Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

be as to wh ether it 's capable of being molded into th e type of machine that will suit two very distin ct styles o f riding equall y. T ime alone will tell , but Lawson's underr ated devel opmental ta lents ma y perha ps prove crucial here - th e fact th at he repo rtedly had a close loo k at th e '89 Yamah a V-four before signing for H onda won't have hurt, but Eddie Lawson Honda needs to persuade Showa and Nissin to co me up with some new tackl e on the front su spension and front brake, respectively, if they're to narrow th e definite advantage Ohlins and APLockhead users like Yamaha had by th e end of '88. It doesn 't tak e a geni us to forecast fireworks betw een th e two star riders in the Honda Rothmans team, which may well oversha do w th e debut GP season of th e sq uad 's th ird man, Aussie newcomer Mick Doo ha n. A briIlian na tural talent fro m th e seemingly unending Australian rider factory, Doohan can be expected to have a quiet start to hi s G P career as he learn s about riding a GP two-stroke on circuits which are mostly all new to him . I do ubt, however, that he'll make the same mistake as Roger Burnett did a couple of seasons ago and take it too easy just because he isn't expec ted to win races in hi s first year. I won't be surprised to see Doohan hit th e rosrrum at least once in 1989, th ough a race win looks unlikely. Mind you , Kevin Magee took th e victory nag aft er on ly a ha1£ a dozen G Ps. . Works H o ndas will be th icker on th e ground than in previous year s with th e end of th e Elf motorcycle pr oj ect and th e French petroleum gi ants reversion to a more straightforward sponsor's ro le as leasor of a brace of " ord ina ry" NSRSOOs for 500cc class debutan t Dominique Sarron. T he prospect of two brothers raci ng against each other in the same class o n top- line ma chinery for the first time since the Villas in th e late 60s will add further spi ce to an alread y juicy season, but though his co pious success in endurance racing shows he has pl enty of big bike talent, I think it 'll take a while for Sarron D. to start getti ng the measure of th e elder Christian on hi s Yamaha in 500cc GP racing. But both Christian and Niall Mack enzie have shown in recent years that it is sti ll possible to make the move u p fro m the 250cc class su ccessfu ll y, though o thers like Tada hi ko Taira, Sito Pons, Reinhold Roth and Toni Ma ng didn't make th e grade, partly, it m ust be sai d, because of mach in e problems. I have a feeli ng Dominique too may be a bit out of his depth to start with, though th e sh rewdness and experience of Elf tea m manager Serge Rosser will certainly be a key facto r in his com ing to terms with the bigger V-Io urs. . The prospects look better for Honda works rider nu mber fi ve, the stillim proving Pier-Francesco Chili. The Italian 's fo urth place finis h in th e penultimate GP of 1988 in Czech oslovakia sho wed that hi s learning year o n a V-four had bo rn fruit - even if some sections of th e hyper- crit ical Ita lian press th ough t o therwise. Gall in a 's decision to ga mble o n an excl usi ve tire contract with Pirelli for 1989(and th us reap th e benefi ts of Cagiva 's year of development in '881) obscures Chi li's real chances of a ros trum p lace or even a victory th is season, bu t I have a feeling the canny team manager's decis ion will tum out to be justified. Pi rell i showed in F- I car racing that they cou ld get right on the pace in their second season, and it's interesting to note that Dunlop's race effort seems to hav e go ne o££ th e boil since tire guru Peter Ingley exchanged a life of pie 'n' chi ps in beautiful downto wn Birmingham lor 'pasta e vino' in northern Ita ly. Ingley has alread y produced a lront tire co nsidered by many to be the best in G P racing a t th e end of '88, a nd so me intensive develo pment on rear tire design sho ul d see Pirell i fully com petiti ve with Michelin du ring the coming season. I believe this will happen. At tha t point the 'mo ment of truth for young Fra n kie Ch ili will have arrived and as an admi rer 01 the talents of this personab le Ita lia n, I believe he'll be up to it, The fact that H onda was not o nly fully su p po rtive 01 Gallina's tie-u p w ith Pirelli, but activel y en co u raged it , indicates their growing appreciat ion of the Ita lian team manager 's abili ty rei nforced by their decision to a llow h im to keep the pair 01 '88 NSR500s Chi li rode last seaso n for another rider to use as a second string in th e HB- H onda team th is year. At one tim e that seemed likely to be AMA Su perbike Champion Bubba Shob ert, with American H onda devotin g their entire 1989 competition budget to backing him. But at th e last moment th e deal fell apart, supposedly because of Gallina's