yaoi!!! on track

Japanese 2022

1997

Valentino and Sete photographed during the race at Sachsenring, 2003

— from ‘グランプリ・イラストレイテッド年鑑 | grand prix illustrated yearbook 2003’

Sete’s commentary of the last lap of Sachsenring 2003:

That's a dry race. So a very important race for me because everyone had said that I could only win on the wet conditions. I can remember that exact straight. Valentino was shutting off the throttle and I was shutting off the throttle because he wanted me to be in the lead for some laps so he could study me and see what I was doing better than him and what he could do better than me. So I accepted the challenge and I led the race and I put my own pace. Right there is a pretty nice line coming into the downhill. He was trying to show me that he was capable of sliding the bike and that he could lead the race and I was doing it the same too. You can anticipate more things by understanding where he's strong and where you are strong. When I was in front of him, I was trying not to show him where I was strong. I was maybe slowing a little bit in the places that I was fast. So he thought, OK, I'll plan my pass here or there. And then at the time that you need to be very fast, then he thinks that he can be faster than you. You can go one step forward. This part, he was very fast, right there, where he passed me. I knew he was going to brake very hard there. This next left is where I changed my line completely. He's going to close the inside, and I went all the way to the outside. Here, I almost lost the front. Tucked in, but I just gassed it, slide away, and I just won the race.