Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

RACER TEST By Alan Cath cart Photos by Kel Edge and Guus van Goethe m 00 0"0",..-< C'l' l-< ill ..0 E ill U ill c 24 here's more than a hint of Hollywood abou t 38-year-old Italian ace Fabrizio Pirovan o's achievement in winning the Wor ld Supersport crown for Su zu ki in 1998. Part of that is becau se the Belgian-based Alstare Coro na team, . which took him to the title, set targets for others to aim at in ru nning the slicke st, glitzies t, most high -pro file operation in the World Superbike paddock, reflectin g the substantial sponsors hip su pport of . Mexico 's Corona Beer, Foxhound clothing and Power Ho rse energy drinks. It's not even just the fact that, at his somewhat advanced age for a top-level rid er, Piro has provided hope for the rest of the world's thirtysomethings by "inning a World title in a spo rt, let alone a class, that's increasingly dominated by kid s: He' s.old enou gh to be wo rks Castrol Honda rider James Toseland' s d ad ! or is it that virtue alone has had its ultimate reward , with Piro be coming World Champion at last after 10 years at the top, durring whi ch time he has finished second, fourth and fifth twice each in an ei ght-ye ar career in th e World Superbik e Championship, then win the European Supersport title on an Alstare Ducati , in the fir st ye a r 'he switched classes. But, after clinching his '98 World Superspo rt crown one race'early in Austria, Fabrizio wep t dram ati cally on the rostru m as he took the winner's laurels not th e usua l Latin tears of joy, bu t in d em on strabl e grief for the fa the r w ho had accom pan ied him to so man y races th ro u g h ou t hi s ca reer , ye t w ho was killed in a car cras h two weeks before his s on w a s fina lly cr o wn ed as Worl d Cha mp ion. But th en , a ny mov ie s crip t has to have light relief, 'too - her e provided by tea mma te Ste p ha n e C ha mbo n , th e Frenc h trick cvclist wh o finished third in the cha m p ionship and who celebra ted Fabrizio Pirovano's World Supersport Champion A/stare Corona Suzuki GSX·R600 Alstare's title win wit h his usual repertoire of aweso me st unts o n th e slo wd own lap in Au stri a, after she pherding Piro to the flag, riding shotgu n to protect hi m aga ins t the a ttacks of his rivals in w ha t is tod ay one of th e most closely foug ht race classes at the World level - a class that, in a furt her twist to the plot, the Alstare team wa s expected to continue do minating at the Wor ld level in '97 on their Euro title-winn ing 748 Ducatis, only to encou nter persistent mechanical misfo rt u ne with th e d esm o V-twin s. Hence team boss Fra ncis Batra's deci sion to switch camps to Suzuki for 1998, in a stru ng-o u t split from the Italian factor y that was an ything bu t a quickie Mexican divorce. However, it wa s a mo ve w hich has paid off big-time for all concerned, wit h Suzuki's GSX-R600 not only winning the coveted World Supersport crown in only its second year of com pe tition - and so completing a hat trick of titles alongsid e the w orld's most prestigiou s Na tio nallevel cha m p ionships it also won in '98 (in the AMA, courtesy of Steve Crevier, a n d in Brita in , a t th e h a nd s of Jo hn Cra wfo rd ) - bu t also han di ng the Jap anese factory its first major title eve r in the Su pe rs po r t cl ass th a t it ha d all but ig no re d until th e a dven t of the GSXR600 in 1997. Th e ch a nce to rid e th e bike th a t bro ug ht World ho no rs to Hama mat su first at Zeltweg the day after Piro's title win an d then, whe n rai n sto pped play, again a week later at Assen - proved to me not only w hat a good basic product Su zu ki has d elivered a t an afford ab le ' cost to cus to mers a roun d th e wo rl d . (a nd , unlike mos t World Cha m p ions, this is a race bike tha t an y spo rt rid er can wal k in to a Suzuki showroo m and ride ou t aboa rd ) bu t also wha t a grea t job the Alsta re team has accom plished in developing it into the race-winning package it so obvio usly is. For th is is n' t me rel y a q ues tio n o f bolting on the exte ns ive Yoshimura - developed fac to ry race kit that allo ws an yon e to access the stock GSX-R600's potential, but of refining the result into a sweet-handling, pot ent a nd above a ll reliable race bik e with a min im um of trick parts but a ma ximum atte ntion to d etail - the kind that ensu red no mechnical DNFs for the Als tare Team in 1998, w it h Pirova no winning fiv e of the 10 round s e n r out e to th e num b er-on e plate, and Chambo n one. Tog ethe r, thi s mad e the Suz u ki th e domina nt bik e ou t of the six d iffe ren t m a rqu e s co n tes ti ng th e se ries, w i th Honda and Yamaha each win ning a single roun d and Duca ti jus t two . But, more than in most ot her classes , it's the last 5 percent that really ma tters in Supersport. as Al stare's Francis Balla recog niz es mor e readily than most. "The reaso n for our success is that we want