TV Standard: NTSC

Description:

Doohan leaves Grand Prix! New champion Cribile wins a tumultuous season Mick Doohan, the world champion for five consecutive years and the absolute best. Who will be the rider to stop him? Kenny Roberts, who left his father to join Suzuki, won the opening round in Malaysia. He also won the second round in Japan, showing off the genes he inherited from his father, who was once called the King. In the following round, the third race, something unbelievable happens: the champion Doohan crashes in the first qualifying session and is rushed to the hospital. Diagnosis revealed that he had broken his shoulder, wrist, and knee, and he would not return to the circuit for the rest of the season. In 1999, the absolute champion was suddenly absent. The new leading rider was not Kenny Roberts, who had been active earlier in the season, but the Spanish rider Alex Crivile. Starting with the third round in Spain, Crivile won four consecutive races and continued to accumulate points. On the other hand, the only rider who was able to compete with Crivile was Japanese rider Tadayuki Okada. After winning the 7th round, his second win in the 500cc class, he went on to win the 10th and 13th rounds, and was in contention for the championship. Norick Abe also won the 15th round of the Brazilian GP, his first victory in three years (since 1996), and many Japanese riders were active in the race. (Japanese ranking: Tadayuki Okada 3rd, Norick Abe 6th, Tetsuya Harada 10th, Nobuatsu Aoki 13th, Haruchika Aoki 15th, etc.)