Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127970
year a nd pro ved to be an impro vemen t in reliability, af ter so me teethi ng tro ubles, bu t hardly an y more of a cha llenge to the V-fou rs. The pot ential of the id ea is not ex ha u s te d, bu t Ke nn y Rober ts' pa tience may be. H e is com mitted to one more yea r, bu t afte r tha t, the fut ure of the V-thre e is any body's guess . Mu Z had a toug h time after losing Romboni. Unable to recruit a to p-level rid er, they sold iered on, wi th tes ter Eskil Su ter do ing the hono rs as best he coul d , seldom finishing an d never higher than 13th. Right at the end of the se ason, they hooked u p w ith Lu ca Cadalo ra , who qualified the bike w ell bu t then perfo r med on e of h is en ig m a t ic t r icks , pulling in early in the race , having lost heart after dro pping to last p lace in a 'first-co rner shemozz le. Th e privateers also had a tough tim e - the more so beca us e the V-tw in Honda was hit hard by th e new lead -free gas. Very sensitive to tune and having lost a 'ch u nk of its va lua ble mid ran ge torq ue, it thr ew more em phas is on the hand lin g, and th e si ng le -s ide sw ing arrn ch assis was fou n d wa n ti ng . Also , th ere w ere problems a ll ye ar with a bad ba tch of gea rbox parts. Va n d en Goorbe rgh rich ly deserved the IRTA privat eer cu p for risi ng ab ove the p rob lems rather be tter than the rest. Even so, he had every righ t to be d isappointed . The res t reall y struggled, with Am erica n newcom er Matt Wait jus t ou tpointin g Scott Smart. O n bal an ce, th e yea r a nd th e class loo ked healthy. Th er e w ere five d ifferent GP winner s and the cha m pi o nship se esawed ba ck and forth. Yet there was no roo m for com place ncy. Lucky Strike h ad le ft th e s p o rt , a nd re pl a cement s po n sors w er e a lmos t imp ossibl e to find . At th e end of th e yea r came even m o re w o rryi ng s ig n s: No t o n ly h a d commercia l spons ors go ne, bu t even the trad e backers we re cu tting back . Elf was (Above) John Koc inski returned 10 Grand Prix racing as Ihe World Superbike Champion . II didn't count for much. (Above right) Loris Capirossi ended up as the 250cc World Champion after a controversia l end to Ihe season in the Argentinian Grand Pr ix . (Right) Tetsuya Harada was taken out by Capirossi in the last corner of I he last race and it cost him the title. (Be low) The man of the year - Mick Doohan. expec ted to leave altoge t h e r, w hil e Michelin a nd Dunlop an nou nced they wou ld h en ceforth co nc en tra te on the SOOcc cla s s and th e small er cl asses , respective ly, from next season onward . 250cc APR ILIA PULLED THE STRINGS Apr i lia had a b it of he l p in th e ir quest for dominance - es p ecially fro m Honda, w ho ditche d thei r long-serving and very succ essful sing le-crank V-twin in fav or of an all-new design aping the A p rilia 's tw in -cra nk desig n , but w it h th ei r own p referred reed-valve inductio n . Th e bi ke. was pretty a nd clever but just no t fas t en oug h i n its firs t yea r, cond em ning its riders to a su p porti ng ro le. Yamaha also lent a hand, wi th no factory bikes at all thi s season; likew ise Su zuki, w ith its ag ing V-twin receiving virtually no thing in the way of improvements. Even so, the full extent of the su pe rio rity of th e Italian bikes w as astou ndin g . Wi th t he exce p tio n of Su z uka , w here Japa nese wil d card Daijiro Katoh d o m inated on his Ho nd a, Ap rili a w on every si ng le race and every si ngle pole position . The only question was, Which rider would it be? Th e element of unpredictability came from w it h in th e team - a n d it d id n 't have all th at much to do with the rid ers, . wi th a series of utterly un p red ictab le m ech a nic a l p ro b le ms se lecti ng fr on tru nners al most a t random. It wa s almost as tho ug h factory boss Iva n Beggio had a r em o te- contro l button , a n d wo u ld select one or another.rid er at ra ndom. Factory m en H arada .and Ca pirossi bo th lost points because of th is - so metimes both at the same race, as at Assen. Th e mo st crucial was Ha ra d a' s sei zure an d su bsequent cra sh a t the pen ultimat e round in Aus tra lia. Alr eady riding hurt afte r a rare indiscre tio n a t Irno la, th is w as eno ugh to put Ca pi rossi narro wly a hea d o n poi n ts go ing in to th e la s t ro und . O n th e final lap in Arg entina , afte r ye t an other scra ppy race, Ca pirossi was beh ind Harad a, w ho wo u ld have won the title. Capiro ssi sim ply nerfed him off into the gravel on the last corne r, ea rning the nic kn ame Ca p is ch u mi (a f te r Sch umacher's similar exercise in Form ula O n e la s t yea r ) a n d f o rfeiti ng h is poi n ts aft er bein g fo un d g u il ty o f unsportin g co nd u ct . Th en th e w hole thing w as turned arou nd , and he w as ' gi ven ba ck his secon d p la ce an d th e po in ts that go w it h it. It d id n't ma tter; he'd w on the title anyway. Ha ra d a wasn 't even second . Tha t 00 0\ 0\ ,...... l!")~ N .... il) S il) :> o Z 11