Weekly 98 - week1

Welcome, to the newest acquisition of  MotoGP500online.com. Dolz and I agreed on something new, from now on this page will feature a weekly on a monthly column! I will be writing about all sorts of topics, though  mainly about motorsports! In the future this will be the place for funny annecdotes from the paddock. From time to time, I figure others would want to wtire something aswell. If you think you can contribute something to this section, e.g. a story about the championship, or gossip from the paddock, or something about flat tyres. Contact me and I am sure we'll be able to work something out!

Anyway what do civilised people normally do when we meet for the first time? No, we do not offer eachother a cigarette nor a beer (ofcourse these offers are always welcome),  anyway we usually introduce! My name is Wilbert Velthove, most of you probably already know me, commenly known under the name TT98 or on ICQ: MelandriTTwinner98. You could also know me from a couple of forums. I am a moddy  at Dolz' MotoGP500online Forums, and an admin for the GP500Store forums.

Enough about me, I could go on forever but I won't. Let's start the real thing now, first story is about my first encounter with the MotoGP world!

It was on a Saturday morning in the summer of 1998, at 4:00 my alarmclock woke me up, within 5 seconds I had found the "off" button, and I jumped out of bed, grabbed the clothes I put on my chair the night before, and got dressed. Next I walked to my parents room and woke up my mother: "Mom, it's time to go to the TT of Assen!".
It was the first time we (yes, me and my mother) were going to an official motorracing event. I was so utterly excited I had hardly slept during the night. I didn't know what to expect. So around 5:00 we left home and drove to Assen, a good 3 hours later we arrived on the track, we bought a ticket and found ourselves a nice grassy area to sit on and watch the races.

So I see all these bikes racing around and Im smelling the fumes during the warm-ups, I don't know whom is whom, what is what...I just sat there and enjoyed myself! Then the moment-suprème! The real races were bound to take place, well alteast that was what I figured what was going to happen. Everybody stood up and got a quick beer or a hamburger. So anyway the 125cc race was starting, I heard alot of names I never heard before but there was one in particular. Marco Melandri, I heard the commentator on track explain that he's only 15 years of age and that he's a very promising young rider blessed with alot of talent. Imressed as I was (my age was 12 at the time) I followed him during the race and really got excited with him battling Sakata, the rest we all know. He won his first grandprix of his career, in Assen 98. That was the moment I became one of his fans, I've been following him from that moment until now!

Last corner of Dutch TT '98   (best thing is to "Save Target As")

That's the story behind the name.., and a nice kick-of, of this new seasons columns
!