Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World Championship Road Race Series Round 3: Japanese Grand Prix Biaggi leading the way from Abe and Roberts until he ran wide at the hairpin, and the American took over. McWilliams then demonstrated the weakness of the V-twin Aprilia, losing one place after another each time they went down either the pit stra ight or the main straight, only to be held up on the twisty sections so he was unable to run laps at anything like his practice speed. He was soon in 10th place and no longer a factor. Roberts remained narrowly in control, leading across the line for the first seven laps, while Criville joined Biaggi and Abe, with Biaggi putting his wheel ahead of the American from time to time. Then on lap eight, Biaggi firmly passed Roberts going into turn one, and stayed there for the whole lap - Criville. followed him past by the end of the lap. At the same time, Okada and Carlos Checa were right up behind, the leaders apparently slowing each other up so much that when Aoki broke clear of McCoy and Alex Barros a little way back, he started to close a two-second gap steadily to join the gang on lap 12. Roberts insisted that the pace wasn't slow because of interference, Aprilia's Jeremy McWilliams had the V-twin near the front and eventually finished eighth. Here he leads Sete Gibemau, who crashed on the last lap. but for some other reason, possibly a colder track surface. "I had the same set-up I could run 2:07s with in practice, but you could only run 2:09s," he said. "You'd get to the front and think - now I'm really gonna try, then at the end of the straight someone would blow by, and you'd think where they heck did he come from. That was the drafting. But you couldn't go quicker - the tires would just let go." On lap 11, Criville took over from Biaggi in turn one, then Roberts pushed him to third at the Degner Curves, before the hairpin. Biaggi was trying to redress the ba"lance when the freight train piled into the chicane at the end of the lap, but he ran wide onto the bumpy loose stuff and tumbled out of the race. "I felt I could win, but I hit a bump under brakes. My mistake," Biaggi explained. So it carried on, swapping back and forth, Roberts again up front and further molestation, much to his surprise. Okada was happy enough with third, showing that Honda was somewhat on the way back having revived last year's engine and chassis parts, though he was not ecstatic. He also had chosen a 16.5-inch rear, without enjoying quite the same advantage as Abe. "We need to find out why," he said. Aoki was right on his heels with a tremendously impressive ride, holding off Checa, with Criville regaining the track right behind his compatriot. A little way back came Barros' Emerson Honda. He and his pursuer McWilliams had also caught up with the leaders, only to lose touch a little at the finish. It was a frustrating experience for McWilliams, who salva'ged some pleasure from being less than five seconds behind the winner. "A while back that would have been a dream," he said. The next group had been three- then seemlng to embark on a breakaway with five laps left. But they chased him down again, and then on lap 18 Abe took the lead for the first time. "I'd waited until there were three laps to go, though even then I wasn't sure I could win," Abe said. Then there was Criville, who ran onto the dirt at the long Spoon Curve later that same lap. It looked as though he'd just missed his braking point in strong, until a frustrated Sete Gibernau crashed out on the final lap. "I had a clutch problem all race long, and it made me lose concentration," he said. This left McCoy to head Ryo's Suzuki by inches, the Japanese rider (a World Superbike race winner) recovering from his bad start for an impressive first GP ride. Valentino Rossi claimed his first 500cc GP points with a disappointing claiming the lead,_b~t he later said Abe had run into him. Now at .last the lap times dropped a little, but while Roberts could follow Abe, he couldn't attack, and the Japanese rider was able to win his home GP for a second time without 8 APRIL 19, 2000' cue I and lonely 11 th, another 15 seconds away after finding that his tire choice left him sliding badly. Loris Capirossi was a long way back in 12th, carrying injuries from his Malaysia'n tumble. e ne'UVs Then 'came Jurgen van den Goorbergh, his V-twin Honda well clear of practice crasher Regis Laconi's V- four Red Bull Yamaha. David de Gea's Modenas narrowly defeated the V-twins of Konishi and Gimbert to Slightly colder-conditions and an older track surface were blamed for slower lap times in all classes, but Roberts was on the pace from the start, setting pole time (inside the lap record, though slower than Max Biaggi's pole from two years ago) on the first afternoon, and spending the second session in steady laps, endurance-testing tires and so on. As he (and everyone else) had predicted, this was a good Suzuki track, where he could use the good handling and his riding skill to string the complex curves together. "The other guys will catch up tomorrow," he predicted on Friday, but he was wrong. The other star of practice was Jeremy McWilliams on the Aprilia, fastest on Saturday morning, and threatening a front-row position right up to the end of the last session, when Biaggi put in a late flyer to move from row two to second position, and Sete Gibemau came from even further back. . "I lose a bit on the straight," said the Ulsterman. "But through the esses I make it all up again. My only problem will be that it's hard to overtake anybody, and if I get slowed through the twisty section, there's nothing I can do to make up for it for the rest of the lap." So it was Biaggl second overall, fastest in the wind-slowed finai session, though just for one lap. "We need to do some more tomorrow to be sure it will work for full race distance," the previous Suzuka GP winner said. An impressive third went to Akira Ryo, riding the third Suzuki in TelefonJca MoviStar colors as the sole wild card in the field. He'd said on Friday: "My advantage is track knowledge, and I believe the others wi.ll catch up tomorrow." In fact it was him who cut his time still further. "Practice is just a few fast laps," he said. "I will have to see with Suzuki what is the team tactics for the race tomorrow." Gibernau moved to the front row in the dying minutes of practice after battling all the time - he'd used one of Michelin's qualifying tires to do it, and fumed afterwards: "The bike's not good enough to be in this position. It's the rider who did ,it." This pushed McWilliams to lead row tWo, his best-ever qualifying position, heading Loris Capirossi, who also moved up only in the dying minutes - the Italian was still in pain after his heavy Malaysian prang. Tadayuki Okada was alongside, and former Suzuka winner Norick Abe, both disappointed not to do better in front of their home fans. The times were very close by now, however. The first five positions were covered by nine-tenths of a second, sixth to 15th by the same time spread, almost negligible given the 3.64-mile length and the two-minutes plus lap time. Carlos Checa led row three from Alex Criville, who expressed rather more optimism for this race than the previous rounds now he, in common with the other HRC riders Gibernau and Okada, had a 1999 bike. Criville had fallen at low speed in practice, without injury; Checa, on the other hand, c.ontinued to stay wheels down, chipping away at last year's reputation as one of nature's crashers. Garry McCoy was next, another to tumtlle, and continuing to entertain the crowds with, his lurid tail-out braking techniques, though there are fewer corners here where he could keep the back sliding under power. Then came Nobuatsu Aoki, who fe.ll heavily in practice for a second race in succession, suffering bad bruising to the base of his spine as well as some temporary nerve daml;lge affecting his arm. He returned the next day to ride on regardless. Valentino Rossi led row four, puzzled at how he wasn't able to continue with his strong form, though the subtleties and difficulties of the track were good enough explanation for most.

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