Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

BRIEFLY•• • Halfway into their first deve lopment year , Bridge stone Tires are getting close to matching current speeds, according to Erv Kanemoto. Kanemoto, who runs the Honda team that is helping with the development of the tires , was in Mugello as an interested spectator, and potential 2002 team owner. This year , his job is to keep the Honda NSR500s running whi le Nobuatsu Aoki and Shinichi Itoh test the Bridgestones, and recent results are encouraging. "It seems like we're getting closer,' Kanemoto said of the team's most recent test at Brno in the Czech Republic . W ith track temperatures about the same as last year's race , Aoki lapped at 2:0 1.8 , jus t off the 2:01.2 that M arlboro Yamaha's Max Biaggi turned in the race. ltoh' s best was a 2:02 .5. " Obviously we need to improve . People are going faster his year . We're working on endurance.' Kanemoto said the team was getting new tires for every test, based on data gathered at the previous test. It takes about three weeks for Bridgestone to build, and ship, new tires to Europe, an impressive rate of deve lopment. The next test is at the beginning of J uly ,' back in B rno , where three more test s are scheduled. " If the results improve, we migh t head to different places. " Current ly there are no plans for Aok i or Itoh to race as wild cards. " Probab ly not. It' s up to Bridgestone. It just a matter of getting tires at the same level. If everything goes well , maybe there will be something for next year. Testing and racing are two differen t things. You have to be prepared for every circ umstance in racing . " The deve lopment has trickled down to the current crop of Bridgestone rubber . The Japane se company prov ides tires for the 125cc class only, and Kanemoto said tha t the work they'd done on compounds for the 500cc class had been incorporated into 125cc tires . The target now is a competitive tire for a 500cc machine , and any though ts about making a tire for the new breed of four-stroke grand prix machines will be put off until the end of the year, he said. Dire pred ictions have been made about the ability of tire makers to make safe tires for the more powerful. heavier four-strokes . Kanemoto disagreed. " A lot will depend on how smooth the engine is. If the powerband is smooth and fairly linear to the throttle opening, I think the added weight and difference in power and torque won 't be much different. ' Red Bull Yamaha WCM's Garry McCo y said at M ugello that his doctors have told him that he's not allowed to move his wrist at all until the day before prac tice starts for the Grand Prix of Catalunya in Barcelona in two weeks time . After that. they said he'd be allowed to race. M cCoy , who broke his wrist in a highside at the French G rand Prix at Le Mans two weeks ago, said he'd try to ride in Spain, but isn' t very comfortable at the mome nt. Yamaha's 500cc project leader Masahiko Nakaji ma clarified the team's positio n on traction c ontrol in the wake of persis tent rumors that they were using it. " I don't think our syste m is a traction-co ntrol sys tem ." he said . " It' s just an electronic device fo r the engine. The ignitio n co ntrols engine ti ming. Norm ally wi th traction co ntrol. it meas ures wh eelspi n in the fron t and rear. This is something different. Ours is jus t ignition. ' Nakajima said that the riders have a two-position sw itch on their handlebar and they can switch between tw o different ignition mappings prog rammed in. He also said the team could program a multitude of mappings into the sw itch, though it would only allow two to be used at anyone time . Nakajima said that the team had, at one point, tried true traction control , but the riders didn' t like it. Nakajima also said that the team wou ld continue to develop the VZ R500 two-stroke, tho ugh more resources were bei ng gwen to the new VZ F-M 1 fou r-stroke. " I am sure Yamaha 's top management is thinking about the four-stroke. The engineers in Japan for sure put more weight on the four-stroke. Our final target for this year is to take the championship for the 500 . " O n his way to becoming the most successful rider in G rand Prix racing, G ia como Agostin i won 122 GP's and 15 World Championships. As ked to name his most satisfying win, he came up wi th two, and one was something of a surprise. " My first title when I win in Monza . I have a lot of nice memorie s. When I change from MV with Yamaha and I win in Daytona [in 1974]. D ay to na there are so me very good riders , especially Kenny Roberts. He was very, very fast . I win and when I come back