Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

IRTA MotoGP Test was good enough to make him seventh overall, and the fastest West Honda rider. Norick Abe ran out eighth overall, with Loris Capirossi held back by his crash on the middle day and the cold track temperatures. "The cold weather has made prac- tice very difficult over the last few days," said Capirossi. Jurgen van den Goorberg rounded out the top 10, with Olivier Jacque in 11 th and the KR3 Proton of Jeremy McWilliams in 12th. Laconi had a miserable test in terms of times, but a very intense one when it came to improving the allnew RS3. "I am very happy with the configuration of the engine and the way it can be handled on a track as technical as the one here at Valencia," Laconi said. "Huge progress has been made in the set-up bike meant that he was out of action for long periods and he completed only 15 or so laps. His second bike broke down after one lap. BRIEFLY••• Alex Barros continued the excellent Valencia form which so nearly delivered him the race win in last year's 500cc GP, by setting the fastest lap of the first day, a 1:35,213, "I am happy with this first day's practice," said Barros, "especially when compared to Malaysia, The bike is very different this year and we have had to change all our calculations, I must admit when we got here I thought that I would find it a lot more difficult. " Loris Capirossi was a harder crasher on the opening day, falling from his new NSR with great force, suffering a bruised torso and side, and a bashed hand. "It was cold and I was riding on worn tires. As I was exiting a slow comer. I opened the throttle and the back wheel slid out. I landed on my left hand but fortunately I didn't injure myself," Nonetheless, Capirossi opted out of the second day's action. but returned for the third. The second day - or more accurately half day - proved to be Garry McCoy's, after the Aussie circulated a cold Valencia circuit at 1:34.557, well under lap-record pace, and only just off the best qualifying time of Max Biaggi - a 1:34.496 - set during the 2001 race on a similar Yamaha machine. McCoy was especially happy considering that the conditions are far from ideal. "I've been doing really well out there considering the conditions. The track is very cold, and we've been testing lots of different setups. I'm really enjoying the new Dunlops, they seem to fit my style better. To see various tire manufacturers supplying the top class can only be good for the competition. " The second day was foreshortened by a slight fall of rain, wetting the circuit enough to prevent many of the riders going back out again on a treacherous and slow drying surface. Sharol Yuzy, from the Petronas Yamaha team. broke a bone in his hand and ruled himself out of action after a spill on day one, and was not expected to run at the Estoril tests immediately after The West Honda team launched themselves into the 2002 season in fine style at Valencia, at least to all who could find their way to the impressive venue, Valessa de Mandor, It proved to be difficult enough to locate for some of the 'out of towners' that more than one person gave up the quest. The vast majority did make it. however, and in addition to a warm welcome they were given, confirmation that Exxon Mobil 1 would be a new sponsor for the 2002 season was also forthcoming. The Tech 3 Yamaha launch, a more subdued affair within the paddock in the first day of testing, featured not two but three riders, with regular 500cc riders Shinya Nakano and Olivier Jacque joined on the stage by the team's new test rider, Sylvian Guintoli. The increased media interest in MotoGP racing in general was the main reason given for the Gauloises team's ability to field the extra budget to run a test team, even though it is only going to have about half the normal numbers of personnel as one side of the race team. The test team is headed up by Gilles Bigot. Alex Crivill.rs old crew chief in his Repsol Honda days. Part of the philosophy is also related to the fact that on previous occasions the team has been reduced to one after injury, and the ready-made replacement Guintoli will ensure that every race of the year is an opportunity to continue the exposure of the sponsors' logos, and go for points in the teams' championship, Max Biaggi was one of the big-name crashers on the first day of action at Valencia, binning his M1 at the end of the main straight and bouncing into the gravel at high speed. The 2001 championship runner-up was unhurt, although t~e damage to his 16 FEBRUARY 27,2002' cue I e n the Valencia sessions. The Aprilia RS3's latest track outing was once more shrouded in mystery with the garage doors being pulled down just as the bodywork was coming off for even the most trivial of rea· sons. Yamaha was less worried about the cloak-and-dagger approach, removing body panels within clear sight of the photographers' lenses. Casey Stoner, the Aussie teenager. had a sensational result on only the middle day, setting the second fastest time of 1:37.670 on only his second try out on a 250 Aprilia. The 16-year-old demonstrated