Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IN'.THE.' PADDOCK .' . .' By Michael Scott he distance between hero and zero is not very grea t in the top levels of racing. Thus when one man or one tea m comes to dominate for any length of time, it is a real achievement. And when that team slips off the top rung of the ladder, th e loss of prestige is fa r greater than thei r loss of competitiveness. Th a t is cer tainly so in the case o f Team Rob erts, who have go ne backwa r d s far more in te r m s of racing results than in an y measu reable technical aspect. The lack of 1994 success by th e team that was once n ickna m ed The Evil Em pire (af ter a rem ar k by then-presiden t Ronald Reagan conferring this title on the Soviet Union) is one of the p uzzling points of th e 1994 season . Ju s t what has gone wron g w ith the official factory Yamaha team; the holders of the coveted Marlboro sponsorship ? Not very mu ch, I b e li ev e - but enoug h to make a world of difference all the same. . It's en ough to ma ke the ir performance erratic in the extreme; enough to rule last year's two-time race w inner an d coming-man Luca Cad alora out of con tention for this year's title; enough to pu t last yea r ' s third-overall finishe r Daryl Beattie right back am ong the privateers; enough to leave the men in the ketchup-colored team clothing shak ing their heads in bafflement. What is certain is th at th ese li ttl e problems have combined to mak e the firs t five races more or less a nightmare for the team, especially since th e year started well enough with Cadalora taking second place in Australia, on ly to slump to a pa ir of fourths and a pair of no-scores thereafter. The p roblems for Team Rober ts started last year, and the singl e crucial event was Wayne Rainey's crash in Italy. It was, of course, a crushing blow. The triple champion appeared to be en rou te to a fourth successi ve title, having tu r ned around h is own ea rly -seas on mis fortune so that he was able to capitalize on Kevin Schwantz's injury problems later in the year. He had jus t overtaken the Lucky Strike Suzuki rid er on points, and was leading the race at Misan o when he had a rare race crash. T The consequences, as we all kn ow, w e r e tragic. An unluck y fall bro ke Rainey's bac k, leaving him paralyzed from the midd le o f his chest d own. It was an aw fu l shock for everybody in racing, and most es pecially for Ken ny Robert s, a close friend as we ll as team boss. Since then, a lot of Kenn y's time has been devoted to caring for Rainey; and clea rly this inspirational man has played a big part in th e astonish ing speed of Rainey's rehab ilita tion, so tha t instead of taking the year off as advised by family and d octo rs, he returned to the very fir st race of th is year to announce he would be ta king over th e Team Marl boro 250 tea m, fielding Kenny Roberts Jr. Th e n ex t m is fo r tu n e was onl y periphera l to the 500 tea m, but may be tak en as in dicative: "Junior" broke his left upper arm so bad ly in a tra ining dirt-bike crash that he has ye t to appear on a GP bike. His part-time replacemen t Jimmy Filice, himself a form er GP winner and reigning AMA 250cc National Champio n , has h ad nothing but bad luck in his three outings, w ith tw o race crashes and one m ech anic al b r ea kdown. These events, and especially the first, have certain ly diverted Kin g Kenny's full attention away from the team , and this might be eno ugh, in itself, to dent their performance. Yet given the size of his establishment and the quality of the People Kenn y has gathered around him, both technical and managerial, it doesn't see m enough of an exp lanation. It can only be part of the equation. Another p iece of the puzzle comes from the Yamaha factory. Westerners ha ve long wond ered at the curious approach adopted by the Japanese factori es to racing. One aspect of it is an obsessive secrecy for its own sake. This is a source of wonderment to Euro pea n engineers, p roud to give details of their achievemen ts; but given the embarrassment attendant on two years of techn ical failure by Yama ha's racing, perhaps it is understandable. Another aspect is the wa y the Japanese use racing as a training ground for you ng engineers and d esign er s, with those