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\lVelkol"n. Soutoh Afriee • Mel""Oh 19. 2CJOCJ World Championship Road Racing Series Round 1 : South African Grand Prix Regis Laconi, back from injury and 10 seconds away, fending off a very persistent Jurgen van den Goorbergh's V-twin over the line. Way behind came the twins of Cardoso, Gimbert and Konishi, with Shane Norval behind the Japanese rider, and Modenas' David de Gea taking 15th and last, rewarded with one point in spite of being lapped - he'd pitted for a tire change in the early stages. Neither of the Aprilia's finished, blaming handling difficulties with their Dunlops. Harada lasted only two laps, saying the bike was "virtually unridable," while McWilliams managed five laps more, and had run in the top 10. He was more descriptive. "I risked crashing three times in every corner - on the way in, in the middle, and on the way out," he said. 250cc Grand Prix Nakano rode an exemplary race, leading from start to finish, and doing just enough to maintain a convincing gap. At times he slowed the pace, seeming to tease the two Hondas in pursuit, and at the end he had less than a second in hand. But he was in perfect control throughout. "It was quite hard to keep my concentration, leading all the way," he said later. "But I had no real problems." His companions on the rostrum were both Japanese - though as Nakano said: "I expect the Aprilias and their European riders will be closer to the front in the races to come -. they all seemed to have trouble today." Capirossl leads Checa, Roberts and Tadayuki Okada early in the 500cc GP. Okada ended up crashing out of the race. It was Hondas chasing him, however, with newcomer Katoh having all sorts of fun with the relative veteran Ukawa. Katoh led him off the line, and when the older rider passed him under brakes at the start of lap five, he moved straight back ahead at the same place, keeping. him at bay all the way to lap 18, when he got the worst of a back-marker and Ukawa took second once again. But once again, Katoh couldn't make it stick for more than a couple of laps, and with fjve laps to go Katoh passed him one last time. "I was having a lot of slides, and though I tried to catch Nakano he was just too fast - amazingly fast at the beginning," said Katoh. As for Ukawa, who seemed to give up the fight in the last laps to finish 13 seconds down on Katoh, he blamed not only sliding tires but also an unexpected lapse in engine performance. "For some reason, my bike just wasn't very fast today," he said. The ride of the race came from Ukawa's teammate Anthony West, in his first race on. a factory Honda. Somewhat slow off the line from the front row, he said later: "The clutch is a bit different, so I missed my usual good start, and I had to cop a couple of knocks on the first few laps." Nonetheless he worked his way up impressively to oust Franco Battaini and take fourth place on lap five; and though he succumbed not long afterwards to Olivier Jacque on the second Chesterfield Yamaha, losing ground gradually as the race wore on, he managed to fend off his Italian adversary all the way to the line claiming fifth less than a 10th of a second ahead of Battaini's Aprilia. 'I 25cc Grand Prix The top three (from left to right): Carlos Checa, Garry McCoy and Loris Capirossi. 10 MARCH 29. 2000' cue I e n e "" s Fontana Aprilia's Gianluig;' Scalvini took the lead, and even seemed set to escape, but within a few laps Giansanti had closed up again, then Roberto Locatelli had gained again the last-named taking the lead. By lap seven, an eight-strong group had formed up at the front with Vincent now leading for the first time, Alzamora joining on the back, Ivan Goi behind him, Steve Jenkner ahead with Noboru Ueda's Givi Honda in