Quotes From a Race and Some Stuff

So here's some stuff (there may be quotes) from some people (they may ride what we call "motorcycles") . These people work for a company (it may be one you've heard of, though maybe not) ...

Proton Team KR rider Jurgen van den Goorbergh maintained his perfect pointsrecord in the third round of the 2001 World Championship, finishing 13th in theSpanish Grand Prix at Jerez today. But although there were many positiveaspects to the weekend, both team and rider were disappointed by the result,after a perfect launch from the third row of the grid saw the Mk3 version ofthe three-cylinder Proton KR3 finish the first lap in fourth position.

After that, however, Jurgen lost position rapidly as he ran into an unexpectedhandling problem that destroyed the lightweight machine's main advantage - ahigher corner speed than the heavier but more powerful factory V4 machines.Although the Dutch rider was happy with the overall speed, he was unable tofight back in the corners.

He spent much of the race locked in battle with Yamaha factory rider CarlosCheca, finishing almost three seconds clear after 27 laps of the 4,423mcircuit, outside the Andalucian sherry capital of Jerez. The race drew amassive crowd of 126,000 fans for the first round of the European season, whowatched Italian rider Valentino Rossi take a third consecutive win.

JURGEN VAN DEN GOORBERGH

"I broke the record with the start - it was brilliant off the line. The firstlap was okay too, when nobody was pushing too hard. On the second lap we didstart to push, and I started to lose the front everywhere. The bike just wasn'tsteering into the turns and I couldn't get the apexes. People were just comingunderneath me all over the place.

"I don't know why - it just wasn't such a big problem in practice. But it wasreally bad today, and a full tank made it a lot worse. I was really focussed,but after a couple of narrow escapes I concentrated on making it to thefinish.

"It was a big disappointment after such a good start. But it was good to seethat we were not at any disadvantage on top speed - I could run with Checa onthe straight, and even go faster than him."

CHUCK AKSLAND - Team Manager

"It was good to see Jurgen getting a good start and running up front for thefirst lap. That's a big improvement . We had a problem at the start of the lastrace, and we were worried about that aspect. It was good to see the bike holdits own on the straights too - but the philosophy of the Proton is to achieve ahigh corner speed, and if we lose that we lose what it's about. We have somegood information from this weekend. We need to solve the handling problem tomake the most of our chances."