Feature
11/01/2002
Come in number one, your time is up
With the provisional entry lists for this year's MotoGP World
Championships having been published this week, the picture is
beginning to form of what the starting grid in Suzuka will look
like. Strikingly, no rider will be carrying the prestigious #1
plate on the front of their machine. With Kenny Roberts Jr. having
ceded the number to 2001 Champion Rossi, the flamboyant Italian has
declined the opportunity to enter the new MotoGP category bearing
the title-holder's privilege. As expected, Rossi will continue
under the synonymous 46, while Roberts moves back to the number 10
plate he rode under until he finished second in the Championship in
1999.
Max Biaggi will have the lowest numbered plate, but he has not
taken the number 2 he earned last year, instead preferring to stick
with the 3 he rode into runners-up place with. McCoy makes the only
other change apart from Roberts, moving from 5 to 8, while the new
recruits into the MotoGP category have generally stuck with their
numbers from previous classes.
First-time entries to the elite class, Daijiro Katoh and John
Hopkins stick with the plates they won titles with last year, 74
and 21, while those riders returning to MotoGP's top flight, Regis
Laconi (55), Tetsuya Harada(31), Nobuatsu Aoki(9) and Jeremy
McWilliams(99), use the familiar numbers that have served them so
well in the past.
Without a doubt, this policy of sticking with a number from season
to season will help audiences and commentators alike, and should
aid the smooth transition into the exciting new MotoGP category. It
will certainly also help each rider market themselves better, with
numbers becoming at one with their identities as riders.
The entry-list is still provisional, however, and it is expected
there will be minor changes or additions prior to the season's
beginning, but the MotoGP revolution is now beginning to take shape
more than ever and come April there will be millions of eyes around
the world checking out the hottest category in world
motorsport
------------------
4Stokes rules the world....................This is a computer
generated letter,no signature is required.