Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

RAe-ERTEST' Fabrizio Pirovano's Corona Ducati 748 SP ~;::\J1 the Ducat1748 SP ~:·:"·;the ultimate '~::·.~persport weapon? '.;:-:.seems so this veer. Plrvano ~~::jook the Corona-Sponsored Teem ;:·:;::"Istare bike to the :~::'IDtemational Open ":::::rabrizlo .r: y:.: Supersport r :-e!1amplonship. ~:~"~ ',' . f \W '~::'" eli :::..... '~\w By Alan Cathcart Photos by Kel Edge \0 0\ 0\ ..... o C'l l-< OJ "E OJ > o z 18 n the two seasons since Ducati at last delivered the long-promised downsize version of its 916 World Superbike champion to the supersport class, the smaller V-twin desmoquattTo has dominated its category at the highest level. First, Belgian rider Michael Paquay breezed to the European Supersport crown in 1995 on the Team Alstare 748 SP, winning seven out of the eight rounds held alongside the World Superbike series in majestic style on his Pirelli-shod bike. Now, although this season things were closer-fought thanks to the FIM's overdue decision to remove the weight advantage the 750cc twins previously enjoyed over the 600cc fours in '95, the Ducatis still haven't stopped winning. At the halfway point in the 10-race International Open Supersport Championship, which this year saw rounds held in Japan and Indonesia as well as Europe (a prelude to a full-on FIM-recognized Supersport WQrld Series in 1997), Ducatis won four out of the five rounds run and it was a 748 that ultimately took the championship in the capable hands of Fabrizio Pirovano, riding the Corona-sponsored Ducati run by Belgium's Team Alstare. But that championship came only after some incredibly hard-fought, crowd-pleasing racing between the Italian desmo V-twins and the new Yamaha YZF600 Thundercats, with the Yamahaengined works Bimota YB9SRI now also waving the four-cylinder flag effectively. Supersport racing has come of age internationally. What began as a costconscious street bike class is now a key battleground for rival manufacturers. Alstare boss Francis Batta is a shrewd operator who runs the top privateer team in four-stroke motorcycle racing today, a crisply presented outfit worthy of F-l car racing which has attracted a multiyear, multimillion-dollar sponsorship package from Mexico's Corona Beer. Batta's boys have delivered the goods, with Pirovano winning the first three races of the series on the trot in the ex-motocrossers debut season road racing with treaded tires after a glorious eight-year career as World Superbike's most experience<:! and consistently successful rider. A second place by half a wheel to former Belgarda Yamaha teammate Maio Meregalli in a four-bike blanket finish at Monza, coupled with a troubled sixth place at Brno with tire problems, left Piro narrowly leading the points table frqm Meregalli as the season took a halftime breather. While Piro had a month off playing Papa with his baby son, I got to ride his championship-leading Corona Ducati at Belgium's Zolder race track. Let's be honest. Less can be more, bigger not always best. Just as the street 748 otto va/vole is actually a more ridable roadster with a higher fun factor than Ducati's torquier, lazier 916, simply because you have to work harder and. stir the gearbox more to make it go places, so the supersPort desmo is more of a real-world racer for the likes of you and me than Troy or John's works 995 Superbike - all wheel-spinning, wheelstanding hyperbike hunk of it. The Corona 748SP' hasn't got so much power that you're always worrying about unhooking the back tire when you get hard on the gas, bu t there's quite enough to deliver thrills without spills, performance without pain. The trick PireI!i Dragons on Piro's bike have about the same level of grip as a customer slick, allowing third-gear wheelies every lap hard On the gas around the left-hand turn before the second chicane. But you're in control, not the bike. The Corona Ducati is that perfect package, a bike you can work hard at riding, and get satisfaction from doing so. It delivers. One key factor is naturally the engine, prepared by Rolando Simonetti, the French desmo guru whose bikes took Raymond Roche to the World Superbike crown in 1990 and Paquay to the Supersport title last year. The Corona team has a factory-built motor it got at the start of the season (maintained in-house), which Rolando insists is identical to the team's spare engine which the team built itself, and uses the same mix of standard and racekit parts as any other Ducati privateer like Bernhard Schick (see sidebar). "The only thing the factory did was to blueprint the engine for us," Rolando says, "matching all the parts to each other and fitting kit stuff like the smaller generator, slipper clutch and close-ratio gearbox. We use standard camshafts, but the heads are ported and flowed and the combustion chamber reshaped. And we fit the Termignoni racing exhaust with a bigger 52m.m bore rather than the 50mm stock system." A larger 916 Corsa radiator is fitted to handle the extra heat generated by an increase in power to 115 bhp at the rear w heel at 11,800 rpm, w hil~ the inlet ducting from the air intakes to the airbox has been remade in carbon fiber but retains the stock shape and section, as the rules require. The airbox, however, is the same as on the street bike, in molded plastic rather than carbon fiber as on the racing versions of the 916. That's because on the Ducati a carbon airbox has a dual function - to save weight (unnecessary, since the Corona 748 scales right on the new 378-pound common weight limit) and to act as a brace' in stiffening up the frame - and that's not permitted under supersport rules. You can tell Rolando's not being economical with the truth about the stock cams, because the Corona Ducati has exactly the same power curve as a street 748SP - there's just more of it! Fire it up on the electric starter - every race bike should have one - and revel in the unbelievably precise and light throttle response that's been carried over to the racer from the 748 SP roadster, the best I've ever en.countered, even on another fuel-injected motorcycle. The Ducati starts to accelerate smartly from 6,000 rpm up, but then at just under 7,500 rpm there's another big

• Cover