Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROAD RACE e World Championshi~ _erb ik_eSer ie_s:R_o_un_d6 _ __ Scott Russell turned in a 2-1 tally in Czechoslovakia to take over the lead in the World Championship point standings. All gree Russell in Czecho nfor By Johan Vandekerckhove BRNO, CZECHOSLOVAKIA,JULY 18 s the 21-point lead Scott Russell took home with him following his 2-1 tally at the Czech round of the championship the start of a major breakthrough in th e tit le fight? If Kaw asaki spends some more time on their ZXR750R as soon as the Suzuki 8-Hour is over - as they have always d one in the past - that mi ght d o the job . And for th e Duca ti boys , th e summer will be hotter than ever. With the factory in Bologna closed down for the ann ual holid ays, the "Red Brigade" will have to be very easy on their bikes . A fa ct that wa s proven already at Brno. The biggest loser of the meeting was Giancarlo Falappa, who after finishing only fifth in the first race, crashed in the . afternoon's second leg. He saw his slim 4.5-point lead turned into a considerable 21.5-point gap, and watched as his teammate Carl Fogarty slid past him and into second spot in the point standings. The Brit was one of the best in Brno, winning the first leg, and only forced to let go of Russell in the second when the (big) engine in his factory Ducati started to make some ominous noises . Team Muzzy Kawasaki left the Czech circuit with mixed feelings . Happy to have taken back the lead in the World Championship point standings, they still hoped to do better in the coming rounds. "At Kawasaki, they should take advantage of .this new situation," Russell said. " Basicall y, the bikes haven't changed since they were taken out of the crate at Brands Hatch. Let's hope that they concentrate on its development as soon as the Suzuka race is over. The Ducati riders remain very serious title candidates; they will be very hard to beat." The second Muzzy rider, Aaron Slight, didn't have the best of days . The Kiwi crashed in the second race and lost I 14 a lot of points in the process, desp ite finishing a fine third in the first leg. Slight is now fourth in the championship, 36.5 points behind his teammate Russell. But Falappa and Sligh t were not the only rid ers to crash at Brno , Udo Mark, Jean-Marc Tr ano is, Arp ad Harmati, Mauro Lucchiari and Baldassarre Monti also spent som e time flying through the air and laying flat on their backs. Tranois broke a meta l pin in his shoulder, which had been operated on only three weeks before, and Monti broke his shoulder in three places in a crash during the first race. It is not yet clear if the It alian Yamaha rider will be present at the Swed ish round at An derstorp , scheduled for August 8. Qualifying The first timed practice w as wet, which did not inspire many riders to go out and try their luck on the difficult, 3.34-mile circuit near Czecho 's second biggest city. In the pouring rain, Falappa (who else?) went the fastest, som e two seconds faster than teammate Fogarty, Mauro Lucchiari, Piergiorgio Bontempi and Russell. The Italian Ducati rider d id his time some 20 minutes before the end of that session, when it stopped raining for some 10 minutes. Unfortunately, some riders had gone even faster during the first minutes of practice (when the track was damp), but because of the big differences and some electronic problems with the time keepers, these times were not taken into consideration. Fortunately, the second practice would be run in the dry , prompting quicker times all around. The rain also confirmed Yamaha 's fears, which they discovered after the equally damp Austrian round at Zeltweg. The YZF750SP simply does not like the rain . Terry Ryme r sa ved Yamaha's honors during that first practice with the sixth fastest time, whereas factory rider Fabrizio Pirovano (up until , recently the rain specialist par excellence) had to be happy with 12th spo t. Terry Rymer explained why the special A-and B-kit bikes are not very fond of water: "I did my best time just at the beginn ing of the practice (when the track was only damp), with a rear slick and an inte rmed ia te front. Later on, when it started raining more, I put wets on, but then I noticed tha t the big inlet of the airbox works perfect in dry conditions, but sucks up water when it is raining." The Londoner later used only the Bkit exhaust. He is still awaiting the delivery of other parts such as different carburetion settings and some small stuff. According to Yamaha Europe spokesman, the airbox does