Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Walkinshaw racing: have chassis, need m otor is be ing mad e into an exciting spec tacle in its own right. A s o-ca ll ed Su pe r Po le Po si t ion countdown after the second tim ed qu alifying sessio n will see the top 16 qualifiers take turns running a s ing le ex tra solo flyin g lap, with the aim of improving o n th eir qu a lifying p o sition a n d going for gold in the form of extra cash prizes, awarded acco rding to the ir fina l position. Perha ps surprisi ngly, though, there's no plan to re ward even the po le-position rider with extra cha m pio nship points, as is don e in so me national se ries around the wo rld - let alon e, say , 4-3-2-1 points for the front-row men. Eurosport p lans to cover the Super Pole runoff at each round, however - and if it proves successful , the ide a is expected to spread to th e Supersport Worl d Series in '99. Injection isnice Spea ki ng of fu el in ject io n , re lia b le so u rces ins is t that th e a ll-new Honda CBR600 (sched uled to mak e its debu t in 1999) will indeed be fuel-in jected - a first for a ja pa nese bike in the Supersport 600 class. Wh ich beg s s ev eral qu estions: First, wi th Suzuki's GSXR750 now fuelinjected for '9 8, w ill its sca le d -dow n clone, the GSXR600, dead -heat with the Ho nd a to wear EFl before the cen tury is o ut? N ex t, Ya m a ha 's u pcom ing new R2 Su per bike, a 750cc versio n o f t h e ground -brea king one-liter Rl hyp erbike that's du e to be launched at th e Munich Show next Sep tem ber, is, like the Suz u ki, certain to be fuel-injected ; but will the R6 small-scal e version, due to replace th e YZ F600 Thund ercat in th e ye a r 2000, al so ca rry EFl? Seems p r etty likely, w ouldn 't yo u say? A nd , in tha t case, w her e d oes that leave Kawasaki? Wit h Triu m p h 's n e w fo u r-cyli n de r T600 Su persport (due to dead-hea t wi th th e Yamaha on the wo rld stage) also know n to be be fu e l-in ject ed , and A pri lia 's forthcoming RSV750 V-twi n su re to have the sa me EFl as its Superbi ke big bro ther, w ha t else can Kawasaki do? On ly, the question is - wh en ? , jus t as in th e s m all-car wo rld a d ecade ago, it only took one man ufa cturer to break ranks and introd uce EFl on a vo lum e product, an d all had to follo w sui t. So, thanks, Suzuki: With a little help fro m Ho nda o n the VFR, yo u've been responsible for bri ngin g the motorcycle marketplace into the 21st century - just as it's abo ut to dawn! Ducati tobuild new twin? Du cat i' s efforts to rega in th e W orl d Supe rbike title they lost to Hon da in '97 begin in Indonesia on Mar ch 15 - following a close season of in tense effor t to turn the 916 back into a title-winner. But wi th Ho nda an d see ming ly also Kawasaki caugh t u p o n per forman ce, and the Italians no longer able to increase engi ne capa city another no tch to keep ahead, there ' s open specu la tion that Ducati is fas t-forwa rdi ng d evelopmen t of a new engine to replace the existing otto valvole d esign, w hich mad e its racing d eb ut in September 1986 and is essentially base d on th e old air-coo led two-va lve Pant ah mo tor . However, while it is true tha t TPG's arrival on the scene has released much_ n eed ed d ev elo p m en t ca sh for such a new engine, there 's no wa y this coul d be ready before the September 1999 Mi la n Show, say Ducati insid ers - and in any case, it won' t be th e n arro w -angl e 60d egree V-twin wi th gear-driven DOHC on w hich the ru mor mill ins ists Ducati is wo rking, in order to resolve the packaging problems of th e 90-degree L-twin layo ut. "I ca n categori cally sta te that Ducati will only build 90-degree V-twin engines in the future," says th e com pa ny's technical gu ru , Massim o Bord i. "To do o therw ise would be a rejection of our company' s heritage, as well as to sacrifice the eng inee ring trad ema rk it' s taken u s a quarter-century to establis h. Anyway, if it's such a bad layout, how come Hond a and Suzuki ha ve copied u s? Bu t in any case, 1 trul y beli eve we can extract more pe rformance from our existi ng mo torcycle - eno ugh to restore ou r position of supremacy wi th th e p resent engine." Thoug h Bord i won't confirm it , wo rd is, how ever, that Du cat i is planning a se ries of tests this wi nter in the nearby wind tu nn el of their neighb ors, Ferrari, in o rder to enhance the 916's top-end p erfo rm a nc e b y w a y of aerodyna mic improvements. Beautiful as Tarn burini 's de sign is, there's been a feeling for some time th a t it ' s no t v ery aerody na mic, bei ng particul arly d eficien t in terms of rider protection and reduced d rag. The a p pearance of Su zu ki' s new TLlOOOR V-twin Superbike, which, ju dging by its bodyw ork d esign, has evidently spen t some time in a wind tunnel .has u nd erline d th is - so expect eithe r Tam buri ni or Ducati 's own in-hou se stylis t, Pierre Terb lanche (cre ato r of the svelte Supermono), to come up with so mething si milar, only more - er, Latin. However, th e crunch is th a t Su perbike ru les obviously don't permit bodywork cha nges, un