Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Wo....ld Championship Road R ace S e r-ie s Round 7 : C a taluny a n G r-and P r- ix Th is morning I c rashed in the warm up, so I knew how slippery it was . Tha t was luck y - ma ybe if I hadn 't crashed then I' d h a v e crash ed in the r a c e. " Early in th e race, o n la p fi ve, he 'd been challenged by Gibernau , only for the Honda rid er to fall , later claim i n g small consolat ion from th e fact that at le ast he 'd been f ight in g fo r a good posit i on in t he race , an improvement in h is recent fortu ne . A little w ay behind , another b attle was taking sh ap e , a s fi rs t Ros s i pa ss ed C apiro ssi , a n d th en A o ki as well . B y h alf-dist an c e , t he J a pan es e r ider w as atta ck in g th e Italian , and qui ckly mov ed a hea d . It see med h e m ight e ve n get away , bu t o n ly for a lap o r two, as Ro ssi got ba ck o n hi s ta il again. T h e is su e w a s re solved w ith fo ur lap s re ma i ni ng, whe n A o k i h a d a huge sl ide and had to bac k off, lucky to st ay in th e sadd le . T h at ga ve Ross i th e c h ance to get by , and he consoli d ated it with a sp u rt. " I k ept t ryi ng to get ba ck, but after the slide I was a b it worried about my back tire, " sa id Aoki. Va lentino Ro s s i (4 6) was able to thwart the best efforts of Nobuatsu Aok; (9) to finish third. The t ruth of t hi s a s s e rt i on wa s never put to th e test. For th e second h a lf of the r a c e , Rossi was happy w ith a third rostrum , es pecially in the ra in . " A couple of l a p s ea rl ier I'd lost burden of leading once agai n , g radu- m y rev counter, but I was feeling c on th e le ad e r. Ro b ert s said l ater : " It' s Roberts was obliged to shoulder the ally stretch in g awa y fro m A b e , n o w "At Aprili a t h ey a lways used to sa y I wa s b ad in th e w et , but o n t his b ike I fi dent I could win ," sa id Barros. all alone. li ke it," he said. h ard t o r un up fron t , a n d at first I In st e a d , t h e e ngi ne died a n d he hadn 't wa nted to. W hen he closed m e was ob liged to park up aga inst th e where d own that w as okay , I thought I'd let ba rr iers. T h e b attery had gone flat - exp lained later: " M y feeli ngs are first, on ly to be passed no t on ly b y him tak e the pressure o f leading for a appare ntl y a problem nev er e ve n very go od for rain c o n d i t i o n s . McWillia ms's Aprilia b ut th en also by The Ja pa nese rider was happy he was , he gleefully The n ex t group had some u ps an d d o w ns , with Biaggi heading t hem at wh il e - t here was n o way he was heard of before , according to H RC K e n n y w a s so fast , so I tho ugh t I v a n den G o o r b ergh ' s t win H onda , g o in g t o ge t awa y ." engineers. must kee p cool a nd concentr ate . c h a rg in g thro u g h past Crivi ll e . Then M cWill i am s w e nt d o w n o n l ap six , Catalunya is a difficult circuit at the best of times - the surface sensiti ve to moistur e and tem perature, and furthermore host to an annually ever-greater collection of swooping bumps caused by F1 cars over-stressing the road surface. Then there are the long corners, some of them dropping away - plus a very long straight . It can take tim e to get to grips with it. Tim e was in short supply , however, with only the first day dry. On Saturday moming there was a deluge, and the afternoon dryi ng but still damp enough to keep times way out of the ballpark. Kenny Roberts J r. was fastest in the wet. but in the dry the best prepared were the two Hondas of Sit o Pons' squad. Clearly team engineer, the well -respected Antonio Cobas, played a part in their speed, but it was the riders who made the lap time , with Alex Barros taking the second pole of his career and the second in succession by just under two tenths of a second from teammate Loris Capiross i. Barros was naturally delig hted, and confident also after placing thi rd fastest in the wet. "Of course, I hope it will be dry tomorrow. but we are ready for anyt hing," he said. Capi rossi had been concentr ating on gett ing the front forks perfect - both were on 2000 bik es with 1999 engines. " You live on the front wheel here," the Itali an GP winner said, gain ing stat ure and confidence in his impressive return year to the class. Rob ert s and