Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Above) Kenny Roberts Jr . had his first outing on the Suzuki RGV500 and was Impressive, clocking a 1:43.90. Michelin tir es, wi th their bes t tim es co ming on th e Frenc h rubber. Bayle clocked a 1:44. 1 while Mamola - s till going strong despite being 39 years old set a time of 1:45.7. . . A GOOD IMPRESSION FOR APRILIA It now appears that the Aprilia RSV1000, the first four-stroke superbike built by the Noale manufacturer, is ready to enter the 1999 World Superbike Championship. After months of extensive testing at Mugello, the long-awaited twin-eylinder bike went outside Italian borders for the firs t time to test at a track - Jerez - with to tally different characteristics. On this occasion, the stopwatch had a secondary role, but in a ny case the firs t respon se was more tha n enco uraging: Test rid er Alessa ndro A n tonello improv ed h is time eac h time he went out, and he finished wi th a 1:47.40. Seeing as the World Su perbike Ch ampion sh ip ha sn't visited Jerez si nce 1990, the best co m p ariso n was the times turned in by Kawasaki the previous w eek: a 1:44.90 set by Akira Yanagawa and the 1:45.20 set by Gregorio Lavilla . The Aprilia, therefore, ended the test jus t a few seconds off the pace from on e of the mo st competitive bikes in the series. But it' s also worth not ing that it d id so with a test rid er and not a top-l evel World Superbike racer . In less th an a month, Aprilia w ill be back a t Je rez wi th Australian Peter Go d da rd, w ho wi ll likely ride the bi ke in next year's cha mpionship . Spain saw the arrival of what is virtua llv the definitive versio n of the "raci' bike. Aprilia, in fact, has concentrated development on details in the homologation sheet wh ich cannot be changed with the 1999 season a lready under way: frame, engine sump and air box. Once these components have been sorted out , work will begin on the engine, suspension and settings. "We are optimistic about the start of the championship because we are convinced the p rojec t is a good one," sai d Wittewen, Aprilia's tec hnical direc to r. "Bu t we have no idea if we will be winners in six m on th s, one year or even two, becau se ou r firm has never raced in superbi ke and we ha ve n o re fer en ce points. We tested for the first time on a circuit d ifferent from Mugello and new probl em s e me rge d. No w w e know wher e to intervene." Antone llo, who raced an Aprilia with good resu lts a few seasons back in the European 250cc Ch ampion ship, ga ve a few more d etail s. "O n returning hom e, the engi neers will get down to work on the clutch and the anti-jump mechanism," he said. "At Mu gello, the slowest curve is in second gea r, and nothing strange occurred. On Sto/2Ping the watches The following is a breakdown of each rid er' s best lap time recorded a t the Jerez test. 500cc Tetsuya Harada John Kocinski Kenny Roberts Jr. Nobuatsu Aoki Jean -Michel Bayle Randy Mamola the Jerez ha irpins, however, the rear wheel tended to block, and tu m-in was not as smooth as it should be." Reliability, a decisive eleme nt in this phase of the bike's d evelopmen t, how ever, was spot on: An tonello completed 193 laps in three days - mor e than 525 mil es - without any problems. Dunlop tir es were used exclusi ve ly during the tests, as Ap rilia is certai n to remain loyal to the Anglo-Japanese tire sup plier. NO CAPIROSSI? Aprilia went tes tin g at Jerez a t fu ll s tre ngt h in preparation fo r the 1999 champ ions hips , but left Loris Capirossi a t home. Th e 250cc World Champion was mentioned of te n durin g th e test , an d it is clea r that h is r appo rt w it h Apri lia came to an end wi th his controve rsia l pass on Har ad a in the final corner of the Argenti ne Grand Prix. With a con tract ,that expires at the end of 1999, however, Capi rossi's fu tu re is anything but certain. It is a piece of the Aprilia puzzle that still needs a home. In fact, there are several points about which Aprilia has yet to make a decision. Ap rilia says that it has signed Godda rd fo r two years, though he was notably absent from the test. The absence of Coddard -appears ra ther strange, and the excuse that