Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

racin g as one of the most positive in my whole career, and I'm actually enjoying my racing a lot more, too." (Not enough to stick around and f inish off the rostru m, though: Garriga has now retir aft erfailing ed to crack the topfinishing order following !lis success at Hockenheim ...Editor.) If this sounds uncannily like the battle brew ing on four wheels between the rarified Bernie Ecdestone-ruJed world of Formula I car racing, and the crowdpleasing Indy car circus, you could be right! The IRTA/TWP I Dorna clique that run the bike GPs have every excuse to be looking over thei r shoulders a t s uperbike racing, which is attracting increased specta tor a tte ndance while GP cro wds, deterred by the sky-high ticket prices, continue to diminish at many circuits. In addition, expand ing lV coverage, exemplified by the situation in Italy where each superbike leg is shown live in full on (free) network lV, whereas the GPs are only available to a limited audience on a pay -per-view channel. Trashing the level of riding talen t in superbi kes may be one way for the GP world's vested in terests to hit back except that the racing speaks for itself, quite apart from the fact that riders of a dozen d iffer ent nationalities are up at the fron t of the field, rather than just a handful, dominated by Americans and Australians, as in 500cc GPs. Before it can really hope to challen ge GP racing in public interest - and if the Andersson scenario comes about, this is a real possib ility, w it h ea ch of the Japanese manufacturers producing fourstroke GP racers for the street - su pe rbike racing need s to get its own politics straigh tened ou t. The showdown, whi ch at the start of this season appeared to be looming between the Flam mini Organi zation and the SUBRA teams association (now headed by form er FIammini employee Francis Batta) who want major changes in the way the series is cont rolled and run, m ay only ha ve been postponed , not forgotten. But with on-track action between Kawa sa ki and Du ca ti th a t p r om ises a season- long s trugg le for s u per bike s u p re macy, backed up by Yama ha wh ose new YZF is already in the frame, superbike racing is on the verge of making it big. Perhaps they sho uld slo t in with the Ind y car calenda r, to offer sponsors a real alternative to the Ecclestone-controlled F-l car IG P bike season, as the American form of car racing takes off in popularity around the wo rld . Don 't lau gh: when (if?) Ha rleyDavid son finally gets their long-awa ited VRl000 Superbike into action ou t on the tracks, it could happen! Ducati: Still the one to beat Inevitably, as re ignin g Wo rl d Cha mpion on a three- year wi n ning streak, Duca ti more than anyon e in the superbi ke paddock is lookin g over its shoulder waiting for Honda. The Big H's decision midway through last year to delay the debut of their fuel -injected RC45 contender until the 1994 season promp ted the Italians to slow down development of the ir next-gener a tion "otto valvole," t he 66 mm stroke, Tamburini-designed 916, which they 've had ready and waiting fo r su perbike action for ove r half a yea r, so as not to show their hand to Honda too soon. This means a final yea r of warfare in 1993 for the battle-hardened 888 - now, be it noted, in its seve nth yea r of competition and still the one to beat in top level supe rbike racing around the world. Not even Honda's RC30 can rival tha t lifespan , which moreover shows no sign of being prematu rely end ed, and is a testament to the visio nary talen ts of Du cati technical gu ru Massimo Bordi, its creator. However, electing to challenge for a fourth straig ht title win wi th the 888 was a real g amb le, and as Bordi adm it s, Ducati go t a real fright in the opening round at Brands, with the speed in dry qualifying of Russell's Kaw asaki. "Basically, the English wea ther came to our rescue," he said with a smile. 'The wet conditions and Falappa's skill and bra very gave us a perfect result, but we had to work flat out before the second round at Hockenheim to try to cou nter the performance of the Kawasa ki." Ducati started the season with only a few improvements over the '92 title-winner, but the stepped up development bro ught a host of changes for the second round in Germany. Chief of these was the debut of a new 96 x 64 mm 927cc version of the "otto va lve le" motor, fitted lead in fitting a scavenge pump to force air ou t of the cran kcas e on the downward pis ton stroke, jus t as on the DFV car racing motor w hic h, in 3500cc V-8 form, has a simila r piston size to the Ducati V-twin. An o ther p roblem with big pi stons that Ducati ad d ressed between Brands Hatch and Hockenheim is the ease with which their in ertia can cause the rear wh eel to lock and chatter und er heavy braking; use too many revs on the overrun, and you 're out of control, headed for the runoff, Ducati has been working on the solution for a while, bu t stepped up de velopment in time to have it fitted to all the "pompone" works motors in The new CTS slick-shifter system has been used extensiv ely by Giancarlo Falappa. with Irnrn larger val ves (37mm inlet s, 31mm exhausts) and delivering an extra 5-6 bhp throughout the rev ran ge compared to th e 94 x 64mm, 888cc bike, which