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/128636
(Above) Roberts Jr. (2) le ad s the way, with Tadayukl Okada (8) coming a ll the way from the third row t o hold down second early on. (Right) Valentino Ro ss i (4 6) managed t o pass Max Blaggi (4) on the fi nal la p to take second place, thus securing second overall in the championship. s uffered m ino r, bu t costly, muddles . Rossi had be en slow away , finishing la p one in eig hth in the middle of a fierc e pack of works b ikes ; Bia g g i was b eh ind him a ft e r a bump with one of the Repsol riders in turn one, follow ed by an ev en m or e costly bash with Ba rros at th e s eco nd turn . All sta yed on board , but Ba rros was e ve n furth er back - behind his teamm a te Capirossi in 11 tho At this point it wa s th e three Re p sol b ikes m a king th e pursuit, Tadayu k i Okada head ing C riv ille and S e te Gib ernau , with Checa beh ind . Th is was something of a g ift to Robe rts. He was circulating a t lap-record s peed , but O kad a was holding up the pa c k be hind him, and the gap grew rapidly - five seconds by lap five, and 6 .S -secon d s j u s t one la p late r , by which po int Ross i ha d worked his wa y ste adily into sec on d . Now th e rea l ra c e began . Wo u ld Ro s s i c lo se down o n the new cham p ion ? Or wou ld Ro be rts - fre e fro m c h a mp io n s h ip o b lig a t io ns - hold h im a t b a y? Th e a nswer was th e la t ter. .. the g a p conti nued to stretc h , un ti l b y la p 17 it was almost 10 seco nds . Ha ving h is han d s fu ll with Bia gg i d id n 't help Ro s s i. He 'd also p ic ke d his way th roug h the battling ga ng of wo rks bikes c lose behind, pa s s in g Okad a o ne lap afte r Ro s s i, a nd th en st icking t o hi m l i k e g lue. W ith Rob ert s so s u pe rio r, a tte n ti o n foc used instea d o n th e fierce Italian riva ls . Afte r 10 laps , Biagg i ca ug ht h is knee in the grass on th e inside of th e hairp in , and a lmost fel l. It wa s , he sa id lat e r: "O ne of m a ny times I ca me close to crash ing ." But he ca ug ht up again , th en with four laps re main ing he appe ared over th e start lin e ahead o f the yo u nger rider. Ro ss i later s a id: "I sl owed and he ca m e past a nd tr ied to go , but I could stay with him ." So the race for second came to its concl usion on the final la p. Rossi: "I knew there wa s one plac e to overtake - br a king for th e ha irp in - so I passed him there . Th en into the c orner at th e end of the downhill straight, I closed the door. " Biaggi th ought othe rwise - that it wa s still ajar, and dived insi de Ro ss i to go ahead aga in. Onl y br iefly, how e ve r, for he ran wide on the e xit a nd Rossi wa s ahead again throu gh th e fina l corners . The bi g g an g b ehin d h a d b e en sorting its elf out a ll rac e long . Okada had s uccumbed to Criville a nd Checa in o ne la p, the tenth . a nd ne xt t ime around Ba rro s , Nobua tsu Aok i a n d Abe wer e a lso p a st him as he started to drop back. " In the e a rly laps the ti r e was wo rk ing o ka y , but th en the rear lost so m uc h g rip it wa s s lid ing into the corners eve n if I didn 't tou ch th e br ak e .. . I co u ld se e S et e had th e sa me pr obl em , so it's th e ma chin e , not th e tires ," Okada said. Ch e ca outbra k ed Cr iv ille a t the end of the downhill stra ight on la p 13 , and qui c kly o pe ned up a gap of a s e c ond. It wa s an impressi ve ride c u e I e n aft e r thre e c rashes in pra ctice. "It wa s m y b irthda y. I had a lot of cake befor e the race , and now I am o lde r a nd wis e r. so it was no p rob le m," th e lika b le Spani a rd j ok ed a fterwards . Close behind Criville, Ba rros , Abe , Ao k i a nd Cap iro s s i were sti ll glued together as the race wore on into its final eight laps . By the finish . Abe had pus hed throug h , passi ng Criv ille on the la s t c orne r, by when Ba rros ha d dropped ba c k. a nd Ao ki - battling with fa d ing power - had lost tou ch with Barros, and th en had been gazumped by Capiros si on th e last la p. O kada was a dis tant tenth ; Regi s La coni was n e xt , hea d ing Gibern au (who h ad al s o fa ded from th e fro nt group ) and T e t su ya Harada , close e VIl' s O CTO B ER 25 , 2000 23