Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Doug Chandler o u g Chandler begins his fourth year of Grand Prix road racing still waiting to fulfill the promise he brought with him when he moved to the 500cc GPs after winning the AMA Superbike National Championship in 1990. H is first year was spent on Kenn y Roberts' B-team, a second-tier effort which provided a lowpressure introd uction to the rigors of Grand Prix racing, but found him suffering after his team lost interest when they learned he'd be moving on the following year. That next season would see him aboard his first full-factory GP ride, the soft-spoken Chandler occupying the second seat to Ke vin Schwantz on the Lucky Strike Suzuki squad in 1992. The bike, which was designed around the tall and lanky 5chwantz, fit Chandler better than the Yamaha and he rode it to a fifth place finish in the championship, carding a pair of seconds and a pair of third-place finishes. Three non-finishes toward the end of the year kept him from finishing higher in the championship. Chandler would have liked to stay at Suzuki in 1993, but the budget wasn't there for two first-rate riders, so he moved to Cagiva, a team that had shown promise but hadn't achieved consistent results. It was a difficult spot for Chandler. Being teamed with Grand Prix rookie and notorious hothead Mat M1adin forced the bulk of the development on Chandler. It was a spot he'd D never been in before and he was there aboard a bike without a winning heritage. H is 'd eb u t for the Italian team came at the Australian Grand Pri x at Eastern Creek - and it was impressive. Chandler led the race before giving wa y to Wayne Rainey and Kevin 5chwantz. His third-place finish wou ld be the highlight of a season that would quickly tum sour. During practice for the foll ow in g race, at the Shah A lam ci rc ui t in Malaysia, his throttle stuck open in a third-gear comer tossing him off and leaving him with a chipped bone in his left hand. He soldiered on to a ninthplace fin is h in the GP, but th e in ju ry would end up taking its toll for many races. The season would be up an d down. His fourth-place finish in Assen was his best after Malaysia, but the season was littered w ith five non-fin ish es. In the end, he would finish th e year ranked lOth in the championship, and in a surly mood after Cagiva recruited John Kocinski for the last three races. Chandler reacted badly to Kocinski's arrival, a response that he admits affected his riding. If there was any question about the Cagiva's ability to win races, Kocinski quickly dispelled them. He carded a pair of fourths before winning the U.S. GP at Laguna Seca, the first win for the Cagiva in all-dry conditions, and then nearly won the final race of the year in [ararna before being taken out by Honda's Shinichi Itoh. The performance was good enoug h to earn Kocinski a full-season ride for 1994 while forcing Chandler to deal with it. The 1994 season again began in Australia , with the 28-year-old from Salinas, California, struggling to a ninth-place finish after picking the wrong front tire, while Kocinski gave Cagiva its third win with a dominating performance. In the next race, in the oppressive heat of Malaysia, Chandler finished nirith again with Kocinski taking second. As y ou will discover, Chandler kn ows tha t the problem isn't with the Cagiva but rather with himself. Though he and Kocinski will never be the best of friends, Chandler seems to have accepted him as a teammate and knows that Kocinski's ability can onl y assist in the development of the Cagiva. What Chand ler needs is to get the confidence back tha t he had as recently as 1992. He took a big s te p toward that goal when he joined forces with crew chief Kel Carr u thers for the 1994 campaign. Carru thers has been involved in six 500cc World Championships as a tuner and also won one as a rider, capturing the 1969 250cc World Championship aboard a Benelli. Discussing the fire-engine-red Cagiva, refined and improved for 1994, and carefully fettled by Carruthers, is wher e our conversation while in Malaysia began. Let's start with the bike. What needed to be improved for it to be competitive with the Japanese bikes, and was it done? The biggest thing, I think, would be more power than accelera tion. It was funny, last year the top speed seemed all right because the aerodynamics were good. If you came off (the comers) in fourth gear with them, when you got to fifth or sixth gear there really didn't seem to be such a difference. This year it seems to be the other way. When you first come out of a comer the bike seems to be right there, but then, as you go on down, you get taken a little more on the end. I guess it 's one of those things where we were wanting a little more on the bottom and, in tum, it took a little away from the top. Chassis-wise, it's a lot cleaner. No major changes, just a lot of refinements. How much did you discover in testing? This was one of the few bikes that I got to ride that was really good just throwing a leg over it to sta rt off with. We d idn't make big changes, really. Pivot position, engine position, steering head everything is pretty much how it was when we started. We're just here (in Malaysia) starting to play around a little with the pivot. When did you first ride these bikes? In January, when we came to Australia. When we did the Jerez test in December we were using the old bikes , but we had some of the (new) engine pieces. Are you using the anti-dive system on your bike, and, if so, how is it working? I like it . I tried it, one of the first systems, last year at Mugello and it was

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