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Fw: Motegi GP



Don't know if anyone is interested. Found this on the Bandit list.

Paul
> I just walked in the door after attending the Motegi GP. Suzuki is looking
> good! Kenny Roberts Jr. got his second win in a row on the RGV500, so he
is
> now ahead of Mick Doohan 50 points to 33 after two races.
>
> I got a nice long interview with Kenny after the race, he is a very
> friendly and humble guy. Not to mention fast! At one point, he was ahead
of
> Doohan by 3/4ths of the main straight, before Doohan put his head down and
> charged back within 2 seconds before Kenny ripped off a few fast laps at
> the end to hold off the 5-time champ.
>
> Norick Abe took 3rd on his Yamaha. He and I were surprised to find out we
> live 5 minutes from each other here in Tokyo. Neighbors even. He also has
a
> house in Spain.
>
> Doohan was gracious in defeat, but when he was trying to sneak out of the
> press conference to escape us rabid reporters, he bumped into me then
> stepped on my left foot. He was in a real rush. He looks very fit, I hear
> he spends many hours in the gym.
>
> So the top three was Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha. The 500 scene really has some
> new life breathed into it this year, the Hondas aren't dominating like
> before.
>
> I also talked to Suzuki Japan's marketing guy, we got into a discussion
> about the GSF1200. He wanted to know if I thought the U.S. and Japanese
> models of the Bandit were much different, I said no. In a lot of cases,
> this isn't true, but the power output on the two are almost identical. I
> believe they use a different CDI, so the U.S. model has more horsepower,
> but the Japanese model has more torque. The rest is just cosmetic
> differences.
>
> Kocinski crashed out though, so all was not well for the American cause. I
> went over to his team's box after that and talked to him and Erv Kanemoto
> for a while. Kocinski tried to give me his boots because he thought I was
> grubbing for stuff, but all I wanted was an interview (though I did ask
him
> if we had the same size feet, but he's two sizes smaller than me). John is
> just too bland to get any decent quotes, he just spouts team propaganda
and
> never says what he really feels.
>
> A funny moment during Saturday's post-qualifying press conference, after
> Kenny got the pole, with Doohan, Carlos Checa and Kocinski rounding out
the
> top 4, Kocinski said that all you need to do to the Honda is "put gas in
> the tank and oil the chain." Doohan leaned forward and said into his mic
> "really, can I have one of those?" It broke the room up in laughter, but
> John looked kinda pissed at being the butt of a Doohan funny.
>
> That's it from Motegi, which by the way is the first-ever GP held at
> Motegi. From now on, the Japan GP will rotate between Suzuka and Motegi,
so
> next year's is back at Suzuka. It was a great weekend here,  other than
the
> fact that it was pissing rain the whole time. Lots of crashes in the 125
> race, made for a busy crash truck.
>
> Rick
> Japan
>
>
>
>


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