Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

BYHENNY RA YABRAMS im e to cue the music - the game of mu sical cha irs is a bo u t to begin. We must sta rt at Honda with Mick Dooh an. As this is being wri tten, Doohan is rehabbing his broken body somewhere near Pa lo Alto, California. He will be there until early next 'month, afte r which he'll return to Monaco, where he will be g ree te d by hi s g irlfriend , Selina, h is infant daughter, Allexis with two "l' s" (his response to w hy the baby gir l's name has two "l's": '1 don't make the rul es." ), and a slew of rumors . Th e specu la tion the five-time 500cc W orld Champ ion will fa ce cen ters around what he' ll be doing n ext year. His options seem lim itless, which is how it should be, given tha t he's the second most prolific 500cc racer of all tim e and still nearly unbeatabl e when heal thy. To this point, he's been ca u tio us in assessing hi s future . Others, with far less insigh t and the occasio na l ax e to grind; have been less reti cent. The rumor th at w ouldn't die at the 'recent German Grand Prix wa s that he'd be running - but not riding for - a 500cc team backed by Winfield , an Australian cig arette brand w hich has been a personal sponsor of his for som e tim e-, The irony of th e fittest man in th e paddock shilling for tobacco m oney is lost o n very few. (When asked abou t th is sa me conundrum years ago, Kenny Roberts replied so mething to the effec t that he wasn't ad vocating the use of cigarettes, but please use our br and if you must an artful dodge, and m uch better than saying if yo u'd forsa ken yo ur sanity an d h ad to s mo ke, k n o w in g what we've kn own for th e pa st 30 years, then w ould yo u p lease be so kind as to ind ulge our sp ikes for all of your em physem a, low birth-weight, lung- and throat-cancer needs? Fair eno ugh.) Aprilia's Valentino Rossi is the rider Doo han seems to cov et, at least according to what Rossi said in a press rel ease in Ge rm any, though th e Italian showman equivocates with the unctuous sincerity 'of a presidential hopeful. He said he had three o ffers a nd Doohan's wa s th e .lea s t lik el y . After taking th e pole position the day before win ning the race, his fifth of th e ye ar, he said he preferred to stay in 250s, and little else. In his Aprilia-approved statement, the colorful and now skin-headed Italian listed his choices in order of probability as: stay ing w ith Aprilia in th e 250s, some- T thing the Italian team will do everything in their power to facilitate, but may have less m uscle should he w in the tit le this year; a sea t on the factory Repsol Honda team, generally considered the bes t in the business; or the offer from Mick, If recent his tory is a ny indication, taking Doohan's offe r w ould be tricky. The last multi-time 500cc World Champion to ru n a front-level 500cc team is now m os tl y o u t of ra cin g , h a vi n g become d isillusioned . It made him rea lize he' d go tte n in to it too soo n and had other things he wa n ted to d o wi th his life. Co ncu rrently, Yamaha had decid ed the premium for his name w as too high and th e spo nsorshi p he bro ught to th e en terprise too low . Wayn e Rainey w as as grea t a cha mpion as we will ever see. But that same drive, that same perfectionism, ill suited him for team management, gi ve n th e temperament and lack of wi ll of his riders. Wha t he belatedly di scovered is that he could no t make them him , and that it didn't replace the ineffabl e joy of riding, and h e gre w quickly frustrated by th e exe rcise . D o oh an is a t lea st a s driven a s Rainey, and we don't know what he'll mak e of th e yo u ng riders he 'll have to em ploy. Nor d o we know what sort of team he co u ld put together , given th e limited field of truly compet ent engineer s a nd m ech anics . Since h e's been w it h H ond a , th e very likable Jeremy Burgess ha s been Mick's m ore -tha na b le crew ch ief, a n d also th e m an behind Wayne Gardner's 500cc World title in 1997. Asked if he would con tin ue to work for Doohan, Burgess, one of th e m o st genia l m en in the p a dd ock, re p lie d, " I d on 't wo rk for M ick Doohan, " th e in ferenc e bein g th at he worked for Honda