Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

; ROAD RACE 1991 Grand Prix reVIew • e recovered very quick ly, and after special tests the FIM made an exception to allow him to ride for the full seaso n. However, the Suzu ki team had moved on since then , and the factory was in a n y ca se a ppare ntl y ver y n er vo u s about re tu rni ng a badl y injured man to the fray. At th e tim e of writing, Magee was down to rid e a Suzuki only in the opening GP , and his 1991 GP fu ture was far from clear. Finally, there is Cagiva, who lik e Michelin (indeed, on the same day as Mich elin ) anno u nced their retirement from GP racing late last season. This left Randy Mamola high and dry, a lt hough th e factory qu ietly kept then it is Eddi e and Bud. In other words, they are expec ted to succeed where Randy Mam ola and top wren ch George Vukmanov ich fail ed. Maybe . so, and goo d lu ck to them. But there is an eq ua lly stro ng undercu rren t tha t believes the Cagi va will by its natu re (or a t least the nature of th e men who make it) never be able to eq ua l th e remorse less J apanese. This makes up a regular 500 brigade of six riders on Yarn ahas, three on H onda, two on Suzuki and two on Cagivas - 13 in all , to be reinforced from time to time by local heroes (as in J apan, with a 34-strong en try list), by circumstances, and by one or two (Above) Eddie Lawson pulled the surprise move of the 0((' season by signing with Cagiva. (Left) Rainey will stay with Yamaha in '91, but switches to Dunlop tires after winning the title with Michelin. young Brazilian rid er Alexa ndre Barros under .cont rac t, and even testing next year's bik e. In fact, th ey were clearing th e way for their grand pl an - of recruiting Eddi e Lawson for yet another one last try to ge t the .nearly-there Italian machine into a compe titive stat e. It is ha rd not to imagine that Kenny Rob erts (and also Yamaha themselves, albeit indirectl y) sanctioned this move. For one thing, along with Eddie came long-time Rob erts associate Bud Aksland, the dynamometer wizard whose mo st recent successes cam e in coaxin g j ust a few more ponies out of Kocinski 's victorious works Yamaha 250. If anybody can make the Cagiva successful, runs popular sentiment, extra lat e-model Cagivas that have been promised by the factory , So far , o n ly o ne pri va teer h a s anno unced he will be taking up the op tion of Yamaha 's $150,000 rental machines - Iri sh rider Eddie Laycock; but an easing of last year's over-zealous grading lists and an improvement in prize money for privat eers is expected to bring enou gh su rviv ing threecylinder Hondas out of the woodwork to make up grid numbers at least to th e 20-b ik e minimum apparentl y dem anded b y dis gruntl ed TV networks. Of th e twin -cyl inder m a ch in es already eligible to race (with a lower weight limit), and du e to take over completely in four years time , only Birn ota has even th reat ened to build one, and a lon g-delayed prototype has now been seen, alt hough far short of bein g ready for the track. This hubcente r steered machine is again promised for this year, as it was last year . Meantime, th ere's even one German rider, Hans Becker, who planned to take advant age of th e twin-cylinder rule by equipping a V-twin Rotax with 35lcc cylinders and entering in the 500cc class. And why not - the state of pl ay at th e moment means that everyone is welcome, if only to make the grids look full . Up front, howeve r, the racing has every promise of being excellent, as long as the field is not decimated as it was last year by accidents. Hold thumbs, and wish th e season well. 250cc - After Kocinski The established lions of the 250cc class heaved a sig h of relief when John Kocinski moved to th e 500s after his maverick victory last season. Now they cou ld get back to bu siness as usual. Well , nearl y usual- with on e major' realignment. Luca Cadalora, so long the nearlym an on th e works Yamaha , has switched to join Honda. And not just an y old Honda, but one running iri Rothmans colors and prepared by the grand saye of Honda racing, Erv Kanemoto. • Cadalora is an elega nt but tempermental rider, but the form er 125cc World Champion might mesh well with th e method ical Kanernot o, who is likel y to be sorely missed from the 500cc class. Pit-lane iron y sees Kanernoto ' s lon gsta nding rival Kel Carruthers fettling the machine of last year's runner-up Carlos Cardus. It is also a works Honda NSR , a maj or switch for the dyed-inthe-wood Yamaha crew chief, and some of the most intense rivalry is certain to be between Cadalora and the Spaniard. All the tough op position is likely to be Honda-mounted, from the shrinking but still imposing squads of Honda rent-a-racer NSRs. The young pretender is Dutchman Wileo Zeelenberg, who won the German GP last year in his first works-bike season, then lost momentum after a crash in Yugoslavia. A fast learner, Sharp-Samsonbacked Wileo has already shown his paces at the Jerez pre-season tests,

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