to Italy a lot of press people come to the airport to congratulate me and it' s very, very nice . " Agostini , who was inducted into the MotoGP Hall of Fame last July, belatedly accepted the silver medal to commemorate his induction dUring a star-studded cere mony at Mugell o. Join ing Agostini were former World Champions Kevin Schwantz, Carlo Ubbiali , Mick Doohan and Kenny Roberts. Asked who his toughest competitors were, Agostini named Mike Hailwood and Roberts . Ubbiali , Agostini 's lellow countryman, was honored in the same ceremony. Ubbiali, 71, won nine titles, three 250cc and six 125cc crowns. Kevin Schwantz qualified just ahead of Randy M amola for the BMW BoxerC up 200 1 race , run as a support event for the Italian Grand Prix at M ugello, but wasn't around fo r the finish, Halfway into th e to -lap race , wo n by B e lg ian Ste p ha ne Me rte ns, Schwantz ran into shifting problems on the R-l 1oo S boxer twin and was forced out. " It was automatical ly gear-s hifting, and unfortunately it was going to a lowe r gear," Sc hwantz said of the geanbox which shifted fro m sixth back to l ifth while almost at redline in sixt h gear, " It did it once on the fron t straightaway and there were a bunch of people around . It was an easy way to get a bunch of people hurt ," Schwantz said he noticed the machine getting diffi cult to shift during Friday's qualifying and he wa sn't alone. " Luca [Ca daloraJ said his did it ye sterday. I just about used up sixth gear when it went to fifth , about 8300, 8500 rpm,' Schwantz said. In the 10-la p race, Schwantz, Cadalora and Mamola were in the middle of about a rolling 15-rider scrum while the lead quartet. led by Mertens, pulled away. " It was nice when I had Luca as a target and Randy was on me . Then you had these other guys that were all over the place," Schwantz said. During the previ ous day 's qualifyi ng. where he finished sev enth, one spo t ahead of Mamola, he began to understand the quirks of the bike. "The first time I sailed off into a left, I found it does that Itorquesl one way, and it doesn't do it the other way,' Schwantz said of the torque effect, The form er W orl d Cha mpio n, who announced his retirement at this track in 1995, said he 'd ground the heads on the twin three or fou r times, spooking him with each episode. "It's not real com forta ble whe n it hits," Schwantz said. " It makes a bit of noise . Let's you know it's doing so methi ng." M amola took a different tack . As soo n as he felt his foot to uch down , he knew he was at the limit . "There's not a lot of powe r. You have to ride it precisely to do things with it.' he said. Former 250cc World Champion Luca Cadalora wasn ' t precise, Mamola watched as Cada lora downshifted too aggressively . the rear end com ing around and sending him into a gravel trap, but upright. Mamola is BMW's two-wheel ambassador and last raced in the BoxerCu p at the Sachsenring in Germany last year . The first corner was something of a reve lation. "W e were banging cyl inder heads ," Mamola said. " [Jorgel Martinez and I were about 12t h and 13th into tum one . We kept getti ng them one by one." M amola finished fifth , one behind M arti nez, Mugello is the second stop in the seven-round BoxerCup series , All cornpetitors use near box -stock R·l1 OOS's w ith minimal modifications . Carbon-fiber covers protect the heads, a Laser exhaust is fitted , the lights are removed , and Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tires are used . The sh ifting pattern is street stock, the same pattern Schwantz used throughout his racing career. One of the times he was forced to use the one -up, five-down racing pattern, it ended badly, " I was at the top of the back straightaway at Suzuka,' during the Eight-Hours race, " when I backshifted by accide nt. I was lucky it didn't kill me . Fujio [Yoshimura] looked at it and said , 'Wha t happened? 1never saw one blow up that bad." The Shell Advance Team tried to replace the inj ured Leo n Haslam on their Honda V-twin at M ugello , but couldn't. It wasn' t for lack of effort. They spoke to Ralf Waldmann, but the form er 250cc rider was taking part in a car race in his native Germany. Luca Cadalora was discussed, but his fee was said to be too high. And they also contacted Italian Doriano Rom boni. In the end, the team ran only one bike , that of Englishman C hris Wal ker, The team has a one-race allowance before they have to re place Haslam under the rules of racinq, If they don' t have a sec ond rider by the Catalan G rand Prix in Barcelona in two weeks time, they 'll be fined 55 000. Youichi Ui has been on the pole for every 125cc