Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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lLeft) Carlos Checa felt that the Marlboro Yamaha team made progress throughout the weekend, with Checa tumlng a time .7 of a second faster than he did during quali~ng for last year's Spanish Grand Prix. (Right) Garry McCoy left Jerez a day earty, but was still able to post the eighth-fastest time ahead of new teammate Norlyukl Haga on the Red Bull Yamaha team. Both Telefonica MoviStar riders left Jerez disappointed. Gibernau was pleased enough to have worked his way up to times competitive with those set by Roberts, let alone ending up a shade faster than the champion. But his testing was cut short by a low-speed crash on the last day. "I was waiting for a clear track, and looking over my shoulder to let other people past me: Perhaps the tires cooled down too much. I was hardly even leaned over when I fell," he said. Roberts was tight-lipped, after failing to get close to the fast men. "I can do last year's race times all day long - but that's as good as the bike is at the moment," he said. Changes to crankcase dimensions and porting had not improved the midrange power of the Suzuki, he said. New GP V-four rider Chris WaLker, in only his second outing on a V-four two-stroke, and his first in the dry, was cautious. "This bike is awesomely fast," he said of his Shell Advance NSR Honda. "( realize I've got a lot to learn, and this year I plan to do it step by step." But the popular British star was on the move. Over the course of the three days, Walker cut better than two seconds off his first day's best lap time, to end up 15th, and faster than two other V-fours, the 16thplaced Jose-Luis Cardoso (Antena 3 Yamaha), and another class rookie,. Johan Stigefelt, on the "bitsa" Sabre Roc Yamaha. Leon Haslam was the fastest of the V-twin Hondas, impressing everybody with his smooth riding and steady progress in !).is 500cc debut. Seventeenth overall, he was fractionally faster than former double 125cc champion Haruchika Aoki. Then came Stigefelt's V-four, before the remaining twins, ridden by Marcus Payten, David Tomas and Bany Veneman. Championship favorite Daijiro Katoh and his Telefonica MoviStar Honda dominated the 250cc class, ending up seven tenths faster than Aprilia tester Marcellino Lucchi and reigning 125cc World Champion Roberto Locatelli, who has moved up a class. Aprilias filled the next five place - Marco Melandri, Tetsuya Harada, Franco Battaini and Klaus Noehl~s ahead of Emilio Alzamora's Telefonica MoviStar Honda and Naoki Matsudo on the first of two 2000 YZR Yamahas, that he and fellow Petronas rider Sharol Yuzy have inherited from last year's title-winning Chesterfield team. GP racing's latest girl rider faced a rocky start to her career at Jerez, with her proposed team collapsing even before arriving. Katja Poensgen was rescued for the weekend by private sons," said chief engineer Jan Witteveen. "We will provide him with a top-level bike and team." The new bikes for 2002 - the last ever all-two-stroke season - offer by and large more of the same, with only' evolutionary changes to established designs. Bodywork developments are to be seen everywhere, after a change to regulations allowing longer noses and tails. Even here the change is relatively minor. "The regulations were only catching up with what most people were doing already," said Suzuki engineer Warren Willing. Only the Suzuki has a new motor but even that is only an evolutionary change to the established V-four. Aprilia team Racing Factory, which lent her an Aprilia to practice on alongside their regular rider Alex Hofmann. In at the deep end, in her first ride on a GP two-stroke, she was by far the slowest person on the track, which was shared between 500s and 250s, leading'to complaints from factory riders including Roberts and Capirossi, who complained that no blue flags were being shown to her or other slower riders. Katja, formerly a successful 600cc Supersport rider, will stay with the team if she can find backing. Jeremy McWilliams was the other victim of the collapse of the proposed Umoto team, scheduled to test at IRTA, but failing to arrive. Aprilia promptly stepped in to save the season for the Ulsterman, who distinguished himself with two rostrum finishes on the factory's now defunct 500cc V-twin last year. McWiIli.ams will still get a pair of full factory machines, run by his crew chief of last year, but in the private Rsc team, together with young Italian rookie Riccardo Chiarello, and will join the IRTA tests as they move to Estoril the week after the Jerez tests. "We are obviously very satisfied and pleased to be able to continue our collaboration with Jeremy, who has ridden for us for the past two sea- SUZUKIRGv600 GAMMA The biggest outward change to the title-winning bike is to the screen. Nicknamed "Tallboy", it gives a taller and narrower "bubble" for the rider to tuck behind. The final shape, said Willing, was a compromise between ideal wind-tunnel shape and practicality. The other change is to the motor, in (ine with plans devised last year to try and improve the mid-range power and throttle response. The existing motor had been made to the most !Left) Loris Capirossl was fourth fastest on his 2000 West Honda Pons NSR5ooV, proving that, like last year, a year-old Honda is still something to be reckoned with. (Right) Alex Barros shows off his team's new colors, or lack thereof, with Honda Pons' new predominately black and white West tobacco livery. Barros posted the fifth-fastest time of the test behind teammate Caplrossi. G U a • e n e "" S • FEBRUARY 28. 2001 39