Australia Gets 2nd 500cc Rider

Illawarra Mercury

Friday September 1, 2000

with NICK HARTGERINK

Australia has two riders in this weekend's Portuguese 500cc Grand Prix, with Mark Willis joining Garry McCoy in the premier class of world motorcycle racing.

Willis will make his debut on a Mk3 Modenas KR3 at Estoril, and has been encouraged by competitive test times.

The 24-year-old rider from Narrabri rode the Mk2 version of the KR3 last season and said he was delighted with the improvements built into the new bike.

Willis could now race the bike for the remainder of the season although there is a question mark over whether he can ride it in Valencia, the race after Portugal, because of prior commitments.

But he wants to ride the Modenas at the remaining rounds - in Brazil, Japan and his home circuit of Phillip Island.

``The new bike is definitely better than last year's, and good enough now to get better race results than it's achieved so far," Willis said.

``The engine is similar, except for a much better throttle response. The old one was a bit savage when you opened the throttle. Now it's a lot smoother.

``The biggest difference is the chassis and the handling. Now the bike holds the line much better."

Willis admitted he needed to build up his own speed - apart from tests, the last time he raced a 500 GP bike was last season.

``I'm looking forward to the last race especially. I know the Phillip Island circuit really well and past results show you don't necessarily need a V4 for a good result there," he said.

Meanwhile McCoy is looking for consecutive front row starts in a bid to lift his Red Bull Yamaha to another podium finish on Sunday.

After a mid-season form slump, McCoy was at his broadsliding best with a third place finish in last week's Czech GP in Brno where he engaged rising Italian star Valentino Rossi in an absorbing contest.

Rossi later admitted he would have happily paid for a ticket to watch McCoy's exhibition of rubber smoking slides.

McCoy is working towards a repeat of his South African GP victory at the start of the season after a horror stretch of wet race disappointments in Europe.

Armed with a new two-year contract with the Red Bull Yamaha team, McCoy said there was no point turning up on a factory bike if you were not going to try and win.

``For a while there it was heartbreaking not to be scoring points, for me and the team," he said. ``I gave away a lot of places and now I'm just going to aim for the podium at every race and hopefully be in a position to fight for a win."

He is 10th in the championship standings on 84 points but only 22 points behind fifth placed Norick Abe with five GPs remaining.

Meanwhile, Australia's Ant West believes the experience he gained during a test session at the Estoril circuit four months ago will assist him in the 250cc GP.

The 19-year-old Gold Coast rider, who is sixth in the 250cc world championship after 11 rounds, tested his Shell Advance Honda NSR250 on the 4.1km track in early May. His team-mate Tohru Ukawa was also at the test, along with fellow-Japanese rider Daijiro Katoh from the Axo Gresini Honda team.

``All three of us had similar lap times at the test, so hopefully I'm going to be competitive this weekend," said West. ``We had a good bike set-up at the test and there's no reason why the same settings shouldn't work just as well when we go back there for the race."