| Race details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race 1 of 16 races in the 2000 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | 19 March 2000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Official name | Gauloises Africa's Grand Prix [1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Phakisa Freeway, Welkom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 500cc | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 250cc | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 125cc | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 2000 South African motorcycle Grand Prix was the first round of the 2000 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on 19 March 2000 at Phakisa Freeway.
This race was most notable for the shock win of WCM rider Garry McCoy. Initially, many thought that it would be 1999 500cc world champion Àlex Crivillé who would win the race, mainly thanks to the pole he had obtained on Saturday. This race also marked the first ever 500cc race of Valentino Rossi.
At the start of the race, Kenny Roberts Jr. on his Suzuki, overtook Gibernau at the start to lead the opening lap, followed by the Yamaha of Carlos Checa. Crivillé would drop down to 7th, whilst Tadayuki Okada moved up to third, closely followed by Loris Capirossi who would swap places with each other a few times on the opening lap. McCoy at that time was only in 8th place, and Rossi in 13th after a bad opening lap.
After a few laps, Checa would overtake Kenny Roberts Jr. for the lead, and not long after that Capirossi would follow suit. McCoy dropped to 9th place, with Valentino Rossi behind him. [2]
On the 5th lap, Capirossi overtook Checa to lead the race, and after 12 laps, both Max Biaggi and Valentino Rossi were out of the race; Biaggi because of technical problems, and Rossi because of a crash. [3]
With the laps closing down, McCoy overtook multiple people to reach third place. Sete Gibernau also overtook Kenny Roberts to go on and finish in what would be 4th place, but ran wide and eventually retired. Not much later, Crivillé would end up overtaking Roberts Jr. as well.
With 5 laps to go, McCoy overtook the Honda of Capirossi and went up into second place. A few corners later, he overtook the other Yamaha of Checa to lead the race. He held off a late charge from Checa and would come home to win the race with 0.366 seconds difference: the first 500cc race of his career. [4] [5]
This was the first race to be won by an Australian since the 1998 Argentine motorcycle Grand Prix who was won by Mick Doohan.
| Pos. | No. | Rider | Team | Manufacturer | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 24 |  Garry McCoy | Red Bull Yamaha WCM | Yamaha | 28 | 45:38.775 | 9 | 25 |
| 2 | 7 |  Carlos Checa | Marlboro Yamaha Team | Yamaha | 28 | +0.366 | 4 | 20 |
| 3 | 65 |  Loris Capirossi | Emerson Honda Pons | Honda | 28 | +1.590 | 2 | 16 |
| 4 | 10 |  Alex Barros | Emerson Honda Pons | Honda | 28 | +9.745 | 13 | 13 |
| 5 | 1 | Àlex Crivillé | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 28 | +10.253 | 7 | 11 |
| 6 | 2 |  Kenny Roberts Jr. | Telefónica Movistar Suzuki | Suzuki | 28 | +15.853 | 3 | 10 |
| 7 | 6 |  Norick Abe | Antena 3 Yamaha d'Antin | Yamaha | 28 | +24.228 | 15 | 9 |
| 8 | 9 | Nobuatsu Aoki | Telefónica Movistar Suzuki | Suzuki | 28 | +26.719 | 12 | 8 |
| 9 | 55 |  Régis Laconi | Red Bull Yamaha WCM | Yamaha | 28 | +36.231 | 16 | 7 |
| 10 | 17 |  Jurgen van den Goorbergh | Rizla Honda | TSR-Honda | 28 | +37.613 | 11 | 6 |
| 11 | 25 | José Luis Cardoso | Maxon Dee Cee Jeans | Honda | 28 | +1:04.044 | 20 | 5 |
| 12 | 22 | Sébastien Gimbert | Tecmas Honda Elf | Honda | 28 | +1:14.912 | 17 | 4 |
| 13 | 15 | Yoshiteru Konishi | F.C.C. TSR | TSR-Honda | 28 | +1:30.049 | 21 | 3 |
| 14 | 12 |  Shane Norval | Sabre Sport | Honda | 28 | +1:32.776 | 19 | 2 |
| 15 | 11 | José David de Gea | Proton Team KR | Modenas KR3 | 27 | +1 lap | 18 | 1 |
| Ret | 8 | Tadayuki Okada | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 21 | Accident | 6 | |
| Ret | 5 | Sete Gibernau | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 20 | Retirement | 1 | |
| Ret | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Nastro Azzurro Honda | Honda | 12 | Accident | 5 | |
| Ret | 4 | Max Biaggi | Marlboro Yamaha Team | Yamaha | 12 | Retirement | 10 | |
| Ret | 99 |  Jeremy McWilliams | Aprilia Grand Prix Racing | Aprilia | 7 | Retirement | 8 | |
