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
W orld Championsh ip R o ad Racing S e r ie s Round 14: R io G r a n d Prix Behind him , Ros s i a nd Barros we re ba s hing awa y at e a c h other fierc e ly, th e Bra z ilia n fo rcing back pa st th e you nger rid e r afte r his firs t passing atte mpt. Ross i got ahead for good on lap 10 , and three laps la t e r h e swooped past McCoy at the end of the back straight to lead for the first time . Pushing his ha rdest, he im m ed iately started to stre tch away , with almost two secon ds in hand b y lap 19 , m a k ing his secon d 500 c c -c1a s s GP win a dom inant one. Mc Co y was by now st ruggling for grip after punis hing his tires more than so mew hat , an d h e h ad n o a nsw e r wh e n Ba rro s followe d Ro s s i p a s t a co uple of laps later. In fa ct he had his ha nds full by now with la st ye a r's winn e r Abe , who had n e ver b e en fa r aw a y , a nd n ow wa s un d e r pr e s su re himself fro m Biaggi, who had m oved through stea dily from a slow start. Th ey finishe d in the sa me order, the trio covered by a qua rter of a second. It was th rillin g u p fron t, b ut the focus wa s on Roberts, who ha d been (Above) Kenny Roberts Jr. rode conservatively In the Rio Grand Prix. He started slowly until finally w lcking It up enough to fi nish sixt h - exactly where he needed to be to cla im his first World Championship. (Left) Garry McCoy 124) battles with Nori ck Abe (hidden) and Max Biaggl (4). McCoy went on to finish th ird with Abe fourth and Blaggl fifth. troubled by chatter and po or grip in his return on t h e Mod enas . Ch eca remounted , and wa s o nly thr ee tenths be hind the Australian over the line . Apart from Cap iross i, Je remy McWilliams was the on ly other non finis he r, with engine tro ub le from his Aprilia. Roberts now has an unbeatable total of 224 po ints, but the battle for second is not over yet. Rossi has 173 points , McCoy 150, Checa 142 and Barros 141. Even Biaggi (129 ), Abe and Capiross i ( b o t h 126 ) have a mathemat ical c ha n ce of beat ing Ross i for the position . 250cc GRA NO PR IX as low as 10th early on , an d looked a nything bu t confid ent a s he put disc re tion we ll a hea d of valor, lying at the gap of a group on ly a second or so behind th e leaders. Okada had headed it earl ier on , u ntil s ucc umbing t o a determ ined Laconi's Ya m a ha on lap e ight . From th er e o n th e Ja pa nese r id e r lost groun d q u ick ly , trou bled by sliding t ire s so that h e had no answe r to Checa , Bia ggi a nd Gibern au , a nd was ninth a head of Roberts o n lap nine . C heca was mak ing th e pace , pass ing La c oni on la p 10 , a nd starting work on wha t was no w a two second gap to Abe. Th e Spaniard , who had fallen unhurt in m orn in g warm - up , wa s c hargi n g , an d set 8 O CTO BER 1 8. 2 0 0 0 ' c ue fastest lap so far as he closed to within a second, only to fall again o n la p 13 . By now Roberts wa s also ahead of Ok ad a , so he was now ei ghth, in a t ight g roup behind Gibernau and Lac oni , who com p lai ne d la ter th at his motor had lost power. Now it be came clear that Roberts ha d the s itua tio n under contro l a fte r all. He sta yed whe re h e was as t he two a head swapped p ositi o ns , th e n o n lap 18 started to move for wa rd , pass ing Gib e rn a u , and th en Laco n; two lap s later. "I was being so ca refu l I did n ' t pas s a nyone on a corner all afte r noon," he said later. "J ust line d th em up on the stra ight ." I e n e vv s With five la ps to go he was sixth, and though the others stayed close, he had done enough an d the title was his . G ib e rn a u was a head o f Laconi a ga in over the line . A little wa y ba c k ca me Okada , and th en J urg en Van den Goorbergh - the flying Dut chman had kept h is twin o n Rob erts ' back wh e el fo r the firs t half o f th e rac e , onl y fading s lightl y in the la tt er sta ges. A lon g way ba ck , Alex Criville had been s tuck be hind a tro uble d Nob ua ts u Aoki for mu ch of the ra ce , finally g etting past for 11th , with the Suzuki five seconds behind at the end. T etsu y a Harad a was a distant 13th , with handling probl ems from his Aprilia ; Mark Willis was 14 th , Jacq ue's race was soon spoiled as he ch ar ge d awa y from a pe rfect start, trying to put as mu ch dis ta nce a s he cou ld as e a rl y a s p os s ib le on the other guys. Afte r tw o la p s he was a lmost two s e c onds cle ar. On the th ird , t he front wh eel c ha tt e re d and slid away , and h e was down . The F,ren chman remounted at the back, his windscreen gone, ha nd le ba rs be nt a nd fairing dama ge d , a nd though he charged thr ou gh from th e back an d into th e points , it was a n unequal battle , an d after 16 laps he s lid off again, th is time for good. It was Katoh who took over th e lead , but with Ukawa and Melandri in close a tte ndance and noth ing in it. Th is trio put on a feast of superb 250cc racing for th e remaining laps .