they continued to use on tighter circuits such as the follow ing round in Spain, where Fogarty won both races at tight and twisty Albacete, "Though the big-bore engine is more powe rful, it isn 't as lively and respon sive as the sma ller motor," says Bord i. "Becaus e of the heavier mass of the piston. The riders all pr efer th e improved ac celeration of th e 888 ou t o f slo wer turns on a twisty track, so we' ll keep the bi g ger e ngi ne for fa st ci rcui ts like Zeltweg a nd Mo n za, where ou trigh t powe r is more importan t." The p rese n t desig n of the D uca ti crankcases will only permit a maxim um bore size of 96mm, so that's as big as the desm o V-twin can grow at present, unti l th e a dven t o f th e longe r-s t roke 94 x 66mm 916. This will use the same cases as the curre n t bike, but fitted with the 96mm piston, this will allow the Italian team' to run a maximum of 956cc in their a nti-Honda campaign nex t season. Ducati has used British-made Omega pistons for the past couple of seasons, but after some blow-by problems with them this win ter they have used heavier Nondial pistons in some of their works engines for the early season races, while O mega developed some new pi ston rings to cure the problem. This has now been done, bu t a noticeable mod ifica tion at Hockenhei m which en abled th e 927cc big-b ore m otor (d ubbed " il pornpon e" - literally, "big pump," by Ducati techn ici ans) to be ide ntified was the p resence of a second crankcase breath er, located right next to th e normal, sing le, one. Thi s indica tes the substantial pumping action of the big piston on its d ep ression stroke - rat her like a two-stroke motor's primary comp ression phase - an d it may well be that Du cati will ha ve to follow Cosworth's turns," Garriga said . "Compa red to a four-eylind er two-stroke GP bike, it's the biggest possible difference, an d the antiblock clu tch really helps, beca use now I'm not worried about locking the back wheel. So I ca n go harder in to turns, using more revs on the overrun under braking. It's a big improvemen t." Not on e, however, that finds favor with riders of o ther m a rques : "The Ducati ride rs have always go t in my way in corners," fu mes BYRD Yamaha ace Fabrizio Pirovan o. "But now with this new clutch of thei rs, it 's ev en worse. They use the lighter weight of the bike compa red to our four-eylind er machi nes to brake deeper than me into turns, but before there wa s a limi t to how much later they could b rake because they'd get the wh eel hopping on the overru n. Now with their new dutch, they can pass me on the brakes, but then they go in too deep, and get the line wrong for the exit. So when I'm ready to pu t the power on hard, I can't because there's a Ducati in the way. It's very frustrating! " Equally frustra ting - and exhausti ng for Ducati mechanics is the facttha t the new clu tch, combi ned with the 11.9:1 compress ion the V-twin m otor is now running, makes starting the bikes in pit lane mu ch har der: it took three people no less th a n 10 a ttem pts to coax Falappa's engine into life for final qu alifying at Hockenh eim, before they finally got it tu rn ing over fast enough for the dutch to bite. Even the battery powered joc key -ro ller w hich became s uch a Duca ti tr ademark las t season wort 't always do the job: "Nothing for it but to eat less pasta and join the riders in we ight-training sessions!" laughs Tea m Grottini boss Davide Tardozzi, in charge of the Garriga and Mertens opera tion. lighter internals, hollow camshafts, dri lled gears, etc. are other Ducati changes for 1993. Germany: a sprag-type "a nti-block" clutch, similar to that fitted to the RC30 Honda, but still a dry rather than oil bath design, to release every last bit of power via reduced drag, in spite of the extra complica tion this presents with such a design. Ironically, the chief beneficia ry of this, Juan Garriga, was the only one to suffer problems with the new cl utch, which broke after he'd hit the front in the firs t leg in Germ an y and sent him into retirement. Parts were in suc h short su pp ly a t this stage that he had to race with a conven tional clu tch in the second leg , in spite of w hich he finished second, after fending off a de termined challenge from Falappa in the stadiu m on the last lap . "The biggest problem in lea rni ng to ride a V-twin four-stro ke again has been to cope w ith the engine bra king into He may not hav e been joking ... The "pompone" motor now delivers between 142 and 144 bhp a t the rear wheel, at the sam e 11,500 rpm peak engine speed that the smaller 888 p roduces 136-138 bhp at, says Ma ssimo Bordi. "The Supermono single-cylinder project has given valuable spin-off data," he says . "And with a loomm bore it revs quite safely to 11.soo rp m, so we're not worried abou t piston speed with the big engine." Duca ti riders can now rev as high as 12,500 rpm safely - thou gh only for short bursts - with 12,000 revs the usual redline. Before, this wasn' t ne cessary, as they rode the torq ue curve and sho rtshifted to take advan tage of the extra punch from the V-twin engine. But gone are the d ays when Doug Polen could gear his bike just to use four gears for a twisty circuit: now the riders have to 21

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