Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) It has n't taken 125cc World Champion Valentino Ross i long to get up to speed on his Aprilia 250. The Italian was the fastest of the 250cc men at Jerez , topp ing all three of his Aprilla teammates. (Top right) Team Roberts Modenas ' Kenny Roberts Jr ., Kenny Roberts and Ralf Waldmann. (Right) Kenny Roberts Jr. went well, lapping faster on the Modenas than he had on the factory Yamaha two yea rs ago . "Ma ybe I' m su rp rise d, bu t I ha ve tested a t th is tr ack a lo t al read y," h e said . Rossi head ed a block of four d ominan t Aprilias, wi th Tetsuya Har ada second , factory tester Ma rcell in o Lu cchi th ird , and Lor is Ca p irossi fou rth. Less th a n nin e-t enths covered th e quarte t, with the next rid er more tha n six-ten ths lower. Tha t rid er was Lui s d ' An tin on the semi-works Yamah a, beamin g a fter a range of minor but effective imp rovements to the machin e. Then came Jer emy McWilliam s, beating his previous best-ever on his Honda, using a 1997 HRC kit and an FCC Tech- Brieflv... - Carlos Checa - future World Champion? fixed now, so I am optimistic. We made a lot of progress with carbure tion, which is about 70 percent righ t now . The Vtwin Hon da can be as fast on unl ead ed as wit h lead , but it is mu ch harder to set the carbu retion," he exp lained . New 500cc r ide r Scott Sma rt was n e xt, fo ur- te n t hs d own on v a n d en Goo rberg h, wh o was rid ing his old bike; and Dor ian o Romboni was slowes t on the Mu Z (nee Elf 500) afte r falling and injuri ng his hand . Eskil Su ter also rod e the Mu Z after Rom bon i's spill (wearing leathers and helme t borrowed from [urge n Fuc hs) , but wa s o ff the pace. "I'm not fit eno ugh to make a ny co n trib ution ," he said . 250cc : ROSSI" STILL THE MAN Ital y' s stu nn ing 125cc Wor ld Ch amp io n co n tin ue d hi s rem arkable 250cc debut at Jerez, setting a sub-lap-record time to end up fastest of the 20 entra nts. Tea m Su zuk i b oss Arie Mol ena a r was far from d ism ayed. "The new bike only a rrived a w eek ag o, and Aprilia has tested her e six tim es already," he said . "Ov erall, we had a good weekend, and Stigefeld we nt very well." There were 20 250s on the track ove r the thr ee days. Roberto Locat ell i w a s cl ea rl y th e fastest of the 125s, 24 of who m practiced earlie r in the w eek. Fellow HRC-kit ted ri d ers Lucio Cecch ine llo a n d Ma sa o Az u ma too k th e n ext tw o s p ots, an d then the Aprilia of Gianni Borsoi slotted in ahead of thr ee more Hon das - Scalvin i, Gia ns a n ti a nd 15-y ear-old Ma rc o l~ Melandri. n ica l Sp orts ch assis . " It' s a lot better mid corner," he said . "The most impo rtant th in g is ou r engine- ma nage men t sys te m, develo p ed b y O p ti mu m . It sho u ld be better still when we get th e 1998 kit." Sebastian Porto's private Aprili a wa s n ext; t h e n ca m e Jose C ardoso a n d Osamu Miyazaki (both Yama ha-mou nted), with class re tu rnee [urgen Fuchs 10th. The Suzu ki s w ere 11th a nd 12th N o riya s u N u m a t a le s s th a n a ten t h fast er th a n new rid er [ oha n Stigefelt . Ne w Yamaha man Takeshi Tsu jim ura (e x-FCC H o nd a to p pr iv a te er) wa s 13th. Team QU B Op timum boasted a GP racing firs t in its pit: a porta ble dynamometer with which to assess the res ults of their new enqinemanage men t system . They are also wor king on fuel injection wi th the same highly advanced - Black Box. - whic h also allows the rider to make engine adjustme nts w hile riding . D id they' use injection this weekend? - N o co mment." said rider jeremy M cWill iams. want from Honda. but yo u' ll have to ask HRC exactly w hat it Is." . . The new 250cc Suzuki has a new chassis but it is no t the same as the major change to the Suzuki 500. The bigger bike has sw itc hed from a fabricat ed chassis to co mplex-section extruded tubes , but the 250 is basically fabricated. with some tubes. as before. > M uZ boss Petr-Karel Korous was at the IRTA te sts. and explained why they had recruited Donano Romboni instead o f a German rider for the German team. ·" W hen we signed Romboni, Wa ldmann was not available· but we w ill have to talk to him for next year; - he said. " ln any case . in our firs t year . we did not need the ext ra press ure from the German press . We are st ill learning .". The two Team Roberts M o denas tripies appeared in differen t colors fo r the tests. and for the res t of the seaso n. too. Kenny Roberts J r. wi ll ride in Proton colo rs . reflect ing not only spo nso rship from the Malaysian car makers (part of the same empi re as M odenas) but also a te chnical deal wh ereby they will heip wi th engine deveiopme nt . Ralf W aldmann is a Marlboro rider. but his bike wa s w hite this weekend . "W e haven't signed the co ntract or finalized the design yet. - explained Roberts. The former East _ German fir m may coo pe rat e w ith GP engine builders SwissAuto for a road-bike project as well. it is thought that the Swi ss firm is working on a 750 cc parallel twin for the fut ure. wh ich will extend the M uZ range. At present, they build only a 600 cc single in different versions, using a Ya maha mot or, D unlop tires are back in the 500cc class for 1g9S. after an absence of tw o years · excep t on V- twi ns. M odenas has definitely moved to D uniops from M ichelin. Rider K e n n y Robe rts Jr" praised the feel of the tires , but admitte d th e team had also suffe re d ser ious chatte r probl em s all wee kend. '. S e te G ibem au has been draft ed into the R epsoi Honda squad to ride theIact ory V ,twin this year. He takes over from Takum a Aoki. who it is feared may be paralyzed from ·the wai st down aft er a testing crash in J apan. Gibernau had been entered on a ROC Elf . basically the same bike as the M uZ . . Ju,.gen van den GOorbe rgh has .tw o ex-Alex Barros Honda V ·twins. which he chose in preference to' a new model: " It seems his bikes last year are basically the same as the new model. and i am happier wi th tw o bik es ins tead 'of one," he sald . . Youichi Ui gave the new Yamaha 125 chass is its first te st at Jerez. .and wa s conce rned about its behavior in fast cor ners. " It's earlynow , and 'we ca n fix it , or go back to last year's chass is." he said. He placed 12th at .The my stery abo ut Honda' s engine cho ices remained. They have three types of mot or . each w ith a different firing orde r. One is a Big Bang. one is the lS0-degree 'Screamer used by Mi ck Doohan last year. and the third is thoug ht to be a revival of the original gO·degre e motor . Joh n Kocinski would make no co mment on which he wa s using. " I' m getting wh at I A new fuel manufacturer 'has come into GP racin g: the American NewTech outfi t. And it see ms they may have solved the prob lems of switching to unleaded fuel bett er than the es tablished firms . Team Rainey and Red Bull (both Yamaha) and Suzuki will use the new fuel. A t J erez. there wa s much interest from oth er poten tial customers . the tests. . . '.

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