Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Interview With a Champion: Valentino Rossi " F o r me, the most importa nt thing is to beat the other riders. For sure it is a great pleasure to beat Ho nda, but I don 't fight Yamaha against Honda. I am fighting [Sete] Gibern au and [Max] Biaggi and [Loris] Capirossi, and if they are riding for Ducati o r somebody else, I do n't mind ." Valentino Rossi was speaking to a packed press conference room after the first celebrat ions for his fourth successive premie r-class tit le, his sixth World Championship. Asked about w he ther he wou ld now including Capiross i and Biaggi." Had he ever been co ncerned he might no t be able to win the title in the first year? "O n the first half of t he first day of testing I was quite worried , but it is as Jeremy [Burgess - crew chief] says: The mo torcycle is just a tool. If you have a prob lem with t he front end, you can work on it and fix it, It's just mathematics, not "T hree in a row was a key point. Sete was in very good shape at those races and made good lap time s - and I beat him." Rossi admitte d that the mo tivation to win next year will be less than th is, but it woul d no t be a crippling pro blem , "T he target was for two years, to win the championsh ip. We took o nly o ne yea r, but I w ill try to w in it again next year." Finally, a reporter asked what he th ou ght Ho nda needed to do - to beat him. He laughed and replied: "Take me another ti me. " Mi ch ael S c o tt dreaming." Th e most significant improve - ment had been the big-bang engine, he said, "We took only one year, but I will try to win it again next year." .. Valentino Rossi th aw his attitude toward Sete Gibe rnau, to w hom he w as not speaki ng after he suspec ted him of being behin d the Q ata r protests, he said: "My personal re latio nship with Sete is not impo rt ant fo r anybo dy except me and him. It's only o ur prob lem. What is important is for people to see a goo d fight on t he track. "Th is year Sete was the best rival. I have been lucky th at I have raced against ve ry good riders and cham pions in all classes - "The first version was very good to ride, but quite slow," Rossi said. "W ith the seco nd vers ion, we improved a lot." This e ngine, Yamaha staff late r explained , had arrived fo r Le Mans. Rossi had started to be lieve t he title would be pos sible not after winning the first race, but afte r winning the third , fourt h and fifth in a row, at Mugello, Catalunya and Assen. Mike Brown Wins Sheffield Supercross Goodwin To Stand Trial A Pasadena, California , Superior Court of Thompson and called the murders "dearly judge has ordered former supercross promoter Michael Goodwin to stand trial for the execution murders of his one time business partner and racing legend an execution," Mickey Thompson and his wife , Trudy. The Thompsons were shot to death outside their Bradbury, California , home in March of 1988, Judge Teri Schwartz release. "T here is more than enough [evi- found there was sufficient evidence against the 59-year-old Goodwin after hearing evidence from 20 prosecution witnesses during a preliminary hearing that started on October 4. "Th is clearly is a circumstantial case," Schwartz said in a press release, adding that "ample evidence of motive" was presented , including statements attributed by w itnesses to the defendant . Witnesses testified that Goodwin said he would kill Thompson because of their failed business venture , his loss of a lawsuit to his former partner and subsequent judgment against him of nearly three-quarters of a million dollars. Schwartz said that looking at the evidence presented, "there 's ~mpIy no one else the court cansaycommitted thiscrime." Shenoted the witness testimony about Goodwin's hatred "The court has no problem in finding enough evidence to connect the defendant to these crimes," the judge said in the dence] to hold the defendant to answer." Schwartz ordered Goodwin to stand trial on two counts of murder with the special circumstances of lying in wait and multiple murders. Goodwin remains in custody without bail and is scheduled to be back in court on October 28 for arraignment and trial setting. Although a potential capital case, the district attorney's office has not made a decision on whether to seek the death penalty for Goodwin, according to reports. Prosecutors allege Goodwin had Thompson and his wife killed because Thompson had won a $768,000 judgment against him after their business relation - ship fell apart. Twenty witnesses testified at the preliminary hearing , the last of which , Goodwin's former girlfriend Gail Hunter, testified that in 1992 Goodwin showed her a video tape of an " Unso lved Mysteries" show about the Thompson murders and said, "Loo k what I've done, and I got away with it." 8 oaOBER 27, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS Mike Brow n returned to Europ e and pulled o ff a victory at t he Sheffield Supe rcross on Octo ber 16. Brown finished ahead of fellow CAS Honda teamma te Josh Coppins, and Aust ralian Kim Ashkenazi in t he Pro O pen class in front of 6000 fans at the Hallam FM Sheffield Arena in England . Brown, a former 12Scc National MX C hampion, had to stay o n his guard thro ughout the race, as he was kept ho nest by Coppins and Ashkenazi. At first , it wa s Ashkenazi leading the way, but the two CAS Ho nda team riders made the ir way past t he Aussie by the seco nd lap, and then it was the American who led the rest of the way. "It's my first race fo r t he team and everything has gone well," Ho nda 's Carl N unn, who bou nced back fro m a bad start to the eve ning to take the Brown said. "T his is one of the better teams ning this first one has given me the boost I over here [in Euro pe], and I'm here to win titles. I'm here to take the British title and t he Wo rld title ." The I25cc Pro class belonged to RTT nee ded to go on and w in the title . I've had a pretty good year, and to win this event is pretty cool." Geoff M eye r 40th Ann iversary final-race w in in round one of the seven- rou nd British SX Series. Nu nn crashed in his heat race but came thro ugh the sem ifinal and the n made the most o f a goo d start to take the ho nors in t he final. Meredith Hond a's St uart Flockhart finished second, ahead of Mo tov ision Suzuki's Neville Bradshaw. "I thought it was over befo re it was started wit h t hat cras h," Nunn said o f his evening. "I had missed one practice as well. but as I got into the final, I started to get my rhythm back , I got the ho leshot and got the whoops dialed in t he final and co ntrolled the race from there . I always planned to do the full series, but win -

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