Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~";!.:. -'O'l: ,e. 1995 World Championship Road Race Series Preview (Left) Daryl Beattie will ride a Lucky Strike Suzuki alongs ide Kevin Schwantz in 1995. The Aust ralian has been impress ive during preseason tests. (Below) Kazuto Sakata will try to win his seco nd successive 125cc World Champions hip on the factory Aprilia. failing to qu ali fy th is year. They need merely tum up. Which le a ves th e A p ri lia 400 and rider Loris Reggiani as the d ar k horse once agai n. Loris was significa ntly faster at Jer ez th an th e year befor e, the only 500 rider to achieve this. But there is still a big qu estion mark abou t reliability . 250cc: TIRE WARS The 250 cc clas s is mu ch harder to predict. Th is is as it shou ld be - o r at least as it h a s been m ost of th e ti me fo r ma ny years. Of co urse, Max Biaggi is th e clea r favorite . He was clearly fastest at Shah Alarn, then did no t feel it necessary to atte nd the Jerez IRTA tests. The Apri lia likewise hol ds th e high grou nd techn ically, a b elief re infor ce d by th e fac t th at second rider Jean-M ichel Bay le d om in at ed at Jerez . But Ho nda has p a i d s pecia l a t te ntion th is y ear to red ressing the balance of power withou t spoiling their swee t chassis - and the raci ng w ill soon show h ow successful they h ave been . Nor can the th ird force be neglected . Ya ma ha h a s m a r sh a ll e d grea t stre ng th unde r th e Wayne Rainey banner , w it h 1993 Worl d Champio n Te tsuya H a r a d a an d ri s ing so n Ke n ny Roberts Jr. at th e helm of another allnew motorcycl e. Ha rada, as we know, can be masterful w he n he's not h urtin g; Robe rts was ex tre me ly promisin g at th e en d of las t seaso n . And te am owne r Rainey is very determine d . But preseason testin g h as been lim ited and al so hit w ith b ad weath er. Early in Marc h they co mpleted six days of tes ting in Au stralia , an d it ra in ed every day! Give n the volat ile nature of the class, tires may tu m out to be the most sign ifica nt fil ctor. In recen t years, Dunlops have been the rubber of choice amon g leadin g riders, with Tadayuki Okada's factory Hon da the on ly sign ificant runner on Michelins, which always seeme d to be 'a disad vantage. Now, ami d accusa tions from Dunlop of p ay in g ri ders to use th e lr rubbe r, Micheli n h as made bi g inroa ds at the top level of Honda NSR riders. In addition to Okad a, Doriano Rombon i will be on the French tires, also Nobuatsu Aoki, and SpaniardsLuis d'Antin and Carl es ' Checa.:(In the SO cc class, less su rprisO ing ly, Loris Capirossi has also defected from Dunl op to Michelin .) Thi s cer ta in ly makes predic tio ns more d ifficult . In 1993 Max Biag gi su ffere d as the only Mic helin user, an d in 1994 so did Okada. O ne reason for th e tires ' uncon vincin g performance, most not ab ly a lack of fro nt -end grip, was a lack of b rea dth of developm en t in put. While Dunlop had the be nefit of tes t res ults a nd ride r feedback , from almost everyone who was going fast, the Miche lin men worked alone. Now th at as pect h a s changed , we can expect a m uch faster ra te of impro vement. Jean-Phili ppe Ruggia, sacked from Ap rilia in favor of countryman Bay le and now on a Tech-3 NSR Honda, tested on Michelins at Jerez, but sw itched back to Du n lop s th e re a fte r . H e and Ralf Waldmann are the on ly fast NSR men using the Anglo-Japanese tires. . Leaving Dunlop to su ck their teet h and accuse Michelin of check- book recrui tment- a charge they deny. "As lon g as they have to pay people to use their tires, that's ackn owledgment (Right) World Champion Max Biaggi (middle) and Doriano Romboni (left) figure to be factors in th~ 250cc World Champions hip. Loris Capirossi (right) has made the move to the 500cc class for '95 and will ride an NSR500 in Marlboro colors. that ours a re bet te r," s aid a Dunlop spokesman. However, they still have the works Chesterfield Aprilias, favorites for su ccess; with Jean-Michel Bayle poi sed to pounce sho u ld team lead er Biaggi falter. If Bayle continues his cu rrent progress, he should be a rostrum regular and eve n a ra ce wi nne r th is yea r, m a kin g th e motocross and su pe rcross cham pio n a claim ant for th e " most accomplish ed rider in history" title. Others will bear watching : including cl as s new comer Takesh i T su jimur a (Honda ) and old -time r ret urned N iall Mackenzie. In the Scotsman 's case, however, the quality of the "factory kit" he is ex p ecting fro m Aprilia remains to be seen . Veteran N ia ll's teammate in the D utch Do c-Sh op t eam is Patrick v d Goorber gh, on an Aprilia again; while his younger brother Jurgen switches to a killed RS Honda, riding alo ngside seasoned Japanese rider Sadanori Hikita, a GP first-timer. Keep an eye .out also for new Italian. Rob erto Loca te lli , tal en t-scouted b y Aprilia, and very fast at Jerez.

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