Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

bike ridden by Gibernau; the Shell Advance pairing of Juan Borja and ex12Scc star Garry McCoy, who should find himself well-suited to the lightweight 500; and Jurgen van den Goorbergh, back for a second year, with the pair of NSR-V machines ridden last year by Barros and equipped with a smattering of factory parts during that time. These are all experienced riders. Three GP newcomers make up the Honda numbers. From Britain, Scott Smart brings a strong racing heritage - his father was noted '70s campaigner Paul, and his uncle is Barry Sheene. Sebastien Gimbert takes over the French twin ridden last year by Laconi, and Fabio Carpani is an Italian last-minute newcom r. The last V-twin goes to Californian Matt Wait, a former AMA Supersport and 2S0cc GP rider in at the deep end of fhe FCC Technical Sports bike ridden to third overall last year by Nobuatsu Aoki. It takes rather less time and space to enumerate the opposition - especially that from Suzuki, where the continuing desire to add a third rider was again thwarted, leaving a uniquely all-Japanese factory team. Dubbed the Samurai Sanction, Suzuki insists that their rider choice was not motivated by blind patriotism. Nobuatsu Aoki, after all, was a very close third overall last year, in his first attempt at the SOOcc class. The oldest of the three Aoki brothers, Nobuatsu leaped at the chance to take on machine development rather than being one among many at Honda; and an all-new bike - with "controlled flex" extruded beams in place of fabricated members - has so far been·on the pace. obuatsu was shaken by the serious pinal injury to the middle brother, but, followi ng a family conference, he has rWfirmed his personal commitment to racing, in honor of the wheelchairbound Takuma. Suzuki has groomed his teammate for this moment for several years. Katsuaki Fujiwara has raced in only one GP, as a wild card in Japan in 1996. It will not escape notice tha t he led the opening laps before he was sidelined • with machine trouble. Yamaha and Suzuki were neck and neck a t preseason tests, and in both camp morale was high as they caught a whiff of a chance of beating Honda at last. Yamaha again has two teams, with . seniority among them with Wayne Rainey's squad. As last year, the factory squad lacks· a big-money sponsor. Yamaha and Castrol are footing the bill together. Rainey has the senior riders, too Jean-Michel Bayle returning to Yamaha after a downbeat year on the Modenas, and GP winner Norick Abe returning one year wiser. Times from early tests were impressive, though one-time dirt bike king Bayle suffered a worrisome concussion in a Malaysian fall that cut short his preseason program. Abe seemed more switched-on than at any time in the past. (He's notoriou for managing to go fast only during races.) Also on YZRs are the Red Bull team, which rose from the ashes of last year's ill-fated Power Hor e squad. Out goes Luca Cadalora, in come Simon Crafar and Regis Laconi. Both have pedigrees: The former pedaled the factory 2S0cc Suzuki after Kocinski left the team in '93, and raced a factory Kawasaki Superbike last year; Laconi moved to SOOs last year from 250s, and was highly impressive on the V-twin Honda, though a big injury spoiled the middle of the year, and Regis was the surprise fastest man· at one of the preseason IRTA sessions. There was a reason for this, said his rivals. The Red Bull team is on Dunlop tires - the first time in two years the Anglo-Japanese fum has shod a V-four 500 - and they were suspected of supplying the team with soft-compound "qualifiers." Thi worried the Michelin runners. With times so close, grid positions will be hard-fought over, and they may also have to adopt qualifying tires to prevent the Dunlop men from having a start-grid advantage. Most importantly, Yamaha's proud claim is a new engine so much improved that it is more powerful on Green Gas than la t year's motor was running with lead. This is either an admirable achievement,. or a major indictment of last year's effort - maybe both. The Team Roberts Modenas triples will also be Dunlop-shod, which could be a big advantage. The success of Dunlop in the smaller classes shows that when horsepower is not overwhelming, their rubber works very well. This is the case with the Modenas, which will run an updated and revised version of the original engine and chassis for the first few races, while awaiting the new engine, which is expected to have a balance shaft to tame the highly destructive vibrations. Kenny Roberts Jr. remains on Yama-hopes are pinned on Norlfume Abe (Lllft), JeanMichel Bayle, Simon Crafar and Regis Laconi (above). (Right) Valentino Rossi moves to the 250cc GPs for '98. (Left) Carlos Checa has been strong during testing. (Above) Nobuatsu Aoki armed with Suzukis for '98. strength for a second year, and will ride in Proton colors after Roberts Sr. secured