th e Suzuki were next , tight -lipped and seemi ng tense, with a gap of almost one second on pole. "I hope the oth er Honda guy s don't find the same sett ings those two guys have," he said. As ever his worry was tir e endurance, and the possibili ty of losing speed at the end of the race. He also fell in the wet session , caught out, he explained, by a dip in the tra ck caused where the Fl cars bott om out. "I got highsided with the bik e alm ost straight up and down ," he said. Roberts was trying 16.5-inch tires again, but was undecided which to use for the race. In fact he was one of only a handful of peopl e also try ing 17 -inc hers - the tire s initially used only by Garry McCoy are now the fashion accessories of choice for all 500<:c riders. 20 JUNE 21. 2000 · c U e I III ne""s Marlboro Yamaha's Carlos Checa was fourth on the grid. after yet another practi ce crash - losing the front on the first day. Observers not ed that the new non -crashi ng Checa is only in play when he doesn't try , but rides in really relaxed fashion , and that his shared lead of the champ ionship comes after a string of sensible second and third-place finishes. He stayed on for the rest of the practice, however, fighting wheelspin. "This track is really slippery in the wet," he said. Then he fell again in race-morning warm- up, whil e try ing to trade blows with Roberts in the rain. Row two saw Nobuatsu Aoki leading , the second Suzuki rider's best of the year. "So far," he said with a grin . After beating his teammate at the previous race, "my confidence is coming up and up." And his speed - the Suzukis were the quickest bikes through the speed trap on the first fast day of practi ce, Aoki and Roberts tripping the lights at 188 mph , with Biaggi's Yamaha just a tad slower. South African GP winner Garry McCoy was well out of sorts, qualifying 18th. "We tested here earlier in the year. but we j ust don't k now why the bike isn't work ing the same way," he said. Taday uki Ok ada was alongside Aoki, the best of the factory Repsol Hond as, and then came A lex Criville, beari ng up as best he could under the for him very severe pressure of raci ng at hom e. " We wanted more tim e to get the bike set up, but we already have a lot of data for this track , so I am not worry ing," he said optimistically. Max Biaggi was next, times dose as usual amo ng this gang, with Roberts to 14th-placed Harada all within just one second. Am ong them was Valentino Rossi leading row three, surprisin g him self by placing fourth fastest in the wet. condi tion s he does not like. Sete Gibemau was alongsid e. survivor of a very heavy highside cra sh on Saturd ay afternoon; then Regis Lacon i and Nori ck Abe, with Jeremy McWill iam s's Aprili a leading row four from Tetsuya Harad a , Jurg en van den Goo rb ergh and J o se -Luis Cardoso . McWill iam s crashed again, losing the front wheel. The wet weather gave the usual chance for unusual heroes - van den Goorb ergh distinguished hims elf by placing second overall in the wet. and David de Gea's Modenas leading at one point , before finishing sixth in the morning session. r em ount ing t o pre ss o n in s p ite of smash ing the rea r b ra ke d isc . Now van d en G oorbergh le d th e V fo u rs of B iagg i a nd Crivi lle , with de G e a ' s M od en a s c lose b eh ind , but C riville h ad gotten h im back by t he 11th la p , only to fall himself. " I felt c o m f o r t a b le on the b ike , pushing after a bad start - then sud denly it w ent . Ma ybe my rea r sus pen sion was a little hard . With t hese k ind of conditions, if your set-up isn't perfect this kind of thing ca n easi ly happen. " B i ag g i s t a r t e d to move forward so on aft erw ards , passing the va n d en Go o rbergh o n lap 15 an d closin g up o n C apirossi , passin g him too. " I started slowly , in t he b ad condi t io ns , but I j ust rode m y own race and got so m e points," the rath er lu c k les s Italian sai d . Capir o ssi , for hi s part, was b attling with his t ires shot. " I co u ld ha rdl y open th e throttle in the la st laps," he sa id . De Gea hung o n for e ig ht h, a personal best, and a fin ish th at left Team Roberts delighted . " It ' s an ach iev em ent to finish in the top lOin an y class a nd in an y c ir-

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