Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Gregorio Lavilla also switches from Ducati, but he'll be Kawasaki-mounted for 1999. (Above) Haga will be joined on the factory Yamaha team Italian Vittoriano Guareschi who is moving up from the World Supersport ranks. ' (Below) Doriano Romboni is the privateer worth watching. The former 250 and 500cc Grand Prix racer will ride a Ducati in his first attempt at superbike racing. by how he really is on the track, because once you get him on the track and once you get him behind his faceshield and under his helmet, he's just one of those guys. He's always there and he's always going to be a threat and it doesn't matter - tires, bike, setup, anything. He's always going to be there. And I think a lot of that comes with experi~nce and just the determination he's got. It might partly be being English, too. In our series, I think he's the only guy like that." KAWASAKI Slight and Edwards both feel there's a definite hierarchy and that the other teams - the inline Japanese four-cylinder teams, mostly - exist at a level below the Hondas and Ducatis. "We can talk about Kawasaki and Yamaha and 1 think they're all going to struggle, to be honest with you," Edwards said. "1 thin,k Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki ain't got much of a chance because it's going to be a four-man show - it's going to be two Hondas and two Ducatis out there. 1 would say definitely (Akira) Yanagawa, his times seem to be similar to ours. He's pushing it to get down to what we've been doing. He'll go good. He'll have a good race and the~ a bad race, and that's the way that bike has been, and that's the way I think it'll happen.~' Where the Kawasaki will have an edge is at the tracks which have tradi- tionally favored the Dunlop tires that the Kawasaki uses: Phillip Island, where·Haga won once; Donington, where Haga won twice; Laguna Seca, another Haga victory; and Sugo, where Haga split wins with Keiichi Kitagawa on a Dunlop-shod Suzuki: Of these, Phillip Island has been resurfaced, which may take away some of the Dunlop edge. Spaniard Gregorio Lavilla,who rode a priva te Duca ti for the De Cecco team last season, will join Yanagawa for the '99 season. "La villa - it's a learning year for him," Edwards said. "I don't know exactly what he's ridden in the past, but as far as getting off that Ducati onto that Kawi, it's definitely going to be a learning year." The ZX-7, according to Slight, is "a very good bike. It's really got good traction. It hooks up good, it turns okay. It's not the best thing about, but it seems okay and it's got good traction. Probably it's down a bit on speed. [ think Yanagawa should go good on it. The ones I see them going good at are Donington, going good here, Sugo at the end of the year. Hopefully, not Phillip Island anymore. Lavilla, he'll be there for sure. Lavilla's in a learning year. He'll be successful, but not consistently." YAMAHA Yamaha enters the season witll a new R-7. Reports from preseason tests have both returning hero Noriyuki Haga and Vittorio Guareschi, up from the Supersport team, struggling. The other adjustment is the switch to Michelin tires from Dunlop. Haga's success carne from (Left) Peter Goddard and the brand-new Aprilia RSV-1000. The bike makes· its racing debut in South Africa when the season opens on March 28. steering with the rear tire, a technique that doesn't work as well with Miche!ins. "From what I've seen so far, they're going to struggle with the bike/' Slight said. "It doesn't look like the bike's sorted yet. Guaraeschi's going to have a real tough time coming to something that's not sorted yet. Haga's been spectacular because he was on Dunlop, but he's on Michelins now. H won last year at Phillip Island and Donington and Sugo and here - four Dunlop tracks. You're probably not going to see as much of it as we did last year." Edwards believes it'll be a learning year for Guareschi. . "I think certain tracks where you've got to carry lots of corner speed and tight tracks, like maybe Albacete, I think Guareschi will go good, because he's used to carrying speed on tha t Supers port bike," Ed wards said. "Haga - the one good thing for us is that they're on Michelins this year - so Haga, where he did have the advantage, he won't have. the advantage of tires. The bike is not looking exceptionally well. It looks awesome, but it's just not going well. It'll be interesting to see if they can get any more juice out of it. If they can, he's always a-threat." ~ C') .J::. e '" 26 ~ Edwards said that Haga will have to change his riding style to suit the Michelins, an adjustment the Texan had to make last year when he switched from the Dunlop-shod Yamaha to the Michelin-shod Honda. . " "Tne Michelins, as .soon as you start

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