P90
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
N
ot sure how factory
Yamaha Superbike racer
Michael van der Mark
must feel. Twenty-five years
old, the Dutchman was disap-
pointed when a plan for him to
race Rossi's M-1 at Aragon fell
through when Rossi came back
early from injury. He was prom-
ised an outing at post-season
tests, but instead got a real
taste of proper MotoGP racing,
riding Jonas Folger's vacant
Tech 3 Yamaha for two races at
the end of last season.
Van der Mark didn't acquit
himself badly. It wasn't a blazing
start and he didn't score any
points, but he was only one
place out of them at Sepang,
and two at Valencia, on the
most powerful and electronical-
ly complex bike he's ever rid-
den, on tires he's never used,
in a field of race-hardened
MotoGP veterans.
Once upon a time, this might
have constituted an entry ticket
to the senior world champion-
ship. No longer. It is more dif-
ficult than ever now, for riders
as well as teams.
Only a couple of months
before, there'd been another
strike in the death knell of GP
ambitions for him and others
of his ilk, nursing vain hopes
in FIM World or British Super-
bikes.
GROWING UP FAST
