Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

W orl d Champ ionship R o a d Racing Ser ies R oun d Jacque still le adi ng with 241 , but not o nly Nakano (232) clo s in g u p , but a lso the Hon d a men Kato h and Uk a wa (both 21 8 ). Mel a ndri is fifth with 132, then West with 12 7 . 14: R io Gra nd Prix la ps . Ci rc umstances started to whit, tie this d ow n a fte r just thr e e more . The first to go wa s Manuel Poggial i (D e rbi) , t ryi n g t o steal th ird from Loc atelli, hitt ing the ins ide curb in th e fir st corner , a nd a lmost tak ing th e Ap rilia ride r with him . On e lap la t e r Lo catell i a b ru p t ly held h is hand u p and p ulled of f the track , his race over. At the same ti me , Pa blo Ni eto and h is De rb i 12Scc GRAND PRIX Ui head ed Locatelli and th e rest away , with a s ev en-strong ga ng bat tling up fron t, inc he s apart, Giansan ti mo v ing into seco n d after t hree (A bove l eft) Olivier Jacque crashed out of the 250cc Grand Prix· twice. The la st one was f o r good. (Ab ov e) Si mone Sanna (16) w o n the 125cc Grand Prix after a battle w it h Masao Azu ma (h i d d e n ) t h at w e nt to t h e fi nish . M irko Gi a nsa nt i, m ea n w h ile , c ras h e s o ut of the battle on the very l ast lap. spo nsorship offers · one from Phillip M orris. his curr ent sponsors with the Chesterfeld brand . the other from Gauloises . BRIEFLY. • • Tetsuya Harada t o H onda? A lt hough officiaNy unconfirmed . the unexpected rumor gathered pace at the Rio GP . with the 1993 250cc World Champion ' s name linked with either the official Repsol Honda tea m. or with a satellite team , for next year. This was the biggest surprise. as the tempo of the annual rou nd of musical saddles increased in Brazil. with a number of-decisions yet to be made . and rumors chasing cou nter-rumors around the paddock even as the bikes cha sed each other arou nd the circui t. Harada's move follows two years on the fac tory 500 Aprilia. and two yea rs before that on the same marque 's 250s. narrawly miss ing a second cham pionship in 1998. His season has been la c k lu s t e r t h i s year. overshadowed by new teammate Je re my M cW illiams. and he seems an unlikely candidate for one of the cove te d Y·four Hondas. Yet this see ms to be the case ... unless it is a negot iating ploy to strengthen his position with Apr ilia. w ho has made him a lukewarm o ffer to stay on a 250 . But Harada' s move does no t fit in with another po ssible Honda scenario: Alex Criville and Tohru Uk awa at Repsol. Va lentino Rossi stay ing with Honda Europe. Sito Pons ret aining his tw o riders (see below) and the sixth bik e earmarked for J urge n van den Goorbergh and his D utch Rizla-bac ked te am. The Dut chman expects a final answe r from Honda at M otegi next we ek. and will probab ly run a M odenas if he doe s not get a v -four. Specu latio n was rife about the seco nd Red B u ll Yamaha seat alonqside Ga rry M cC oy . with current incumbent Regis Laconi ce rta in to be dropped . The prime candi date is factory Yamaha Su p erbik e rider Nori y u k i Haga. ' That would be up to the fact ory .' said team boss Peter Clifford. British S uperbike ride r and former WCM team man Neil Hodgson had bee n a candidate. but he has since signed to go W orld Superbike racing instead . Haruchika A oki, former double 125 champio n. is another possi bility . Sito Pons' s sa tellite Honda team see ms more likely to survive. with Doma pulling out all the stops to help the Spanish former double 250cc W orld Champion fi nd sp ons orship for nex t year. Rider Lo ris Capirossi is believed to have signed to stay on for two more years. on race day. He had been considering (for a seco nd year) a