Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127721
His new mach in e is clearly a close relation to last year's victorious bike, at leas t ou tw ard ly, wi th only the new Repsol colors being significantly di fferent (a big sponsor, yes, but ha rdly th e nonind us try Sony-style giant eve ryo ne had been hoping for ). Un der the skin , rumors su rround the introducti on of some form of traction control; while th ey were also tryin g a hydraulic clutch. This might be sign ificant. Doohan uses clutch sprin gs a little lighter than the norm, since his left hand is al so busy opera ting th e rea r brake, and during 1994 thi s spoiled his start line launch on se ve ra l occas io n s. Th e lig hter acti on of hydraulics ma y allow his engineers to beef up the clutch to give it more bite off the start line. Now in its 12th year, Honda's NSR h as clearly d ev elop ed into a s u p e rb 500cc racer. It wou ld not s tre tch th e tru th to ca ll it defi nitive. But HRC's mo nopoly does not extend to riding talent. . Alex Criville has yet to show on a 500 the form that made him 125cc champ in 1989, with a tend ency to p anic under pressure; while Sh in ic h i It oh sh o ws every sign of staying a good rider rather than becoming a gre at one, hisirnproving results lat e last year notw ithstanding. Nor are the sa tellite teams overflowing with inst ant geni us, though Alberto Pu ig (fastest at Jerez until he crashed) is a redoubtable competitor, wi th his na gging arm prob lem now cured (he hopes ) by su rge ry; whi le Loris Capirossi was su perstar material in both 125 and 250cc classes. Loris knocked h im self out th e second tim e he tested a 500, and will su rely need a year or more befo re he can ride in his usu al cavalier fashio n aboar d one. And it wo uld be a surprise to all if Alex Barros, on an Erv Kan em oto bike, can assemble the ing redien ts for a solid co m pe titive year, especially si nce th e latest new s has his team faltering at the first hurdl e, after expe cted spo nsorshi p money failed to come through. Honda might ye t kick them selves for losin g Norifumi Abe to Yamaha, an d likewise Beattie to Suz uki. Schwantz is clearly Doohan' s main riva l. A man who has performed miracles in the past, he ha s the odds against h im again af te r a secon d s uccess ive spoiled preseason run-up. His left wrist is still not fully recovered, an d hurting his thu mb falling at Phill ip Island in Jan ua ry h ard ly h elp ed . Nor is h is ri gh t ,w ris t perfe ct, thou gh it is almost so. Not only cou ld the linge ring effects of these injuries prove tiring in a 45-minute GP, but they h ave also robbed him of preseason testin g. Similar events las t year meant it too k th ree races befo re a hurried update of his new machin e (actually, it was more like a backdate) ma de him competitive. De vel opmen t of the Lucky St rike Suzu ki has been left to the new recruit, Beatti e, who see ms to have been d oing an excellent job, bo th in terms of stea dy and stead ily improvin g lap times and in m e sh in g w ith th e te am . Beattie was hand-picked by Schwantz, and when he attended the early tests as spectator, his confidence in his cho ice was reinforced . Beattie ask ed the sort of qu estions and gave the sor t of answers that Schwan tz felt he would himself. Schwan tz fina lly climbe d on board again at the Jerez tests, and was fast, if a b it tent at ive. But it remains to be seen h o w we ll bike development ha s progressed, since b ad weathe r has also interfered with their program. The team had both old and new bikes at Jerez. For their final sessions in the second week in March in Australia, Beattie was (Left ) Marlboro Yamaha's t.uea Cada lora will try to win his fi rs t 500cc World Championship in 1995 - on an all-new Yamaha VZR500. (Right) Norifumi Abe will attack his first full season of 500cc Grand Prix racing on a Marlboro Yamaha. Abe has yet to match the performance he turned In during the Japanese GP last yea r, but many expect big thi ngs from the Japanese teena ger. "res ted, " and only Schwantz was sched uled to rid e the final version of the 1995 