less the street bike the racer is de riv ed from homo loga tes it first on th e s treet. This po in ts , say Ita lian sources, to a new short-run 916SPS being launched at the Munich Show nex t Septem be r. This bike will sport revised styling aimed at enhancing performance Add TWR to th e Superbike ros ter? Th at' s the rumor comi ng ou t of Banbury, in the Midlands of Englan d, w here Arrows Formul a One team boss Tom Walkinsh aw has his base. As you m ay remember, close by is Ken ny Rob erts ' Modena s fa ct o ry , w hos e K R3 500cc thr e e- cy li n d er engine wa s designed and developed for him by TWR. Except - supposed ly th at' s no t th e o n ly m otorcycl e e n gine TW R h as o n i ts d raw in g bo ard : Ther e's a fou r-cylinde r 750cc Su perbike m o to r (co n fig u ra tio n u nknown), too, say sources, believed to have bee n d ra wn u p fo r Alfre d Enzinger's Promotor tea m over a yea r ago , as an in s u ra n ce p oli cy agains t an even tual break with th e Ducati facto ry, w hose bikes allowed Enzi nger' s Power Ho rse-spo nsored team to deliver the '96 Wo rld Supe rbike title, courtesy of Troy Corser . Walk in sh aw and Enzinger were (are ?) pa rtners in Power Ho rse, but Tom Walkinshaw Racing prod uced the w h e n th e s p li t with Du cati d id three-cyli nder two-stoke that powered come, Enzinger instead joine d wi th Kenny Roberts ' Modenas. Will TWR move to Yamaha in SOOcc GP racing, with the World Supe rbikes ? d isast rou s o u tcome th at led to his Red Bull rivals taking over the team . However , the wo rd is th at TWR still has its su perbike-engine design read y for som eone else to tak e over, so perhaps th e ideal cand ida tes are just 10 miles up the road at Bicester : Ma rch, whose 750 Superbike chassis an d styling have been sitting read y bu t eng ine less for more th an a year, wa iting for th e pro m ised Al Melli ng four-cylind er m otor tha t so far has failed to show up. Instead of a Mar ch link with Trium ph, which so me interes ted in running an all-British su pe rbike team have proposed (installing the 900cc sho rt-stroke version of the T595 Daytona th ree-cyli nder engine tha t's kn own to be un der development fo r a po ssible Superb ike in the March rolling chass is), the TWR op tion might make more sense - unl ess the Melling motor is im mi nent. No sig n of it yet, th ou gh , so ...? of th e 912 for the '99 sea so n, with p erhaps so me o the r detail cha nges (chassis?) aim ed at carrying the bike through com pe titively until its all-new re placem ent comes on line, presumably for the 2000 mod el year. With Hon d a s ta ting p ublicl y th at five b h p a re need ed to in crea s e to p s pee d by jus t 1 kph, th is lb o ks li k e Du ca ti's best way to keep up with th e japan ese - tha t, and res toring the desrno V-twi n's los t rid ab ilit y, go ne afte r the adop tio n of 60mm throttle bodies for the '97 season. .':\ Paul Ricard: 1909·1 9 97 The man wh ose na me is syno ny mo us with France's most famous race circuit has died at age 88: Pau l Ricard, one of the richest busin ess figu res in France, and one of the m ost flam boyan t. Inv entor of the an iseed -flav ored Ricard pastis d rink th at for ma ny foreign ers is sy no ny mo us wi th a visit to a Frenc h cafe, Ricar d was a mod el employe r whose "people's capita lism" was regard ed wi th sus p icion by other b usiness figu res . But it worked : Ricar d had an inten sely loya l wo rkforce w hom he paid well, distribu ting 40 p er cent of his com pany sha res to th em, and who enjoyed holi d ays together at chateaux and ski-chalets he'd pu rchased for this purpose - eve n once taki ng all 1500 of his wo rkers for a Roman holiday to be blessed by the Pop e! Born in Marseille in 1909, Ricard (at the age of 19) inven ted the recipe for his pastis d rink , w hich he ha d to begin br ewi ng illegally in the cellar of a local barber, d ue to its similarity to absinthe, w hich was banned ! But in 1932 the ban was lifted , and in d ue course - especially after mergin g wi th its rival, Pernod, in 1975 - Ricard beca me th e world's third most popula r a lcoho lic d rink, by vo lume, after Bacardi rum an d Smirnoff vod ka, with annual sales of mo re than $3 billion . But in the la te ' 60s Ricard gave u p the reins of the company to his two sons, th rowing himself into develop ing a va riety of leisu re in ter ests in th e Camarg ue region, incl udi ng the race circu it bearing his nam e, which opened in 1971. From his nearby ho me on the private is la nd of Ben dor, jus t off the coas t at Ban dol, Ricard masterminded h is ci rc uit's g row th in to th e ven ue of n o t only the French Formula One ca r GP b ut - m o re im po rta ntly, in terms of s pecta tor a tten d a n ce the annu al Bol d 'Or 24Hour bi ke race, as well as the French mo torcycle GP , both o f whi ch are s t ill h eld ther e today. H e 'll b e m is s ed : Let ' s raise a glass of pastis to him - Ricard, of course! Beverage magna te Paul Ricard - builder of the famous French circuit that bears his name - passed away at the age of 88. 5

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