Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

lesser-known rid ers wh o earned the m their first points: Ekerold in 1982, Herve Moin eau in 1984, Juan Garriga in 1986; th en Raym ond Roche and Did ier d e Radigues, before Mamola's first rostrum finish in 1988. With the arrival of Lawso n and crew chief Fanale the big-spend policy paid off. Their partnersh ip coin dded with the best bike yet, and together they turned it into a trul y compe titive 500-c1ass race r, securing p ole p osition twice and claim ing the marque' s firste ve r ra ce win in Hungar y. No ma tt er th at this w as a tactical w in hinging on tire choice, it was a win . At last the red bikes had come of age. Better still was to follow when they stepped in to salvage the caree r of erratic genius Kocinski, after the former 250 ch am p ion an d 500cc race winner had undergone meltdown midway through his 250-c1ass return on the Lucky Strike Suzuki. John, with a big gru dge agai ns t the world, was just the man to take the Cagiva one step further, claiming the ir first dry-weather win in the u.s. GP in 1993. Kocinsk i s tayed w it h them fo r 1994, wi nning the Au strali an GP brillia ntly. And the Cagivas now had to be taken seriously for the first time ever. Ca g iva ' s raci ng his to ry is littered w ith s tra nge tales hinting a t technical piracy and secre t liaisons w ith su pposed rival s: the cha rge is that they caught up · with th e Japanese (even tu ally) by not merely copyi ng them, but actually usin g the sa me components. This suggested a more or less covert excha nge of drawi ngs o r even parts, es p ecia lIy w ith Yam aha. It is common cause that many intima te parts of th eir second -generation V-fou r that arrived in 1987 - like cran ks h a fts and pi stons - were interchangeable with Yam aha par ts; wh ile there we re also parallel chassis developm ents, n otably th e b anana -curv ed swing-arm of 1988, that seeme d far too similar to be a coincide nce. G audio Castiglioni, the brother with th e h igher public profile, w as always stau nch in his denial s of any link whatsoe ver with Yamaha, or with anybody else. Yet tales of sku lld uggery had been with Cagiva right fro m th e very sta rt, includ ing a persistent belief that the disap pearan ce of a works Suzu ki crankcase from the team 's British headquarters in J.978 was closely linked wi th the appear- (Right) Raymond Roche was another of the big names to ride the Caglva (1988) , but Randy Mamola (Below) was the team's first "Supersla r." The American is shown here In the wet at the Belgian Grand Prix in 1990. ance in 1979 of the first "Cagiva" (rather than the repainted Suzuki that had born the name in 1978), whi ch appeared to have cop y square-fou r crankcases, su rmounted by a collection of freely ava ilab le Suzuki RG500 p rodu ct ion-ra cer co mpo ne nts. Th e bike was ridd en by Scotsman Alex Geor ge, managing a couple of 13th- place finishes befor e di sap pea ring into history. They were back in 1980 with a new Cagi va, again p aint ed in the proud red and-silver colors of the old MV team. There were othe r MV links, incl uding tea m bo ss Arturo Ma gn i, wh o now filled the same role at Cagiva. This was · a d ifferen t machine, but still not entirely th eir ow n . On top o f in-line four Yam ah a case s they'd put Cagiva cylind ers, w itho u t exhaus t va lves bu t with reed-valve induction. Th is was an early use of a sys tem that took three or mor e ye a rs to become th e class norm. The bik e raced only on ce, at the Nu rburgring o n Au gu st 24th in th e hands of Ferrari. He qu alified 25th , well off the pace. . Ferr ari, a big nam e in Italy, stayed in 1981 to help further progr ess. This comprised another much-changed bike, and lot s of tr oubles, wi th fond a mbition s turned to du st. The new bike w as ready for the German GP at the Hockenheim rin g. and was interestin g. In place of the ba se Yamah a' s pi st on-part-induction, Cagi va had n ow grafted a ga lIery of ro ta ry di sc va lves onto th e top of th e gea rbox / cran kcase of the stra igh t-four ano the r p iec e o f p rema tu re tec hnical ' ambition (Yamaha ado p ted a some wha t similar sys tem during 1984 for their Vfour) . The two oute r cylinde r s h ad reve rsed exha ust ports. But whil e clever, it was slow an d unreliable, and Ferrari missed several races befo re retu rning for the 10th ro und a t Imo la, com p lai n ing that the new fra me bui lt by Niko Bakker handled badl y, but tha t the Du tchma n d idn't seem to care . The eng ine rem ain ed a long way off being competitive. With Ferrari quitting in dismay, Cagiva again missed the start of the season while developing ano ther new bike. This Yamaha-like disc-valve square four finally arrived in July for new sign ing Jon Ekero ld , the South African iron man. Dutchman Boet van Dulmen had turned the ride down; the hitherto outspoken Ekerold now conformed to type as Cagiva recruit, lavish in praise for their enthusiasm. The other alternative Italian 500s Sanvenero an d Mo rbi delIi - sta rte d many m o re GPs t h a n t he Cagiva. Ekerold 's bike arrived only in July in Yugoslavia , with a revised and lowered fra me for th e ni nt h ro und, the British GP at Silvers tone. Jon qualified 10th and finished 13th (points were for the top 10 only a t that time) . Th e las t race of th e year, at Hock enheim w as to be a miles tone . As Spe nce r and Uncini cras he d out at the fina l bend, leaving victory to Mamola's Suzuki, Ekerold was p romoted to 10th. This was Cagiva's first Wor ld Championship point. 