World Championship Road Racing Series
Final R ound : Au s t r al ian G rand Prix
The Ja pa nese rider led every yard
of the ra ce except for th e la st 10 . It
ha d see m ed as tho ug h J ac qu e didn't
h a v e t he s t rength , but in fac t he
tim ed it per fectl y, ke ep ing ris k to the
m inimum , using his better spe ed out
of the las t corne r, a nd popping out of
the slipstream to c ross the line .0 14
of a second (or hal f-a -length ) ahead
to take the title .
Nakano wa s ph ilos ophical.
"I knew he was there a ll fa ce, and
o n the la s t lap I thoug ht I wou ld be
ch ampion .. . until th e las t ten m et ers ,"
h e said. "I wa s very upset o ver the
line , but on the sl ow -down lap I
thought, 'That 's racinq .'"
Shinya Nakano (56) and Olivier Jacque
(19) fought for the entire distance of
the 250cc Grand Pri". w ith Jacque
coming out on top.
do a nything desperate at the end and
thro w it a ll awa y , " ~c Co y said.
"T o da y I j u s t wanted to score a s
many points as possible."
Th ere was a tw o -se c ond gap t o
th e ne xt group , sl o wing each other
up as th ey bumpe d and bor ed th eir
wa y toward the checkered flag . J ust
over half-a -second covered Abe ,
Robe rt s and McW ill iams, with
Ta da yuk i Okada half a second back
with h is ow n tire -sli ding problems ,
and Aoki eig ht seco nds be h ind him
by the end.
La c on i wa s 1 1th , va n d en Go or ber gh ne xt, a long way behind , th en
replacement ride r Ka yo , Tet su y a
Harada a nd Konish i, one lap down .
With on ly 15 fin is hers , th ere were
points for all.
The top two pos itions in the championsh ip were already settled - Roberts
with 258 po ints, and Ross i with 209 but the win gave th ird to Biaggi with
170, with Barros (163) fourth, McCoy
(161) fifth, Checa"s.i/(th with 155, one
po int ahead of Capirossi.
•
250cc GRANO PRIX
Ten sion wa s at a feve red pitc h a s
th e flag fe ll for th e most c ruci a l race
of the day. As so often this year, th e
action was s omewh at limited , but th e
heart rate high as lap aft e r la p wo re
on , with Nakano in the le a d , Ja cque
poised inc he s beh ind .
(Above) Blaggi ce lebrates his victory.
(Left) T ea mmat es Nakano and J acque
fin ished first and second in the race and
first and second in t he 250cc World
Championship.
10
NOVEMBER 8, 2000'
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