Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

casing failure the tire does hold air. "We tested that tire in August or early September, with [Mat] Mladin "They just had too much tread rubber, too heavy," Allen said. The same tires in October testing is used to formulate new There wasn't a single tire failure in compounds. Watkins brought 13 either practice or the Superbike types of tires, with eight new com- race. and the Honda boys. They said it weren't good enough, even though pounds, to the August 2000 test. had the best grip, the indoor drum the weather, a variable that has a Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin and dual said it was safe, the data said it was profound effect on tires, was simi- Aaron Yates, and American Honda's Watkins brought a pair of new sin- safe. At the end of the day we had a lar. tire that failed for no obvious reason," Allen said. The past two Daytona 200s have gone off with a tire failure of any As successful and safe as the compounds have been, Miguel DuHamel and Nicky Hayden gle compound tires to the 2000 test "Pegram was overheating them put the preliminary tires to the test. with an eye toward the future. in six to seven laps. It was simply From that batch, they built the tires "We're testing a tire here we tread overheating with blistering in in Birmingham that were widely might use in 2002. It's a completely the compound," Allen said. used in December. Data from the different idea," Watkins said. "One kind, a significant accomplishment. The DOT tires have been upgrad- December test will determine which worked and one didn't. One wob- Ironically, there have been problems ed for the March Daytona race and tires will be produced in quantity for bled around. [Doug] Chandler tried during the PACE races, both in will be tested in the lab before being March. it. He liked it. He didn't do many March and October of 200. Formula shipped. The tires at the December 2000 laps. He only did four laps. All we USA rules mandate the use of DOT Drum testing machines are used test weren't much changed from asked was 'Has it got grip, has it tires and the treaded tires are heavier to simulate race conditions, but it's March's race tires. "There's not a not got grip?' " than slicks and don't stand up to the not the same. big difference, but there's an One did have grip, Chandler said, which means that some day it beating as well. CompetitionAcces- "As the years go by, we've had improvement in structure," Allen sories.com's Larry Pegram had a to change the tests because of the said. "It improves safety and it may win the Daytona 200, but only compound overheat in the first leg in speed of the machines and the improves performance." if it proves it can handle the stress March. It was fixed for the second added power," Allen said. leg. Last year's 200 was one of the The information learned from the Team HMC Ducati New Kids On The Block Mitch Hansen showed up at Daytona last year with a bright yellow semi filled end to end with HMC Ducatis in Pro Thunder and Superbike trim. It was a bold and eye-catching statement for the Wisconsin dealer who was trying to defend the Pro Thunder title Shawn Conrad had brought to the team in 1999. For 2000 Hansen has gone higher profile, painting the truck Ducati red and filling it with last year's Vance f, Hines Ducatis for Scott Russell and Steve Rapp. More importantly, Hansen has built a very experienced team, drawing on the technical and management expertise of a couple of World Superbike veterans. "An opportunity doesn't come along like this very often," Hansen said at Daytona. "It's a big step for us, but we're excited to take it." Hansen is a racer from way back with both he and his brother road racing and motocrossIng in their native Wisconsin in the early '90s. Once his racing days were over, Hansen moved into the race team business. But his core business is Hansen Motorcycles. a dealer~ ship that sells Ducatis, Harley-Davidsons, and other brands in Manitowoc, north of Wisconsin. A second, ,30,OOO-square-foot, shop is being built which will aiso house the first licensed Ducati cafE in the U.S. The shop will also sell Aprilias and MV Agustas and will also house the race shop. "Ducati wants that to be their flagship store," Hansen said. Last year Conrad and Dale Corser raced the Pro Thunder class, with Conrad also doing Superbike duty. For 2000 the team will campaign Russell and Rapp on Superbikes. "Ducat! approached me to see if I'd be interested," Hansen said. "I didn't know how serious they were. We had a meeting at the German World Superbike race. I talked to Ducati Corse, and Ducati North America