Wor ld C h a m p io nsh ip R o a d Racing S eries
Final R o u n d : A ustralian Grand Prix
B y MI CHA E L S COTT
P HOT OS BY G O LD £, G O OSE
PHILUP ISLAND, AUSTRAUA, OCT. 29
t was the la s t race of a recordbreak ing yea r - and pe rh aps th e
b e s t ra c e of a b ri llia n t yea r . The
su perb Ph illip Isla nd circ u it re liably
bring s clos e 500c c -c la ss rac ing , but
this time it truly exce lled its e lf.
Althou gh s ligh tly stretc hed by th e
finish , for m uch of the race th e first
12 b ike s we re covered by les s t ha n
two seconds . The cream of world racing was flashing past two and three
abreast in less time than it ta kes to
read this sentence .
The winner of this all -action feast
was MalLBiaggi, his second win of the
seasol1 , lifting th e often luckless Marl boro Yamaha ride r t o th ird in the
World Champion ship .
Biaggi led a n all -Ital ian rostrum ,
with E m e rs o n Honda Pons ' Lor is
Capirossi second and Na stro Azzurro
Honda 's Valentino Rossi th ird . Less
than t hree -te nths of a sec ond cov e red t he tr io , who had prev iously
raced ea ch ot her for th e lead of the
Italia n GP . T h e differ ence in Australia was that all three made it to
t he finish.
Th at was down to luck as m uch as
a nyt hing .
"We h it ea ch other a lot of tim es. It
was such a n e njo ya b le ra ce, " sa id
Biaggi , wh o ke pt s m iling e ve n when
t h e hug e cro wd b o o ed h im o n th e
rostrum.
E arl ier , the y h a d c he e re d n e w
2 5 0 c c Wo rld Cha mp ion Oli vier
J a c qu e , who had sec ured his first
world title over Chesterfield Yamaha
teammate Sh inya Nakano by fol lowing him all ra ce long , then draft in g past in th e fina l yards . The
other major candidate for the title ,
Axo Honda 's Da ijir o Kat oh , was
third , fending off Ap rilia 's Ralf
Waldmann .
The two wins also gave Yama ha the
ma nufa ctu rers ' c ha m p io ns hip in t he
500 and 250cc classes - earlier, a victo ry for Masao Azum a in the 125cc race
secu red Honda 's only title of a lea n sea so n, the 125 cc manufactu rers crown.
11
The Aus tralian 500cc Grand Prix was
a fitting c lose to an outstan din g
season of GP road racing, w ith as
many as 12 riders running in the front
pack. Carlos Checa (7) leads Regis
Laconi [hidden), Loris Caplriossi (65).
Norick Abe (6) . Kenny Roberts Jr. (2 ).
Alex Barros (10) and the rest of the
pack. Checa would crash moments _
after this photo was taken.
6
NOVEMBER 8, 2000'
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