Saturday February 12th, 2000

Australia's recently-retired five-time 500cc motorcycle world champion Mick Doohan has accepted an invitation to wave the chequered flag at next month's Qantas Australian Formula One Grand Prix.

It will be quite a change for the 34-year-old Doohan, who greeted the chequered flag first 54 times as the winner of 500cc Grands Prix in the 1990s.

"It will be a little bit different for me … I have been used to getting it (the chequered flag) the other way round," Doohan said.

Australian Grand Prix Corporation chief executive John Harnden said the invitation to Doohan to wave the flag at the first Formula One Grand Prix of the new millennium was "in acknowledgement of his fantastic achievements and what he has done for Australian motor sport".

"Mick was the ultimate competitor on the world stage for a decade, with probably his greatest moment coming when he won the Qantas Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island in 1998 - and clinched his fifth straight world title in doing it," Mr Harnden said.

Doohan announced his retirement from racing last December after having been sidelined since May by a crash during qualifying for the Spanish Motorcycle Grand Prix.

He will remain involved in motorcycle racing, managing a new Honda team with outstanding young Italian Valentino Rossi as the rider. Doohan also has been a mentor in recent times to Australian 250cc international rider Anthony West.

Asked whether he had contemplated a Formula One career, Doohan said: "I'm a bit long in the tooth to start a new career on four wheels. I think it's best I continue on with what I'm doing in the motorcycle industry and help a few young people."