after running off the h as gone . W e mad e a fl a g u s in g a track while ba ttling with H a y d e n ' s sh eet from th e hot el. Sorry , hote l. " gang . H i s t ea m ma te M el an d ri h a d C ap iro ssi was a clea r se c ond ; Re p - been ahead of them all and even led s ol Ho nda's Nicky H a yd en wo n a t he ea rly la ps before crashing out just fie rc e fig ht fo r th e last ro strum spot, after h alf di s t an c e , d i slocat i ng hi s eq ualli ng h is bes t result so far w ithout ing . but none of them c ame from th e new World Cham pion. Valenti no Rossi moved to the top of the list at the close of the first timed session and k ept on getting faster . He fell short of predi c tions that the 1:30 record would be bro ken, but only by hundredths of a second . And that was enough to put him fully four tenths clear of the next man, his eighth pole of the year. Times were very fast, thanks to the qualifying tires, with 19 rider s inside the lap record , and all but two of them inside last year's pol e, set by Jeremy McWilli ams on the Prot on, and still the fastest-ever lap by a two-stroke. One of th em was McWill iams him self, pu tti ng the Proton 10th, the first time the V-five four -stroke has quali fied faster than the thr ee-cylinder two- strok e. Rossi was in a vol uble mood afterwa rd about how mu ch he enjoyed the track, but he worried about the safety as the speeds kept increasing. "We don 't have to change the track. We have to change the things around the trac k," he said. The front row was equally split betwee n Honda and Duc ati , with a cheerful Loris Capirossi second. The Desmosedici was shining at the fast track, slightly waywa rd handling more than com pensated for by the best top speed, Capirossi clocking 204.5 mph . And he'd been endurance-testing tires, refin ing settings and so on, he said. "Today we confirmed the bike can work well over race distance. It has improved a lot since we tested here 10 months ago." Al ongside was Sete Gibernau , his times close and the Spaniard also confirming steady progress after a heavy crash at the fast tum one on the first day, lucky to em erge only with bruises and grazes. "I was a bit dizzy today, but we m ade up for lost time," he said on Saturda y. Troy Baylis s also crashed, on the second day, a reflection of a state of some tension for his home GP and also a high level of perforrnence. "I was testing a harder front ti re," he explained. "Trying hard and it didn't work out," Nick y Hayden led the second row , equalli ng his best position and showing his mus cley style to advantage thr ough the hairpin and into th e last bends. Less than two tent hs behind Bayliss, he said: "I really thought I could get on the front row, so it's a bit of a bummer. But I'm kinda happ y. Tomorrow's what counts." Alo ngside him was Max Blaggi, off the fron t row for only the third time this year. "We haven't made any progress with setup, but we haven't gone backwards, either," he said. Marco Melandri was top Yamaha, placing seventh after finding a chassis setti ng that improved front -end feel. Tohru Ukawa was alongside, one row bett er than usual and the first to be more than a second off Rossi's time. Carlos Checa led row three after losing his way with sett ing changes: alongside him was the remarkable McWilli ams. "I can' t im agine how mu ch easier it would be riding a m achin e with 40 more horsepower than us," he said, adm itt ing: "I've been going into the comers faster and faster to see if I can get away with it. It' s risky , but fun." It was the fourstroke Proton's best qualifyin g positi on by two full rows of the grid. ri ght shoul de r in th e fa ll. Man ,of the Meeting: d)@[f@ffiJi)W flil@ I!lltJD DfiJffiJi)r;B D Jeremy McWilli ams has a special relations hip with Phillip Island. He has been on pole three times. once on the 250cc Aprilia, once on the 500cc Aprilia and once - last year - on the heavily outgunn ed three -cy lin der