Motorcycling: Cadalora's mission: Grand prix season starts

LUCA CADALORA, of Italy, the winner of last year's British 500cc Grand Prix at Donington, begins the new season in Australia tomorrow well equipped to match a record set by Britain's Phil Read in the late 1960s and early 70s, writes Patrick Miles. Read is the only rider in the 44 years of grand prix racing to win titles in 125cc, 250cc and the main event. The Team Roberts Yamaha man has the first two.

Cadalora's main rivals for the 500cc crown - in the absence of his former team-mate, the American Wayne Rainey, who is paralysed from the waist down after crashing in last season's Italian Grand Prix - will be two Australians, Michael Doohan, on a Honda, and Daryl Beattie, who has replaced Rainey, and two Americans, Kevin

Schwantz, defending his title, and John Kocinski, on a Cagiva.

Schwantz, who won the 500cc championship for the first time last year, is racing with a cast on his left arm after a fall from his mountain bike at home in Texas three weeks ago. He could only manage the fifth-fastest time in yesterday's first qualifying session for the Australian Grand Prix at Eastern Creek, near Sydney. Kocinski was quickest in 1min 31.233sec, followed by Cadalora, Doohan and Beattie.