handsome offer from Duca ti to switch to World Superb ike. Ap art from a siqn-on fee of more than 'S l million , one att ract ion was that D ucati is expected to move to GP racing in 2002 . so that Capiro ssi would only have been away for one year. Second Pons rider Alex Barros was also cons idering a move to W orld Superbike . possib ly Cast rol Honda (tho ugh O kada is also a possibility for that team) if he can't stay with Team Pons. The team was only kept alive this year (aft er he lost the Telefoni ca M oviStar sponsorship to Suzuk il by a cash injection from Doma. Suzuki is settled with Kenny Roberts J r. and new teammate Set e Gibernau. but current rider Nobuat su Aok i is thoug ht to be a step closer to persuading the fac tory to supply a satellite te am. run by Japanese team Edo Racing . who currently run Sebast ien Port o on a 250 Yamaha. Aprilia is back and forth over wh ether they will co ntinue with their Y tw in 500 . If it does go on . Jer emy M cWill iams is expecte d to stay with the factory team, on a 250. If not. he is ano ther candidate for a v -fou r Honda, if Pons can kee p his team on the road . The happie st man in the paddock may be Tech 3 te am boss Herve Ponchara!. Wi th his riders Olivier Jacq ue and Shinya Nakano both moving to the SODcc class next year with Yamaha, he is co nsidering two majo r M eanwhile, Fausto Gre sini expects to enlarge his satellite 250 team next year with a pair of NSR250s . one for his current rider Daijiro Katoh. the second for 12Scc rider Emilio Alzamora . Generous backing is co ming from Telefon ica MoviStar and Spa nish cigarette company Fortuna . Afte r 13 GPs so far this year (before the Brazil GP). only three ride rs had finished every race in the top 15. to sco re point s at every round . In the 500cc class . it is Regis Laconi. with a best so far this yea r of fifth . In fac t. Laconi scored point s in the last eight races of 1999 also . giving him a string of 21 sconng fini she s. Laconi added anot her sco ring fini sh in Brazil. but iron ically t he Frenc hman is to be dropped by th e Red Bull Yamaha team . Two 250 riders had been in the poi nts at every rou nd· point s leader Oliv ier Jacque. and GP-w inning roo kie Daij iro Katoh. but Jacque ' s non-finish today spoiled that record . Last year . nobody scored point s in all of the 16 race s. A l e x B arro s has one mor e ye ar to bec ome the mo st exp erien ced 500cc rider of all time . At the Rio GP . he went equal seco nd overall wit h Randy Mamola. with 145 GP starts . The rider with the most is former top privatee r Jack Findlay. who racked up an estimate d 165 starts between 1958 and 1978 . Fourth is M ick Do ohan, w ith 137 . then Eddie Law son with 127. Jeremy McWilliams displaced defe nding cha mpio n Alex Cr iville from the uncov eted po sition at the top of the cumulative crash list on the sec and day of pract ice in Brazil. Criville drew equal on the first day w hen he fell unhurt at the end of pract ice. his 12th fall of the year. but M cWilliams fell again to bring his tota l to an unrivalled 13. Kenny Roberts Jr. pooh -poohed a suggestion that jet lag could make next wee kend's Japanese GP dangerous. The Brazilian race was moved forward to Satu rday to gIve one extra day before the Pacific GP at M ot egi next Sunday . giving jus t eight days for riders to adjust to a 12-hour time displacement . -W e're all young and fit: he said. ' M ost of us get pampered on the flight over there. I don 't think it 's a problem . - But Alex Barros was not so sanguine. '" have often flown from Brazil to J apan. and it's quite diffic ult to adjust. ' he said. ' I think it would be bett er for safety to have 15 days. not eight. ' Qualifying tires again