Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

· . .PREVIEW. 1996 WorldSuperb eC p ik ham ionship Austrian will concentra te mainly on the Germa n Open Sup erb ik e Ch am p ionship. This is a cru cial yea r for the Promoto r team and for Cor ser (and p ossib ly also for Hale) in World Superb ike racing . After this secon d su perbike cam paign, team ma nager lnz inger wants to enter a tea m in th e 500cc Grands Pri x fro m 1997 onwa rd , a n d h e h opes to bring at leas t Corser with him. The Austrian businessm an, wh o bou ght 80 percent of the Power Horse (a sports d rink) company a few mon ths ago , is consi dering keeping a team in World Superbike next to his Gra nd Prix project. But in the meantime, bo th Inzinger and Co rser h op e to get th e fo u r-s troke titl e . Altho ug h the re's been no official con firmation, it is believed that all four "real" facto ry ri d ers will u se 995cc engines righ t from the start of the seaso n. Last yea r, Fog art y was beli eved to be th e only rider with su ch a large-d isplacement engi ne at his disp osal. NINJ AS Many hoped that 1996 wo uld be the year for Ho nda. After a pretty difficul t deb u t in 1994, th e of ficial RC45s still proved to be quite a handful in 1995, but Aaron Slight managed to win two races. With Carl Fogarty brin gin g the numberone plate to the Castrol Hond a team, Tu xw orth' s crew can't afford to finish third plac e in th e p oint s ta n dings in 1996. In typical Hon d a sty le, no t mu ch has filte red th rou gh from th e development work done on the bikes, and not much info rma tio n has co me fro m th e team's private test sessions . But thin gs have no t always gone well, according to so me sources . Apart from th e bi ke 's inherent h and lin g problems (with an aw kwa rd un d e r s te erin g ten d ency, which is em p hasized as the gas ta nk gets em ptier), the tea m struggled with some fu el-injecti on p robl ems duri ng recent testing in Au strali a. The tires, a new ram-air sys tem, the sus pens ion, the s t a in less- s tee l brake s and th e n ew clutch, on the othe r hand , seeme d to deliver the goods. There is no doubt that Foga rty will get used to the spe cific hand ling char acteristics of th e bike befor e the season rea lly ge ts under way, an d th at the ch amp ion will challenge hi s teammate Slight from the very first race. prob lems d u e to the unclear fina ncial situation Ducati ha d go ne th rough the last few months. On the second day of practice at Misano, Kocinski und er cut Lucchiari's lap record by half a second despite cold weather an d a lack of track tim e for fin di ng a really good setu p . Speakin g of setting up the bike, most of the m e ch an ics o n th e Fer rar i te am alread y feel melan cholic abou t the "Fogarty years." The Briton was famous for not both erin g too much wi th m ach ine setu p. With Kocinski , on the other ha nd, it' s a whole di fferent ball ga me. There ha ve b e en t im es a lre a dy w hen the mechanics had to get u p as ea rly as 5 a.m. in order to get the bikes ready for Kocinski' s arrival. For the time bein g, British newcom er Hodgson ca n' t keep up, but it w ould ha ve been a huge surp rise if he had . On most circui ts, the Briton has been a second to a second and a half slower than his Amer ican teammate. For the Pro motor team , all is well except for those pesky re ports tha t keeping coming from the Ferra ri-run team th a t Kocinski has broken another lap ' reco rd . The fact that bot h Corser (overheati ng engine) and Hale (crash) retired in the Daytona 200 will give the Austrian-Italian team more mot ivation to ge t the b ikes dialed in perfectly before the first race at Misano. The third rider on the team, Andreas Meklau, will u se one of last year's factory bikes, but will be entered in only a few races. The tall -... l-< 0..

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