indeed present a problem. With the Pirovano team, this problem has been solved by a layer of foam at the opening of the airbox; a solu tion found after both riders had water leakage in their engines in Zeltweg. Moreover, some (rather long) electrical leads are also exposed to the water in wet conditions. Other modifications on the A-bikes seem more successful: as always in motorcycle mechanics, the power of an engine depends largely on the thermal parameters. Radiators play a very important role in this, and this is why Rymer is using a Kawasaki radiator Gust like Morillas last year on his private OW01), and why his teammate Jeffry De Vries has been experimenting quite a lot on the airflow to the radiator. Basically, the Dutchman copied the system as it can be seen on Pirovano's A-kit bike. In the afternoon, the sun finally came out, which meant that everybody got onto the track as soon as the ligh ts turned to green. This resulted in rush- _ hour traffic, and a very dogged fight for po le posit ion . Finally, Foga rt y needed the least time for a lap around the circuit the Brit turned in a pole-winning time of two-minutes, 6.18 seconds, some .7-of-asecond faster than Russell. . "It feels good to be back on pole again, but to be quite honest, I only hope to do as well tomorrow," Fogarty said. "I ha ve us ed the same bike that did two heats in Austria, and that worr ies me a bit. Raymond Roche (his team manager) advised me to sa ve th e bike a bit, as Ducati are very busy pr eparing our stuff for th e three race s in August. And it wouldn' t be very much appreciated if we destroyed some more engines now . I've used my spare bike in the wet, but I guess there must be a full second difference between that bike and the one I us ed in Au stria and which I will use here. You might think that bike didn't suffer too much in the rain at Zeltweg, because of the lower speeds, but st ill those engines have a hard time on wet tracks, when the wheels spin often when go ing through deep puddles, sending the revs sky high." The Ducati rider also suffered from some front-end chatter, much like everyone else. The track in Brno is very smooth, except in the comers which are bumpy and off-eamber. Russell was second fastest with his 2:06.89 lap, and was pretty happy to be that high: "The private practice sessions we did here with Dunlop a few weeks ago ha ven't he lped us much today. We've concentrated mainly on making the bike steer bette r, and we've .tried to find a solution for those front-end problems. During the wet first practice, I n otic ed that I've regained some more confidence in the tires. After the two Zeltweg heats, I'd started to hesitate a little bit, but now I know that we're on the right track again. The race should be pretty interesting tomorrow - Giancarlo (Falappa) seems to be strugg ling a bit." Well, that was the least that could be said about the Italian who looked to be set for an easy first title just a few weeks ago: "Stran gely, we have suffered mainly from pr oblems at the rear of the bike," Falappa said. "This made me lose a lot of "time in the only dry practice today. We . could not even try different tires and it was only in the last qu arter of an hour that I really had a go at a go od time. However, Ducati have asked me to be a bit sparing on the bikes." Falappa also crashed during that practice after running in to a s lo wer rider. The time it took to get the handlebars straight and to beat the du st out of his bike and his leathers made him lose even more time. Still, the man from Filottrano, Italy, took the last position on the front row. Slight and Pirovano (uncharacteristically fast during th is practice session, and despite a crash in the last 15 minutes of the second sess ion which left him with an injured hand and foot) were third and fourth, respectively. Monti had also crashed, only a few seconds before his teammate Pirovano did the same two comers later. Behind these fearsome five , were Mauro Lucchiari (with the ex-Juan Garriga Ducatis), and Edwin Weibel, having one of Meklau 's bikes at his disposal. "Schnyder, my tuner, took the engine down a couple of days ago, replaced a piston ring tha t seems to have cracked even before the Austrian race, and put everything together again," Weibel said. "But a normal 888 looks slow compared to this bigger engined bike. I am curious to see what happens tomorrow." Rymer was eighth and Fred Merkel got hold of the last position on the second row with his factory Ducati 888.

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