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/127984
Road Race IRTA preseason testing (Above) Alex Barros gets down to the business at hand: testing his MoviSlar Honda NSRSOO. The Brazilian continued to impress, ending the IRTA lest at Jerez with the quickest lap. (Left) John Kocinski's future Is still uncertain, but if finding sponsorship is based on setting fast lap times, he and Erv Kanemoto should be able to obtain the money necessary to go racing. By Gordon Ritchie Photos by Gold & Goose JEREZ, SPAIN, FEB. 17-21 espite the nonappearance of the official Repsol works team, Honda once more ruled at the Andalusian circuit of Jerez in southern Spain during the first official European IRTA test of the 1999 season. Brazilian Alex Barros gave his new sponsors MoviStar Honda an earlyseason boost with the fastest lap of the three-day session, underlining his recent resurgence as a major force in the 500cc World Championship ranks. swims in a vast pool of Marlboro money. (Teams must be able to demonstrate both a competitive race effort and the necessary sponsorship to be considered for a regular entry in the World Championship.) Another American, Kenny Roberts Jr. (possibly enough of his own man now to dispense with the "Junior"), had an impressive showing in third, taking his Suzuki to a time of 1:43.36. Team boss Garry Taylor praised both Roberts and new team technical coordinator Warren . Willing for their roles in developing the 1999 RGV500 to somewhere near its true potential before the season has even started. With Nobuatsu Aoki just scraping into the top 10 times, a full 1.2 seconds off his new teammate's best, this may be the year in which another American exorcises the hex that seems to have dogged the English-based team since the premature departure of 1993 World Champion Kevin Schwantz. This year may also be the year in which Aprilia betters its best-ever 500cc race finish of third, thanks to the prodigious talents of Tetsuya Harada - surely the best-ever rider on the RSV500 since its original outing in the premier GP class in 1994. Consistently fast in all the winter tests so far, Harada posted Remarkably, Barros was mounted on an ex-Carlos Checa NSRSOO with some 1999 modifications, not the full works '99 machinery Mick Doohan used to set the circuit-best lap of 1:42.4 in December of 1998. Barros's 1:42.78 best on the final day was a mere .07 of a second ahead of that of another reconstructed 500cc hero, John Kocinski. The former 250cc World Champion comprehensively ou tperformed four-time 250cc World Champion Max Biaggi, on the Italian's cast-off 1998 Kanemoto Honda SR. Ironically, at press time, Kocinski is still unsure if Kanemoto can raise the necessary funds to make the final IRTA list, while Biaggi (Above) Kenny Roberts Jr. was quick again, ending up third fastest behind the two Hondas. (Left) Yamaha's 1999 Grand Prix lineup Includes five 500s and two 250s.