Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

BRIEFLY••• With most of the lower order dealt with, Colin Edwards wrote his name large at the top of the Superpole times with a 1:32.532, half a second faster than he could manage in regulation qualifying and easily the best ride up to that point. Neil Hodgson went immediately after, and scored an excellent 1:35.235, the fastest time of all the qualifying sessions, beating Troy Bayliss' provisional pole time by a sliver-like one thousandth of a second. Hodgson had to wait for five riders before claiming his second Superpole of the season. but the wait was worth it for the increasingly selfassured Englishman. "I just tried to keep it smooth. because this track rewards smoothness. I rode it like Troy Corser would. The last time I was here I qualified 20th on a Kawasaki, so it is nice to come back three years later and get pole position. The uniquely-designed Benelli Tornado joined in the World Superbike fun at Misano, with the launch of the 900cc Triple in front of the worid's media in it's final form for the first time. Chief of the project. Andrea Merloni, declared that the aim would be to qualify for Superpole in Its debut. but most important of all was to participate in Superbike racing for real. to gauge how competitive the machine Is in its present form. and to detenmine the goals for the machine's first full World Superbike season in 2002. The machine drew a great deal of attention. with the new paint scheme boasting some household-name sponsors like Indesit. The first untimed session started well for the three-cylinder machine. but in the timed session, 23rd fastest was the best ~ could do. as others found top-end pace. which the Benelli does not presently have. According to rider Peter Goddard, the machine revs to 13.000 and has moved away from the big-bang firing order to a 120-degree crank with a 270-degree firing order. making the engine note sound like a funky four, rather than a triple. Claimed power is 170 hp at the crank. but the over-engineered machine is 378.4 pounds dry. The unique underseat radiator appears to work well enough on the track, but small cooling fans, operated by batteries, are brought in to aid heat dissipation once the machine is in the pit garage. Any serious concerns about overheating were found at Misano. with temperatures on the opening days creeping over the !lO-degree mark. It appears that the 150-bike homologation rule has been bypassed by the smallmanufacturer clause, which saw Bimota and maybe even Ducati haVing raced bikes long before the homologation limit of machines or chassis had been reached. According to one unnamed source from another team, no one is that bothered about such niceties anyway. with the World Superbike paddock universally glad to see another manufacturer enter the fray. line auction will help launch the site, with those who log on in with the chance to win Valentino Rossi's current helmet. Loris Capirossi's helmet. Michael Schumacher's football shirt plus Eddie Lawson's helmet. the very same one he gifted to the clinic when he retired. new ones. Most of the other riders and teams have got years of experience riding these circuits but we are a new team. with no factory backup like [Neill Hodgson and those guys. We just run straight customer bikes like anyone can buy. But we're working well and the feeling in the team is strong " Peter Goddard and his long-tenm partner, Kim. announced the birth of their first child just prior to Mlsano. Their daughter, named Demi Anne. was a little early In showing. but mother and daughter are both fine. Goddard, testing in Misano before the race, could not be in Australia for the birth, and due to the traveling schedule involved in going to race at Laguna. may not even get home until after that race has been completed. "I can't wait to see them both and it's hard to have to wait that long. Demi will be a month old by the time I get there and all I've seen of her are photos. " A beach volleyball competition, organized on the Thursday before the race. was this meeting's launch vehicle for the SBK race. Intended to be a fun competition for all the participating teams. the natural competitiveness of all ,n the Superbike paddock shone through as usual. with Ruben Xaus and the Misano Circuit press officer Gianni Berti beating Italian Journalist Marco Masetti and Marcello Pollini in the flnat. The Misano Circuit. close to the Italian resorts of Rimini, Riccioni, Cattolica and Misano, enJoys much passing trade from the holiday makers on Italy's Adriatic coast. The general consensus of rider opinion about the track surface at Misano was clear. Bumpy. Colin Edwards found this out twice in timed qualifying, once on Friday and once on Saturday morning, when he inexplicably lost the front over bumps at the