decision to op t for Pi rellis, but more lik ely because Shobert clinched a deal with the japanese Cabin tob acco firm to run his own team using Gardner's '88 bikes. I can't help feeling this was a mi stake - it 's bad eno ug h having to learn abo ut racing a two-stroke, and a 500 a t that, at the GP level , o n a co m p le tely new se ries of tra ck s in co untries yo u 've never visi ted without havin g to do so in a completely new team put together from scratch. Gallina's massive experien ce and th e family-like ambiance of the HB team wo ul d have been an idea l environment for Bubba to comrlete his learn in g curve in , and J sha l be surprised if he makes much of an 'im pa ct on the G P scene, at least in 1989. Meanwhile, note how the U.S. road racer factory has now relocated from Ca lifornia to Texas and its adjoining sou thern states. For the first time in 1989 th ere will be more riders from th e midso u th west in G P racing than California - Spen cer , Schwantz, Shobert a nd ... Kenny Roberts' protege j ohn Kocinski a ll hail from th e T exas/Louisi ana / Arkansa s area , not to m ent ion th e . prob able next American debutant in GP racing , Suzu ki's o ther T exan Doug Po len . Must be som eth ing in th e beer . . . Gallina's lik ely replacem ent for Sh obert, for a co up le of ra ces at least, will help redr ess tha t imbalance, tho ugh reigni ng Wor ld Superbike Champion Fred Merkel, from, you g uessed it, su nny Ca li forn ia. Well , er - he was o nce. See, the Italians now regard Flyin ' Fred as o ne of th eir o wn, no w that he ra ces with an Italian license and is based lor th e Wayne Rainey raci ng seaso n in Berga mo, Ago's hometown. A futu re co n nection? Merk el , how ever, has tested a Gallina H onda o n Pirell is and was very im pressive. His addition to the GP ranks for any races which do n't conflict with his Superbi ke ti tle defens e will be well worth wa iting lor. The th ought of Merkel m ixin g it up in 500 GPs agains t former rival s lrom h is U.S. raci ng days like Sch wa n tz and especiall y one-time H o nda teamma te Way ne Ra in ey ha ve me eager with an ticipation. Alm ost as eager as the expec ta tio ns much 01 the G P world hav e for Kevin Schwantz and the Pepsi Suzuki team in 1989, espec iall y now that th e wo rld's number o ne test rider Ro n Haslam has now joined the squad alter a decad e as a Honda works rider, mostly under the Elf banner. It was bu t one 01 the many in explicable aspects of the '88 season that once Honda realized how severe the handling p roblem s with th eir unruly Vfour were, they didn 't borrow H aslam fro m E1£ to help them sort it OUL H e may no t have th e aggression and sheer hell -o r-bust racing attack of a Gardner o r Schwanu, but Rock et Ro n has no equals when it co mes to developing a bike to G P-winning pitch - as H o nda 's '87 ti tle-winn ing seaso n , lo r much of which Ro n rod e a stock NS R, showed. Much of wh at he did o n E1£'s NS R rubbed o lf o n Gardner 's bike, and I'm sure that in 1989 we wi ll see a repeat of th e same si tua tio n o n tea m ma te Schwanu's RGV Suzuki. This, plus th e evident cornpeti tivi ty of Suzuki 's 1988~bike, whi ch won the linal 500cc race 01 last year at the Fuj i meeting in j a pan, places Revvin ' Kevin in a very strong position at the start of th e season. Schwanu co m p letely fulfilled my expectations of him las t season (though even I didn't expect hi m to win th e firs t G P in j apan), and th ough he came close a co u p le ' of time s to justifying the 'brill iant loony' epithet I stuck on him, he ca lmed down just enough to avoid cras hing ,so often without losin~ the natural aggressio n which mak es him so exci ti ng to watch. Kevin 's ride to victory in th e wet at the Nurburgring was for Wayne Gardner me th e most impressive win by any rid er in the 500cc cla ss last season. Now tha t Suzuki's th ree-year development of the RGV V-four at last seems to be pa yin g o ££, I strongly feel that he will be a real con tender for overa ll championsh ip in '89 - especially if there are a lot of wet races 1 After all , only M amola ca n match Schwa n u in th e ra in. , Speaking 01 Mamola, 1989 will be th e crunch year for th e Cagiva team c-- and lor th e mos t popular rider inGP racing, Signor Rand y. With the move from P irell i to Michelin tir es for 1989, now there ar e no more excuses lor any th ing other than continuously competitive performances. Unless we see , Mamola finishi ng regularly in the lirst three and winning the occasional race , even th e most ardent su pporter 01 the Castiglioni brothers' quixotic attempt to take on th e might 01 j a pan Inc. in 500cc G P racing will have no option but to conclude that they 're wasting their time. Fro m now on , there will o nly be reasons, no t excuses. May be the year 01 playing