put together a program for us. It's the opportunity of a lifetime." The team is almost all new from the ground up with Alistair Wager at the center of it. Wager, an Englishman, worked with Noriyuki Haga on Yamaha's World Superbike team until Yamaha dropped out at the end of the 2000 season. Hansen and Wager put their heads together to assemble the rest of the crew. What they were looking for was a seamless operation. "I've seen teams with two riders and two different teams under the same tent and we didn't want that," Hansen said. One of the first calls went out Englishman Anthony "Slick" Bass, who was brought in at Russell's insistence. Bass has an impressive resume, having tuned Carl Fogarty's World Championship-winning Ducatis. He knows as much about Ducatis as anyone. Owen Coles, who previously worked the Vance (, Hines team, and Mark Sutton, who worked on the Fast by Ferracci Ducatis, also signed on. "I think we have the best crew and the best riders," Hansen said. The team has an eclectic collection of sponsors, all of whom stayed on for 2001, but Hansen said the team was looking for a big corporate sponsor and was talking to an energy drink company. "We have enough sponsorship to do the season, but I'd like one big sponsor," Hansen said. Russell comes to the team an unknown quantity. Does the five-time Daytona winner still have what it takes to win? Judging from how he fared on the Harley team the past two years, the answer isn't promising, but Russell sees this as a new beginning. "I had two bad years. It about ruined my life," Russell said of lucrative stint with H-D. "I've got a lot of re-building to do with myself." Riding the VR1000 didn't in any way prepare him for the 996 and he realized that there was a lot of work ahead. The first thing he noticed was the of the tracks and the standard that most successful ever for Dunlop. Dunlop's history has set. eN seating position. You sit down in the Ducati. "Everything I've ridden for the last four years you sat on top of," Russell said of his first impression. Except for the Harley, everything Russell had raced had been a fourcylinder of some type and it defined his riding style. Instead of steering with the rear tire, the Ducati likes to be ridden with the wheels in line, giving a deceptive feeling of speed. "It"s real stable with the front," Russell said. "It doesn't give a lot of feedback. You can change that." By the time the test ended, Russell was turning respectable times and beginning to feel more at home. 'The first day I felt like wood, driftwood,"' Russell said. "After taking two years off racing it's hard to get my head up speed. I've got more to do. I'm not where I want to be."' The machine was closer by the end of the test with Russell finding the power strong on the banking and likely to be stronger when the bikes are freshened up for the March race. Russell was riding John Kocinski's 2000 bikes and they were little changed from the final race at Willow Springs The steering was a little slow, Russell felt, and the gearbox was all wrong. "I figure we've got half a second in the gearbox, easy," Russell said. His time was a mid-pack 1:51, but more than a second faster than he'd gone on the Harley. "It's kind of nice to know I can still go fast," he said. "We can do better than what we had. Ducatis like to be fresh. Speedwise, we're real close. It might be the best Daytona race ever come March." Could Russell win Daytona for the sixth time? "I've won it on pretty much everything I've tried. I don't see why not," he said. Steve Rapp didn't need much time to feel comfortable. The Californian was riding the exact same motorcycles he raced to a seventh place finish in last year's AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship. His only adjustment was with the new crew. "We're keeping as many things the same as possible," Rapp said. "If I could've, I would've kept everything the same." Owen Coles and Mark Sutton will work on Rapp's bikes. The Ducatis evolved constantly over the course of the previous season, with testing continuing to the final race at Willow Springs. Because he's spent a year on the bikes, Rapp feels he'll be ahead of the game at Daytona this year. "Last year we ran out of time," Rapp said. "Between me being new on the bike and the new team, I wasn't able to go through things. I just want to get the bike the way I like it." Concentrating on getting a good set-up meant using standard tires. "We're changing the bike so much that if I keep putting on different tires I won't know if it's the bike or the tires," he said. Slick Sass and Scott Russell cue. e n e _ S • JANUARY 17. 2001 19

• Cover