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/128604
Grand Prix Preview (Left) Kenny Roberts Jr. is on the fast track to the World Championship. Is this the year that the title comes back to America? (Below left) Alex Criville will face the task of carrying that heavy number one plate in 2000. (Below) Max Biaggi could end up being the surprise of 2000 if he can stay consistent enough to win the crown. In the pre-season anticipation, there are more signs of a strong season to come. Both Honda and Yamaha have new BY MICHAEL SCOTT PHOTOS BY GOLD £, GOOSE he sharp crack of four-cylinder, two-stroke exhausts and the lingering odor of the startline's faint blue haze will sound and smell especially sweet in the year 2000. Two reasons: the 500s are enjoying their penultimate season as undisputed kings of racing - from 2002 the lists will 'be open also to four-stroke prototypes, new regulations that mean the days of the two-strokes are surely numbered. And secondly - there is as closematched a group of would-be champions as there has been since the golde'n years of Lawson, Rainey, Schwantz, Gardner and the rest. Free at last from the shadow of Mick Doohan, and reinforced by some important newcomers, the class of '99 has another year ahead, and one more chance to be the best. 14 MARCH 15. 2000' eye I motorcycles to test - how new remains to be seen, but consider that both these manufacturers pulled out of pre-arranged joint tests, including the IRTA Phillip Island tests in February, eschewing the undoubted advantage of comparative tests with their rivals in favor of secrecy, and leaving Suzuki gloriously alone in Australia. And there's a fine, all-Italian needle match in the offing, as former 125 and 250cc World Champion Valentino Rossi moves up to the big-time. Charmed youth Rossi, hugely popular. has already been at loggerheads with incumbent Italian hero Max Biaggi, with little love lost between them. Now they meet head to head. The class of kings has been waiting for a shot in the arm. Now it has sev- e ne",,::;; eral, all at once. It will be fascinating to see how the patient reacts, over the course of the 16-round season, starting in South Africa on March 19, running on through two visits to Japan (Suzuka in April and Motegi in October) and the usual European gallops, this year with Estoril in Portugal on the calendar, before concluding in Australia at the end of October. The positive feeling is especially welcome, after a winter of thin entry lists and serious worries about the strength of the top class. There may only be 20 permanent entries, but they are the cream of the crop. The signs of revival were strong last year, but the threads took time to Kocinski fell by the wayside. Max Biaggi struggled through a string of crashes on the Yamaha (quite a few less falls, however, than his teammate Carlos Checa). Champion Alex Crivi1le, meanwhile, took over while senior teammate Doohan was gone, winning a slew of races, after which, injured, he did enough to end up on top. And nobody else counted too much. The first question is simply this - is Criville rider enough to defend the first title won by a non-American or Australian since 1982? Well, Criville is a deep one. And deeply experienced. Recovered now from wrist surgery at the end of last year, he has all the resources he could want. Including - at least at the first public tests at the end of January - a special motorcycle. Which is a worry, for it could be his downfall. Let me explain. At HRC's first January tests, Criville alone was testing a bike that looked different (shorter exhausts) and sounded different from the other NSRs at Jerez. As the undisputed Number One Honda rider, Crivi1le enjoys the privilege of first pick (and sometimes only pick) of special experimental parts. Now every racer knows that the first people you need to beat are your teammates, and it is obviously tempting to try to do so on superior equipment. It is a true test of a rider whether he is mentally strong enough to recognize whether or not the new equipment really is better. This was one of Doohan's great assets - that he had the self-belief and the strength of character to resist come together. New star Kenny Roberts Jr. was erratic after winning the- first two rounds on the Suzuki, but HRC's wilder fancies, and to keep the bike virtually unchanged for more came back stro.ng at the end of the season. Tadayuki Okada pushed hard than five years. On the other hand, the old faithful as the year wore on; while John was looking somewhat pushed by the