This is the fifth running of the South African GP, held in 1984 and 1985 at the original Kyalami circuit outside Johannesburg, and in 1992 at the rebuilt Kyalami. Then followed another hiatus until the new Welkom venue was inaugurated with the revived race at the end of 1999. Soon afterwards the GP circus returned for the first race of the 2000 season, and this year the GP is again close to the start of the season.

The Phakisa Freeway, just outside the mining town of Welkom in the Free State, is an ambitious and comprehensive motor sport facility, built in just over a year at a cost of R80-million, with the backing of the provincial Free State government.  Aimed at boosting the economy of a gold-mining area where falling gold prices led to rising unemployment, the track combines a 4.24km GP circuit with a 2.5km NASCAR banked tri-oval circuit - one of only four outside the USA.  The 1999 motorcycle GP was the inaugural event at the brand-new track, which won praise for a design that packs the circuit into a compact area, offering good spectator views, but at the same time has fifth and sixth-gear bends as well as slow corners. Situated on South Africa's central plateau, the Highveld, an altitude of some 1,500 metres makes it the highest circuit of the year.

A year ago Garry McCoy, the cabinet maker from Camden on the outskirts of Sydney, turned 500cc Grand Prix racing upside down with a wild, speedway sliding display to win the South African Grand Prix.

It was a stunning way to announce his arrival as a world championship contender in just his 11th GP start on a factory V4-powered Red Bull Yamaha. It was the opening race of the 2000 season and McCoy blasted his way from 12th at the end of lap two to score a breathtaking victory. He went on to finish fifth in the 2000 world championship.

McCoy’s full-throttle Welkom win started a trend in tyre selection that, 12 months on, has converted every leading rider and factory GP team to using the once unloved 16.5-inch Michelin rear tyre. The original Sultan of Slide, the Texan star Kevin Schwantz, had first won on the smaller Michelin in the early 1990s prior to his 1995 retirement.

“People forgot that everyone rode like that about seven years ago and some guys have told me I should pull the bike back into line, but that’s not what I’m used to,” McCoy said. “Coming into a turn I tend to get the rear end a little ‘washy’ and sometimes I get it backing into a corner sideways and then, before the bike’s straight again, I’ve fed on the gas and kept the rear sliding out there all the way around the corner. That’s a good feeling and you think: ‘That was excellent!’ ”

The traditional 17-inch tyre is now all but forsaken by McCoy’s rivals, including last round winner Valentino Rossi (Honda) and defending world champion Kenny Roberts (Suzuki). A former speedway racer, McCoy was happy going sideways on his Red Bull Yamaha and realised the smaller Michelin tyre was perfect for his radical, tyre-smoking style.

"Last year in South Africa I used the 16.5-inch rear and none of the other riders … they thought I was joking!” recalls McCoy, whose sideways style was an instant reminder of American world champions Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz.

“And now everyone is running them (16.5-inch tyres) so it’s going to be really interesting to see how they all go at Welkom. It is a big difference from last year when everyone was sticking with the 17-inch rear Michelin.” 

“I’ll just wait and see. I would like to win there again, definitely, but just because I won there last year doesn’t automatically mean I’ll win again this year. It’s going to be tough, the same as it will be at all the races this season, but I’m looking forward to it. “My main goal is to get points in every race. It’s just something I want to do this year - and the higher place the better, without taking too many risks.”

McCoy opened his 2001 championship campaign with a strong second-place finish on the Red Bull Yamaha in round 1 after qualifying on the front row.   

“It was great to get out of Japan with a second place. I’d never done any good there before, even back when I was racing 125s,” said McCoy, who turned 29 this week. The main benefit of the 16.5-inch tyre is that it has a larger contact patch for more edge grip in mid-corner and cooler operating temperature when the bikes are at their maximum lean angle. This is usually at the point that McCoy begins his full throttle power slides, leaving his trademark rubber burns on the tarmac.

World champion Kenny Roberts Jr and team-mate Sete Gibernau hope that the conditions at the second GP of the 2001 season will also bring them a change of fortune, turning the downbeat start at the Japanese GP into something positive as the GP circus prepares for business in Europe.