| Ret | 31 | Tetsuya Harada | Aprilia Grand Prix Racing | Aprilia | 2 | Retirement | 14 | |
| Sources: [6] [7] [8] | ||||||||
| Pos. | No. | Rider | Manufacturer | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 56 | Shinya Nakano | Yamaha | 26 | 42:34.085 | 1 | 25 |
| 2 | 74 | Daijiro Kato | Honda | 26 | +0.875 | 3 | 20 |
| 3 | 4 | Tohru Ukawa | Honda | 26 | +13.813 | 2 | 16 |
| 4 | 19 | Olivier Jacque | Yamaha | 26 | +30.687 | 5 | 13 |
| 5 | 14 | Anthony West | Honda | 26 | +47.621 | 4 | 11 |
| 6 | 21 | Franco Battaini | Aprilia | 26 | +47.705 | 6 | 10 |
| 7 | 6 |  Ralf Waldmann | Aprilia | 26 | +58.221 | 7 | 9 |
| 8 | 9 |  Sebastián Porto | Yamaha | 26 | +1:02.190 | 11 | 8 |
| 9 | 24 | Jason Vincent | Aprilia | 26 | +1:07.732 | 17 | 7 |
| 10 | 8 | Naoki Matsudo | Yamaha | 26 | +1:09.269 | 18 | 6 |
| 11 | 77 | Jamie Robinson | Aprilia | 26 | +1:23.219 | 14 | 5 |
| 12 | 30 | Alex Debón | Aprilia | 26 | +1:25.538 | 10 | 4 |
| 13 | 13 | Marco Melandri | Aprilia | 26 | +1:29.763 | 8 | 3 |
| 14 | 26 | Klaus Nöhles | Aprilia | 26 | +1:31.878 | 13 | 2 |
| 15 | 44 | Roberto Rolfo | TSR-Honda | 25 | +1 lap | 28 | 1 |
| 16 | 42 | David Checa | TSR-Honda | 25 | +1 lap | 24 | |
| 17 | 41 | Jarno Janssen | TSR-Honda | 25 | +1 lap | 19 | |
| 18 | 12 | Mike Baldinger | Yamaha | 25 | +1 lap | 26 | |
| Ret | 10 | Fonsi Nieto | Yamaha | 21 | Retirement | 23 | |
| Ret | 31 | Lucas Oliver | Yamaha | 20 | Retirement | 27 | |
| Ret | 18 |  Shahrol Yuzy | Yamaha | 19 | Retirement | 12 | |
| Ret | 16 |  Johan Stigefelt | TSR-Honda | 17 | Retirement | 20 | |
| Ret | 11 | Ivan Clementi | Aprilia | 14 | Retirement | 22 | |
| Ret | 54 | David García | Aprilia | 12 | Accident | 21 | |
| Ret | 37 | Luca Boscoscuro | Aprilia | 10 | Retirement | 9 | |
| Ret | 66 | Alex Hofmann | Aprilia | 8 | Retirement | 15 | |
| Ret | 15 | Adrian Coates | Aprilia | 3 | Accident | 16 | |
| DNS | 25 | Vincent Philippe | TSR-Honda | 0 | Did not start | 25 | |
| Source: [9] | |||||||
| Pos. | No. | Rider | Manufacturer | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 21 | Arnaud Vincent | Aprilia | 24 | 41:35.310 | 6 | 25 |
| 2 | 32 | Mirko Giansanti | Honda | 24 | +1.937 | 4 | 20 |
| 3 | 1 | Emilio Alzamora | Honda | 24 | +2.057 | 11 | 16 |
| 4 | 4 | Roberto Locatelli | Aprilia | 24 | +2.362 | 1 | 13 |
| 5 | 5 | Noboru Ueda | Honda | 24 | +4.566 | 7 | 11 |
| 6 | 17 | Steve Jenkner | Honda | 24 | +11.073 | 5 | 10 |
| 7 | 8 | Gianluigi Scalvini | Aprilia | 24 | +11.187 | 3 | 9 |
| 8 | 26 | Ivan Goi | Honda | 24 | +11.504 | 8 | 8 |
| 9 | 3 | Masao Azuma | Honda | 24 | +37.723 | 12 | 7 |
| 10 | 23 | Gino Borsoi | Aprilia | 24 | +39.819 | 9 | 6 |
| 11 | 9 | Lucio Cecchinello | Honda | 24 | +39.887 | 18 | 5 |
| 12 | 16 | Simone Sanna | Aprilia | 24 | +39.964 | 10 | 4 |
| 13 | 29 | Ángel Nieto Jr. | Honda | 24 | +40.474 | 14 | 3 |
| 14 | 12 | Randy de Puniet | Aprilia | 24 | +41.118 | 13 | 2 |
| 15 | 22 | Pablo Nieto | Derbi | 24 | +52.411 | 16 | 1 |
| 16 | 15 |  Alex de Angelis | Honda | 24 | +52.639 | 15 | |
| 17 | 35 | Reinhard Stolz | Honda | 24 | +1:22.243 | 20 | |
| 18 | 10 | Adrián Araujo | Honda | 24 | +1:27.527 | 24 | |
| 19 | 53 | William de Angelis | Aprilia | 24 | +1:27.811 | 21 | |
| 20 | 11 | Max Sabbatani | Honda | 24 | +1:28.093 | 17 | |
| 21 | 51 | Marco Petrini | Aprilia | 24 | +1:28.449 | 19 | |
| 22 | 24 | Leon Haslam | Italjet | 24 | +1:28.648 | 22 | |
| 23 | 18 | Antonio Elías | Honda | 24 | +1:47.350 | 23 | |
| Ret | 39 |  Jaroslav Huleš | Italjet | 4 | Retirement | 25 | |
| Ret | 41 | Youichi Ui | Derbi | 0 | Accident | 2 | |
| DNS | 54 | Manuel Poggiali | Derbi | Did not start | |||
| Source: [10] | |||||||
Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round one has concluded. [11]
|
|
Valentino Rossi is an Italian racing driver, former professional motorcycle road racer and nine-time Grand Prix motorcycle racing World Champion. Of Rossi's nine Grand Prix World Championships, seven were in the premier 500cc/MotoGP class. He holds the record for most premier class victories and podiums, with 89 victories and 199 podiums to his name. He won premier class World Championships with both Honda and Yamaha. He is also the only road racer to have competed in 400 or more Grands Prix. He rode with the number 46 for his entire career.
