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/128635
On th e way t h ere , he'd ca ught up with slow starter Waldmann, who was alsa picking his way through, but after t h e y passed Batttaini he couldn 't quite match Nakano , and lost touch. Anthony West, meanwh ile , had spent the first half of the ra ce fend ing off Porto, but in the second half h is consisten t fast laps started to p ayoff, and by lap 12 he had caught and easily passed Battaini, and was starting to work on a 2.5-second gap to W al d mann. He caught the more expe rienced German w it h three laps le ft , passed him on the p enult imate lap , only fo r Waldmann to draft by agai n on the straight. West b ided his t ime u n ti l the l a st corner , where h e o ut- All ied at some time or another, though Katoh h ad t he lions sha re of it, a nd M eland ri was up fr ont fo r only a co uple of la ps over the line. All were right on the edge and making mistakes. On lap 14 Mela ndri ran wi de an d lo st a full second. O ne la p later, Katoh was on the dirt on the exit fro m the fast comer leadi ng onto the back straight, and a lmost off. This disturbed Ukawa , so b y the end of the straight Melandri was b a c k in front. And soon afterward Katoh had c a ught back up again . (Above) The 250cc Grand Prix was close throughout. Race w inner Daij iro Katoh le ads Tohru Ukawa and Marco Melandri. (Right) McCo" Barros, Ros si and Abe race under a gia nt TV monitor. Th e f i n a l lap was breath taking . Mela ndri led at th e start of it , 'K at o h swe pt through from third to first into the first co mer, Uk awa then seized control in the closing stages - o nly fo r K ato h to force his way pa st into the final bend . They cro ssed t h e line almost three abreast: Katoh, Uk awa, Melandri. Bumps and bad weather forecasts threw some into disarray in two days of practi ce that ended in the usual qualifying-tire scram ble in the last ] 0 m inutes. By then, for example, Garry McCoy had shot his bolt , using both his allotted quali fyi ng ti res on the first day in the mistaken expecta tion that the second would be wet. Just to spoil it still furt her, he th en colli ded at high speed with Tetsuya Harada, who was cruising on the raci ng lin e. Luckily he was not hurt. Th e actio n up front saw pole change hands over and over, with Al ex Barros displa ced at the last gasp by Marlboro Yamaha's Max Biaggi. "We worked for two days. but only at the end of the last session we found a setti ng that really helped," Biaggi said, insisting that he could be fast with or without qualifying tires. "The ove rall balance of the bike is improved, and qualifying tires only prove it" Barros was close, and quietly confident that for once he mig ht man age a win at his home GP. "The most im portan t thing is to get a clean start and then keep the rhythm of steady laps," he said, adding that he thought Valenti no Rossi was the danger man . Biaggi's teamma te Carlos Checa was delighted to be in thi rd, as he regains form after his m id-season slump . Especially since his time had come not on a qualifier, but a harder tire, "more like a race tire. I don' t like qualifiers, because my style works better with a race tire . I tried the soft tire 20 mi nutes from the end, but then I went faster again with a harder one," he said. Rossi was at the far end of the front row, saying that although he had a mathematical chance of winning the title, in fact he believed that game was over. "Kenny (Roberts Jr.) won it in Valencia. Now I have to think about second place. I want to win the last three races ," he said. Half a second covered the first row , and an 'even smaller time interval the second, with the first eight inside one second. Loris Capirossi was in fifth. after finding a setting that he was happy with over the bum ps. Then came Norick Abe. last year's winner, deiig hted to qualify much better than usual. "' am better at racing than qualifying - so I feel confident for a good fight tomorrow," he said. Only then came Roberts, in his worst qualifying position of the whole season. He had sma ll proble ms on both days, incl uding a broke n cyl inder head bolt that stopped him out on the track. But the real prob lem. he growle d. was the same one he's had all year - a lack of out and out horsepower tha t left him trailing on the .68 of a mile straight. "I hope it rains," he said . clearly feeling the pressure. Tad ayuki Ok ada concl uded the second row, com pla ining again about the Honda's excessive sensiti vity to balance - "one d ick either way makes a big difference ," he said. His was the best of the Repsol Hondas, with teammate Sete Gibemau in 11th and A lex Criv ille anot her place down at the far end of row thr ee, nursing a sore finger after cr ashing on the first day, but saying the real problem was the diffic ulty he was having switching to the ]6.5- inch rear. "I am one of the last riders to use it, and I am still finding the righ t settings," he said. Regis Lacon i led the third row from Jurgen van den Goorbe rgh and the two Hondas: Garry McCoy led the fourth from Jeremy McWilliams. an off-form Nobuatsu Aoki and Tetsuya Harada. Mark Willis put the Modenas in its usual 17th, catching right up to the rest after a slow start. stili feeling the influence of his 24 -hour four-stroke race three weeks before. There were 20 qua lifiers. with Legrelle crashing on the first day, and failing to make the pole -plus -I 07 -percent- qualify ing cut. b rake d th e Ap r il i a to clai m Naka no h a d n e v er been close r an th an 10 second s, and a lot m ore th an im p ressive fi ft h . tha t i n th e e a r l y stages aft er his Por t o wa s e ig h t h, J a y Vincent n inth , m oving clear of a n ea rly battle w ith Bo sc o scuro. T h en ca me a gang: motor n ip p ed up bri efl y on la p o ne . In fact, he was pull in g off th e tra c k at the end o f t he st ra ig ht when it c h imed F onsi Ni eto ho ldi ng off M a t sud o , C leme n t i , Gimbert, Allema nd a nd in again , and h e rode cautio us ly fo r the rest of t he afternoon, p ic k ing his way throug h to fourt h p ast a lone Franco B att a in i at aro u nd half-dis- Ph illippe, th e last -n am ed just m issi ng out o n the points . So t he second champio ns hi p tance. ga ined some last-gasp ne w legs , w ith cue. e n e vv s O C TO B E R 1 8, 2000 9