Racin g Corporat ion , and had for o ver a d ozen ye ars. H e'd certainly be a fool to lea ve. If Ro s si d o es m o ve to 500 s , a n d th er e' s no question he will so m e d ay, the Repsol Honda team is as good as it gets . But that leaves Doohan without a rider, if ind eed he's going to run a team. Rumors have been ramp ant th at it' s not go in g to be fund ed by Winfi el d money but backed by Shell , the same oil g ian t th at curren tl y backs a 250cc G P , team in which he has part inter est. Don 't bother askin g him ab out th e Shell connection . Since he ri des fo r Repsol, th e biggest oil company in Spain, there's lit- tle cha nce you'll get much of an answer. Judging from one of the more in teresting ru mors that was floated in Germany, he may have no choice but to go wi th She ll. Fellow A ussie and 500cc W orld Cham p ion Wayn e Ga rd ne r was said to be exploring the possibility of team ownership, and is sa id to be chas ing the sa me Winfie ld money that Doo ha n covets. But Ga rd ner cou ld have a be tter shot. The money would be for a Wo rld Superbi ke tea m , the bikes would be the all-eonquering Du catis, and the rid ers woul d be a p ai r who years ago rode as Winfiel d Honda tea mmates in th eir na tive Australia, Anthony Gobert an d Tro y' Corser. Accordi ng to Gobert' s Vance & Hines Du cati team, one way or another , th e Aus tra lian' is gone after this season. Ass u mi ng Doohan gets so me money, and there are other avenues to exp lore he's k nown to be goo d mates with the boss of Qantas, the Australian na tional airline - w ho would he get, if no t Rossi ? Daryl Beattie's name surfaced in Germany. Beattie, you 'll recall, quit ra cing after a horrible few seasons with the Lucky Strik e Su zuki team. Thev w er e horri ble for various reasons; the bike wa s horrible and Beattie was beaten up too much by sp ills in testing and the races. Aft er m ore than a year off, he's keen to ge t ba ck in the sad d le. How good is he? And would you s take yo u r $5 million claim on him ? Th e next rider whose name is bein g thro wn into th e g ris tm ill is Ca strol Honda's Colin Edwards II. Edward s has been pining to rid e a 500 for years, and the World Superbike tour was the quickest route, he th ought. There wa s a tim e w he n it was believed he was th e heir a p pa ren t at Yamaha. Then he went to Honda and it all cha nged. It's pos sible that he , too , ma y end up at Repsol, but Doohan's team would be a good second choice. Regard less of hi s occas ionally prickly temperament, the know led ge Doohan could impart to a younger rid er goes beyond encyclopedic. Repsol w ill certainly keep Alex. Criville, regardless of w hether he wins th e 500cc title, which he seems certain to d o, th ou gh h e is th e rid er Doohan must ha ve if h e wants to be as su cces sful a team o w ner as h e wa s a- rid er. Asi de from Kenny Robertsjr., who w e'll get to lat er, th er e is no o the r rider capa ble of consistently wi nning races. Criville will certainly be negotiat ing from a positio n of strength, and the dour Span iar d said h is relatio nshi p with -Dooha n h a s im pro ved ove r th e years, and that he's contin ued to be hel pfu l si nce his acci d ent at Jerez, in May. Repsol Hon da's Ja panese connectio n Ta dayuki O kada is a q uestion mark. Thi s year he's won o ne race, but ther e are many who think he's only re tained his sea t by virtue of birthright, and that there may be so meone m ore d eservin g in the pipeline. Yama ha will have the sa me two rid ers, Max Biaggi and Car los "Ch u bby" Checa. Both are on two-year contra cts, w hich is a very good thing si nce Chubby has crashed the ill-handling Yamaha 19 times in nin e races. Amazingly, he hasn 't been badly hurt. A rider for a rival team said he'd heard (ca n we ge t m o re removed ,from the source?) that Marlboro, as a condition of their Yamaha spo nsorship, man- ' da ted tha t the bike have more top speed, which it does - but getting there is ano ther story entirely, especially if you have to go through a comer to do it. Suzuki will retain Kenny Roberts [r., who tea m manager Garry Tay lor w isely tied up with a tw o-year contract. Otherwise, his name woul d be th e most widely bandied