Manuel "Sete" Gibernau Bultó is a Spanish former professional Grand Prix motorcycle road racer who is a 9-time 500cc/MotoGP race winner and a two-time overall runner-up in 2003 and 2004. His racing career spans three different eras of motorcycle racing, beginning with the two-stroke-dominated period prior to the 2002 season, and the four-stroke MotoGP era. He returned to racing in 2019 to compete in the electric-powered MotoE World Cup. Gibernau was one of the top riders in Grand Prix racing at the beginning of the MotoGP era.
Àlex Crivillé Tapias is a Spanish former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. In 1992 he became the first Spaniard to win a 500cc Grand Prix and, in 1999 he became the first Spaniard to win the 500cc World Championship.
The 1997 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 49th F.I.M. Road Racing World Championship season.
The 1999 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 51st F.I.M. Road Racing World Championship season.
The 2002 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 54th F.I.M. Road racing World Championship season. The season consisted of 16 races, beginning with the Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix on 7 April 2002 and ending with the Valencian Community motorcycle Grand Prix on 3 November.
The 2002 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix was the first round of the 2002 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 5–7 April 2002 at Suzuka. The race was historic in that it was the first race of the MotoGP class, with engine capacities raised to 990cc from 500cc.
The 2002 German motorcycle Grand Prix was the ninth round of the 2002 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 19–21 July 2002 at the Sachsenring.
The 2003 Dutch TT was the seventh round of the 2003 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 26–28 June 2003 at the TT Circuit Assen located in Assen, Netherlands.
The 2003 German motorcycle Grand Prix was the ninth round of the 2003 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 25–27 July 2003 at the Sachsenring.
The 2004 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix was the twelfth round of the 2004 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 17–19 September 2004 at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit.
The 2004 Australian motorcycle Grand Prix was the penultimate round of the 2004 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 15–17 October 2004 at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.
The 2005 Chinese motorcycle Grand Prix was the third round of the 2005 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 29 April – 1 May 2005 at the Shanghai International Circuit. It was the first time that MotoGP raced in China.
The 2005 United States motorcycle Grand Prix was the eighth round of the 2005 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of July 8–10, 2005 at Laguna Seca. Only the MotoGP class raced here because of the Californian law on air pollution, which forbids 2-stroke engines in the state.
The 2005 Valencian Community motorcycle Grand Prix was the last round of the 2005 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 4–6 November 2005 at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.
The 2000 Malaysian motorcycle Grand Prix was the second round of the 2000 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on 2 April 2000 at the Sepang International Circuit.
The 2000 British motorcycle Grand Prix was the ninth round of the 2000 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on 9 July 2000 at Donington Park.
The 2001 Dutch TT was the seventh round of the 2001 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 28–30 June 2001 at the TT Circuit Assen.
Pons Racing was a motorcycle and auto racing team owned by the British company Pons Racing UK Limited. The team principal is former 250 cc world champion, Sito Pons. In motorcycle road racing world championships, Pons has fielded riders such as Alex Barros, Max Biaggi, Loris Capirossi and Sete Gibernau. In auto racing, his team won the 2004 World Series by Nissan championship with driver Heikki Kovalainen.
Grand Prix motorcycle racing sponsorship liveries have been used since the late 1960s, replacing the previously used national colours. With sponsors becoming more important with the rising costs in the motorcycle CC classes, many teams wanted to be able to display the logos of their sponsors as clearly as possible.