Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

(Left) Worid Superblke Champion Colin Edwards took part In private Castrol Honda tests prior to the official session, then left early. He ended up with the sixth-quickest time. (Right) Aprilia's Troy Corser was fast, clicking off the third-best time of the test, despite showing up a day late. Ben Bostrom threw his Ducatl down the road twice, but still managed to record the fourth-qulckest time at the test. rear gripped again it just catapulted me into the air, the same height as the bridge across the track. I was so high I could see the ground coming to meet me as I fell back down. I hurt my ankle when it slapped down onto the ground, but it's only bruised. Still, BRIEFLY••• The quiet market town of Louth in Lincolnshire. home base for the Castrol Honda team. will throw a Civic Reception for their World Championship-winning outfit. on March 4. Even Tadayuki Okada is expected to attend. although what he will make of the whole thing is not yet known... Colin Edwards Winning season has also been immortalized on video. with a documentary about his championship year expected to be shown around the world as a pre-season promotion. Despite the Alstare Suzuki Team' s expectations of maybe only having a single 2001 spec machine at Kyalami. Just as they had in their previous tests at Suzuka and Jerez. the South African ses· sions got underway with no less than four GSX·Rs for PierFrancesco Chili and Stephane Chambon. Due to a shortage of manpower at the Suzuki race workshop, the Alstare Mechanics themselves fiew to Japan to help assemble the bikes. According to crew chief Alberto 'Moro' Colombo despite their best efforts they nearly didn't have any bikes at Kyalami. "The machines were stuck in customs at Paris and we only received them on Sunday ahernoon." Ironically. Chili. who had been asking for two bikes to test. used only a single machine on the first day. preferring to dial in one bike before transferring settings to the other. While Alstare Suzuki's Superbike riders were sweating it out at Kyalami. the Supers port team was undergoing their own schedule of testing in Almeria. The two official Alstare 600 riders. Karl Muggeridge and Katsuaki Fujiwara. joined their Superbike cousins in a pre-season fitness test organized by the team, in which veteran Chili came first. ahead of Chambon. Muggas and Fujiwara. Fabrizio Pirovano. a long-time Alstare Supersport employee. still enjoys support from the Beigian team. although his actual 2001 race effort (teaming him up with young Itaiian Vittorio lannuzzo) is operated by Suzuki Italy. Rumors at Kyalami centered on the possible return of Aaron Slight to the World SuperlJike series he has been synonymous with in recent years. Demanding way too much money for any of the private teams he was linked with at the tail end of 2000. Slight looked to have priced himself out of the market at one stage. With the split of Andreas Meklau from the Austrian Gerin Ducati team. however, and the withdrawal from car racing by Remus Exhausts. his major personal sponsor. a large budget is apparently now avail· able to pay Slight a salary he would find more acceptable. A probable change in personnel in the Michelin tire setup sees Jean Valton take over much of the World SuperlJike portfolio. overseeing the final use of the unusually large numbers of alternative compounds and profiles brought to Kyalami. The four-day Ducati/Honda test which preceded the official sessions at Kyalami was called at the request of Michelin as long ago as last spring, and according to Edwards. their efforts were not in vain. "Michelin brought us some really good stuff for this test. and we had so many choices we were able to find the right tires quickly and make real comparisons. Hats off to them.· So happy was Honda with their tests that they announced that they would only continue for one more day. leaving the other top teams a full two days to play catch up. According to Michelin tire personnel, there is nothing revolu· tionary about the new SuperlJike tires. merely a huge choice for the main Michelin teams to work their way through. Dunlop has also increased its involvement in Superbike racing this season, with Superlbike teams. aher for the next Spain on February four full·time technicians for the top works and more than 20 Supersport riders to look official World Superlbike tests. at Valencia in 18-1 g. The oldest bike on the SuperlJike grid. the venerable Kawasaki ZX"7RR arrived at the Kyalami tests with very few changes from that used in the previous test sessions attended by the team in Spain over the winter. Yet more new WP forks and shocks were I didn't need this before I start testing in Phillip Island next week." Just as the drama appeared to have run its course, with the hotter afternoon temperatures providing less ideal grip conditions, Neil Hodgson stuck in another qualifier (his second tried out by Gregorio Lavilla and Akira Yanagawa. but most of the early testing was involved with race setup for the Kyalami event in April. A new 2001 specification engine was brought along to South Africa. but had not made an appearance before Tuesday ahernoon. and was not expected to run until the final day. "We had a bit of a problem there but we fixed it and carried on." was Bayliss politically guarded comment. Regis Laconi's second ever outing as a factory Aprilia Super· bike rider brought him a lot of knowledge. but little in the way of fast times. finishing the first day 3.5 seconds slower than Colin Edwards. His relative sloth was not unexpected. haVing only raced a four·stoke once before (Suzuka Eight·Hour in 1998. alongside Noriyuki Haga) never mind a booming big Aprilia twin. Just to place another obstacle in his way. Laconi was also a Kyalami rookie. Riding a 2000 spec machine for the first day. Laconi did however have 2001 style Ohlins gas·pressurized suspension units fitted to the bike. According to team manager Fabrizio Guidotti. his new charge was being allowed the time to break himself in. "It is most important now that he gets an idea of what the bike is like before he tries to do any real lap times. I am sure he will be a competitive rider once he gets used to the bike. It is not important for him to ride the 2001 bike at this stage.