bike. "I th in k it' s po ssi bl e for peo pl e to over-t est," explaine d team boss Garry Taylo r, ad ding tha t both rider and crew felt his state of read iness was u nlikely to be improved by yet more laps, Beattie has bee n reliab ly if not dazzlingly quick, and is gla d to be back on Michelins after his d isas tro us year on Dunlops on the Yama ha. If he is as good as he looked befo re his bad 1994, Beattie is likely to be a rost rum regular, and a prime cand ida te to add to h is curre nt tally of one GP win. As fo r main man Schwantz, who insists that this will be his fina l season no m a t te r h o w i t co mes out, mu ch hi nges on Suzu ki getting the bike righ t firs t time, and Schwantz's ow n mental sta te. Good resul ts early on will doubtless spur him on, but a slow start might do the op posite, and wi tho ut full motiva tion, Kevin doesn 't stand a chance of beating Doohan. And so to Yamaha, with lots of big talk from Marlboro team boss Kenny Roberts about "a new strength of commitment from the factory," as well as an all-new mach ine. Outwardly, the major difference is the Honda-style vertical "letter-box" air intakes for their ram-air pressurized induction , which fi rst appeared last season. But it seems both engine and chas sis have been sufficiently reworked to be called new. lf so, it co u ld represen t th e develop ment leap tha t Yama ha rid er s have been wa iting for virtually since 1992. Top rider, Luca Cadalora was pe tulan t in Malaysia, and fastest for a time at Jerez before going hom e early. But here, certainly, is a rider who rese rves his best for racing, and he cannot be ruled oul. Abe, likewise will probably race better than he tests. In a perfect world, he'd , be ab le to fight everywhere, the wa y he did in japan last yea r on h is Honda, contesting the lead and proving comp letely und e ra w e d by battling with Doohan a nd Schwantz. On the other hand , and on a Yamaha, he may now have realized jus t how much more there is to GP racing than at first appeared, and will take time to regain his first-race confidence. It will be unfair to judge h is true potential un til the 'e nd of the sea son. No Cagiva; and curre n tly n o Joh n Kocin sk i. Ju st th e three wor ks teams. Th ou gh H ond a ' s six-s t ro ng troupe brin gs tot al works-bike numbers up to 10. And, as is usu al. race winners will be , ju st three or fo u r riders from within their ranks. The second echelon can barely expect even to get a rostrum finish in these circumstances, but the privateer battle is not withou t interest. In spite of the d eparture of Joh n Reynolds to World Superbikes and Niall Mackenzie to 2505, there is a strongly British p rofile to the Big-Bang brigade, with Jeremy Mcwilllamson his Q UB-luned Yama ha (Queens Univ ersi ty Belfast ) vyi ng with She ll-Harris man Sea n Em mett for top hon ors, and ex-l25 rider Nei l Hod gson likely to find his feel fast. Then there' s little ji mmy Filice, who h a s h a d several GP fal se s tar ts, in between times winning all sorts of sluff in the USA, including most recently the 1993 250cc title, in tot a ll y domi nan t fashion. jimbo rides a Padgett's-Harris, taking over from john Reynolds; fellow American Scott Gray makes a GP debut on a Harris-Yamaha. ROC has an all-new Cagiva-lookalike machine, only for Belgian journeyman Laurent Naveau and at first for 500ccclass new-boy Alessandro Gramigni. His arrival made four forme r 125 World Cha m pio ns in the class: C a d al or a, Ca pirossi, Criville and Gra mi gni, but with thr ee weeks to go, Alex dram atically dropped ou t after posting disappointing times at the jerez tests. His place was tak en by Spaniard juan Borja . Di ehard Itali an ind epend ent constru ctor Paton are back, now with their own Big-Bang engine, to be ridden by jean-Pierre jeandat; while the Swis sauto V-four engine is also set to make a solo debu t, wi th Swiss rider Adrian Bosshard . This will be lat er in the sea son, with either a ROC or a Harris chassis. The tail-ender privateers who bring the numbers of full-time entries up to 30 for the class need have no fears about fA ~ a ~