Proton 500 . He set the fastes t-e ver two-stroke lap on ,the lightweight tripl e. Th e 39 -ye ar-old from Carmo ney in North ern Irel and had all that in h is pocket when he arrived to race the v: five four -strok e Proton. What he didn't have was top speed - he was fully 12.5 mph slower down the front straight than Loris Capirossi's Ducati. Nonetheless he qualified 10th, on the third row and the Proton's best by two rows. "I can' t imagine how much easier it must be with 40 mo re horsepower than we have," he said . "I'm making up time by having fun in the long turns and chipping away. I'm try ing to go in faster and faster, to see if I can get away with it." Then came the race and a sterli ng performance. After trouble with throttle surging on the first couple of laps, bad enough that "I almost came int o the pits," the bike cleared , and he got down to business, impos ing his will on the factory Suzuki of John Hopkin s and the factory Kawasak i of Garry McCoy . His ridi ng tactics were hard, but effective. When Makoto Tam ada came through. he went with him to finish 11th, the Proton four- Kenny Roberts Jr. was a season 'sb e st ninth o n th e Suzuki ; Pramac Hond a 's Makoto Tamada wa s 10th, 25 points , Po g g i al i on ly seven , an d they go to the last rac e with the San M arino rider' s l ead c ut b ac k t o just o ut p acing the next scra p p ing g an g of J erem y M cWi lliam s and hi s Pr oton KR V -five, H opk ins and K awasaki ' s seven points . The r ac e was a di sa ster fo r t he G ar ry McCoy . Eleventh w a s th e four stroke Proton ' s be st fini sh so far. no good settings fo r the we t t rac k an d dropped bac k to 11 th in t h e r a c e , helped only b y several rid ers' c ra sh - Ma x B i a g g i fini shed ou t o f th e points after being put off t he track by T h e c r a s h e r s i n cl u d e d Ran d y de Pun iet , wh o di sputed th ir d w ith Nieto a n d S ebast i a n Porto, a nd w ho h a d run o ff o n t he fi rst corner , re -j o in ed in l ast p la c e a nd fo ug h t h is way b ac k through to fi ft h , in two w eeks at Valencia in Spa in . F ort una Ho n d a 's Rob erto Rolfo T he 125cc GP w as a l so run on a dry ing track, and 30 -year-old Italian w as a cle ar start -to - fi n i s h w i n ner , wi t h Au st ra lian Abru zzo April ia r id er substitute rider Andrea Ba ll erini and his Ajo H onda h eld it all tog ether w h il e othe rs f ell v ic t i m all a rou n d stroke's best result in its nine races so far. "It's good to be raci ng for the points again," he said , "and to see the crew sm iling. They've been working so hard. It m ight even mak e the Old Bugger smile." He meant team owner Kenny Roberts, who was not in Australia . But, as the oldest rider out there, he m ight also have meant himself. h is MS April ia c ou ld manag e no bett er th an ninth , losing a pla c e to deter mi ned Elit Honda privateer Jaroslav Hu les on th e las t lap. Ro lfo clai m ed O CTO BER 29 , 2003 ' cue I e n e vv s ing o ut in fr o nt of h im. He is n ow 2 7 B a y li s s ' crash, re-jo ini ng a dista nt last , to fi n i s h 17th, be hi nd Coli n Edw a rd s o n the Aprilia . The race was run in t he dry , heavy m o rn in g -lo ng ra in li ft in g j ust in time . Th e 2 50c c race was r un i n mixed conditions, wi th a resu lt th at keep s th e title battle a live to th e last ro u n d Anth on y W est se tt l i ng f or se cond , after a strong mid rac e effo rt to c lo se th e gap. Tel efon ica M oviSta r Aprilia rid er Fonsi N ieto was third . Points leade r Manuel Poggia li and 10 third title hopeful , T on i Elias . He had points adrift of Poggiali, w it h only 25 o n th e ta b le in Valenc ia . him . He clai med a ca reer - fi rst win by a h u g e m argi n from soon -to -retire teammate Masao Azuma , with Steve J en k ne r a distant third . Ballerini had d isp la c ed long-tim e leader Stefano Perugini , who added to a tota l of 12 c rashes in the rac e soon afterward .