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Silver Bullet is very grateful to receive this material from Desiree on John (Hopper) Hopkin`s MotoGP exploits and her own newsy, behind the scene report.
Desiree will be providing Silver Bullet with her column on a regular basis.
Check out HOPPER`S WEBSITE
Well, it was an eventful day here at Welkom! The day seemed to drag on forever. Every person I talked to said the same thing. It was one of those long, tedious days.
The race was a strange one. It started out with a moment of silence for Kato. It was dead silent except for the helicopter flying by. Most of the MotoGP crew was out on pit lane to give rememberance to Kato. It was definitely a sad moment, I had a bit of tears in my eyes `cause of the scene.
Anyway, there wasn\'t a lot of people out in the paddock, which was pretty good. We managed to get to and from without any hassle. I\'m sure the riders thought that was a bit nice, not being mean to the fans, but sometimes it\'s a bit hard for them to get from their room to the garage.
When we were out on the grid, things seemed normal, camera\'s, photographers, and the whole bit. Then the riders had to do their warm up lap around the track. When they did, Kenny\'s bike spilled oil in turn\'s 2-3-4. We could see in the distance that he was cruising in the grass and something was wrong.
After that, they stalled the start and everyone went back out onto the grid and hung around for a few minutes. The riders still had their helmets on, the tire warmers went back on and us brolly girls ran back out to re-start the race. Kenny\'s brolly girl was standing at his spot all by herself waiting for his crew and him to get there for the start, but they were working with his bike. The officials called off the start and told everyone to go back into the garages until the oil was cleaned up. It took another 15-20 minutes and everyone was waiting to get back out there. Eventually the officials did as much as they could to clean the mess and we all went back out again.
Nevertheless, after all the stalling, the race started and it started with a bang. Colin\'s bike reared and he swept over to the opposite side and hit John on the left. McWilliams got in and fell, Haga ran off the track, but got back on. Eventually he came into the pits. So it was a big mess. I guess John got hit pretty hard in the hand from Colin\'s bike and it smashed the clutch lever. He was doing pretty well after that, but he said that his hand was in pain the whole time. Capirossi was doing alright but he ended up running off the track and came in during the race too. Alex was pretty consistent considering he still had torn legiments. Vale was sliding everwhere but kept it up and did pretty well. Bayliss was kicking some ass for the first part of the race, staying at the top. As we were watching, we noticed him sliding everwhere so I think his tire dropped off and so did he. Sete won the race and that\'s good for him. Wow, from a Suzuki to a Honda and he\'s on top. Shows the capability of those damn Hondas, 1-2-3.
It was a good race, there were a few good battles going on with the four in front, and in mid pack. Aoki, on the 2-stroke, stayed with Nakano the whole time and placed well. It\'s a crazy day.
Oh well, all is said and it\'s another race. Hope Colin\'s ok, he took a tumble. John managed to do alright considering getting hit on the hand, Kenny started on the grid, but I think he got shut out in the first turn drama.
Now, we\'re off to Austria for our stay in Europe before heading down to Jerez. Marco is suppose to make a compact there, so we\'ll see. I hope the weather is good there like it was here, cause\' last time we were there, it was *^%^ing freezing and raining. Better not be this next time, I won\'t be a happy camper. We get to see our 5 wheel again, I\'m so excited(I just can\'t hide it.......)
Until we reach Austria, talk to you later. Check out the WEBSITE: for some recent pics of the race. I got a good one of Loris and Ingrid, some from the paddock, in the garage, and of course, the chickies for the boys.
Bye for now!
Des