"The track is very different - actually unique," explained Roberts, who will ride an updated version of the Telefónica MoviStar Suzuki that took him to the four GP wins and his first World Championship last year.

"The layout and the unpredictable surface are one thing; another is the altitude - which really affects the performance of the engine, in fact, the last two times there have been bad for us - but for specific reasons of being on the wrong tyres at the wrong time. This time, with the right tyres, we can see if we can turn the track's quirkiness to our advantage."

For new Telefónica MoviStar Suzuki rider Sete Gibernau, the South African track is really special, yielding his best-ever results in GP racing. He still holds the lap record, set in 1999 when he finished second, and last year qualified on pole position.

The Phakisa Raceway has a combination of mainly slow corners that keeps the bikes on their sides for long periods at a time. Extra technical difficulty is imposed by the surface - the area is prone to dust-storms and long dry periods, while the road-racing circuit is used relatively seldom. As a result, it is prone to accumulation of dust, which is only fully dispersed and replaced with rubber over the course of a racing weekend. This makes tyre choice a moving target as conditions change over the two days of practice before race day.

The altitude, at some 1,500 metres, is another major factor, the thinner air robbing engines of 10 to 15 percent of their horsepower. The first challenge is to establish carburation settings in conditions encountered nowhere else on the 16-round racing calendar. Another difficulty is to predict the effect on throttle response, a crucial aspect of performance.

It is tyres that most concern Suzuki's technical chief Warren Willing. "Our history at Welkom is not good, and both times it was down to tyre choice problems.. We now seem to be more in tune with what it takes to make these tyres work, so we should be okay - assuming that the stock of tyres at the track will cover exactly what we need."

This is the second of two "flyaway" GPs, with all teams and suppliers operating remote-control operations, far from their home bases and fully equipped workshop trucks. Results at these races are often unpredictable, and seldom typical of what happens when the season gets down to its relentless week-on / week-off pace in Europe.

Kenny Roberts - "I've said often enough that I approach every race the same way - but that's just the truth. I don't have emotions about different tracks or types of track. Each weekend I go to the track as it is at that time, and work 100 percent to get the bike, the tyres and the suspension at their best for that track. Then I go and race 100 percent to get the best out of myself at that track. This circuit is different, with the tight turns, and the way it starts off slippery then gets grippier - so fast it almost seems lap by lap. It's the same for everyone. Technically, you have to be very accurate here. It's high concentration racing."

Sete Gibernau - "I really like this circuit - in 1999 I finished second, by best ever 500 finish, and set the lap record; and last year I claimed my first pole position. It seems the slippery surface suits my style somehow. I've never ridden the Suzuki there, but obviously I'm hoping it will be the same again. I had a bad start to the season, crashing out at Suzuka - but I am always very positive, and I'll be thinking of this weekend, knowing I can be exceptional at this circuit, and hoping for a turn-around for the whole team."

Proton Team KR rider Jurgen van den Goorbergh is hoping that the special nature of the South African circuit will be his first real chance of the year to prove a point.   "The Welkom circuit is very twisty, where the better road-holding of the KR3 should really help us against the V4s," said Van den Goorbergh.   "More important is the fact that everybody is going there without any previous testing. At Suzuka, the Japanese factory teams had already spent three days at the track, and we had only four hours of practice to try to catch up. 

"Now we arrive equal. And if you look at the pre-season test results where the situation was the same, then you can understand why I feel confident that I can show the factory bikes something to get them worried," said the Dutchman.

Proton Team KR owner, Kenny Roberts, thinks his charge will have a good run at Welkom - "Because the other guys had tested there (Suzuka), we were always at a disadvantage in Japan, that was Jurgen's first race on the machine, and the first time it had run at Suzuka. Also the first time he ran full race distance. We needed a little bit longer to have our machine at its absolute best for Suzuka - but we had a good combination, and it can be better again."

Suzuka offered other encouragement, proving the value of the slim-line bodywork on the long straight. "The top speed figures put our bike really close to the V4s, and even faster than one or two of them.  "Overall top speed is not such an issue at the South African track, but there's still a straight there with a really difficult corner at the end of it - and we've already seen how Jurgen can outbrake the V4s and run a higher corner speed. "We've all been looking forward to this race. It's the season's first real chance to prove our development progress through the winter, and a good track for the three-cylinder concept to show its potential," said the 3-time World Champion. 

