Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

-"" huge va rie ty o f unu su al mo torcycles tha t provided grea t racing all year long. Consi dering the category's origins, it was surely appropriate tha t the inaugural BEARS World Series title sho u ld be won b y Kiwi ride r An drew St r oud aboard a Kiwi bike - the fabulous Britten V-twin w ho se radical d esign has becom e a watch word for av an t-ga rde engineering since its debut in BOIT racing in 1989. The fact that St r o u d clinched the title, with Britten teammate Step hen Briggs also from New Zealand as runner-up, just weeks before the tragic d ea th fro m cance r of John Br it ten mad e his doing so all the more poignant - and apt. But though hewon five out of the six BEARS World Series rounds in 1995, Stroud didn' t ha ve an easy time of it. In the first round of the series in the u .s . in March, held on the full 3.Bmile Daytona ban ked circu it as th e m ain even t of the two -da y AHRM A cu r ta in-r a ise r to Cycl e We e k, th e Britten ri d e r fo un d himself locked in battle throughout the race with American Ron McGill on his VRlOO H arl ey-Dav id son Superbik e, O after teammate Nick Ienatsch on the second Britten retired early on with a collapsed rear suspension. Stroud eventually t r iumphed na r r o wl y ove r th e H a rley ri d er , admitting lat e r that he had n't been gra ndstanding as many ha d suspected: The Italian-owned Britten's engine had suffered " myster ious misa .' fire all race long. Third place went to British jou rn alist/ racer Alan Cathcart on the no-lessrad ical, th ree-cylinder Saxon Triumph, after an ea rly ba ttle with cou n tr ym an Mike Edwards on the Tig cra ft H arley VRl000 and Ame rican Pete Johnson on the 1200cc Raceco Gu zzi ended wi th a blown engine for the Harley. It was the first time a mod em Triu mp h ha d raced at Daytona in a quarter century, an d the fac tory-backed Saxon' s d ebut wou ld m ark th e ret u rn to u .S. comp eti ton of the British marque on an official basis in 1996. Three weeks later at Monza in Italy, Cath cart took th e Saxon Triumph to a convincing victory in the second round o f th e World Series, se tt ing a new la p record for the class after an earl y tu ssle with German rider [ ons Hoffmann's fuel-injected Maxi-Guzzi , In Stroud' s abse nce for 500cc Grand Prix duty in Au stralia, the Britten was ridden by former 500cc GP rider Dario Marchetti, wh o only narrowly clinch ed secon d place by overt aking H offm ann on th e last lap after suspensi on problems, with another refugee from the SODcc GP class, Vittorio Scatola, following him through to th ird place on the Triumph Daytona entered by the Italian importer - after rid ing most of the race with a br oken left handlebar! Th e w in left Cathcart leadin g the World Series points table, with Stroud now in second place. After a three-m onth break, th e next World Series round took place in Jul y on the fast, open Thruxton track, where the hottest, driest summer ever recorded in Britain was interrupted by a torrential thu nd erstorm just half an hour before" the sta rt of the BEARS race. This allowed Mike Edwards, rid ing the Tigcra ft-framed, German-built 680cc Pami-BMW si n g le to lead the race thr oughou t un til th e very last lap, albeit with Stro ud on the Britten in close attend an ce bu t unab le to pass as th e rain started to come down again. The David and Goliath battle ended in the Britten's favor when Stroud took the lead for the first time on the last comer before the flag, to cross the line fractionally ahead of Edwards. ----- - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - ...,-- - - " (left) Racing journalist Alan Cathcart campaigned the Saxon Triumph to fourth place in the final standings . (Right) Mike Edwards led the rain-soaked Thruxton race on a Tigcraft-framed, 680cc-BMW-slnglepowered machine until the last lap, when Stroud squeezed by on the final comer for the win. Cathca rt o n th e Saxon Triu m ph had h eld a co mforta b le third place for mu ch of the race, bu t faulty pit sig na ls result ed in h is bein g ca ug h t b y ye t a n o th e r ex500cc GP ri d e r, Aussie Paul Lewi s on th e British-b uilt Raceco Guzzi 8V, closely trailed by Kiwi rai n ace Rob ert H olden on a s tock fram ed Triumph. After the duo trad ed pl aces furiou sly th ro ug hou t the ra in -so aked last few lap s, Lew is led into the final tum, wh ere Cathcart crash ed trying to repass him for th ird pl ace, leaving Stro u d to tak e over the points lead in the World Series again, with McGill third after a cautious ride to six th place at Thruxton on h is