VOLUME 58 ISSUE 32 AUGUST 10, 2021 P97
great big bullies, but recollections of the race
will always be enhanced with the memory
of Aoki in particular harrying Max Biaggi's
Yamaha throughout. Though he led over the
line four times in 27 laps, he was overtaken
every time by Turn One, making it imperative
to get ahead as soon as possible thereafter,
with some highly daring riding and quite ex-
traordinary angles of lean. "I must have been
like a fly to Max, but it was what I had to do,"
he explained happily afterwards, while team
boss Roberts came out with the quote of the
weekend. "It's like when your dog gets real
old and sick, and you have to take her to the
vet to be put down. And in the car, she gets all
frisky. That's what our bike's doing."
The win was contested between Rossi and
Barros, decided when the latter ran straight at
the hairpin. Valentino's 50th career win.
McWilliams had a frustrating afternoon.
Slow off the line, he was 14th on lap one and
charging through when trouble from his still-
cool carbon brakes saw him run off at Honda
hairpin. He rejoined last and set furious lap
times close to those of the leaders as he
pulled through to 10th.
Van den Goorbergh finished top two-
stroke, fifth on the NSR; Aoki was seventh.
And Aoki was top two-stroke in the champi-
onship—12th, with McWilliams 14th.
The Protons appeared a handful of times
in 2003 as Team Roberts scrabbled to
catch up with their own four-stroke project,
but their time was over.
The Modenas Mk1: The first attempt
suffered from being developed from
first prototype in full public gaze.
Here, Roberts Jr leads Jurgen van den
Goorbergh in 1997, who would also
ride the KR3 later in the machine's life.
McWilliams' was
the fastest ever
two-stroke lap of
Phillip Island, a
record that will
likely stand for
all time.