1983 was th e yea r of classic Spe nce r/ Robe rts confrontation . Cagiva had a d ifferent sort of stand-off, as they brought Ferra ri back into the team, and Eke rol d found h imself push ed to one side. All talk of th eir en thusiasm and dedication was forgo tten as he ranted at the third GP, the Italian at Monza: "My mechani cs trea t it as a nin e-to-five job," before refusing to race the underd eveloped and ill-prep ared machine. For the next three races, he didn't get a bike at all; in Aus tria, Ferrari had th ree. Ekero ld quit in a rage. In typical Cagiva fashi on. rather than im proving wha t they had they ins tea d p rod uc ed so me thi ng new. On e of Ferrari's A us t r ia n bike s had a re vi sed engi ne as the main fram e member, wi th subfraines front and rear, and a magnesiu m swingarm, by free lance d esign er Valen tino Ribi. Like any gro und-breaking design it coul d h ardl y be ex pected to achieve much first time out. Nor did it. Th ree non -st art s foll owed a d ebut 23rd; then for Britain cam e another new Ribi fram e, a full loop in aluminu m. It never finished a race. Enth usiasm undampened, Cagiv a secured the services of ex-World Cha mpion Ma rco Lucchi nelli fo r 1984. His yea r on the square four d idn't go well. A string of non-finishes preced ed a fit of temp erame n t in Fran ce wh en "Lu cky" had a fight with a marsh all and with- dre w rath er tha n face di sciplin ary action . Cag iva had already signed up a se co nd ri d er, Fren ch end uran ce s tar Moi nea u. An d as th e m er cu ri a l Lucchine lli came an d we n t, taking one non-scorin g finish in 12 races, Moineau achieved the machine's seco nd cha rnp i. onship point with 10th in Yugos lavia . For 1985 Cagiva pensioned off the now deeply unfashionable square four and introduced their first V-four, basis of the motor that carried them thro ugh to the p resent da y. It was extremely like th e 1983 Ya maha YZR , thoug h the Japanese bike had now shed an extra idl er gear and cross-sh a ft linking the crankshafts. But while it brought them closer to the class state of the art, it fell sh o rt in severa l important a reas. at only was it bulky and heavy by comparison with the Japanese V-fours, it also made less power - th e legacy of s tag gered inle ts rather than the in-line four of the Yamaha, which in turn mea nt they ha d to use four Dell'Orto carb uretors rather than a p air of tw in-choke Mik unis . T hi s dictated lo n ger in let tra cts, whe reas th e ot he r reed -va lve engines we re findi ng ex tra power b y sho rtening the inlet as much as possible. The machine's first year was not auspi ci ou s . Lu cchinelI i w as agai n th e ir head rider, and together they missed the first six GPs. He arrived in Yugoslavia for a 15th pla ce followed by two mor e non-finishes , and missed the next thr ee races too . At th e last race, a t Misano, Ferrari joined h im ; again ne ither fin ished. Something important had happened in the mean time. Cagiva had persua de d th e re tired Ken ny Roberts to test th e bikes at Misano befo re the race, and he had qu ickly been on the pace. Fro m then on he wo uld feel a speci al fondness for "my Cagivas," and was conv inced that there wasn't m u ch w ro ng w it h th em tha t a little well -di rected development by a top rider cou ldn 't so rt out. Cagiva p aid him $50,000 fo r the tests, and offered him double th at to race the bike. He wisely declined, as had Barry Sheen e before him. In st ead fo r 1986 th ey hired ri sing young Spaniard Juan Garri ga, who gave them their best season yet. He qu alified in the top ten fou r times in 11 races, and scored poin ts twi ce. Eigh th at the opening Spani sh GP w as the marque' s best finish ever, and thou gh he did suffer six non -finishes, he was up with the slower w or ks men w hen th e bike did ke ep goi ng . With four p oint s by year's end, he was 17th ove rall, the first time Cagiva had done better than equa l last. After this, Cagiva found it easier to recruit good riders for 1987. They also had anothe r major redesi gn, addressing the problems of th e old CVlO, which was now sufficie n tly ch a nged to be 53

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