Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Mick Doohan invited the lead sin ger of Prodigy Keit h Flint - to th e test . Flint is a motorcycle fan and owns a CBR900RR. (Right) Alex Criv ille was fast again, lapping thi rd-quick est - behind Doohan and Suzuki's Nobuats u Aok i. Criville also showed off a new helmet for 1998 - a Shoe i. (Left) Aoki at spe ed on t he new Suzuki RGV500. Aoki will team with Nor iyukl Fujiwara in the two-man Suzuk i team for th e 1998 Grand Prix season. "T he bi ke isn't as powerful as last year wi th the unleaded fuel and it's not as interes tin g to rid e," Doohan sa id . "It's p ossib le the competiti o n will be clos er because th e bikes are now easier to rid e, but it's not as much of a cha llenge. On the strai ght, we're sti ll hitting about 290kmh (179.8 mph), but th e bike isn't as p owerful u nd er acceleratio n that's where we' re losing out. Hopefully, we can find some more power before the season s tarts. We' re testi ng different engines and we don't kn ow what we 'll run wi th : ' Criville revealed that the team was testin g three powerplan ts - the Big Bang engine he a nd Okada used in 1997, along with the Type B screa mer favored by Doohan, and a prototype with a firing order somewhere betw een the firs t two configura tions. " I actu ally lik e th e e ng ine Mick (Doohan ) has u sed , bu t I still haven' t made a decision yet ," Criville said . "We o n ly ha d a proto type engine here at P hillip Is land. Next w eek at Eastern Creek, we will have our first look at the comple te 1998 NSR500." It ' s u n de rs too d th at , a long wi t h eng ine refin emen ts, a grea ter range of chassis and steering ad justm ent will be o ffered o n th e m ost domi na nt bike in Grand Prix racing. Criv ille said he is ou t to atone fo r 1997, which was ma rked by the horrific hand in jury he sustained during practice for the Du tch Grand Prix. He carne back strongly to finish fourth despite missing several races, and rounded off the year with a w in at Phillip Is la n d a f te r Doo ha n crash ed out while leading comforta bly. "I fin ished th e year w ell, and my hand is impro ving ," Cri vill e said. "It' s . sti ll only 80 percent of normal; th e skin gra ft still feels stiff, bu t I'm confident of be ing competitive:' He ad ded that the han d did n' t affect his rid in g. "I was ab le to d o 142 laps, with a lot of tire testing on the final day, so we achie ved a lot: ' Kocinski co n ti nued h is s te a dy progr ess on the MoviStar -Pon s NSR500, an d has kept to th e sc r ip t by p la ying d o w n h is ch ance s o f cha ll e ng ing Dooha n in his fir st ye ar back in SODs since 1994. "Mick's like a good bottl e of red wine - he gets better the lo ng er h e' s been a ro und, " Koci n ski told the Sydn ey Mo rning He rald. "I've wo n a 250 World • Cha m p ionship and a Superbike Wo rld Champions hip, bu t th e 500 title is the one th at 's missing. But I don 't think it's possible to win the title this yea r - not in the first season ba ck o n a 500, and not with Mick running so hot." Australian Garry McCo y, w ho mo ves to th e 500s after racing 125s in pr eviou s . seasons , was happy after his first-ever run on a 500 - but claimed he cou ld've bee n fast er if not for some needed finetuning. " W e didn 't have eno ug h p a rt s to s tart cha ng ing th e gearbox ratios , and once we do -that, I'm sure I'll go qu icker," McCoy said after dropping 4.87 secon ds fro m the first to final day. "Th is is m y first time o n a 500 and every d ay I've gon e quicker. I wanted to sta y on th e thin g and I di d that. I did a lo t of laps, w hich is the most im portant thing right now :' Th e 25-year-old McCoy finishe d .20 of a second off th e time of new teammate Juan Borja, who in turn wa s just .06 o f a seco n d b ehi nd Wait' s TSR . Ho nda V-twin. While Aoki was able to slot his Su zuki ahe ad of a ll bu t o ne of the Hondas, tea m ma te Fujiwara was the slowes t of the four-cylin der bikes with a 1:35.40. He a lso cras he d on th e fina l day and was fortunate to not suffer any injury. l~ Na W aiting far Matt oll o w in g his whirlw ind en try into the ra n ks of 500cc Gran d Prix racing, Ca lifornian Ma tt Wait (rig ht) has w as ted no time establi shing him selfas somebody to wat ch in 1998. In jus t his second run on the FCC Technical Spo rt s Honda NSR500 V-twin, 21-year-old Wait was fastest of th e twin-cylin der runners at the recent IRTA test at Phillip Isla nd After a d isappointing 1997, Wait is laying so me important foundations for th e remainder -......o f his promising ca re er. He w ent faster than seasoned GP ca m paign ers Garry McCoy and Juan Borja on th eir Shell Advance Hondas in his fir s t-ev er -run aro u nd th e fas t Australian track - and im pre ssed Alex Criville