· Laconi himself was pleased with his new role in life. despite earlier protestations about wanting to stay in GPs. "The engine feels strong and fast. Despite the extra 30 or so kilos more than a GP bike. the chassis feels good. My times are very far away but I am not concerned about that right now. It is more important to learn the bike and what it can do. I am very happy to be a factory rider in a team like Aprilia. because Troy showed last year that the bike is very strong and the team is highly professional. " does not exist. as usuaL Regis Laconl has a lot to learn about the Aprilla, but his team feels he will catch on In time to be successful in 2001. The Aprilia RSV has undergone yet another round of winter development. with a new ignition and injection system homologat· ed for the very first day of the test. The system is still produced by Marelli. but now features different throttle bodies. Troy Corser was a high·profile absentee from the first day of Kyalami testing. having stayed in Australia an extra day to attend a sunprlse 50th birthday party for his mother. Putting his new Ducati Testastretta through its paces was Kyalami rookie Troy Bayliss. Fastest in the very first morning ses· sion. Bayliss proved once more that a lack of track knowledge was no hindrance to him. "The track is really interesting. but some of the barriers are a little close." said the ultimate no-wor· ries Aussie. who was one of the few riders enjoying the heat and thin air. "It was even hotter than this back home in Australia, where I've been for five weeks this winter." Affected by the high altitude at Kyalami. just iike every other machine at the test. the 2001 Testastretta is still. acconding to Bayliss. a marginally better machine than in 2000. "It's a little bit better in the engine. but mostly at the very top end. When we get to the faster circuits it will prove to be significantly better than last year·s. and it feels a bit more aerodynamic. But at tighter tracks it won't be so much different." Ducati experienced some problems with their button· operated gearshih system at Kyalami. with the machine stuttering and failing to change gear as Bayliss came down the pit straight. Paddock rumor put Ben Bostrom's opening·day crash down to the new system changing gear the wrong way. but Ducati strenuously denied the rumor by pretending the system An all·new team in the championship. the Panavto Yamaha squad. featured the late signing of Juan Bo~a. plus experienced French Endurance star Jean Marc Deletang. Sponsored by the Russian Mercedes importers, the Panavto team is running exendurance racing Yamaha R7s in a highly cosmopolitan team featuring Spanish. French. Russian and German personnel. Borja. displaced from Ducati's affections by another Spanish rider. Ruben Xaus, appeared to be none too impressed by his first taste of the machine on day one. "We have some problems with the engine settings so I have decided not to ride again today. I hope that we can get some of the equipment Haga used last year. but I don't know if that will be possible." An unlucky 13 riders lined up on the first day of practice. with Ruben Xaus ruled out aher injuring his neck in a huge crash at the leh·hand curve at the base of the Caltex Mineshah. Turning well over 125 mph. Xaus was lucky to escape with a pulled neck muscle. The late cancellation of the scheduled World Supersport Championship race at Kyalami caused huge annoyance to many parties with in the World Superbike firmament. The top teams, all with Supersport branches with the exception of Aprilia. were disappointed at what they saw as a lack of professionalism from the organizers in calling off the event so late. Both Dunlop and Michelin were caught out by the news. haVing already dispatched numerous sets of Supersport tires to Kyalami by sea. As one disgruntled tire representative said, "These people do not understand logistics. We take more weight in freight than any of the teams. so it has to go by sea to many places. So you have to send it a few days ahead of schedule because sea freight is not like ainfreight. Bad weather can delay the ships for maybe five or six days. so you have to have a mangin of safety. " Michelin was in less dire straits than Dunlop (who had something like 700 Super. sports tires sitting in South Africa) with the French team haVing only one container load of Supersport rubber. some of which were used up by the Castrol Honda and D&E Ducati teams during last week's private tests in any case. Honda's RC51 has benefited from its first season of winter development. specifically exhaust design and days of dyno time. and according to Colin Edwards. the motor is stronger throughout the rev·range. "It feels a little better everywhere in the curve, but there seems to be no difference here at all. Riding a SuperlJike here feels like something halfway between a Superbike and Supersport bike. because of the lack of power. All the differences I've felt have been based on Phillip Island tests. not these ones. " Running more laps than anyone. Edwards' title defense appears to be based on hard work as much as anything. and like many World Champions before him, he has found the off·season whirl hectic to say the least. "I've been traveling so much and testing a lot. I've had about three weeks in total at my home in Texas. and spent a little time snowboarding up in Jackson, freeZing my butt off at about 30 belowl " The factory Ducati squad suffered one of their less successful days on the second day of the test. with Troy Bayliss crashing at high speed into Turn Five (Goodyear Turn) when his throttle stuck wide open. and Ben Bostrom failed to get out at all in the ahemoon session aher his engine developed what was reportedly an oil leak. The team' s obvious misery was compounded by the fact that it was team manager Davide Tardozzi' s birthday. and he had little to celebrate. Bayliss. who refused to give the reason why he crashed out early on. did however maintain that "it was as scary as any crash I've had. I ran in really fast and the barrier started getting pretty close so I had to lay the bike down." Taken to the circuit medical center. doctors suspected that Bayliss had suffered broken right toes. but without an X·ray machine to cue I e n e _ os FEBRUARY 14, 2001 15

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