Carro hairpin. He made up for it in Superpole, overcoming his many setup problems on the flrst couple of days to hit the front row. "After a successful test here last week we really struggled to get the machine dialed·in this weekend. for some reason. n Kevin Curtain has already signed a deal to repeat his BKM Honda World Supersport ride in the 2002 season. with the deal done on Wednesday prior to the event at Misano. This welcome news was almost immediately followed by a serious crash on the exit of the Curva del Rio, which led to a deeply lacerated left elbow, which required stitches and subsequently swelled to the size of a grapefruit. Barely able to get his leathers on, Curtain qualified for the race, but only did a few laps due to the pain from his elbow, forcing him to rethink his future involvement in the Misano proceedings. His accident happened when his machine jumped in and out of gear. catapulting him onto the track. Rumors circulated Misano that Kawasaki and Gregorio Lavilla were about to go their separate ways at the end of the season, despite Lavilla having another year to go on the Kawasaki. and scoring good results at Misano. Ducat!'s grand plans to re-introduce an Italian rider into their team, to take maximum benefit from their Infostrada sponsorship, appear to point to the continued desire for them to draft in Loris Capi..-si, according to the Italian press at Misano. With continued sponsorship from Infostrada announced at Misano, for a further three years, this rumor was compounded into a viable reality. assuming that Capirossi could be tempted away from his GP status. The future of World Superbike racing (whether using existing or altered rules) is rumored to be the main subject of discussion between the SBK and the top teams at present. It is thought that SBK wants the manufacturers to guarantee their attendance in the championship for a set period of time, in return for a rulebook which will allow them all to field competitive bikes. Noriyuki Haga was in attendance at Misano, on the first day of qualifying. relaxed and enjoying his return to the World Championship paddock that nurtured him before his exit to GP racing. His description of the difference between riding one type of machine and the other was quite succinct. "Riding the GP bike is like returning to zero. It is different in every possible way. I think some riders can ride one type of machine better than the other, and vice versa. I don't know if it is possible to say that one group of riders is much better than the others." He also had some interesting contrasts between the 500cc GP paddock and the World Superbike one. primarily about the public face of each. "Superbike is more easy. more friendly. In GP. it seems that everyone has to be serious all the time, and it is important to iook serious. because of Doma, I think. I don't like that part very much. Too much serious. It is not so easy to be like this all the time. It is not my way. My life is my life. " A meeting between the SBK organization and the MSMA was arranged at Misano. to thrash-out the new technical regulations for the 2002 and especially the 2003 seasons. Two versions of the outcome were circulating, one that there will be no change next year at all and one that plans a differential weight limit. as an interim measure. Either of these viewpoints suggests that the SBK organization is unwilling or unable to change the rules to satisfy the desire for looOcc four-cyiinder machines until 2003. The two main four·cylinder manufacturers. Kawasaki and Suzuki. reportedly wanted to have a 11 O-percent capacity loading so that they could run 830cc machines. This is technically feasible because it would mean only changing the liners. rods, pistons etc, and would not require a wholesale redesign of the engines. It would mean an increase of anything from 5-10 hp from the fours. equivalent to around half a second a lap. (Cynics, of course. suggest that Haga did a good job on a 750 four. without the aid of any rule changes.l If anything new happens next year it is more likely to be a differential weight penalty. which would mean that the twins would be forced to carry 10 kg (22 pounds) more. and the fours 5 kg (1 1 pounds) less, for the 2002 season only, with full 1000cc four cylinder machines allowed in from 2003. A press announcement from the MSMA is expected shortly. It is known that Francis Batta. boss of the Alstare Suzuki team, is disillusioned with the whole capacity bias at present. and if he is forced to run what he sees as an impossible disadvantage to overcome then he may well either skip a year or quit the Superbike side of things all together. With the existing GP Suzuki squad down to run the new four-stroke GP machine, Batta is now stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. Aprilia test