a masterful grasp of understatement when he declared that. "II's not-gOing too bad at the moment. The 250 is much more fun to ride than the 125 - it doesn't try to buck you off when the rear tire wears. I still have a lot to do to leam all about setting up a 250. " Grumbles from many of the media were a natural response to the absence of many of the other main four-stroke machines at Valencia, with only the Marlboro Yamaha and the Aprilia RS3 making loud noises all day. The almost annual usual IRTA test problem will disappear come Barcelona on March 9-10, when all the four-strokes are expected to gather together for the first time. The World Superbike conspiracy theorists who thought quite understandably - that Doma had done the dirty on them by moving the date of the final IRTA test at Barcelona to the same weekend as the first World Superbike race of the season at Valencia had their theory rebuffed by some at the IRTA tests. According to some teams, the reason the date was changed was purely to allow them more time to get ready for their flyaway IRTA test at Suzuka, a few days before the season starts for real. The IRTA test at Barcelona is expected to hurt the status and attendance of the World Superbike race weekend, with two days of TV coverage of the Barcelona tests interfering with the Superbike coverage. The damage will be espeCially great considering that Barcelona will be the first chance for the world to see all the new MotoGP bikes all together In one place at one time. John Hopkins, the latest young American to appear in GP racing. will be given the chance to grow at his own pace in the first eVIl's (Above lett) Regis Laconi rode the Aprilia RS3 Cube at Valencia, ending up wtth the 15th best time In what was one of the bike's shakedown runs. (Above) Daljlro Katoh continued to Impress on his NSR500. The 250cc Wortd Champion has been fast at each and every test he's been to on the Fortuna Honda. GPs, according to team manager Peter Clifford, "We've told him that he won't be actually racing the thing for the first few races, we've made that clear to him and I think he knows that anyway," The Red Bull-sponsored team has taken delivery of new parts for the 2002 season, but not new motorcycles. Daijiro Katoh's Fortuna Gresini 500 team sent ripples through the paddock when they appeared to pack up after a single day of action at Valencia. It proved to be a false alarm, set off when some equipment was seen being loaded into the trucks after Katoh stopped circulating. An I RTA meeting on Saturday evening was something of a rubber-stamping affair for some of the new regulations proposed for the future of MotoGP, including the adoption of the new rules for wet races. Peter Clifford, Red Bull team manager, explained that. "IRTA is proceeding with the view that it is going to happen in 2003, and it means that from then on everyone will adopt QD wheels and so on." The proposed rule will mean that even dry races will not be stopped if rain falls, it will simply be up to the riders if they come in to change to wets or wait to see if the weather clears. Sito Pons was also re-elected President of IRTA at the meeting. The latest K R 3 had a troubled test until Jeremy McWilliams started to get his speed up in the final afternoon, after toiling his way through the usual tough workload of testing, "II's a bit too cold to get the tires working well but we're starting to get a good handle on the Bridgestones now. We 've had to come in so that we can stiffen the suspension. Because we're going faster now, the suspension is a little bit too soft." A graphic explanation of this was the fact that McWilliams' fairing sides were buffed away from his high lean angles, "We tried a higher compression engine yesterday and it make really good power, but was maybe too strong in the middle of the tum, so I think that what we need to set an even belter lap time is yesterday's engine in today's chassis setup. But we've not been going for absolute lap records, just setting up the new bike." Kenny Roberts, emanating his usual presence in the pit box, explained why his charge Nobuatsu Aoki fell from his Proton machine. hard enough to bring out the red fiag. "He told me that he had gone up onto the curb on one comer. One of the 2505 had crashed earlier and its gas tank had exploded. According to Nobuatsu, they had cleaned up the track but they did not do the kerbstones. The last thing he remembers is going up the curb and then nothing." Aoki's accident held back the testing program of the Proton team, as had other factors. "We're definitely not as far along as we should be because of the rain yesterday and the crashes today," said Kenny Roberts, "but if we get through this last couple of hours, we should be okay. " Proton Team KR also announced that European 250cc Champion David Garcia would be their new official test rider. "This is a great opportunity for me to get used to the systems used in MotoGP. and I will be available if either of the two main riders suffers injury and is unable to race, " said Garcia_

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