involved often then movin g on to other ar eas of mo torcycle d esign. Th is can give them access to a fund of origi- . nal ideas, but de nies the m continuity of develop ment. This seems to ha ve co st Yama ha dear ly over the past two years when, for a seco nd year in succession, their new racing machine was tested (and in 1993 raced ), only to be put back in mothballs while ear lier versions were brought out to do comba t. Th is, at least, did give a sort of continuity, though no t necessarily the desirable so rt. Th e problem in 1993 was with th e chassis, and it wa s a puzzler . Yamaha had sw itched from their fabricated aluminiu m box-section to Hond a -style e xtrud ed deep-s ect ion m a in fram e members - this after definining the fabricated technique and giving it the name Delt ab ox. The new chassis never han died , for reasons that the team cou ld not de term ine - a bod y of opinion even held th at it was too stiff! It was only when they we n t back to a Roc-built chas sis, copying the 1992 Yama ha works frame , that they started winning races aga in. Details of the 1994 machine a re scar ce, but it seem s the u nsuccessfu l innovation this time was in the engine. This was sai d to be all -new, with the major departure coming in either fue l injection or some sort of highl y sophis ticated electronic carburetors. (There are tho se who sa y tha t Ho nda 's fuel injection is nothing more than an electronic carburetor.) In any case, it was she lved even before the season began, an d th e old bike pu lled out of mothballs . Asked in Japan wha t bike he ha d used to qualify on pole po sit ion, Cadalora quipped : "I don't know a ny more. Some parts from last yea r, so me fr o m 1992, and some ou t of the museum." In any case, the official 1994 factory Yamaha is har dly state of the art, bu t a machine cobbled together from the best of the past. And considering that racing ' bikes are usually obso lete wi thin two or th ree yea rs, it mu st also be a factor in their problems. Ano ther q u es ti on co ncerns th e ir exclusive use of Dunlop tires. Certainly man y of their problems so far have been direc tly r e la ted to ti res . In Japa n , Cadalora lost the lead and dropped to fou r th because of a loss of fr on t-tire '1 I g rip; w h ile Beattie pitted and chan ged both fro n t and rear tires so as to use the race as an e xtended ti re tes t. Cadalora di d the sa me thing in Austria . Bu t is it the tir es, or th e wa y the engi ne and chassis or eve n th e rid er s use the tires ? Although they are the only factory team to use Dun lops, a num ber of privateer s use th e Ang lo-Japanese rubber, notably Nia ll Mackenzie, who has not only had no tire problems, but has al so pe rfo rmed extre me ly well in every race where he has not been stricken w ith other probl ems. So is it the riders? This would be very out of cha racter for Cadalora, whose history includ es titles in both 125 and 250 classes, won in d om inant fas hion . He seem ed last year to have fou nd his SOD-class fee t by the end of the seaso n, and has also traveled ve ry fas t on several occasions in 1994. H is troubl e has been in putting it a ll together.to last the race. Beattie is , of co u rse, diffe rent. Though he has more SOO-class expe rience becau se of racing in Japan , this is only his second GP year. However in his debut year of 1993 he not only finished thir d overa ll, but won a race . the German GP a t H ocken heim . Partly this attests to the quali ty of the Ho nda that he rode, but the n ag ain, he still had to ride it. The young Aust ralian is having all so rts of p rob lems adap ting to the Yamaha, however. " It just doesn' t feel like what I' m used to," he complained in Mala ysia, as he con tinued to chase confide nce in the feeling from the front wh eel. He is still chasing it now, three races later. None of th e above probl em s is, in itself, te rm ina l. It is thei r su m that is costing Tea m Roberts such a lot. And while their cred ibility su ffers along with their championsh ip cha nces, their engi neers re ma in ba ff le d ab ou t h o w to reverse the trend. I believe they w ill d o so before the en d of the season . They have too long a nd too brill iant a hi st or y for it to be otherwise. But by then, un less there are so me real upsets ah ead , it will be too la te to salvage any chan ces in the cham pionship. l'X I.' LOOKING , A K ':1 B C ... 