Two weeks after a fairytale start to their 2001 campaign, Honda's Grand Prix teams go to South Africa aiming to continue the factory's amazing success story. At the season-opening Japanese GP Valentino Rossi (Nastro Azzurro Honda NSR500), Daijiro Katoh (Telefonica Movistar Honda NSR250) and Masao Azuma (Liégeois Competition Honda RS125) took a clean sweep of all three races to secure the marque's 500th win.

But as Honda Racing Corporation president Yasuo Ikenoya said at the end of the historic day: "This is not the end of the road, it is just the beginning. At Honda we will always continue aiming for dreams, going for victory. It has always been in our spirit to be in the race and it has always been in our spirit to win the race."

Rossi, Katoh and Azuma arrive at Welkom leading their respective World Championships but all three know there are 15 races remaining in the 2001 MotoGP series, and they will have to fend off many rivals at all kinds of racetracks to have a chance of claiming their crowns at season's end.

Whatever the challenges, Rossi is more than ready for them. "I like the track, it's got plenty of medium-fast corners, which I always like," says the former 125 and 250 champ who made his 500 debut at Welkom last year, crashing out after setting the fastest lap. "The bikes are easier to ride there because power is down, but my main concern is grip, if it's windy there'll be a lot of dust on the track."

Rossi's crew chief Jerry Burgess, who guided Mick Doohan (Repsol Honda NSR500) to five world titles before taking charge of the young Italian, is sure his man will once again be able to go for victory.  "Valentino was good there last year until his crash, which wasn't really his fault," says the Australian. "I expect things to be very close because it's not a very technical circuit and everyone's down on power, so it's somewhere which favours riders who can pass, and Valentino's very good at passing. But the fundamental factor will be the condition of the track, how bad the dust is."

Five other riders will be enjoying NSR500 power at Welkom and bidding for morale-boosting results before the all-important Continental season kicks off in Spain on May 6. Former 250 rider and new 500 rookie Tohru Ukawa (Repsol YPF Honda NSR500) made an amazing entry to the 500 class at Suzuka, running in the leading pack before a nasty-looking highside put him out in the late stages.

"Everything was fine before the crash," says Ukawa, who escaped with a bruised right ankle. "At Welkom my target will be the same as at Suzuka, to win; my target is always to win! But I think Welkom will be more difficult for me because there's not so much grip there, so there'll be more wheelspin, and I'm not so used to that. On the other hand, there'll be less power, so that may make it easier."

Ukawa's team-mate Alex Crivillé (Repsol YPF Honda NSR500) finished ninth at Suzuka, still recovering from an off-season hand injury, and hopes to be back to full strength for Welkom. "Suzuka wasn't great, I ran off the track during the race and that cost me a lot of time," says the Spaniard. "But I gained a lot of confidence over he weekend and it was only the first race of a long season. Welkom will be better for me."

Sito Pons' two riders Alex Barros (West Honda Pons NSR500) and Loris Capirossi (West Honda Pons NSR500) also had less-than-ideal results in Japan, where Capirossi took pole but slumped to eighth in the race. They will be looking to make amends in South Africa, where Capirossi took third last year.

"I consider both Alex and Loris as contenders for the World Championship, so we can't afford another weekend like Japan," reveals Pons. "We know that our riders and our team are capable of winning and that will be our single aim in South Africa."

Chris Walker (Shell Advance Racing Honda NSR500) is another NSR man hoping for better luck this weekend after commencing his full-time 500 career at Suzuka with a first-lap tumble. And watch out for 17-year-old team-mate Leon Haslam (Shell Advance Racing Honda NSRV500) who was 13th in Japan, making him the youngest 500 points scorer in GP history.

Yamaha's Carlos Checa will miss the South African GP due to injuries he sustained while training last weekend.

Following Sunday's racing, the GP circus heads to Europe for the first of ten races on the Continent. The European seasons commences with the Spanish GP at Jerez on May 6 and concludes with the Valencia GP on September 23. The World Championship concludes with four more out-of-Europe events, ending with the Rio GP on Saturday November 3.

Last year at Welkom