http://venus.13x.com/roadracingworld/scripts/NewsInsert.asp?insert=4405 With Barros finishing 1st on his first time on the RCV who thinks....
He's allowed an off day. The man is the World Champ, dangit. It seemed like he was having an off weekend, actually. Problems w/ the front end and then the clutch.
......earning his fifth career win after how many years? Rossi, only 23 years old, has four world championships in four different classes. Even Dennis Noyes concedes that Barros is a permanent "B" rider in Honda's grand scheme.
Re: Re: Poll on Valentino Rossi This year is the 12th year in the premier class for Barros, 14th year in the World Championships (two years in 250GP.) Despite his relative lack of wins in his 200+ GP starts, Barros achieved top-5 world championship standings in 4 out of the last 6 years. Very good, but certainly eclipsed by Rossi's achievements. Even with his illness and obvious bike setup problems Rossi was still competitive right to the final lap. With equal machinery, Rossi might not be so dominating, but as they say, the cream always rises to the top. Rossi will continue to win championships until he gets bored (which unfortunately might be sooner rather than later.) -peekay
My vote: "Il dottore" is still the man....... and would have challenged for the lead on the last lap if the slipper clutch on his RCV was a bit more co-operative. As is, Barros got a very well deserved win but as to who is likely to dominate again next year, no matter the bike..............."the doctor" gets the vote!! Alex is the only rider left over from the Kevin Schwantz/Rainey/Doohan/gardner era and was making his 207th world championship start. Needless to say he has the experience and the speed but Valentino is world champion yet again, for a reason!
I always wonder how Rossi would have stacked up in the Schwantz/ Lawson/ Rainey/ Doohan glory days. Oh well. Rossi is the best rider on the best bike.
Off day? Poor set-up? Yeah, I bet that Barros had a lot of set-up info after 3 days on the bike vs. Rossi's whole season. I think that you can see Rossi's traction control in effect off of the corners and the ariel views showed that Rossi's and Ukawa's ram air machines were catching Barros' RCV in the straights. I wonder how many streetbikes a Brazillian MotoGP champ would sell? Not European, Japanese, or even American? Good luck to you. It was good to have Barros get a win and proove that anyone on a Honda has a foot in. After all, Doohan would have never been beat by Ukawa... Nicky has nothing to fear next year other than new tracks...
Hmm, even the mighty Doohan lost to Taddy Okada once or twice. Ukawa isn't very well known in the west, but he's not a bad rider. After all he won the Suzuka 8-hour race three years in a row, and is also a three-time All Japan champion. Not a small feat!! When Rossi won his celebrated 250GP world championship in 1999, Ukawa was second, beating both Loris Capirossi (the 1998 champion) and Olivier Jacque (the 2000 champion.) -peekay