1 5YEARSAGO... June20, 1979 25 Y EARSAGO... June24, 1969 ur cover story was ~ th e 100-mile, rain- ~ in te rru p ted AMA National Championship f ' • i Road Race in Loudon, • • ,~~ New Hampshire, where -~ 7S0cc H arley-Da vi d - _ son-moun ted Freddie Nix wo n a "ding-do ng" battle over Cal Rayborn, who was also Harley-mounted ...Carlsbad Raceway hosted a Cycle Circu s, a two-day event that featured 10 d ifferent co m p e tit i on s, such as .road racing, motocross, hillclimbs, TIs, dirt drags, trials, and sidehacks, plus an exhibition ju m p b y Evel Knievel...The Ducatimou n ted team of Doug Douglas a nd J im McClerk was the top-fi n ish in g motorcycle team at the Baja 500, finishing eigh th overall, while th e next-best motorcycle team finish, in 10th , was ma d e up of Husqvarna riders Steve Holladay and Whitey Martino... Dave Latham, aboard a Greeves, won the Back Mountain National Enduro in Dallas, Pennsylvania.. . O r g [ = riID; -..".,..~! ! !l 1 I he " Du tch Den ti st," ~; Gerrit Wolsink, graced ' J ., 1 th e cover after ha ving won the 500cc Bel-Ray U.S. I. ~~"..,-, GP of Mot ocross at Carlsbad Racewa y for the fifth time. Wolsink, aboard a works Su zuki, won th e first mo to and finis he d th ird in the second; Kawasaki -mounted Brad Lackey won the second m oto after a hea ted ba ttl e w ith Finla nd's Heikki Mikko la bu t DN F'ed th e fir st moto af ter crashin g. Englishman Graham Noyce an d American Chuck Sun rounded ou t th e top three overall posi tions, respecti ve ly. Yam aha 's Mike Bellied most of the first . moto until pulling off the track with heat exha ustion. As a result, Bell did not start the second moto. Suzuki's Mark Barnett won the 250cc Support class. More than 33,000 spectators turned out for th e ra ce ... Randy Goss won the Grand National Championship/Winston Pro Se ries round at the Middletown H alf Mile over Hank Scott and Garth Brow; Ted Boody won the Trophy Race... Riding so lo, Husqvarna-mounted Jack T I( Johnso n wo n the 403·mile Baja 500 offroad race in Mexico, beating the runnerup team of S cot H a rd e n and Brent Wallingsford , also Husky-mou nted, by over eigh t minutes. Sam Bass and Case y Fo lks w o n Cras s 30 . Harden a n d Wallingsford were featu red in an interview by Cycle New s editor Dale Brown... Bob Balentin e wo n the 11th Ann ual Viewfinders GP at Ind ian Dunes... Cycle N ew s te s te d the new WR390 . I Husqvarna ... , I 5Y EARSAGO... June 14, 198 9 iI, ·~~·',•· . · preview of the Hollister • . U.S. SO cc MX GP wa s O '. featu red, including an in terv iew of two-tim e SOOcc MX World Champion Da ve Tho rpe... Steve Mo rehead outlasted d efend in g cha m p Scott Park e r to wi n th e ra in delayed Louisville Half Mile. An angry Parker accused Morehead of hitting him as they battled for the lead. Series poin ts leader Chris Carr finis hed third ... Ron Lechien led most of the Coors Extra Gold Superchallenge (Supercross) at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds in Oklahoma A I' ' '1 ' ! City before crashing on the 18th lap and effectively hand ing the win over to Jeff Ward . Honda 's Je ff Stanton finished fifth, wh ich was good enough to clinch his first Supercross title. Mike Kiedrowski and Damon Bradsha w battled in the combined East/West 125cc feature with Kiedrowski emerging as the winner, but Bradshaw, who ended up third , clinched the East Coast title... Span iard Jordi Tar- , res won th e World Cha mpio ns hi p Observed Trials round held in Winchester, Tennessee. The top-finishing Ameri can was Ryan Young in 18th. Young did, however, win the Nation al round held a few days earlier... Yamaha's Wayne Rainey edged out Honda 's Edd ie Lawson to win the Germa n Road Race Grand Prix in Hocke nheirn ... Fred Merkel was fea tured in a preview for the American Wo rl d Superb ike round a t Brain e rd International Raceway... American Trampas Parker won the 12SecMX GP in Belgi u m, and Fre nch man Jean -Mi chel Bayle won the 250cc MX GP in Czechoslova kia... Terry Cunningham won the Little Burr National Enduro in Ohio... Kelby Pepper topped a d istrict end uro, the Pine Ridge Endu ro, in Delaware. 0 59

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