Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

which improved on his personal best of 1:32.7' set during the race this pas t sea..3 son shortly before he crashed . "I mainly tested the '97 bike, wi th different setups w hich made it less nervous and easier to ride," Fogarty said . Often du ri ng the season, Foga r ty co m p lained abou t the reaction s of th e bike, w hich w as reluctan t holdin g the cornering line in medium-radius curves and w hich ha nd led bad ly in th e s lo w chica ne s. The bad-handling p rob lems affec ted co rner e xit s as w ell and, as a res u lt, to p s p ee d i n th e fol lowing straights. Fogarty 's Ducati, for example, was alm ost always slowe r than Kocin ski' s a nd Aa ron Slig h t's Hondas in to p sp ee d. With a lot of tim e ava ilab le, as well as being away from the tension of the races, Fogarty appeared to be able to zero in on the root of the problems that cost him a third title. "T he fa ct that we d id th e tests a t Albacete, w he re I had the most problem s, has been a g rea t help : ' Fogarty said . "We managed to compa re the data durin g q ua lif yi ng a nd th e two ra ces with tho se accu mula ted during the fourday test. I'm sure w e'v e don e a lo t o f good work in view of the battles ahead in '98 . It w a s a s ha m e th e wea th er wasn' t better. If it had be wa rmer an d en if we had ha d m ore tim e avai lable, 1 think we could ha ve go t under the lap 1:37.60 was set at the end of da y one, and it was a lo ng way from hi s record of 1:35.476, set during the Albacete race in • September. . "I can 't un derstand why Ducati gave me such a slow hike," he said, controversially, as soon as he retu rned to Italy. 'The 748 evolution had about 10 bhp less than the bike this year, according to the eng ineers, an d we did n't manage to ge t a ny va lid feed back regard ing hand ling, or on the new Pirelli tires w e brou ght speci fically to test." Caso Ii interrupted the test session on Wednesda y. Team GioC aMoto wi ll test again in the next few weeks at Rijek a, with the new-generation Pirelli tires . Because of th e bad w ea ther co nd itions, Ducati want ed to extend the test by a day and had boo ked the circuit for Frid ay, Novem ber 21. But ano ther d ownpour forced rid ers and engineers to stay in the hot el. It was d ecid ed to move to Jere z, in so u thern Spain, in search o f some real Iberian sun, wh ich at Albacete was just a dim memory. (~ (Above) Pier-Francesco Chili was on hand, testing a pre- '98 version 01the 996 race bike. record." O n Th u rsday, Foga rty, who a lso picked up a cold in Spa in, carried out a sort of race simulation, doing 16 consecutive laps. His total time was two seco nds less tha n he obtained over the same distance d uring the first race in September. Ducati engineers gave the latest evolution of the 916, in pre-'98 configuration, to Pier-Fra ncesco Chili. The Italian rid er set a fast time of 1:33.32 at the end of the second day's testin g. Du rin g one of the races at the circu it, Chili had set a time of 1:32.758. "1 mainly tested the evolution versio n and worked a lot on suspension setup:' Chili said afte r doi ng a tota l of 160 laps. "Th e bike is powerfu l and easy to ride, and it was a shame not to have been able to push harder, due to the bad weather. 1 also have to admit I wasn't in the best of physical condi tion because of a swollen wrist w hich preven ted me from rid ing smoothly." O n this occasion, Cors er, Chili and Foga rty we re supported by the AD-VF tea m of Virg inia Ferrari, w ho was responsible for ge tting the bikes to Spain , as we ll as circuit logistics. The seco nd officia l team - w hich, as confirme d by Duca ti Man ag in g D irector Mas simo Bordi , will be Gattolone - was abse nt. Des pite the various negotiations and ru mo rs, n othi ng h as fu nd am entall y cha nged in the Ducali lin eu p for 1998, wi th the exception of the retu rn of Co rser in place of Nei l Hod gson , who moved to Ka wasaki' s World Superbike team. The Italian faclory still has to d ecide who goes where on the two team s, however. At first it appeared that Corser was go ing to Ga ttolo ne, bu t team mana ger Ferra ri is agai nst th is option . A nd because Chili has raced for Gallolone since 1995, his returning there can' t be ruled out. In this case, Corser and Fogarty wou ld therefore be on the "internal" team run by Ferrari. But there is still no official confirm atio n of this. Ducati also brought an evolution version of the 748 for World Cup Superspo rt Cham pion Paolo Casoli to try. The GiaCa Moto team rid er, w ho ha s alre ady renewed his contract for '98, complained abou t the lack of po wer from the engine, which he said was worse than the one he race d la st ye ar. Casoli's bes t tim e o f (Above) World Supe rsport Champ io n Paolo Caoli co mplained 01a lack 01 power from his "evolution" version of th e 748, and halted testi ng early. (Left) Fogarty was able to improve lap times over what he achieved during the races at the Spanish circuit earlier this year. r-, 0\ 0\ ...... 0 ' ...... .... OJ ..0 E OJ u OJ c 11

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