Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Opposite page) The two men who are expected to fight it out for the 1996 500cc World Champ ionship Michael Dooha n and Daryl Beatt ie. (Right) Scott Russell is also expected to make a charge in his second season of 500cc GP rac ing. (Below) Wayne Rainey has pinned his team-owner hopes on Italian Loris Caplrossl, who will be riding Yamahas for the first time in his career. hand, h as a d ilution o f effort with the one-time ch ie f p add ock guru fieldi ng his largest and least experienced team ye t. H is best shot has to be Norifumi Abe, the yo u ng Japanese charger in his se con d full yea r. N orick is a spirited rider, bu t the fact th at he speaks very little English is just one barrier to the close relationship that he needs to devel op wi th Kenny. Another is the fa ct that Kenny Roberts Jr. is a teammate, in his firs t 500 year. H e will su rely get the best of Kenny's attention, but having m oved straight to a 500cc-c1ass works ride wi th o ut h a v in g to engage in the te d iou s business of climbing th e lad de r through na tion a l a nd in te rnat ional cha mp ionsh ips cou nts against h im. H e' s fast, but he's a greenhorn in this company. Th e third member is sponsor Marlb oro' s nominee - Fren ch ex-off-road sta r JeanMichel Bayle, fresh from a not en tirely im p ressive couple of years on a works A p ril ia in th e 250cc cl a s s . Both th e you nger Roberts a nd Ba yl e w en t o n record saying th at 500s w ere their natu ral ho me, and th at th ey expected to sui t t hem be tter th an 250s . Th en both p romptly started to fall off in preseason tests, Bayle wi th re~arkable frequen cy, Roberts o nl y o nce, bu t with ruinous result s . H e broke b oth bone s in hi s lower leg, missing the rest of th e tes tin g program, but hoping to be fit enou gh to start th e season. . Th er e is a fas cin ating su btex t to all this - concerning the whole future of Marlboro's big-buck backing and Yam aha 's w orks bikes. Which team is the . works t eam? Is Rainey or the elder Roberts the main man? One answer m ay have already come in the Jer ez tests in February. While Bayle an d Abe rode modified 1995 Yarnahas, only Capirossi had the 1996 version. So h o w did h e go? Rather well, in fac t - secon d .at th e Je rez tests to the A prilia, b est of the V-fou rs . Loris is small, but a real racer, having won two 125cc titles and twice come close to the 250cc crow n. Las t year h e m a d e hi s 500cc- class d e but on a Hon da, and showed th at w hile he had a lot to learn, he was wi lling to do it. The other b ig change for Rob ert ' s team is a switch to Michelins, after m a n y ye a r s as Dunlop's sole works team. Th e last year was one of the worst, w it h C ad al o r a co m plai ni ng bitterl y abo u t the tires, while the Anglo-Japanes e ou tfit was in turn recovering from th e tot al d estruction of th ei r facto ry in th e Kobe e arthquake . Dunl op has vowed to' return - until th en, the big bikes ar e M ichelin territorv. To what extent th e French tires tendency to slipg rip- flick compared with the Dunlops' ea rl y but m o re eas ily co n tro lle d slide has co nt rib u ted to the Te am Roberts testing crashes is a moot point. Last denizen of the Ja pan ese V-fou r pool is Alex Barros, riding a Honda for a seco nd year, backed by Pileri. Barros w on h is one and only 500cc race th ree ye a rs ago riding fo r Su z uki, but has failed to find the fas t pa ce since th en . Th ere are tw o ot her V-fours, from Europe, filling the s lo t le ft vacant by Cagiva's wi thd rawal at the end of 1994. Th ey are th e new Elf ROC s, fitted w ith a solo ve rsio n of th e fast and increasing ly reliab le Swissau to V4 si decar m otor. Known as th e BRM, it is a Honda-style s in gle-cr an ksha ft unit as agai nst the tw in -cr an ks o f Suzuki a nd Ya maha. And results from tests h ave been mighty impressive. The motor is said to be more powerful even th an Hondas' NSR; while Elf h as pub licl y pro mi sed to ke ep o n pouring m oney int o it until it is relia ble. Ther e ar e tw o entered - o ne for Swi ss form er pri va t e er Adri en Bo s sh a rd, whose pas t rec ord su gges ts that a top-10 finish woul d be a big achievement. But the other one is for Span iard Ju an Borja, top privateer last sea son and definitely it risin g star. Borja was fastest at one da y of the IRTA tests (ad m itte d ly one o f the d ays before the factory guys go t m o ving) . If the bike holds togethe r, he m ight have a few su rprises in sto re . . But is a V-four th e right tool for the job ? Well, horses for courses and all that - an d the cou rses where the re were joint test sessio ns w ere exa ctly the tw o where a lightweigh t V-twin can make th e most of its hand ling and br ak ing ad vantages w ithout suffering too much from a relative lack of top spee d and acceleration . A t Sh a h A larn, it was ex-250 cc rider Tadayuki Okada' s chance to lig ht the fuse, running emphatically fastest after staving off a challen ge from his RepsolH onda teammate Doohan 's V-four. The Hond a NSRSOOV w as abse n t from Jere z, but new Aprilia ride r Dori an o Romboni was willing an d a b le to d o the same thing to the V-fours . Fascinating, and not only because it shows how th e lightweight concept is m aturin g into a real ch allen ge, a t the righ t tracks. Doohan blast ed the twin s because a field of them would remove much of the wheel-spinning, tire-sliding exci temen t that m a kes the V-fours so monstr ously rew ardi ng. But last yea r he said he'd ride the new bike - if it was competitive. Will Mick switch to two cylinders for those tw o circuits? The full field is 26-s trong, and th e privateer battle will be -as good as has become usual since the advent of th e ROC and H arris-Yam ah as . Watch ou t for Je remy McWilliams, th e Irishman switching to a ROC tuned b y Q u eens University Belfast (QUB), James Haydo n, who takes over th e ex-Mackenzie, ex- Hodgson ROC; and h ard-ch a rgin g Japanese privateer Toshi Arakaki on the Padgetts H arris-Yam aha. 250CC - BIA GGI' S BOMBERS Who can beat M ax Bia ggi a n d hi s Chesterfi eld Aprilia? The re are 28 ri d ers w ho w o u ld like to t ry , b u t o n p a st records th e y are going to h a ve their work cut out - and Biaggi' s clea r domi nance at the ea rly test sessions w here they've run to ge the r confirms thei r

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