obviously pretty good: not only because Rossi
now seemed to be back in the game, but be-
cause of the closeness of it all behind him, and
the fact that satellite riders Alvaro Bautista and
Bradley Smith (both front-row qualifiers, Smith
for the first time) played a leading role, after the
self-inflicted early absence of Jorge Lorenzo.
Until they also fell off.
Even Rossi said later: "Maybe Dorna had a
good idea."
But the extra personnel up front had little to do
with the rules, and all the twists and turns in their
provenance. The difference for Smith, Bautista
and all the other non-factory-team guys was that
they'd had three nights of testing at Losail. And
certainly in Smith's case, he's also developing
pretty handily as a rider, in his second MotoGP
year.
Yes, Aleix Espargaro did finish fourth, on a
fully fuelled ex-factory Yamaha using the new
Dorna-supplied control electronics under Open
rules. But it would have been seventh but for
those three crashers. And in any case, he was
using the same tires (his Open-class "hard" op-
tion, the factory riders' "soft").
The greater revelations came in free practice,
when the older Espargaro dominated, using his
soft tire, right up until it mattered, in qualifying.
No doubt feeling the pressure, he crashed twice
in the session.
The Ducatis, now in a sort of purpose-de-
signed sub-Factory category, enjoyed the same
advantage. And made the same tire choice for
the race.
The real lesson was that fiddling with the rules
and offering different levels of technology didn't
make a deal of difference in the end - and since
the main aim of these rule changes is aimed to-
wards eventual simplification – with identically
fueled, fired and shod Open-spec bikes only
from 2016, it cuts deep.
If the racing gets better when you introduce a
bewildering array of different levels, all with differ-
ent technical possibilities, won't it get worse again
when these differences are all ironed out? CN
VOL. 51 ISSUE 13 APRIL 1, 2014 P127
LOOKING BACK
40 Years Ago
April 9, 1974
We're not sure what was going on with
the cover of Cycle News 40 years ago,
but perhaps it was something left over
from the previous April Fool's Day issue…
We did get serious for a bit and covered
the Lame Puppy Enduro in California,
and the Tecate 500 Enduro in Mexico.
Only about 80 of the 800 Tecate starters
finished… We also traveled to San Diego to cover the San Di-
ego Scottish Trials won by Marland Whaley… We road tested
a kid's Big Wheel plastic tricycle purchased at a Woolco De-
partment store. Yes, we did.
30 Years Ago
April 11, 1984
Banzai! Pictured on the front page of Cy-
cle News 30 years ago was Ron Turner
leading the pack down Saddleback's in-
famous Banzai Hill at the start of the 125
National. Johnny O'Mara, Ron Lechien
and David Bailey made it a Honda sweep
that day… Eddie Lawson won the open-
ing round of the GP Series in South Af-
rica. It was his first-career GP victory… Bernie Schreiber won
the World Trials round in Wales.
20 Years Ago
April 6, 1994
Luca Cadalora was featured on the
cover of Cycle News 20 years ago to ac-
company our next-day coverage of the
Australian GP. The race was won by John
Kocinski… Troy Corser won his first
Superbike National at Phoenix… Mike
LaRocco won the Charlotte Supercross.
10 Years Ago
April 7, 2004
NHRA, the Triumph Thruxton 900 and
GNCC were all featured on the cover 10
years ago… Regis Laconi and Gary Mc-
Coy were the latest new winners in World
Superbike… Mike Alessi was the star at
the Lake Whitney GNC MX.
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