to win ," he says . "So we've created a stru ctu re with the best bik e, the best tires, the best riders and the best team. I was convinced after its debut year in '97 that the Suz uki would be a winner. Dunlop gave me assuranc es - which they've worked unstintingly to fulfill - that their int en sive level of d ev elopment w ould provi de us with w innin g tires. I already knew my riders we re the top s any way, and as for the team - well, we'r e a family, but a big one. Our structu re includ es 35 people em ployed fu ll time between all our spo rting activities, which include mo u nta in-bike , jet-ski, mo toc ross and snowboard competition, more than 90 in total wi th part -timers, and 18 at the race track for every su persport event. But all of us know our jobs and have the ambition to d o it as well as possible, wit h the attention to d etail that leads on to victory - which brings us bac k to the point of it all: We want to w in!" That single-mi nde d pu rsuit of success found read y suppo rt among Suz uki ma nag eme nt, eve n at the expe nse of the co m p a n y' s h isto rical lin ks wi th Yos himu ra .as th e ir partn e rs in fo urs troke co m pe tition. Th is meant that , while starting wi th a qua rtet of factorybuilt bik es equ ipped with the Yoshimu ra-d eveloped race kit , wh ich allows the 94 rear- wheel ho rsepower of the stan d ar d street bike to be jacked up to 110 bhp jus t by ins tall ing it, Suzuki's new Belgian partners we re specifically free to d evelop their ow n mechanical pac kage for the GSX-R600, thu s em phasizi ng that Alstar e isn' t jus t a race team .. "We have our own R&D operation co mpris ing m or e th an half ou r 1000square-me ter base outs ide Liege," Batta says, "a nd that' s in the pr ocess of being d oubled in size rea d y for ou r World Superbike involvem eni in '99. But for the 600, we've had tw o fu ll-time R&D engineers, in addition to our race mecha nics, wo rking on ever y as pect of the bike all through the seaso n to ad vance the evolution of the eng ine and chassis in an y way which wo u ld give a benefit to the riders , yet rem ain within the tight restrictions of th e supersport ru les. By winning si x races this year and sco ring 13 rostrum fin ishes, we made su re th at ou r bikes w ere co ns ta n tly being st ri pped , meas u red, co m pa re d a n d ch ecked - bu t never with an y qu ery over their legality. Th at includ es something as seemi ngly trivial as the riding positi on, which is sligh tly different from other Suzukis but stays within the rul es, becau se maki ng the rid ers comfortab le is paramo unt to performan ce. I will ad mit it's no coincid en ce bot h ou r riders a re so similar in statu re (at around 5-foot-4, Pirovano and Chambon are the sta r mid gets of Superspor t raci ng - but more im porta n tly , eac h scales wit hin a cou ple of gra ms of .the 132-po und mark), because in a class like Supersport, where you have lirnitations on en gine tuni ng and a conservative weigh t limit which any of the bikes can meet just by stripping off the street eq uipme nt, one way you can gain extra performa nce is by usin g a rider wh o is n ot o n ly s killfu l a nd brave, but also weighs substantially less than his rivals especially if he' s also mo re aerodynamic as well, because of his reduced sta ture!" So that's it, then: No 1999 Alstare contract for me on gro unds of stature: (Jason Pridmore need not apply, either!) Still, a chance to sam ple wha t mig ht have been by lever in g myself aboa rd Pir o's titlew in ne r p ro ved p re t ty ill u minatin g especially as I had a benchmark to compa re it with, ha vi ng a year ago ridden the Tea m Rubatt o GSX-R600 d eveloped bv Suz uki Deu tschland's Michael Schaef~ r, wit h whi ch .A ls ta re te s t rider Stepha ne Mertens twi ce led the 1997 World Supersport p oints table a t th e midseason mark, in the debut seaso n for the new mod el. That had go od handling but needed wo rk on th e power cu rve, with m or e . midrange required from SOOO revs up to ma tch the engi ne's promisin g top-end p erformance, wh ich s till , h o we ver, wasn' t on a par w ith the best of the rest. Well - now it is, th anks to Alstare's d evelopment, wh ich ha s seen p ow er increased to 118 bhp at the back wh eel. but at just 12,800 rpm on a bike wi th a 13,800-rpm rev limit er, and no drop-off ov er th e la st 1000 rev s. More to th e point, thou gh , is that the all-new titanium exhaust system d ev eloped by Termignon i for Alstare proved to deliver 4 bhp mor e across the crucial 8000-12,000rp m mid ran ge b a nd in head -on tests w ith the Suzu ki ra cer kit's Yoshimu ra pipe, w ith no performance sac rifice up high - altho ugh to prev en t pow er from falling off in a race, it's esse ntial to keep w a te r temperature d own to no mo re th a n 160 degrees - hence th e massive tw in radiators fitted to the bike, includin g a d ouble-st ack u p pe r o ne . Th e

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