Harley Sup erbik e. Two weeks later on the fast, swooping Zeltweg track on an Austrian mountainsid e, Hoffmann qualified his Gu zzi on pole ahe ad of Cathcart on th e Triumph triple, with Str oud and Briggs w h o had a lso crashe d h is Britten a t Thruxton - sh aring th e front row w ith McGill's Harley. But there was a joker in the pack: still another former 500cc GP rider, German Michael Rudroff on the incredible 750cc BMS rad ial-valve single, a fuel-injected bike built in German y and representi ng everything the BEARS class was born to encompass. Though Cathcart led the race off th e li ne, h e d ropped back with gearb ox problems which eventually led to another crash when the Triumph's transm ission locked up, whil e Hoffmann ' s Guzzi blew its motor. This left Stro ud to take over the lead , closely pursued by McGill and Rudroff on the amazing single, w hich had the power to keep up with the Harley Vtwin Superbike along Zeltwegs fast up hill straigh t. The three spent the whole race less than 50 yar ds apart, with every thi ng decided on the last lap . McGill crashed trying to ou tbrake Stroud three corners from the flag, leaving the Kiwi to w in with Ru d r off a clo se secon d af te r a thri lling race. Austrian Man fred Schoper took third o n h is carb on-fib er-fr am ed Zie gl er Gu zzi, ahead of Briggs on th e second Britten, wh o suffered a misfiring engine throu ghou t the race. Three weeks later, the fifth round of the World Series took pl ace in England ear ly in Au gust as th e m ain support ra ce at th e Brands Hatch round of the Wo rl d Superbike Cham pionshi p . In front of a crowd of 50,000 an d the SkyTV cameras, the two Brittens of Stroud a n d Br ig g s en ga ged in a n o -h old sbarred battle w ith Paul Lewis on the Moto Gu zzi, in which th e d iminutive Aussie had the crow d on its feet cheering as he repeatedly out braked the Kiw i bikes in to tu rns. But a broken cr an k sidelined the Guzzi near the end of the race, leaving Stroud to lead home a Britte n o ne-two which allowed h im to clinch the World Series title. Behind, Alan Cathcart o n a Saxon Triump h that was visibly ill-suited to the tight and twisty track spent most of the race battling with Ian Cobb y' s special-framed Ducati 900sS for third place, before sliding off unhurt close to the finish. This opene d the d oor for Ron McG ill to take ' fourth place o n th e Tigcraft VR1000 Harley, as well as third place in the points standings. The final round at the end of August wa s the main event of the Ducati Club Holland' s annual four-st roke racing festival in Assen, where Mike Edw ards on the Tigcraft Ha rley succeeded in splitting t he Brittens in qu a lif yin g, th en spen t the entire race locked in battl e for victory with Stroud. Th e Britte n rider even tua lly tri u m phed b y three se co nds o ver the ' H arl ey rider, w ith tea m m at e Bri g g s thi r d ahead of Cobby' s Du ca ti. Th e Saxon Tr iumph wa s a bsent, leavi ng McGill to clinch third place in the final points ta b le behind th e t wo New Z ea la n d e rs , in s p ite o f re tir in g hi s VRl 000 at Assen . Cathcart tried to captu re the h and fu l of poin ts needed to retake third place in the series by racing th e 1973 V-two Du cati with which he had won the Daytona F750 Vin tage race back in March. But to no avail: He and McG ill sha re d th e b reakd own truck back to th e paddock af te r both bik es were sidelined wit h electrical problems. Th e debut Wo rld Series s h ow e d th ere's undoubtedly a place for a freefo rm u la cla ss in Internati onal racing showcasi ng the ex ot ic, th e wonderful and especially the avant-garde in modern -da y road racing. No bike fitted with tel escopic forks w on a single BEARS round all year; four out of the first five bikes in the final points table were fitted wi th fuel injection; and th ere were six different makes in the top 10 places. Lap times of the leading bikes were compar able w ith Superb ike s peeds eve ry wh ere, w hile th e close racin g in eve ry round added crowd-pleasing specta cle to the feast of engineerin g excellence. With plans alread y confirmed for a second BEARS World Series in 1996, starting at Day tona on March 5 with another 50-mile race on the full banked circuit sponsored by BMW of North Am erica, the p rosp ect s look good for ano ther season of close racing between high-tech mo torcycles that dare to be different - in a class that seems to have become the category of cho ice for former 500cc GP rid ers to co m p e te in . Mick Doohan, your Britten ride awaits you! C~

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