caused controver sy at Brazil. with the clo sing stages of SOOcc practice coming alive as one after anot her rider slashed away at their prev ious best times . M ost factory rider s say they don't like the so ft rear tires, but pole qualifier M ax Biaggi was a dissenting voice. , M any riders complain that the tires give a false pict ure'. but this is quite good for our sport. W e are trying to pro mote racing to the public. With qualify ing tire s. people know that the last 10 minute s of qualifyi ng are very excit ing · it ' s the same as in Fl . Also with so much grip at the rear yo u can find out some thin gs abo ut your bike . " His teamma te Carlos Checa . also on the front row of the gnd. was not 'so sure. ' I used my soft tir e earlier. then I put on a harder tire, that suits my style better - mo re like a race tire. I was faster on that one . ~ A p r ili a tried its fuel-injected 5 0 0 one more time at Brazil, with Jere· my M cW illiams taking it for a gallop on Thursday before it wa s shelved. probably for good. With the 500 under the probable sentence of dea th afte r the next two races . no furth er develop ment is expecte d on t he Injection . and McWilli ams will ride on with carburetors . "We wi ll co ntinue looking at the sys tem for our 250 and 125 racers though ." said race boss Jan Wi tt eveen . we re droppi n g of f t h e b a c k of t he ga ng . Now there were four, and at twoth irds d istanc e they sta rte d to trade blows in earnest. Giansanti loo ked the stro ngest, diving pa st Ui at the end of the start-fi nis h s traight . Azuma followed him pa st the De rb i on the same lap, and on the next one Sanna powered past on the ve ry long back straight. Suddenly Ui's prospects did not look so rosy , and he lost touch at half-a -second or more a la p fro m th e n to th e finis h. "My tires were finlshed." he sa id lat e r. The battle for victo ry inten sified all the wa y to a thrill ing last la p. They started with Giansanti heading Azuma and Sanna , but the lest-named were soon trading places, swapping twice bef or e S an na pu t o n a ve ry fo rceful p a s s o n th e insi de a fte r th e ba c k stra ight, a nd promptly wen t aro und the outsid e of Gians anti. Azuma followed h im p ast, an d the hapl e ss e rs twh ile le ade r was in t hi rd when h is ba c k wheel ste pped s ideway s in the last co rner, within sig ht of th e finish, and he was s pa t off in a vicious high sider. T en secon ds beh ind at the finish Gia nluigi Sca lvini (Bossini Aprilia) survive d all sorts of viciss itudes to stay narrowl y a he ad of a big group that had ca ught him from behind . At the finish G iv i Hon d a tea m m a t e s Lu ci o Cecchine llo an d Nobbie Ueda led Gino Borso i (UGT Aprilia), Emilio Alzamora (Telefonica MoviStar Honda), Randy de Puniet (Sc rab Aprilia) and Pablo Nieto. Ja ros lav Hules (Italje t) wa s the on ly other crasher; his teammate Leo n Halsam joi ned Arna ud Vincent in retirement. Ui's third closed him up to within e ig h t poi nts of Lo cate lli, 205-197 . Alzamora 'ha s 170, Azuma 138, with Giansanti (129) moving into fifth past Ued a ( 12 8) . eN Nelson Piquet Circuit Jacarep agua, Brazil Results: October 8, 2000 500 cc G P QU ALIF YING : 1 . M ax Bia g g i ( 1:51.058) : 2. Alex 8arros ( 1:5 1.290): 3. Carlos Checa (1:51.353): 4. Valentino Rossi ( 1:51.496): 5. Loris Capirossi ( 1:51.608): 6. Norick Abe ( 1:51.749): 7. Kenny Roberts J r. ( 1:5 1.8 22); 8. Tadayuk i Okada ( 1:5 1.946 ); 9. Regis Lacc nl (1 :52.492 ); 10. Jurgen va n de n Goo rberg h (1 :5 2. 5 72 ) ; II. Sete Gtbern au ( 1:52.649): 12. Alex Crivillle (1:52.781): 13. Garry 10 O CTO BER 18,20 0 0 ' cue I e n eVIl's

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