there was very little time to prepare leathers an d other details isn't very convincing. Even mo re incomp rehensible was the absence of the technical director of the enti re operation. "The tea m is still being set up," was Aprilia's response as to the absence of the fu ll team, inclu di ng technical leader De Cecco. The suspicion is th at the tw o positio ns in th e team (God d a rd's and De Cecco 's ) still haven't been finali zed . Su zuki tea m manage r Garry Ta yl or, however , confirme d that Goddard had asked the Japan ese team for permission to be released early from his contract so that he cou ld rid e the Italian bike before the end of the yea r. An other likely scena rio is that Aprilia is trying to convi nce Capirossi to switch (Top right) Alessandro Antone llo put the new Aprilla . RSV1 000 Superbike through its paces at Jerez. Manyexpected Pete r Goddard to be on hand to ride the new bike, but the Australian wasn 't there . (Above) Jean-Michel Bayle (left)talks things over with fellow Modenas tester Randy Mamola dur ing a break in the action. Aprilia RSVSOO Honda NSRSOO Suzuki RGVSOO Suzuki RGVSOO ModenasKR3 ModenasKR3 1:4320 1:43.34 1:43.90 1:44.00 1:44.10 1:45.70 250cc Valen tino Rossi Marcellino Lucchi Marco Mela nd ri Aprllia RSV250 Aprilia RSV250 Ho nda NSR250 1:43.80 1:4420 1:483 0 125cc Mirko Giansanti Aprllia RSVI25 1:50.00 Su perbi ke Alessandro Antonello Aprilia RSVlOOO 1:41.40 Jerez tra ck records SOOcc race record: Kevin Schwantz, 1:44.168 (1993) 500cc qualifying record : Carlos C heca , 1:43.467 (1998) 250cc race record. Lori s Capirossi, 1:45.250 (1998) 250cc qu alifying record: Loris Capirossi, 1:44.431 (1998) 125cc race record: Tomomi Manako, 1:49.360 (1998) 125cc qu alifyin g reco rd: Robert o Locatelli, 1:49.281 ( 998) to World Superbike for 1999. It wo uld resolve their problem in rega rd to what to -d o with the already signed Italian, and it would also remove him from Aprilia G ra nd Prix circles (in which there is no love lost between the team and the rider). It would also give the series and the team a reigning World Champion - and a person with major charisma - for their debut superbike season. A distinct possibility is that engineer Mauro Noccioli, the same guy who led Capirossi in 250cc racing this year, would run the superbike tea m. Capirossi wants to stay in GP racing, though finding a team capable of paying his $2 million contract 'w ou ld be di fficu lt. If the searc h is in va in, anything could be p ossibl e - even a se nsa tio na l switch by Capirossi to World Superbike. ROSSI ON TOP Valentino Rossi is on cloud nine. The former 125cc World Champion u s ed two updated 1998 RSVs wi th a massive quantity of evo lu tion parts: frame and eng ine com po nen ts, exhaus ts and other bits. Hi s lap tim es w ere fast from day one, as he sta rted wi th a 1:44.60 a nd th en go t d own to 1:44.46, a nd th en to the 1:43.80 that end ed his test. "I was qu ite skep tical over the possi- bility of further improving a bike like the Aprilia 250, whic h went so well this yea r, but I was wrong," Rossi said . "Our engineers are working miracles . We . managed to complete nu merou s comparisons between material already used in races and evolution bits , and in almost every case the new stuff is much better." Development work is already at a good point, so much so that Rossi will not take pa rt in the next tests at Jerez, schedu led for December 14-16. Before the win ter break, he has one mo re commitmen t, this time on four wheels: at the Rally of Monza with Ford Escort. MELANDRI TO 250? Marco Mela nd ri, 16, mad e an impressive debut season in th e U See World Champions hip, and the Benett on Honda Team, along wit h HRC, rewarded him wi th the opportunity to test the facto ry NSR260 - ridden last by Tohru Ukawa. Melandri did 43 laps, turning in a best time of 1:48.3. "This bike is really fanta stic," said th e young It ali an s ta r . "This test is a dream for me. If, in the future - ma ybe in 2000 - I could pass to 250, now I know wh at I will find in the new class." Melandri will co nt inue to rid e th e 125 ne xt yea r, probably wi th Olivier Ligeois . f~

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