Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

• 1996 World C hampionship Road Race Series II By Michael Scott Photos by Lou Martin andGold & Goose he process of life, ac cordi ng to poets and p hilosop hers, is tha t thing s te nd to fall apa rt. True enough; and m otorcycl e ra cing wou ldn't be as much fun or as serio us if not. Doubtless exactly that will happen to some rid ers during '96, an d all p redictions are subject to the fall-apart rule. Just now, ho wever, .th ings are all coming together, and the season ahe ad looks to be mo re varied than the one jus t past. No t th a t Mic hae l Dooh an and h is Repsol Honda are going to be w eaker. The defen d ing do uble World Champion and his well-seasone d Honda rem ain the stronges t co m bination out there. When you're sta rti ng from the top, it' s up to everyone else to catch u p. The di fference is in the strength of the opposition . The re is new machi ne ry comin g, both in the sha p e of the powerful if unproven European Elf-ROC and wit h the m aturing tw in -cyli nd er chall enge from Aprilia and th e ext raordinaril y successful (so far) new Honda. In pr eseason tests, the new Honda was faster than the four- cylinder bikes at Malaysia, wh ile the April ia topped th e ta ble at Jerez. l-< And there a re new riders - in th e P-. se nse th at some of last yea r's nearlym en now ha ve co nfid ence-b oo stin g 500cc-class experience on th ei r side . Two of them in particular. T . .... - -< 6 The big gest th reat must come from last year's runner-up, Daryl Beattie. The Lucky Strike Suzuki rider mad e a habit last year of following Dooh an home, usually at some distan ce. On tw o occasions when Doohan hit a glitch, he won; his consistency gave him the title lead mid w ay through th e year befor e h is own crash handed the initiative back to his fellow Au stralian. Beattie's strong point was his accura te ri di ng, turnin g s tead y laps like clockwo rk; his wea k'point was a lack of agg ression, seemin g h a p p y to let Doohan motor by him on several occasions. He has vowed that 1996 - his second year on the Suzuki - will be d ifferent. "It' s tim e to ge t agg ressive, " he said. : The second dark spo t onDoohan's su n is less pre dictable. It is Luca Cadalora, three times World Champion in the sm aller classes, an d an en igm atic ride r whose performances last yea r va ried . from be in g so d is hearten ed that he wou ldn' t bo ther to fini sh th e race to being totally dominant tw ice. "When he wa nts to ride, you can't catch him," was Doohan 's memorable summing up . Luca has two cruci al di fferences this sea son . One is a Honda, the bike he' s openl y craved for alm ost the whole of his three yea rs on a Kenn y Rob erts Yama ha . H is NSR will be prepared by leg endary tun er Erv Kan emot o, w ho was Luca's partner in his two dominant 250cc-class titles. The second is Michelin tires, after his g row ing d islike o f the Dunlop s caused suc h a fur or last year (Luca raced several times on over-thecoun ter Michelins) and ulti mately resulted in the partial withdrawa l of Dunlop from the 500cc class - they supply only the lightweigh t Apri lia, and will "conti nu e development of larger tires for the V-four in pri vate tests." There are of cou rse other notables on the V-fou r gravy train. Honda also has Alex Criville, Dooh an ' s Repsol teammate, and winne r of the final race of last season. Once regard ed as a lacklu st er and crash-p rone rid er, the Spanish former 125cc champ matured impressiv ely during 1995, and if not in the Dooh an le a gue, h e' s a mu ch m ore co ns is te n t rid er than ever before. A second Spa nish team, spo nsored by Fortuna, fields an exciting twosome: ve teran Alberto Puig and class newcomer Carles Checa. Puig won in Spa in last year, and was begin nin g to make a big impression when he cr ashed heavily m id way throug h th e year. H is come back was at Februa ry tests in Indo nesia, riding with the shifter swi tch ed fro m left to rig h t a nd a Doohan-sty le, thumb- ope r at e d rear br ake to compensa te for his leg injury. Checa took over his bike last year, and gave every sign of being a 500cc-class natural, setting a lap record and leading the final GP imp ressively before crashing ou t. Scott Russe ll is ano ther th reat. H e arrived midseason last year in bullish m ood , ex pe cti n g th at a n ex- Wo rl d Sup erbike Champion sho uld be able to jump on a GP bike and get on the pace pretty soon. So it seemed, and in on ly his fourth race, the British GP at Donington Park , he was the fastest man on the track during morning wa rmup and had victory, or at least the rostrum, in his sights. Then a slower rid er turned across in front of him to leave the track wh en the Lucky Strike Suzuki rider was clos e to top s peed . He w as lu ck y to escape with relatively m inor injuries, but it was a major blip in his pr ogress. After th at he was u p and d own, fell aga in in Argentin a, and ende d the year sobered. "There ain't nothin g that can prep are you for how difficult it is to ride one of them things," he said. His testing started badl y wh en he mi ssed a cou ple of da y s in A u s t r a li a becau se o f a vi sa mess-up, and the n he foun d himse lf at od ds with a bike th at was still configured for Kevin Sch wa n tz. By th e time they got to Phillip Island, ho weve r, his cre w fo u nd a develop me n t d irection th at better suits his style, and he was chasing Beatti e's times by the end. Yamaha has four riders, but is short of expe rience. The man most likely to is Loris Capirossi, wh o is the sole rider in the Mar lboro-backed Team Rainey, the former. tr ipl e cha mpion's first stab a t ru nn in g a 500 team . Loris will benefit not only from ha vin g one of th e best possib le tea chers, but also bec aus e of focus. Rainey and his crew will be dedicated to just one rider . Team Marlboro Roberts, on the other

• Cover