about. To those w ho w eren 't pa ying attenti on fo r th e p a st three months, he's b een th e surprise of th e season, winnin g three races and sta nding second to C riville in th e cha m p ionsh ip . To the rest, his hard-eamed success was a jus t rew ard for surviving tw o ye ars on the Modenas. Suzuki's second rider, Nobuatsu Aoki is in th e seco nd year of a two-year d eal. This year ha s been a vast d isappointment, the Japanese rid er crashing often and taking himself ou t of th e cha m pio ns hip ea rly in the season. Su zuki needs a seco nd rider, and possibly a Japanese one, si nce, in lieu of outside sponsors hip, th e factory pa ys all th e bills . Whether Ao ki is th e o ne is ye t to be d etermined. The o thers face un certain futu re s . Kanemoto Honda's John Kocinski keeps as k in g wh at ki nd of mon e y AMA Superbike rid ers ma ke and w ha t o pportuniti es exist in hi s h om eland . There's still something to prove, but he ma y be running o u t of time and m oney , a nd w ould just ifiably co m mand top d oll ar o n th e A mer ica n to u r, wh ere th e turnover is expected to be high . ell Looking Back 30 YEARS AGO... AUGUST 19, 1969 20 YEARS AGO... AUGUST 15, 1979 10 YEARSAGO... AUGUST 9, 1989 ur 1970 Road Test Issue certainly featured its fair A ViSitin g Kenny Roberts (Yam) romped to victory R a n d Y H a w k ins (Suz) captured his third AMA share of motorcycle intros and evaluatio ns. Found in both legs of the SCRAMP Champion Spark Plug National Enduro win of the season at the Pole Pen inside were a compa rison among the th ree-cylin200 for Formula 750 ma chiner y at Laguna Seca . Nation al Enduro in Goodm an, M ississippi. Je ff d er road rockets of BSA and T riumph, Ka w asaki' s Robe rts beat Rich Sch lach ter (Yam) and Da vid Aldan_ a _h"":"Ir~~~f.i Russell (Ya m) wa s seco nd overall, .: Mach III tw o- stroke triple, and th e H on,d_~ a~""f"'l'71rn=~f:'I1 (Yam) in the first leg, and then came r and Ke vin H ines (KTM) was third CB750 and M u nch Mammoth fou rs ... .. back to outrun G e n e Romero (Ya m) overall... We go t to tak e a sp in on a and Frenchman Michel Fru tsch i (Yam) rad ical sportbike with an American We s howed yo u phot os of the entire 1970 Harley-Da vid so n model lineup, in the second leg. Roberts took the overheart, the Buell RR1200, which feawhich included a boattail Sportster and a ll w in, w hil e Schlachter was second tured such tricks as a geodesic Ha rley's new tra il/desert racer, the Baja overall and Aldana was third overall... space frame and Unipla na r en gine100... Ou r Cy cle News Trail Safari fea Rick Hock ing (Yam) won the San ta Fe m ounting system to red uce vibrature pitted several new under-125cc tra il Short Track, w hile Ja y Springsteen (Htion fro m the 1200cc Ha rley-Davidbikes aga inst one an other. Among the m D) fin ished seco nd and then wen t on to sonSpo rts te r po w erplan t.. . Dave w er e a Yamaha 100, [awa 90, Sachs 125, wi n th e Peoria TT the next day , thus Thorpe (Hon) cli mbed ba ck ato p Bultaco Sher pa S 125, Zundapp KSIOO cu tti ng 14 poi n ts o ff th e lea d pace o f th e FIM 500cc Wo rld MX Series Scr ambl er. .. We go t to swing a leg over Steve Eklund a n d ke eping Sprrn gpoints s tandings with a wi n a t steen 's ho pes alive for a fou rth cons ecuFarleigh Castle in Eng la nd. Jeff th e 250cc an d 380cc Greeves Griffons, which esche wed the co mpany' s famous tive Gra nd Nationa l title... Broc Glover Leisk (Hon) was second overa ll, Ribi lever design in favo r of conventional swep t both 125cc mote s, and Rex Staten a nd Kurt Nicoll (Ka w) was third telescopic forks... We showed yo u how to (Yam) went 1-2 in the Open class, givi ng o ve rall... FMF Racing assiste d u s in puttin g set up a Yamaha DTI-B for desert compeboth of them the overa ll in th eir respective mor e sp ice int o our 1989 Suzuki RM125 test bike. Th e tition, and 'also test ed the new Yamaha 350 classes a t th e H o u s ton, Texa s, round of th e add it io n of FM F's pipe, sile ncer and m anifold /reed 5-port and the Honda CB350 Super Sport. AMA 125/ 50Occ National MX Series. cage gave th e little RM an inc redible power spread. CII O '" '" '" 83

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