Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World C h a m p io n s h ip Road Ra c e S eries Round 4 : Spanish Grand P r ix (Top) Rossi (4 6) put i n a stellar perfonnance. The 500cc c lass rookie f i nish ed t hird, besting the lik e s of Criville (1). SOOcc GRANO PRIX Where to start? The best place is probably by the s ide of the track where B ia g g i' s Yama ha was o n fire. Th e delay wou ld be crucial , pushing the t imetable back into threatening weather. The race finally got going and it wa s Ro be rts Jr. alone at the front and checking out. It was clear something special was ha ppening when he unof. fic ially broke Kev in Schw a ntz 's 1994 la p re c o rd , one of th e o ldest in G P r a c in g . Roberts Jr. cl oc k e d a 1:44 .127 , j u s t unde r S chw an t z ' s 1:44. 168. That was on la p two a nd he com p lete d it with a two-secon d lead . Adding 'bit by bit, Roberts ha d 5.374 whe n the race was officia lly stop ped . "The team d id a fa ntastic jo b with the set - up, " Rob e rt s Jr. said . "We GRAN PRJ MARLBORI ez 2000 That was the question after Kenny Roberts Jr. thought he'd stopped the race on the 17th of 26 laps of the Spanish Grand Prix. In fact, it was race control that had stopped the race and they're the only ones who can. It was only a coincidence that it happened the same time that Roberts J r. put his hand up. When he found that he didn't have the power to stop the race , Roberts J r. insisted that the racers should. 'T hose guys couldn't call a race to sa ve their ass," Roberts J r. said in the post-race press conference. "IfI'm in front and it's raining, and I think Carlos [Checa] will agree, I'm going to call the race. In Malaysia , it was the right choice and here it was the right choice, and if they don't like it they can kiss my you know what. Because we're the ones risking our lives out there and they're just running the show. And they're going to go, 'Yeah, it's raining a little bit.' But with a 200·horsepower 500, a little bit of rain is a lot. For us to go down and fall down and look like an idiot and wreck bikes is stupid. The leader of the race should have control, or second place." In the past , there'd been an informal agreement between former race director Roberto Nosetto and five-time 500cc World Champ ion Mick Doohan. The agreement was informal, but many thought it was in the rules . "The guy in front needs to have control of the race," Roberts sa id. "If Mick, just because he was five-time World Champion, he should have control? If it's wet, it's wet. If somebody wants to stop the race in front we have to go with that decision." Race directo r Paul Butler had a different view. Butler said the race director sho uld make the call based on information he receives from a number of sources, including trackside marshals, closed circuit television, and on-bike came ras. "We started the race and it started to rain more heavily in the back of the circuit," Butler sa id. "We were informed of that by the marsha ls and we decided to stop it. That's what happened. We have to respect the information that we have." Butler later said it was simply a coincidence, "It happ ened to be raining, it happe ned to co inci de." • He also said he didn't think the riders should be allowed to make the call. "Clearly, if the riders take the situation into their own hands it's open to abuse," he said. "We've taken the decision at the same moment that they. I think what we did today was in the best interest of safety. It was inconvenient for a lot of people, but our prime interest here is safety." he added. . 14 MA Y 10, 2000' e y e I e n e "'" s (Above) Checa ponders what the next part of the race w ill be like as his crew gets different tires ready. (Left) Roberts and Checa1,,2 again! act ually d idn't ha ve a set-up yesterday afternoon, a nd we came up with something that would be bette r this morning and I said just leave it, I'll ride it and it se em s fine . And luckily I go t a g ood start; I put m y head down a nd got away . I nee ded e ve ry s ec ond of it." Roberts th ought he had the righ t as the ra c e leader to stop the race , but he didn 't . The race wa s ha lted by the race direction, coinci denta lly with Roberts Jr. p utti ng his ha nd up a nd s lowi ng a fte r ridi n g in th e we t fo r nearly two laps . "At that point I th o ug ht it was rai n ing too m uch a nd I stopped the ra ce ," he s a id , thinki ng it wa s ra ce dis tance. A member of his pi t crew had signaled him to con tinue on fo r one more lap, but even that wouldn 't have m a d e it official. "If I would h a v e loo ke d a t m y pit boa rd I don't know many more la ps it would ha ve been, bu t it was ra in ing ." Finishing b eh in d Ro be rts in t he first leg was Checa , who ha d 2.4 s econds on Rossi. Em ers on Hon da Pon s ' Alex Ba rros wa s a few tenths behind Ross i, and three in front of Criv ille . Garry McCoy was s ixth , Tady Okada s e v e n t h , and Nobuatsu Aok i was e ighth . The m a nd a to ry I S-m inute wa rm up was called a nd ru n on a m o s tl y dry tra ck. But by th e tim e the ra c e began it was again wet a nd g etting wetter. Most everyone we nt with the combinatio n of soft inte rm e d ia te s fro nt a nd re a r, though Checa we nt wit h a re ar sl ick, a nd McC o y we n t wi t h s licks front a nd re ar. "It st arted , it loo ke d like it was rain ing hard a nd somebody s a id it was raining unde r th e re a nd the track was quite wet, so I thought, we'll jus t be safe a nd saw Ca rlos ha d an intermediate front, so we just went that way : Ro berts sa id . "As soon we too k the things off the sta nd it was m o re than raini ng a nd I was saying, 'Let' s pu t a s lick in, let' s put a s lick in ,' and then it wasn't possible by th en . Had inte rmediates fro nt a nd rea r, we so ftened up th e b ike and we p ut stee l b ra kes on a nd the gearing was from th e dry . So , when th e corner s peed 's do wn a nd yo u p ut the thi ng d ow n a nd then it pic ks up , it co mes to o ur po wer prob lem th at we need to work on ." Roberts J r. trailed Chec a off the re-s tart, t h o ugh he was a hea d on aggregate time . O n the track you could s e e he was struggling and it'd be a struggle to ha ng on , "That si tuation, the powe r control wa s a litt le bit too m uch for the corner s p e e d tha t we ha d a nd the gr ip that we had : Robert s Jr. sa id, "so it was ve ry d ifficult for me the second race, plus we ha d steel bra kes and we softened up the bike, It was the wro ng choice from the be ginn ing ,"

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