1998: The ‘Roman Emperor’ enters the arena…

Steve Cooper remembers…

The year 1998 has probably gone down as one of Honda’s most dominant years and for good reason – the firm pretty much mopped up the vast majority of points available by taking the top five places in the championship race.

Honda’s star was definitely in the ascendant and, quite rightly, most people expected them to humiliate Yamaha and Suzuki.

However, what no one was expecting was the upset that came at the opening race of the season and had the potential to disturb the established order of things.

Outgoing 250cc world champion Max Biaggi had been signed up to ride in the Kanemoto Honda team on a satellite NSR500 which would, potentially, threaten the status quo within the Repsol Honda outfit which was, in effect, an HRC organisation in all but name. Biaggi had some good history with the Honda factory, having ridden for Erv Kanemoto’s 250 GP team throughout much of the 90s. Previously, Biaggi had taken three successive 250 titles with Aprilia (1994-1996) before signing up for Honda and Kanemoto’s 250 team where he took another 250 crown in 1997. Such was the relationship between the Italian rider and Japanese guru that it was almost a given there would be an assault made on the premier crown.

The Honda factory, with Repsol finance, had put together a stunning team with Mick Doohan as the lead ride followed by Japanese rider Tadayuki Okada. Due to the Spanish oil company’s financing of much of the season, two home-grown riders would form the other half of HRC’s efforts – Àlex Crivillé and Sete Gibernau both had the potential to be winners.

Quite what The Big Aitch thought about Max Biaggi isn’t really clear but it’s doubtful anyone expected the ‘Roman Emperor’ (as he was soon to be known) to upset the predicted order of things quite so much.

The season’s opener was on home territory at Suzuka, Japan, and in Biaggi’s first premier race he qualified on pole, took the ultimate lap record and then went on to win the race – no one was expecting that… other than Mad Max, of course! Arguably, Mick Doohan’s retirement from the race might possibly have gifted the Italian the winner’s laurels but no one really thought that the wild boy from the 250s would have carried out such a devastating first mission. Over the rest of the season Doohan would regain momentum and take eight class wins to amass 260 points despite a pair of DNFs at the Madrid and Czech GPs.

Repsol and HRC probably had great hopes of Àlex Crivillé and Sete Gibernau and they acquitted themselves well, attaining third and fourth spots respectively in the world ranking. However, it was Max Biaggi who took the runner-up spot with a very creditable 208 points to Doohan’s unbeatable 260. Much of Biaggi’s success came down to sheer talent, ability and an amazing sense of self-belief for which he’s sometimes perceived as arrogant. However, the guy was also the master tactician and made some hugely strategic tyre choices for that epic win. Sadly, 1998 was the Italian’s only season with The Big Aitch and the following year he was riding for Yamaha. There’re lots of half-truths and rumours as to why the split occurred but not a lot of hard facts, apparently. That said, Honda’s grandees must have felt more than a little concerned that their former 250 champion had come rather close to winning a 500 championship at his first attempt and was now piloting the opposition’s machinery!

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