Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

FEATURE World Superbike factory team managers By Joh an Van de cker ch ove Photos by Gold & Goose hich would be mo re exciting - taking a factory Castrol H onda RC 45 at s ome 155 mph th rough Hockenheim's Ostkurve, or having the power to tell Aaron Slight to back down a bit in order to slow the other factory rid ers so that John Kocinski can make a break and storm to ano ther victory ? Whil e the letter may not be wha t happened a few weeks ago at the famed Ger ma n circuit (team orders have rarely been ad minis tere d in th e World Superbike Cham pio ns hip), it could be don e and these are the five men w ho have thepow er to restrain Scot t Russell, John Kocins ki , Ca r l Fogar ty o r the ir other factory colleagues, if need be. Lest er Harris, David e Brivio , Harald Eckl. Vi rgi n io Fe r ra ri a nd Neil Tuxworth might have noth ing much in common at first loo k. But these are the men who run the factory teams in the World Su per bi ke C ha m pionship, m en w ho have a significant racing budget at their di sp osa l and who all say tha t right now they ha ve the wo rld's fastes t four-stroke riders on th eir tea ms . Ha rris h as ru n th e official Suzu k i tea m since its inception, an d has been face d wi th the d ifficult task of getling the new GSXR750 up to s p eed in the highest level of four-stroke racing in the wo rld . Italian Brivi o took ove r management of the officia l Yama ha effort from Chris tian Sarron in 1995, and has been at the helm d uring the YZF750's most recent and steady im prov ement. Eckl, a fo r me r World Championship G rand Prix racer, took ove r the Kawasa ki factory effort from Rob Muzz y at the end of last season, and with the su ppo rt of the factory has had impressive result s in the seaso n thus far - a stark contrast to the di sappoi nti ng string of wi nt er tes ts the team end ured . Th e colo rful Ferra ri has run the Duca ti factory effort for the pas t three years; the tea m's succes s is widely kn own.. Fina lly, there is Tu xwort h, captain of Honda' s factory effort wi th the RC45, arg ua bly th e m ost techn icall y adva nced four-strok e motorcycle in the world , though it ha s ye t to wi n fou rs troke racin g's highest hono r; Tuxworth has been ru nni ng the HRC tea m si nce 1993. Sh owing th e fo r mer, p r esent a nd future World Champions the wa y might seem a glamorous mission, but it is sureIy mu ch more tha n your average 9-t0-5 job. We talked to the quintet abo ut their responsibilities, streng th s and worries. How do you fil in to the general picture? LH: Basically, the decisions are mad e in Japan as to engine development, su spension develo pment. The rider choice is very much a joint d ecisio n between myself and the ja panese. But apart from that. th e fac to ry gives u s a fair ly free hand wit hin certai n param eters. Discuss io ns mi gh t a r ise w he n you need to move outside those parameters. A lot of testing is done in Japa n (in Suzuki's race sho p and on its test track). Wha t has tend ed to ha ppen is tha t th e gene ra l poli cy d ecision s are bein g taken as a result of wha t has been tested in Japan. Suzuki gives us the equipment, « 22 and they say, "Gel the best results out of that. " But sometimes we also like to try other things - not on pure engine development, as that requires a huge amount of time and resources. Now we have come to a s ta ge where the Japanese allow us to instigate some development; w e can g ive th em feedba ck, and they react amazingly quickly on this information . DB: Things have not changed too much for me since Christian Sarron left. I take care of the organizational aspects of the team, whereas crew chief Fiorenzo Fanali is responsibl e for th e techn ical s ide of it all. Things migh t look a bit comp licated for me, as our team has its bas e in Italy, the bikes come from Japan, and eve rything is coord ina ted by Yamaha Europe in Amsterdam (in Ho lland ). We are constantly excha ngi ng info rmation in orde r to pr ogress. HE: I think that Kaw asaki changed the team this year because the y wanted to get some more control over everything. For me, it wa s a new challenge and , to be qu ite hones t, I thoug ht the step from tw o-stroke to four-stroke racing wou ld be bigger. But a lo t of thi ng s ar e quite similar, an d I hav e been ab le to learn a lot in a very short tim e - tha nks to severa l cre w me mb ers w ho a lrea dy ha d a vast experience in Worl d Superbike racing . VF: To th e outside world, the Du ca ti fa ctory team