Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

30 YEARS AGO•.• MARCH 14,1972 Motocrosser Kent Howerton railed a corner on the top of Issue #9 at a Texas MX event, and CN test rider Tom Culp jumped the four-valve, Honda 250cc single at Lions Drag Strip... Evel Knievel (H-D) attempted to set a new indoor jump record by jumping 15 cars in San Francisco, Califomia, but his jump ended in a "death wobble," a crash, and a broken ankle ... When we tested the aforementioned Honda 250, we noticed that one of the weird things about the bike was that the right footpeg was about an inch further forward than the left. It was Honda's first off-road effort, and we liked it - a lot... Bob Hershey defeated Brad Lackey (Cl) and Dave O'Haver (Cl) to win the 500cc Expert class at a CMC Motocross event at Lion's Drag Strip in California. 20 YEARS AGO•.• MARCH 17, 1982 Miss Winston and Daytona 200 winner Graeme Crosby celebrate after the Yamaha rider stayed far enough ahead of rapidly closing second-place finisher Freddie Spencer (Hon) to win the event by 11 seconds. Spencer came back to win the Superbike event with apparent ease ... The Daytona Supercross went to Darrell Schultz (Hon) after he grabbed the holeshot and led every lap. Second went to Mark Barnett (Suz), and third went to Jim Gibson (Hon) ... Doug Chandler (Hon) won the Novice class at round one of the AMA Eastern Regional Dirt Track Series in Savannah, Georgia. Pete Hames (H-D) won the Junior class, and Billy Labrie (H-D) won the Expert class ... We interviewed American former 500cc GP contender Mike Baldwin as he was preparing for his second assault on the GP series. Baldwin broke his leg in 1979 at the Loudon AMA National, a week after earning pole position and second place in the Spanish 500cc GP. 10 YEARS AGO••. MARCH 11, 1992 Honda's Jeff Stanton jumped out to the early lead in the 250cc National Motocross Series at the series opener at Gatorback Cycle Park in Florida, and for his achievement, he was featured on the cover of Issue #9. His 2-1 finishes earned him the overall over defending champ Jean-Michel Bayle (Hon) and Mike Kiedrowski (Kaw). Damon Bradshaw won moto one, but a fall in moto two left him with a 16th, and sixth overall. The 125cc class was won by Mike LaRocco, via 1-2 finishes. Suzuki's Guy Cooper (3-3) and Ron Tichenor (2-5) rounded out the podium, ahead of Doug Henry (Yam), who had 9-1 finishes ... Wayne Rainey (Yam) was favored to repeat as 500cc World Road Racing Champion, although it was noted in our preview of the season that he would have plenty of competition from Suzuki's Kevin Schwantz and Doug Chandler, Honda's Mick Doohan, and even Randy Mamola, who was to be making a return to the GP paddocks on a Budweiser-backed Yamaha ... Buddy Antunez (Hon) and Ryan Hughes (Kaw) split 125cc Pro wins during two days of racing at the CMC Golden State Nationals at Glen Helen. Bobby Bonds won the 60cc (0-8) class, and Greg Schnell (Suz) won the 125cc Junior class. O ur FP1 project is all going along well, things happening all the time, even if you can't really see it. Everyone is getting on with his or her own individual responsibilities to make the bike ready to test around April time. I just went over to see Michelin in early February to have some talks with them. It went really well and they were desperate to be involved. We've got a deal with Ohlins now, definite, and it looks almost certain with Michelin, even though I don't like to say too much until its all signed and sealed, just like the situation was with the riders before we signed them. We should get the same tires as Troy Bayliss and Colin Edwards, which is what we need, obviously, so that's probably the best option for us. Troy Corser, our most recent signing, seems very pumped up about the whole thing, as we all are, and I just know that most of it is going to be right. I know it is. I know the bike's going to be good, as good as anybody else's out there, if not better. I really believe in the appearance of the bike, the team, the chassis, everything - but I am just so worried about the engine to be honest. I'm 1DO-percent confident that everything else will be right, but the engine - I don't know. My information is that Sauber weren't ditched from the project; things were just moved along the line. Petronas and David Wong were the ones involved. I don't really know why; but they said it was because they wanted a bike person to get everything up and running now. That's why they chose Eskil Suter's company. I said, "fair enough, I'll go with that." If there is something more to it than that, then I don't know - I'm not really sure. I certainly don't think that there has been any fall-out or anything - from what I can gather, the project's just been shifted across. SPE (Sauber Petronas Engineering) has designed and built this thing and now it has been moved across to get it up and running. I don't know for sure, but this seems to be the best option for where we are now, just to get the thing moved along. I know everything