with how qu ickly he could.adapt to a new bike, particularl y a SO , at a new circuit. D "Everybod y says how ha rd a 500 is to ride, but I felt real comfortable right away," Wa it sai d after the fina l day of testing, in which he ran a 1:34.280. "I could run it in way deep, and get the back sliding. I loved it:' . ' Wait only tied up the d ea l in late November and d id a 75-lap test a t Suzuka before Christmas, fulfilling a lifelong ambition. "Racing in the GPs was always my d rea m, so yeah, it' s been grea t to go st raight into the 500s and feel so good on the bike," Wait said . Indeed, following a moderate season beset with injury and underdeveloped equipment, Wait 's career could have lain in lim bo after he finished seventh in the AMA 250cc GP Championship o n a Honda RS250 and tied for 15th in 600cc Su persport Series on a "B" team Honda CBR600. Coming off a successful 1996, in w hich he clinch ed the Harley-David son Su p erTw ins se ries from li fel ong riva l Ben Bostrom, 1997 ap pea rs to hav e been a mer e hiccup. Simply put, Wait has been give n the chance of a lifetime and is already making th e most of it. Over th e fou r-day IRTA test , he comp leted the most laps of any rider: 24~, or the equivalent of nine GPs. Relish in g the chall en ge and the hard work requ ired , Wait credits good associations 'w ith an ex-GP journeyman and th e biggest motorcycle-racing factory on ear th for clinchin g the d eal. Former Yamaha GP privateer and Kaw asaki For~nula 7~0 rider of the '70 s Jean-Fran cois Bald e a nd HRC hav e pla yed a key role In Wal t s ascension. "Last year, I me t [ean-Francois thro ugh the Elf distributors in America, andhe took an interest in what I was doing!' Wait expla ined . "Th en I we nt to Su zuka as a number-three rider on a factory RC45, and I qualified really weIl. I met important people in the Honda Racing Corporation, and that laid the foundati ons with the fac•• . . . tory." When Nobuatsu Ao ki left th e FCC Techrucal Sports Ho nda team to JOin the Suzuki 500 outfi t, Regis Laconi was on th e tea m's sh opping list, becau se it was 'sw itching to the V-tw in aft er a season on the Honda V-four . But w hen the Frenchma n was sna pped up by th e Red Bull Yamaha squad, Balde began the bid ding for Wait - bot h with th e team and th e factory - and the d eal was agreed to In late Novem ber. Racing under the renamed TSR ba nne r, Wait is guaranteed factory equipment for 1998, but was nev ertheless impressed by the stock V-twin's performance. Not surprisingly, he's itching to get on the w?rks weapon . . . . . "We' re told it' s go t more power, IS probably a bit lighter, an d Will have a twinfork swi nga rm rather than th e single pro-arm the V-twin's had! ' Wait said. "It '.s funny - I kept ask ing my guys if the bike at Phillip Island was stan d ard because It felt so good:' Wait has ea rned a reputation for hi s aggr es sive s ty le on th e circuit, which appears to have held him in good stead in his first da y with the big boys. I~ a class where you can be trampled in the rush if you d on't stand your ground, Wa lt wasn' t p hased by runni ng around with th e biggest names in town, incl uding Doohan, Kocinski, Criville and O kad a. Phillip Isla nd is a fast-flow ing circuit wi th the exce p tion of two hairpins, and Wait wasted littl e time makin g his acqu aintance with it. "I like the track a lot. I was behind (Carlos) Checa for a while, catch ing him through the corn ers before he'd smoke me on the st rai ghts! ' Wai t said. "The V-fours had around 10mph on the V-twins, so I just rode the shit out of the bike. The leftha nder off the bottom loop, man - I was squaring that thing off like a diam ond:' As ha rd as he wa s rid ing , Wait still acknowledged that setup is just as importa nt as aggression . "I found that every corner had a little bump in it, so ge tting th e sus pe nsion right was really crucial!' he added. He was able to lop 3.4 seco nds from day one to day four, steadily add ing to his und er standing of the bike and the track. Confident and clearly pleased with his first real outing on the bike, Wait has se t realistic goals for this season. "I aim to finis h the year in the top 10," he declared. "I've got a lo t to learn and that's the way I want to treat it:' Wit h the prolife ra tion of V-twins creating a race within a race, Wai t said he wants to be th e third-fastest tw o-cylind er pil ot. "Takuma Aoki and Alex Barros obviously have more experience, so I aim to slot in with them. I think I can do that at some races." Wh en it was pointed ou t that the V-tw ins ha d often qualified well only to be left behi nd on the firs t lap, Wait had that covered , too. "Oh, I'v e been practicing m y starts." I Darryl Flack F 17

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