m ight look a bi t like the "od d team ou t:' because it is European. But at the end of the day, we all wa nt to w in . And th a t ha s got no thin g to do with na tionality or mentality. NT: As an employee with Ho nda UK, 1 am in a bi t of a different situation than my colleagues. I also spend some time in th e hea d office in London and with the nation al racing team. What is th e m ost difficult as p ect of your job? LH: Ine vitably, we are all trying to get the bike to w i n r a ce s . All the o th e r things - like the PR activities, the hospitality and all that - ki nd of ge t in the way. You get overloaded with all th at other stuff , and th is takes an un believable and even di sproportionate amo unt Co mmu n ication is one of a team manager's top prior ities. Oucati's Virginlo Ferrari (above) and KawasakI's Harald Eckl talk to their respective riders. Where do the come from? The sky is the limit in the World Superbike Championship, and it doesn't seemto matter where your start· at l~ast if you look at thebackgrounds of the five officia l team marwgers. A brie pro/ill! ofeach; f Lester Harris, together wi th his brother Steve and another partner, runs Harris Perfo rmance Products. The com pany has been invo lved in racing for som e 25 years - at eve ry imaginab lc level. Th e name Ha rris became commo np lace after the y built fram es for 500cc GP Yamaha engines. Ho wever, attention is now sh ifting toward World Super bike racing . "We are only a sma ll com pa ny a nd we cannot ge t too div erse," says Lest er Harri s, wh o has been the m<'lnagt'".T of the official Suzu ki team since 1996. For Davlde Brivio, his pr esent fun ction is the reali zati on of a dream. Italia n rig ht to the tip of his toes, he fell passionatel y in love with motorcycle racing d uring his yo uth. It did not stop him from studying com pu ter programming and origi na lly looking for a job in that wo rking envi ronment - especially after participation in a few national races had shown him that he was never going to be the next Marco Lucchinelli. t "1 despera tely wanted to do so me thi ng in racing," the likea ble Italian exp lains . "First, I did some roa d racing journalism in 1987, before I go t invol ved in the Pirovano and lat er the Belgnrd a team : ' After the d eparture of Christian Sarron at the end of 1995, Davide took over the management of the official Yamaha World Superbike team. Up until August of 1996, Harald Eckl could no t hav e expected to be in the place he is now. A forme r Grand Prix racer, he- started u p his own Aprilia 12See team in 1993. Ori gin ally set to ta ke his tea m and Peter Oe ttl to the 250cc class, he was asked by Kaw asa ki if he was int er ested in running the official World Superbike team. As the manufacturer offered him a steady threeyea r contract, and as he was keen on taking on d new cha llenge, the German accep ted an~ became the successor to Rob Muzzy and Steve johnsen in the four-stroke prem ier class . Virginia Ferrari might be the most flambo yant team ma nager in the paddock - not only becau se of his racing record but also because of his Italian way of d oing things. Ferra ri sta rted racing at a seriou s level in the beginning of the ' 70s. and later became a specialist in big bikes . He battl ed for the 500cc world title. for world en durance race victories, a nd won the T.T. Formula On e title in 1987 (one yea r before Car! Foga rty). "My first contacts with Fra nco Fame a nd Ducati lay back in 19n," he explains of his love for his cu rrent bi ke supplier. "And 1 rod e m y first 5OOcc, GP aboard a monocylinder 450 Duca ti." In 1994. he too k on his new role 35 the man ager of one of the official Du cat) teams, with Carl Fogarty an d Cia ncarlo Fa I01~ . Virginio now also ru ns a Ducati d ealers hip in pres tigio us Monaco. Train ed in accountancy, Neil Tuxworth soon found out that road racing offered a differen t sort of excitement. He raced in internatio nal even ts in the 70s and '80s, until a bad accident in 1986 left him in the hos pital for two y~ars and then cost him ano the-r yt"ar of reh abilitation, learn ing to walk aga in. He en tered thr ee mor e races in 1989 before he beca me Honda UK team ~ managt:'r in AUSlJst of tha t same year. Unlike most of his other colleagu es, Tu xw ort h is actua lIy employed by the factory. Aside from his World Superbike program (w hich he got from HRC in N93), he is still involved in othe r sports and nonsport-related activities of the British Ho nda importer . '

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