Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127567
his own reservations at the time were confirmed when the same thing happened with several other 250s at the IRTA Jerez tests in February. Recent history suggests that the main opposition will corne from Honda. That, and the fact that of their eight big-name riders, surely at least one will shine. Honda has dominated the class almost continuously sin.ce 1987, but for the interruption of Kocinski's Yamaha in 1990. If this led HRC to some complacency, they were severely shaken last year by the rise of Aprilia, who won every race that Cadalora's Honda didn't, and took second and third overall. The bike has been significantly redeveloped from last year's disappointing machine, and the full Honda mob should be back in fighting form. Now Cadalora has moved on, Rothrnans Honda's search for a new star went no further than Aprilia. His replacement is one-time winner but allthe-time superstar Massimiliano Biaggi. Young Max is surely on an express train to greatness. Now he has GP legend Erv Kanemoto stoking the fire, which is as much as any rider could ask for. Biaggi is by no means the only young Italian Honda rider with a big talent burning to get out. Loris Capirossi, riding a Marlboro-Pileri NSR, has two brilliant 125 titles and a strong 250 debut season behind him; Doriano Romboni, on an HB-backed machine, is less welldecorated, but is highly regarded. NSR old-timers Helmut Bradl and Carlos Cardus are joined by Alberto Puig; while two bright boys from Japan join the ranks, with Takayuki Okada on the official Rothmans-HRC bike, and Nobuatsu Aoki on the second Team Kanemoto bike. . He is just one of a strong Japanese patrol. Early tests suggest that the most exciting of them may be Tetsuya Harada, reliably the quickest of the new Yamaha riders, and harbinger of a revived factory challenge. The fourth hero from the East is hard-charging 125 rider Noboyuki Wakai, riding a second works Suzuki on a semi-works basis. The new Yamahas have proved well on the accelera ted pace of the class. There are three of them, with some impressive talent on board. Team Telkor . Valesi has switched from Aprilia, bringing with them last year's two-times winner Pier-Francesco Chili, joined this year by Harada; while last year's development rider Jochen Schmid has kept his Mitsui Germany backing for a separate one-rider team. Preseason tests gave the impression that all this may have left Aprilia behind a little. This of course remains to be seen, though it is true that losing a little edge in this class is enough to drop you well out of the top 10. The factory Unlirnited Jeans squad has again retained the ser- German Jochen Schmid (right) returns for another 250cc season aboard the Mitsui Yamaha. Shinichi Hoh (below) joins Doohan and Beattie on 500cc Rothmans Hondas for '93. Japan's Tetsuya Harada (bottom) has been the 250cc sensation of preseason testing on the Telkor-backed Yamaha. vices of Loris Reggiani, superb fluent rider and by now something of an elder statesman; elbow-scraper Jean-Phillipe Ruggia is his new teammate, after a troubled '92 with Gilera. Wilco Zeelenberg has been given another chance after his bad year with StlZuki, and rides a third works Aprilia in a separate team sponsored by Exact Software. The last works force is Gilera, whose all-new compact bike also tested poorly preseason. They are still working on finding their feet, giving no easy task to' their new riders, Pier-Paolo Casoli, and '92's 125cc World Champion Alessandro Gramigni. It is highly unlikely that any of the privateers who make up the numbers to 34 will play more than a supporting role, engaged in a quite secondary race of their own. But it is not a race without interest. Only six will not be riding Aprilias, and three of those Hondas are works-kitted machines already considerably upgraded from any previous RS models, a close replica of last year's NSR. Kitted bikes will be ridden by impressive 125cc class graduate Gabrielle Debbia, Spaniard Luis d'Antin and Swiss rider Adrian Bosshard; stockers by GP newcomers Juan Borja, Massimo Pennacchioli and Volker Babe. The remaining 10 Aprilia riders include several seasoned men, like Austrian Andy Preining, Eskil Suter, the van den Goorbergh brothers Patrick and Jurgen, Bernard Haenggeli, one-time works Honda rider Jean-Pierre Jeandat, Frenchman Frederick Protat and German Bernd Kassner. Of the two newcomers, one has a remarkably high profile. It is motocross superstar Jean-Michel Bayle, switching to full-time GP racing on a Chesterfieldbacked Aprilia, in spite of a disappointing first attempt at last year's French GP, where the only person he beat had stopped twice. The other newcomer is Luis-Carlos Maurel. 12&c: Where some are more equal than others Only Aprilia fronts a full works effort in this class, with three out of the nine Aprilias entered being official factory bikes. The little Italian gems, all with carbon-fiber sub-frames and rising-rate reat suspension, are ranged up against no less than 22 RS Hondas, ostensibly all simple monoshock production racers; two new Rurnis, and one Rotax-powered Gazzaniga. Aprilia's works effort has some impressive riding talent as well as attractive engineering. Now backed by Marlboro, they have replaced departed World Champion Gramigni with last year's early leader Ralf Waldmann, with his Swiss teammate Oliver Petrucciani making the same move from Honda. A third works Aprilia goes to impressive '92 debutante Carlo Giro, running with Ducados backing. Aprilia privateers are also a threatening mob, including '92 GP winners Bruno Casanova and Peter Oettl, and Spaniard Herri Torrontegui, who rode a 250 Suzuki last year, but is probably better suited to small bikes. Honda has no works team, but three of the 22 Honda RS riders have use of the so-alled A-kit, which is as close to being a works bike as you'll get, while another five were down for the lowerlevel B-kit. All the A-kit riders are potential champions: double-champion Fausto Gresini, quadruple champion Jorge Martinez, and cheerful charger Noboru Veda. The B-kits go to last year's nearchampion, veteran Ezio Gianola; to Spaniard Julian Miralles, '92 Brazil GP winner Dirk Raudies, rising German Oliver Koch, and favored Italian newcomer Luigi Ancona. Other notable Honda riders include fast but crash-prone Japanese rider Kazuto Sakata, Maik Stief, veteran Italian Maurizio Vitali, former class star Stefan Prein after a disappointing attempt at the 250cc class, and impressive young Dutchman Loek Bodelier. The new Rurni effort, reviving an old Italian name, is sure to spark interest, with veteran Dutch rider and technician Hans Spaan heading a two-man team. Sidecars: Yes, no, maybe... The latest word on the Cinderella sidecars - who still await payment of their 1992 prize money - is that their 10round World Championship will go ahead, with five rounds at GPs and the other five at World Championship Superbike rounds. The latter will take them for second visits to Assen and Hockenheirn, to Bmo, and to reject GP tracks Zeltweg in Austria and Sweden's Anderstorp. Assuming all the proposed contracts are signed and the promised payments made, the standard of racing is likely to be high, as it was last year. Old-guard stars Rolf Biland/Kurt Waltisperg (defending champions), Steve Webster/Gavin Simmons and Egbert Streuer frequently found themselves pressed by a pair of thrusting young drivers, Darren Dixon from Britain and Austrian Klaus Klaffenbock. There was plenty of close cut-and-thrust racing, and it is likely to be like that again this year. Either that, or...but the alternative is too horrible to contemplate. 0'1 9