South African GP

elephino · 21 Apr 2001, 05:20 (Ref:82953)

Now normally I'd be saying something about whoever is on provisional pole (capirossi if you want to know), but instead I will start with this...

Anthony West is not riding for Aprilia after all. He is not riding in the 250s either. Now don't get too far down because Westy is riding a Honda 500! And he has parked it one place behind Olivier Jacques and therefore 18th on the grid and today's qualifying still to come.

Anyway, the rest of the grid....

Capirossi, Rossi, McCoy, Roberts (who said he was slow?), Abe, Ukawa, Nakano, Criville. Biaggi 10th, vd Goorbergh 11th, Haga 12th.

250s
Melandri, Harada, Katoh, Fonsi Nieto, Porto, Locatelli, Rolfo, Debon.

125s
Ui, Ueda, Poggiali, Vincent, Cecchinello, Sabbatani, Borsoi, Scalvini.

Airhead · 21 Apr 2001, 09:02 (Ref:82971)

Eliphino

West on a 500? I'm amazed! I hope they don't expect miracles from the guy. He was 6th last year in only his second season on a 250. There are guys on factory 250's this year who finished behind him. It just ain't fair.

For the race - go Garry

**gomick** · 21 Apr 2001, 23:03 (Ref:83269)

westy was quicker than leon haslam on the shell v-twin....cant get the up to date qual times to see where ant will line up.

gazza qualified 4th, rossi on pole.....

elephino · 22 Apr 2001, 06:44 (Ref:83388)

Good thing for you lot that I happen to have an Ant West press release from sat qualifying including top 10

-----

Teenage Australian Ant West has qualified 19th for his 500cc motorcycle
world championship debut in the South African Grand Prix at Welkom on
Sunday.

The 19-year-old clocked a quickest qualifying lap time of 1-min
38.287-secs around the 4.2km circuit south-west of Johannesburg on a Dee
Cee Racing Honda V-Twin. He set the time in the second and final
qualifying session on Saturday. His quickest lap was 3.658-secs behind
the pole position-winning Nastro Azzuro Honda of Italian Valentino
Rossi, who recorded 1-min 34.629-secs.

West rode a total of 89 laps in the two practice and two qualifying
sessions on Friday and Saturday. He improved his best lap time by
3.230-secs over the four sessions.

The Gold Coast rider is making his 500cc debut at Welkom after racing
Hondas in the 250cc world championship the past two years. He finished
sixth in the 250cc championship in 2000 with top 10 finishes in 15 of
the 16 rounds and best results of fourth at Assen in the Netherlands and
at Estoril in Portugal.

West completed negotiations to ride the Honda V-Twin only last week and
goes into the race at Welkom with no off-season testing. He finished
fifth in the 250cc grand prix at Welkom in 2000.

ANT WEST QUOTES: "The last time I rode a racing bike was at Phillip
Island for last year's Australian Grand Prix. Since then only motocross
bikes -- so I'm still getting into a rhythm, and there are places I feel
I'm not riding properly. It's great to be back, and I'm hoping I'll be
on the Dee Cee 500 for the rest of the season. I've never ridden a 500
before, but the V-Twin Honda feels just like a big 250. In fact it's
better for me than a 250 because it's a bit bigger and I can fit on it
more comfortably. All through qualifying I've been working on getting
back in the groove. My aim for tomorrow's race is just to try and keep
with the other V-Twins, and try and beat some of them, but they've had
more testing than me."

FINAL QUALIFYING TIMES (grid positions):
POS RIDER MOTORCYCLE LAP TIME
1. Valentino Rossi (Italy) Nastro Azzuro Honda 1:34.629
2. Loris Capirossi (Italy) West Pons-Honda 1:34.872
3. Shinya Nakano (Japan) Gauloises Yamaha 1:35.216
4. Garry McCoy (Australia) Red Bull Yamaha 1:35.434
5. Kenny Roberts (U.S.) Telefonica MoviStar Suzuki 1:35.476
6. Tohru Ukawa (Japan) Repsol YPF Honda 1:35.537
7. Norifume Abe (Japan) Antena 3 D'Antin Yamaha 1:35.692
8. Max Biaggi (Italy) Marlboro Yamaha 1:35.921
9. Alex Criville (Spain) Repsol YPF Honda 1:36.125
10. Noriyuki Haga (Japan) Red Bull Yamaha 1:36.125

OTHER:
19. Ant West (Australia) Dee Cee Jeans Honda 1:38.287

**gomick** · 23 Apr 2001, 03:47 (Ref:83888)

cool, elephino do you have a press release from ant's race!

chunder · 23 Apr 2001, 22:55 (Ref:84179)

I have to eat humble pom pie and say well done to Westy.
I am a Brit and very disappointed to see how slow Chris is at the moment
You guys must be sick to see Westy struggling for rides when he could have ridden at least the Shell V twin.
Guess Dorna are sick of Aussies and want a few Brits for a change. Shame we can't live up to it yet.

elephino · 25 Apr 2001, 03:05 (Ref:84647)

I don;t seem to have anything on the race yet unfortunately.

I do know he was on a twin though, so there is a limit to how far up the field he could go. From what I could tell he would have finished around 16th or so.

**gomick** · 25 Apr 2001, 14:40 (Ref:84755)

ant finished 14th and got 2 championship points on what i presume was the ride that marcus payten was penned in for this year.......

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