Welkom 2000

Red Bull Yamaha with Gauloises

Garry McCoy wins the first GP of 2000 for Red Bull Yamaha and Gauloises.

The Red Bull Yamaha team starts the 2000 season with the support of Gauloises.  For Red Bull it is their fourth year in the 500 class and for Gauloises very much a comeback.

The Red Bull Yamaha team is aiming to reproduce the form shown at the Valencia Grand Prix in ’99 when Garry McCoy’s third place put him on the podium with winner Regis Laconi.

Both men stay with the team this year.   Laconi’s victory is an interesting link to the Gauloises involvement as the last Frenchman to win a 500 Grand Prix was Christian Sarron riding a Gauloises Yamaha in 1985, the year after he had won the 250 World Championship for the same team.

It was Sarron who introduced Red Bull Yamaha’s director of racing Peter Clifford to Laconi at the end of the 97 season when the youngster was supported by Gauloises and had impressed so much on a private twin cylinder 500.

Since then Laconi has been a member of the Red Bull Yamaha squad.  He was joined mid way through the 1999 season by Garry McCoy, himself a two times Grand Prix winner in the 125 class.

Having only ridden a twin cylinder 500 for less than a full season McCoy might have been expected to struggle on the heavier and more powerful factory four.  He did not struggle at all and was soon thrilling crowds with awesome power slides as if just to demonstrate how much at home he felt on the bike.

With Regis starting his third year on the Red Bull Yamaha and Garry his first full season the team has every reason to hope for more rostrum  finishes and race wins this year.

South Africa Grand Prix, Welkom. Sunday, 19 March .

GARRY MCCOY SLIDES RED BULL YAMAHA TO HEROIC VICTORY

With a superb display of individual brilliance, Garry McCoy blasted to a superb come-from-behind victory in the Gauloises Africa's Grand Prix, the opening race of the 500 cc motorcycle world championship.

McCoy stunned his rivals and everyone at the track with a breathtaking display of throttle control as he "dirt tracked " his way to victory with a series of spectacular rear wheel slides.

The win was McCoy 's first after just 21 starts in the 500 GP category making the South African GP one he will never forget.  The McCoy charge forward continued even after he was bumped wide twice in the opening laps by Italian star Valentino Rossi, who was making his 500 debut with Honda.   Rossi later crashed out of the race.

"I was still confident even after I lost some ground after Rossi pulled a couple desperate passing moves," McCoy said.

"I was pretty angry and thought it might be all over, but I just put my head down and started picking the other riders off one by one.  I didn't know what pace the front guys were running at until I got up to the leading group."

After four laps McCoy was still in 11th place and with 10 laps to go was still sixth behind the flying Yamaha of Carlos Checa , the Honda of Loris Capirossi and the Kenny Roberts Suzuki.

But when he closed three seconds in two laps on Capirossi and then began his attack on race leader Checa both his rivals admitted they couldn't stay with the pace of the 27 year old Australian.

"He was faster than me today and he won, I accept that," Checa said.

McCoy grabbed the lead from Checa with five laps remaining and  held off the hard riding Spaniard to win an historic first victory by  just 0.3s .

Capirossi finished third in his return to the 500 class.  Reigning world champion Alex Criville (Honda) finished fifth.

McCoy paid tribute to the faith shown in him by the Red Bull Yamaha team.  Just one year ago McCoy was sitting at home in Sydney without a GP ride and then got a mid-season call-up to join the team in Europe.

"It seems I was the forgotten man for a while and it was a great opportunity to join the team who have supported me all the way.  Over the final laps I could see the team hanging over the wall and I was thinking more about them than my own feelings."

"Then in turn one on the final lap it hit me that I could win the race and I couldn't believe it."

"I went into the race thinking I would do nothing silly and just get a top ten finish to kick off the season, so to win is just fantastic."

McCoy had qualified in ninth place, just 0.4s off a front start position.

McCoy's Red Bull teammate Regis Laconi rode a brave race to finish ninth, after his pre-season training was interrupted by leg and shoulder injuries.

After qualifying 15th Laconi decided on a strategy to bring his Red Bull Yamaha home and put in some much needed race laps after missing most of the pre-season test sessions.

McCoy leads the world championship with 25 points with Laconi in ninth place with seven points.

The next race is the Malaysia Grand Prix on April 2 at the Sepang Circuit.