1997 World Champions 500cc – Mick Doohan (Honda) 250cc – Max Biaggi (Honda) 125cc – Valentino Rossi (Aprilia)
The 1997 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 49th F.I.M. Road Racing World Championship season.
Season summary
A fourth world championship in a row for Honda's Mick Doohan with another dominating performance. He broke Giacomo Agostini's record for victories in one season with 12 wins.[1] It was also dominating year for Honda with eight of the top ten riders aboard Hondas.[1] The Yamaha and Suzuki teams were in disarray.[1]Kenny Roberts left Yamaha to start his own venture with a lightweight, three-cylinder Modenas.[1]Wayne Rainey's team was left with the inconsistent Norifumi Abe and Sete Gibernau, a rookie.[1]Daryl Beattie wasn't able to come back from head injuries and retired at the end of the year while Anthony Gobert failed a drug test and was dismissed by the Suzuki team.[1] The Elf team soldiered on with their Swiss-Auto V4 but Aprilia decided to pull their V twin from the 500 class at the end of the year.[1]
Max Biaggi had a harder time defending his title from Tetsuya Harada and Ralf Waldmann, not clinching the title until the last race of the year.[1] A new star emerged from the 125 class with Valentino Rossi winning 11 races for a commanding win on an Aprilia.[1]
1997 Grand Prix season calendar
The following Grands Prix were scheduled to take place in 1997:[2][3]
Schertenleib, Jean-Claude; Büla, Maurice (2000). Continental Circus 50. Chronosports. ISBN 978-2-940125-32-6.
"The Official MotoGP website". Archived from the original on 2012-09-20. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
^ abcdefghiNoyes, Dennis; Scott, Michael (1999), Motocourse: 50 Years Of Moto Grand Prix, Hazleton Publishing Ltd, ISBN 1-874557-83-7
^"Grand Prix uitslagen en bijzonderheden 1997". 25 July 2015. Archived from the original on 25 July 2015.
^"motogp.com · 500cc World Standing 1997". www.motogp.com.
^ ab"1997 Australian Grand Prix – 500cc – World Championship Classification" (PDF). dorna.com. Dorna Sports. 5 October 1997. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 November 1997.
^ ab"1997 Australian Grand Prix – 250cc – World Championship Classification" (PDF). dorna.com. Dorna Sports. 5 October 1997. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 November 1997.
^ ab"1997 Australian Grand Prix – 125cc – World Championship Classification" (PDF). dorna.com. Dorna Sports. 5 October 1997. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 November 1997.