the court jes ter o n an u ncomrtit ive bike will have taken the edge 0 1 Randy's ri ding; maybe Cagiva is doomed to be perpetually six months beh ind th e japanese teams' development cycle; maybe an Ital ian factory can never ho pe to be well enough organized to seriously challenge th e j apa n ese ; maybe ... Bu t also , 'j u st maybe, this may be the year that Cagiva's decade of til ting at wi ndmills linally pays o££: I hope so - and by th e wa y, I don 't th ink the edge has gone o££ Randy's ri di ng. Far lrom it - I th ink he wa nts very badl y to prove a point on the Cagiva, not least to Kenny Rober ts Esq.l Cagiva's decision to cut their GP team down to one rid er and send Raymo nd Roch e into battle o n a Duca ti in th e Superbike series ma y have robbed th e GP world o f o ne 01 its most likable and, in hi s da y, spectacu lar riders, but it mak es good sense a nd is an indication 01 the ir determination to conce ntra te everything on making Randy a winner. Moreover, th eir experiments with electronic fuel in ject io n, incorporating an engine management system of th e type that has been com mo n p lace in F-I car racing lor th e past decad e, may well end up givin g the Italian factory a decisive edge over their j a panese rivals - u nless th eir Christian Sarron friends a t Yamaha beat them to the punch I _ After a co up le 01 years 01 com parative sta bi li ty in tech n ical terms, I th ink 1989 will unleash a wh ole slew of new designs and technology. Ch anges that ma y well mark it as a watershed in the history of GP racing - as well as a considerable upward spiral in cost and comp lica tio n. Yamaha may well lead the wa y, though their EFI/ em s system is ru mored to be appearing first on th eir 25Occ, ha1£a-V-four (ah, bu t whic h ha1£ in '89?). After producing clearl y th e most effect ive 500 in 1988, th e men at Iwata will be ' rrying their utmost to avoid falli ng back into the on /o££ cycle whereby they and Honda have exchanged the 500cc title in recent years. They will be go ing all out for two in a row , spurred o n by th e capture 01 H o nda 's former ace Freddie Spencer lor his firs t ride on a Yamaha since 1980 a nd th e da ys of th e Kanemoto TZ7 50. Erv and Freddie are on opposit e sides now, and one key question in Freddie's comeback must be how well he can function without h is semi-sym bio tic relationsh ip with Erv. H ow ever , th e fact that he has Kel Carruthers to .rely o n will do much to outweig h this. All th is lea ves th e one unanswerab le question at this stage w hich in many ways is th e key to foreca sti ng the outco me 01 th e 1989 seaso n - has Fred die really recovered fro m his vario us inj uri es and espec ia ll y the tendin itis wh ich at one time seemed to have broug ht hi s da zzling ' career to a prema ture close? And, il so , can he sti ll cut it in th e compa ny-of men lik e Gardner and Lawson who ha ve kept raci ng , and kep t im p rov ing, in th e meanti me? I doubt II a nyone ; even Freddie, really kn ow s th e an swer to this at th is stage . Only the firs t lull-on G P race will determine the truth, and even then it .rnay take th e former cham pion a few races to build up hi s sta m ina and hone hi s talents to th eir former level of perfection. Like so ma ny ot he rs, I want bad ly to believe it can happen - il only beca use I a lso believe th at th e other riders hav e brought 'th eir expe rtise up to th e level formerly occupied by only Spencer and King Kenny in th e meantime. The thought 01 a live or six-way fight lor GP supremacy between riders of this stature is irresistible, The jury's out on Freddie's comeback lor the time being - but I bet Ago doesn't ha ve too many fingernails Ieft, What a gamble! However, don't underestimate Freddi e's new teammate in the Marlboro Yamaha squad, Niall Mack enzi e, who may well outshine hi s more illustrious pa rtner, at least in the early pan 01 th e season. I can't believe so many pundits are already prepared to write oll th e you ng Sco t as a 'might-have-been' after j us t a cou p le of seaso ns as low ma n on the Honda works totem pole. C'mon, Iellas - have you forgonen Niall 's earlyseason form last year, till Honda realized they ha d a big problem o n their ha nds wi th th e new bik e and th rew everything into helping Wayne retain his titl e. I reckon movin g lro m H onda to Ago's tea m is the best possible move Mackenzie could have mad e at this stage in his career - and yes, I kn ow all about the dire la te suffered by previous number two riders o n T eam Agos ti ni. But then , Eddie Lawson was o ne once, wasn't he - and he d idn 't end up doing too badly! Ni all Mackenzi e o n a Yamaha - a bik e which in any case I feel will, on past form, be bener suited to hi s riding sty le than the 25

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