further research and financial backing from the Malaysian car manufacturer, part of the same industrial group as Modenas. The other bike will be in Marlboro livery - it is understood Roberts has hung on to his long-standing backing only because he agreed to sign up Ralf Waldmann, moving up from the 2S0cc class to a saddle that might suit him well. Which leaves just one - a sort-of factory bike entered by Malaysian-owned MuZ, which took over the now-defunct ex-East German MZ works and now produces a small range of Yamahapowered single-cylinder 600s. The racer . is al 0 bought-in: It's the former Elf 500, with a ROC chassis and the SwissAuto V-four motor. MuZ promises greater engineering input in the future, but ad mi ts it is still learning a t this stage. MZ does, of course, have a glorious GP history. It was MZ who invented the modern two-stroke racer, when engineer Walther Kaaden discovered and developed the expansion-chamber exhaust as an acoustic aid to performance. Rider Ernst Degner defected to the West with the aid of Suzuki, who gained access to these vital secrets. 250cc: BABY SPICE SHOWS UP Doubtless it is because the machines are less daunting, but the 2S0cc riders in general seem to have more fun than' those on tlle SOOs. This will be severely pu t to the test this year by hmster Valentino Rossi. All the other 12Scc riders seemed to enjoy getting beaten by him last year, but the established 2S0cc men might find that it some1low diminishes their plea ure. Of course, it's a lotio assume that the blue-rinse 20-year-old will beat them; but his presea on testing performances have been more than impressive. He's been quicker than his Aprilia teammates Loris Capirossi and Tetsuya Harada on almo t every occasion, and he has hardly stopped giggling all winter. The Aprilia factory team numbers four World Championships among the above trio of riders, making up in decorations what it loses in numbers to Honda. Three privateers - Jurgen Fuchs riding for Docshop, fast Argentine Sebastian Porto, and new teammate and compatriot Federico Gardner - bring Aprilia's numbers up to just six. Honda dominates in this cla s as well, with 11 runners. Four of them will ride full works SRs: Olivier Jacque and Tohru Ukawa, both with star turns last year; ex-125cc champ Haruchika Aoki; and ex-Aprilia protege Stefano Perugini: The factory bike is totally changed for this year, with the long-serving single-crank V-twin motor dumped in favor of a tandem V-twin twin-crank motor. It is much like tha t used by the Aprilia, except that Honda has retained their reed-valve induction whereas the Ita lian bike has rotary disc valves. Private Honda riders are on familiarstyle V-twins - most notable among them U1sterrnan Jeremy McWilliams, whose ex-Tsujimura factory-kitted RS is also a rolling test bed for electronic innovations by his sponsors Optima. A complex and in-flight reprogrammabie engine-management system also has the facility to operate fuel injection, though this is still experimental. Other Honda men are Davide Bulega from Italy, Jacque's Tech-3 Chesterfield teammate William Costes, Yasu Hatekayama and Luca Boscoscuro from last year, with newcomers Roberto Rolfo and British hope Jason Vincent. Yamaha is not fielding any official works bikes, but their production machine has been upgraded, and th re will be five of them out there. Last year's campaigners Luis d' An tin, Franco Battaini, Jose-Luis Cardos and Osamu Miyazaki are joined by former top private Honda runner Takeshi Tsujimura; and so far this year's bike looks a lot closer to being competitive than last year's. Which leaves only Suzuki, with regular man Noriyasu umata lining up for a second season, wi th the benefi t of track familiarity. He has a new teammate: impressive young Swede Johan Stigevelt, who showed well at preseason tests. 125cc: JAPAN VS.ITALY In the aftermath of Valentino, Italy is staging an impressive comeback in a class that had turned Japanese. There are 10 Italian riders, against seven Japane e; and while Honda dominates in machines with 11, Aprilia is only one behind. Bespectacled veteran Noboru Ueda and his countryman Tomomi Manako lead Honda's phalanx, while the Italian Honda faction is well-served also by Gianluigi Scalvini, Lucio Cecchinello, Mirko Giansanti and Roberto Locatelli an impressive mix of youth and experience. Teenage newcomer Marco Melandri also rides a Honda, as well as fa t Frenchman Fred Petit. Aprilia musters former champion Kazuto Sakata and Tomomi Manako, with Emilio Alzamora from Spain their top European - back after a dismal injury-stricken works 2S0cc season. Yamaha's men have a new bike for this year, which l1lay mean Youichi Ui won't have to ride so hard - he was a frequent crasher last year. His teammate i again Enrique Maturana; old hand Yoshiako Katoh and newcomer Christian Manna make up the numbers. 0"

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