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Rain played it\'s part in Assen 500cc GP.
Rain had been falling before the start, and the riders were on the grid of a rapidly drying track. Assen track dries remarkably fast, and the race was declared a dry race. That meant that if the rain came again the race could be stopped and restarted.
The holeshot went to Roberts but with in half a lap he was high sided from his bike, crashing heavily, but after a few seconds lying still in the gravel he got up and walked away. The team said later that they were looking for a mechanical problem that caused the crash. That left Capirossi in the lead, but he is nursing a broken hand from a fall in warm up this morning.
At the start of lap 5 the rain did come again and the race was stopped. The rider returned to the pits for changes of tyre and then a restart. The restart grid being Capirossi, Barros,Rossi and Okada, followed by the others in the position they were in at the end of the previous lap.
The race was timed to restart 30 minutes after the red flag, there was to be no wet practice as it had rained during qualifying. And the race was declared to be a wet race. The times from the first 3 laps and the next 17 to added to determine a winner.
At the restart all but Checa were on grooved slicks on the front, most with slicks on the rear. Checa went for slicks both ends, betting the track would dry again quickly. After the restart Rossi lead but was still behind on total time.
Dutchman Jurgen van den Goorbergh had brief period at the front which brought the Dutch crowd to their feet, if only for a few seconds before Rossi took it back.
There were battles on the track and battles on the scoreboard and it wasn\'t easy to keep track of who was where as there position on the track did not relate to positions overall.
Rossi was followed by Laconi and Gibernau on the track, with Criville and Barros charging hard, Rossi started going backwards as his tyre choice proved wrong.
Barros was going like the clappers posting a time of 2.06.823, and passed Criville to take 3rd on the track.. Barros moved ahead of the front two leaving Criville in 4th.
At the end of 12 laps Barros had a 2.869 lead over Criville.These two pulled away, Barros only needing to finish within 2 seconds of Criville to win over all. Barros and Criville swapped the lead a couple of times.
Capirossi (broken hand and all was fastest man on the track, but two few laps and two many others riders meant he only made small gains.
At the finish on corrected time it\'s Barros, Criville, Capirossi and Biaggi. Checa was 5th home. Moving him up the points table as Roberts was a DNF.
This was Barros\'s 139 GP start 111 of them consecutively, but only his 2nd GP win.
Assen 500cc GP:
1. Alex Barros (Hon)
2. Alex Criville (Hon)
3. Loris Capirossi (Hon)
4. Max Biaggi (Yam)
5. Carlos Checa (Yam)
6. Valentino Rossi (Hon)
7. Sete Gibernau (Hon)
8. Regis Laconi (Yam)
9. Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Hon)
10. Norick Abe (Yam)
11. Tadayuki Okada (Hon)
12. Tetsuya Harada (Apr)
13. Nobuatsu Aoki (Suz)
14. David de Gea (Mod)
15. Garry McCoy (Yam)
16. Phil Giles (Hon).
Time: 42 min., 46.142 sec.
Distance: 20 laps, 75.12 miles.
Margin of victory: 2.077 sec.
Does this mean that all riders will be taking up Tai Chi It certainly seems to be working for Barros. He is a changed rider since he started with Rudolfo Hernandez his Tai Chi instructor.
