Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

for Marco Ducati is 'th e best bik e. He talks about long-term projects, corn puters and things like that, but he doesn't go into details at each event. He'll only talk about it if there is a big change to be made; he'll discuss it and talk about it. .. If I think there is a change that should be made to the bikes for th e future the I speak to Marco and then we speak to Ducati.' Besides Roche and Lucchinelli, the other dominating personality within the team this year has been Giancarlo Falap pa. There had been conflicts between the two riders before the Italian suffered his serious injuries at the Osterreichring. Roche, with years of experience and the indiscretions of his own racing youth to draw on, was a dramatic contrast to his erratic young teammate. At Donington Park he stood grimfaced on th e rostrum as Falappa celebrated his second leg victory. Not because Falappa had beaten him with a last corner out-braking move , but because they had not worked as teammates in the ir pursuit of Merkel: " I -had a very bad start and I 'come back and when I catch Fal appa we wasted tim e. We were racing, I lost one second. because Falappa wa nt to be in front. '0 am an old man now. I don't want to crash." ing on pole and winning a race at Sugo rank as highlights: " When I driv e th e first laps (at Sugo) I say 'oooo h, I cannot win.' But we are there a very long tim e and we try to set (th ings up better)." T o wa tch Roche at Sugo in th ose first days was to do so with heart in mouth. Flick, waggle, slide, the Du cat i seemed intent on dumping him on th e ground, but he hung on and improved and improved. It was the sam e story in Hungary, working with suspension settings, different tires, gearing, until it finally all came together. But then, there are cases whe re the motorcycle simp ly works from th e beginning: "In Spain, I only had seven laps practice and pole position," he recall s. The crux is the gearbox, he explains: "Sometimes you have a tra ck and the gearbox is right. You can not change gearbox, you cannot ch an ge nothing on this bike. If you arrive at the track and th e bikes are right and immediately you go fast, bu t sometimes the bike is not righ t and it is a very difficult job." When it's not right the gear box itself can not be changed, it simply takes too long, so a new engine has to be put in. Roche has three engi ne/ gearbox combinations to choose from at each race. Then there is th e tall ratios he prefers because using a larger sprocket on th e rear would affect the suspension settings: Thus, he puts up with slow starts. The other sp in -off is that sixth is not used that often either, indeed at J erez where Roche needed only the fir st four gears - such is th e torq ue of the motor. T he combination works, but Roche admits concerns for the future, particularly now that Kawasaki ha s released the new ZXR750R which could form the tip of a new Japanese superbike wave. "Now I think Ducati has a small advantage because the engine is fast, but th e frame is very difficult to drive. If th ey don't do something with th e bike then they will be ruined when th e Japanese make their changes. It won 't be competitive anymore if they don 't start to think about it now. " Roche says he does not see enough improvement co ming from next year's single-sided swingarm bike to indicate th at the advantage will be maintained. The problem , he says, is that th e current engine is being reta in ed. It is very long which means a long wheelbase and heavy steering: " I would like the engine of the machine to be shorter. Maybe next year we have one possibility, we change the cylinder head on the street bike and then we can change the frame." It is obvious th ere ar e frustrations, and he follows a similar line when asked about the factory team - Squandra Cor se Du cati Lucchinelli: "T he team doesn' t reall y have the mentality to think abou t the fu ture. It has some flaws but it will iinprove. They are conscious of the fact that the y need to improve." Roche says he is happy with the team , certain ly the most colorful and emo tional in pit lane, but he seems determined to drag th em into awareness of the coming battle: "It does motivate me (to work for such a team), but I would like one more en gineer . . . one a bit more serious. It doesn ' t mak e a diff erence having mechanics that are colorful, but it would be better if we had an engineer who was really hard like the boss." Hang on. That sounds a bit like what Marco Lu cchinelli should be doing. He is team manager, after all . But as k Roch e how the former World Ch ampion performs tha t function and he just laughs, not in a viciou s way, more in th e way of suggesting that tryin g to describe Marco is just impossible. Lucchinelli, he says, is no hard man: "Marco's interested obviously, because "The problem with a young rider like Falappa is he crashes because he say, 'I want to be in front' but he thinks 'I want to be in front immediately.' Sure I want to be in front, but he say 'I am best rider on first lap, I am best rider on second lap, I am best rider . in all condition. He wants to be first, so sure h e cra sh es. I think it is experience." Doug Chandler is the other rider Roche has strong feelings about: "A good rider. I would like to see him on a standard Kawasaki to compare with Phillis. I cannot compare because he has a prototype. Sure, he is good rider. but I can beat him no problem.' Roche obviousl y believes that Ch andler's Muzzy Kawasaki did not meet superbike rul es, and that rankles him. That and the fact that the young American is being hailed as a world beater: " It is easy to come into superbik e and say, 'Oh, 1 come two times a n d I wi n ' because you have .n o championsh ip and you are on different bikes . He say, 'Oh, it's easy' and people say 'Chandler is going fast and 1 want that rider for GPs', so I read that Ch andler is in 500 because he goes two tim es to su per bike and he wins." None of th e other riders Roche has battled wi th and genera ll y beaten this year catch his atten tion as much as Falappa.- Hi s su mmations are short and to th e po int. Merkel, Jamie James and Phillis ar e good riders, as is Mertens who is al so " very aggressive." McElnea is "very fast" as is Pirovano, although he dismisses him as "incom plete, he can only do 10 really fast laps." Merkel's teammate Baldassarre Monti "is very fast, but comp letely crazy." Roche's own attitude is of one who ha s plenty of trips do wn the road in his earl y da ys of raci ng and learned to live from it. He admits that he crashed as ma ny as four times in a weekend of racing: "I am an old man now, " he smiles. "I do n 't want to crash." Bu t he does want to win and he does want to race: " Also, it is the only thing I know," he laug hs. And li ke any good tradesman, Roche does what he knows well. aI 27

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