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Suzuki Grand Prix ace Kenny Roberts ended the 1999 World 500cc Motorcycle Championship in Argentina on October 31 the way he started it in Malaysia in March – winning.
However, unlike his runaway win in the opening GP of the season at Malaysia’s Sepang circuit, Roberts’ victory in Argentina came after a tense race-long battle with Italian Yamaha ace Massimiliano ‘Max’ Biaggi around the twisting Autodromo Oscar A Galvez circuit outside Buenos Aires.
After qualifying fastest for the fifth time this season, Roberts took the lead from the start and lead until the penultimate lap, when, after shadowing Roberts from the start, Biaggi finally made his move only to have Roberts nip straight back into the lead.
Biaggi then tried again, and got in front once more. But Roberts, who had already set the fastest lap of the race on his Suzuki, knew how hard the Italian Yamaha man was having to ride, and kept up the pressure. Biaggi, desperate to get away, applied too much throttle in a corner, the rear-end slid out throwing him out of the seat. Biaggi was lucky to regain control but ran off the track while Roberts shot past on his sweet-handling Suzuki to streak off to his fourth win of the year.
Roberts’ win hauled him back to second in the final championship points tally and gave Suzuki good reason to expect to be the team to beat in 2000, with Roberts’ mental toughness and tremendous physical fitness a major asset.
There is little doubt Roberts would have won more races this season if it hadn’t been for some rear suspension problems that hampered him mid-season. And at the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island he had the race shot to pieces when, with three laps to go, his rear Michelin tyre delaminated, forcing him to slow and tour in to the finish.
He again had a tyre problem in South Africa, and elected to pit to change it, knowing full well that would ruin any chance of a major placing. Most other riders would have retired from the race, but the clear-thinking Suzuki man decided it was worth trying a different tyre to help the team work out what had gone wrong with the first.
Roberts followed that up with a magnificent third in the Brazillian GP, overcoming a power deficit after his engine sucked in a stone, and even leading on the final lap for one of the most exciting finishes of the season.
Roberts started from pole and led the first 12 of 24 laps. But by then he had lost revs and power, and was unable to resist when Norifume Abe and Biaggi closed up. Even so, he stayed with them until a thrilling last lap, when he was able to seize the lead again, only to lose it on the long main straight, being beaten across the line by the two Yamahas – albeit by just a quarter of a second.
It was in Brazil that Spaniard Alex Criville secured the 1999 World 500 Championship with a sixth-place finish while Roberts closed up to within 16 points of Tadayuki Okada, who finished seventh after earlier disputing the lead.
“I got a good start, and Okada went with me, then on the eighth lap I decided to make him work a bit harder by upping the pace,” Roberts said after the Brazilian GP. “On the back straight, as I shifted from third to fourth, the engine suddenly stopped. I think it must have sucked in a stone or something. I raised my hand so Okada wouldn’t run into the back of me, but then the motor picked up again”.
“From then on I lost about 600 or 700 rpm. I had to upshift at 12,200 rpm, then it ran okay. It was also pretty bad at quarter throttle, coming in with a jump, so I had trouble on the straight and exiting the turns, and though Okada went away Max and Norick Abe caught me and could just motor by on the straight.
“I hung in there because Max and Norick were doing a lot of rubbing, as they say in NASCAR. Then on the last lap, Max got by Norick and in the confusion I was able to get under both of them. Through the corner onto the straight I went real slow, to hold them back if I could … but when I opened the throttle it spun the wheel and slowed me again. We had our hands tied behind our back some, but it was still the funnest race of the year. I hope we’ve got our bad luck done with now,” he added.
His win in Argentina would seem to indicate the tide has turned and Roberts and the Suzuki RGV500 will very much be in the forefront of the competitors’ minds when the 2000 season kicks off in South Africa.
Final World 500 Championship points (after 16 rounds):
1. Alex Criville (Honda), 267
2. Kenny Roberts (Suzuki), 220
3. Tadayuki Okada (Honda), 211
4. Massimiliano Biaggi (Yamaha), 194
5. Sete Gibernau (Honda), 165
6. Norifume Abe (Yamaha), 136
7. Carlos Checa (Yamaha), 125
8. John Kocinski (Honda), 115
9. Alex Barros (Honda), 110
10. Tetsuya Harada (Aprilia), 104
Online Suzuki Dealers:
Ingram & Worsley
Red Baron
Phil Turnbull Motorcycles
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
Tom Peck, Motorcycle Marketing Manager
Suzuki New Zealand Limited
Private Bag 3008
WANGANUI
Tel: 06-3458544
Fax: 06-3454352