rider and occasional World Superbike competitor Alessandro Antonello was fast at Misano, as expected. but a little too keen to get on with the action. Exiting pit lane on a red light and a red flag on the opening day. he was fined 1000 Swiss francs. Running yet another new version of the Aprilia RSV engine, he was quick in qualifying, but fell during his Superpole lap, asking too much of his front tire on the Curva Tramonto. Christian Kellner, who had been suffering during the last two races from a severe sinus infection, was back to normal at Misano. and was buoyed by the fact that. like Peter Goddard. he had become a father in the run up to the race. The Clinica Mobile, run by charismatic Italian medic Dr. Claudio Costa. has now launched its own website. www.clinicamobile.com. which features the history of the clinic from its beginnings in Imola to the four-truck GPlWorld Superbike monolith it is now. An on- Steve Martin was once more in the thick of things. running fast in the opening qualifying and going well in Superpole. Speaking on the opening day he was heard to say, "I can't say the tires are completely perfect. but they are working quite well, especially the Be~ Bostrom was unstinting in his self-criticism after Saturday's Superpole, despite getting himself onto the front row. "The bike was great. but the rider was the slowest he's been all weekend and has to get his act together... The Mondial Piega was unveiled with its new blue and silver color scheme. designed by Arti Grafiche of Milan. The inclusion of the 111 number plate fueled the idea that Aaron Slight would be the rider when the machine finally does hit the World Superbike scene. Or if it finally hits the Superbike scene. Rumors of internal strife in the fledgling team were circulating at Misano, and in light of the complete lack of promotional activity, other than displaying a machine in the SBK tented village, the rumors were fuelled by the apparent torpor. A lack of money is the main reason. with no new plans being revealed in the run-up to race day. Javier Rodriguez, the original rider in the team Ghelfi line-up. has returned to his erstwhile employers. after the serious injury suffered by Nigel Arnold shortly before the previous race weekend at Lausitz. Rodriguez, who left the series to pursue a domestic racing campaign. is the reigning Spanish Supersport Champion and will complete the rest of the season on the Honda VTR. with the exception of Oschersleben, when he is on Spanish duties. The extreme temperatures at Misano. and the nature of the track make tires the number-one cause for concern for many teams. With a never-ending succession of left hand turns, all with a high lean angle. the circuit causes severe problems for the rubber, especially with track temperatures so high. Dual-compound tires, which feature harder rubber on one side than the other, have been used in certain occasions in the past. leading to the conclusion that one or more of the top men will be trying out the rubber at sometime this weekend. Troy Bayliss was coy but mischievous about their introduction. "I can't say whether we have been using dual-compound - or even triple-compound tires or not but we have been trying out lots of stuff... I've already selected my race tires. and did a string of fast laps on them, all in the 1:36 lap bracket. • The Italian Superbike races always attract a healthy compliment of wild cards, although few threaten the leaders like in Japan. America or the UK. One who did not even threaten the backmarkers was Jiri Treka, a Czech rider who failed to qualify on his Ducati. Other wild cards included Alessandro Antonello, former 125cc World Champion Alessandro Gramigni. Giuliano Sartoni. Luca Pasini, Matteo Campana, and Paolo Blora in Superbike. Matteo Campana runs over the fallen Ludovic Hulon earty In the second race. The accident brought out the red flag, though Hulon was thought to have suffered a broken shoulder. Steve Webster took his second race win of the 2001 Superside series, running his LCR Suzuki to the maximum around the sinuous Misano circuit. In second place came Klaus KJaffenbock, happy to finish behind the Englishman and maintain his championship lead. Jorg Steinhausen had to be lifted out of his LCR outflt because of his pre-existing back injury after his third place ride. but finishing on the podium was a tonic in itself for the tall Genman rider. Tom Hanks was fourth after the second Iiveonscreen rider. Ian Guy. was forced to retire after running a crank on his machine. Fifth place went to the flying Scotsman. Stuart Muldoon, with sixth going to Peter Schroder. Klaffenbock is still far and away the • championship leader, enjoying a 25-point advantage over Webster, 95-70. cycle n e vv sa JULY 4.2001 13

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