G P, the longest consecu tive string of poles since 1993 when Kazut o Sakata took five in a row , Aft er some thing of an absence, h ighsid e crashes are back in vogue. The victi ms incl ude Red Bull Yamaha WCM 's Nori yuki Haga and Garry M cCoy, the later breaking his wris t in his latest shunt. Shell Advance's Leon Haslam also went on the injured list wit h a highside ·induced crash . Not among the crashers are the Honda riders . Team Proton KR team owner Kenny Roberts had a simple explanation . "When you have an excess of power. you can spread it allover the place ," Roberts said. "Wh en a Honda goes around the comer, it works better. " The AMA experimented with it. now the FIM 's going to give it a try , P it -to-ride r communications will be tes ted following the Catalunyan Grand Prix near Barcelona in two weeks time . Some helmets have already been fitted, with communications equipment in the hump on the back of the rider's leathers . In order to warn the riders that they 're about to be contacted. an LED will be fitted to the dash area. V alentino Rossi unveiled a Hawai ian-themed design scheme for his bike and team in a surprise move on Saturday morn ing. Italian designer and helmet painter Aldo Drudi came up WIth the scheme that was put to liberal use on Rossi's Honda NSR -5oo , leathers . and team perso nnel. There were also vario us hangerson in the garb, as well as a putt-putt, a golf-car-sized veh icle done in blue and white with a fake Hawaiian license plate . Rossi insisted this was a one -time deal and advised his legio ns of supporters not to sell their traditional yellow shirts . Formula One ace J ohnny Herbert got the ride of his life on the pillion of a M arlboro Yamaha Team VZ R500 two-seate r pilote d by Randy M amola. Herbert, who was attending his first bike Grand Prix, rode his Ducati to the Italian circuit from his home in M onaco . A ft er lour full laps of the circuit. Herbert was begging for more . "I was smiling all the way and trying to get really tucked in," the Englishman said. " I wanted to get under the 2:10s . I was pretty amazed by the braking and the corneri ng. I know Fl cars obvio usly go through co rners faster, but I was surprised how much grip, speed, and lean angle we had. The acceleration was lovely too . Randy even got some whee lspin ou t of a co uple of turns. the bike starti ng to slide around. so we we re on the limit . And whe n he did a co uple of stoppies at the end of the last lap, I ended up halfway up his back. I want so me more." Herbert said his Fl co mmitments had always preve nted him from atte nding a race . This season his only Fl duties are as a test driver for the Arr ow s team, though he's working on getting a ride in the American CART series . Carlos Checa w ithdrew soo n after the restart of the 500cc GP , suffering clutch-slip problems with his Marlboro Yamaha Team VZR5oo , The Spaniard had been moving forward in the dry after a steady start , but his hopes 01 following his second- place finis h at the French G P with another good result were dashed . " I could already feel I had a proble m on the warm-up lap and the clutch was slipping straight after the start,' he said, "The re was nothing I could do but pull in, It's a shame because I felt confident racing in the wet. I had good tires, but in the end that meant nothing . I jus t hope the weather is better at Barcelona. " The 125cc GP cou ld have had the smallest field in G P history, The race was stopped by rain on the third lap, the nders returni ng to the pits. On the second start , only Pablo Nieto fitted intermediate tires, and he was the lone rider to make it to the starting grid. Two others we re prepared to race , bu t the res t of the slickmounted field returned again to the pits . Since a race with three riders was out of the ques tion, the FIM allowed a second tire change . After finishing 12th in the 500c c GP , Proton KR's Jurgen van den Go onbergh said: "Th at wa s the worst race in my life. I feel terrible now . I had no feeling in my hands for the last eight or nine laps. " As for his first ride on the Proton KR in the rain, the Dutchman said he was n't getting any feeling from the rear tire. " Basically, I j ust trie d to fin is h, but if there had bee n another fo ur laps, I co uldn't have made it. I co uldn' t get the fro nt brake at all in the last laps." Two riders were sus pend e d one race for disregarding the black flag : Dutch rider Barry Veneman in the 500cc class and Italian Diego Giugovaz in the 250. Both jumped the start in their respective races, but didn 't pit for a stop-and-go. cue I e n e vv s JUN E 13. 2001 11

• Cover