else, how its all running, but the one thing I don't know is the bit I'm not really controlling. That goes for whether it was SPE doing it or Suter. We just take their word for it that it's going to be right. I don't know much about Eskil Suter. I can picture him, I have met him a couple of times, although he was a GP man whereas I was a Superb ike rider. I don't really know a lot about his company at all, and I never realized he was well-known for his engineering skills. He obviously is, and he also obviously knows his stuff. Boz and his lads are in touch with him every day, asking questions, and it seems to be going all right. I just made Petronas aware, and David Wong aware, that I was worried about it, and that they should do whatever they could to stop me being worried about it. The engine is the one area of the bike - the main area of the bike - that has to be right, especially for the guys who've got to ride it. Those are the guys I feel under pressure for more than anybody else. I want them to have a bike they can ride and say, "Bloody hell, this is great!" Robbie Phillis, the old superbike rider, is sort of Wong's man over there, more on the road bike side of things, just with the test team, I think. What they do isn't going to interfere with us at all, really. Stuff gets sent to us and we test it with our riders. Robbie is doing whatever he'll be doing in the background, just turning in lap after lap - testing for distance and reliability. But the one area I want to be concentrating on and getting on with is my own area. The testing side and the road bike side - well, I'm having a lot of questions asked about it at the moment. I have to say to people that I am really not having that much to do with it. I don't want too much to do with it, I just want to get the race team sorted, and not worry too much about the road-bike side of things. That's something for MSX to get involved in. I don't understand it, and I don't pretend to. But it's a massive thing and everyone seems to be doing well. Doing their jobs really well - fantastic really. So we'll see what happens in a few months' time. I still reckon \\le'll make Laguna. Definitely. The plan for James Haydon and Troy is to get together, sitting on the clay model of the bike, just to get it fitted to them properly. That will happen in London, down at Piper Design. The bike is taking shape, but we'll see the final thing when I get down there. We've gone through all the "like that - don't like that" stages already, so we've got a point where I'm happy now. That has taken some CDming up in Cycle News time to sort out, but it's got to look right. I don't know what the bike resembles, but my thinking is that the Ducati 916 and MV Agusta look fantastic, so I've asked them to do something like that - but not the same. I don't want a GSX-R type of bike, sort of big '80s thing. Ours will look more sharp and sexy. The other guys in the team seemed to agree with what I was thinking, so it was good that we all had the same kind of vision of this bike in our own minds. We're still not in our race team premises yet, and that is just becau,se of lawyers and all that stuff. You know what it's like if you've ever bought a house. It just takes time for some reason. We should be in soon and get the fitters in to do the workshops, the offices, and all the sections of it. We've actually got to put a prayer room in the premises. It's for our Moslem Petronas graduates who will be in the team in the U.K. They like to have a proper prayer room, so we had one incorporated into the design. But we'll be the first ones in it - praying that we can get it all done in time! I will be, anyway ... We've actually finished assembling the team personnel now, that's all done. We recently met up in a pub near the workshops in Burton for a meal and a meeting, just so everyone could get to know each other and instill a bit of team spirit. We've got directly - three mechanics per rider, plus one crew chief, plus a data-acquisition engineer. There will also be two truck drivers/come mechanics as well. We're nowhere near finalizing purely financial sponsors so far, but that's not top of the list - we don't need it to make this thing work. What we don't want is lots of little stickers plastered all over the thing. Image is everything. If I were to guess where the first track test of the bike was going to take place, I would say Donington Park in April. But really, we don't know when yet. I do know it will be hard keeping it all covered up, secret and quiet, but we want to keep it secret until we launch it. We don't want anyone sneaking in and taking photos before we launch the bike! Next up for me is a week skiing, although because of my recently broken leg, I will be sitting in the nude saunas instead of being on the slopes! I'm sure I'll spend all my time on the phone anyway, but it is a trip we've had planned for a while. eN • Valencia World Superbike Opener • Beaucaire International MX • sacramento Arenacross • Adelanto Grand PrIx cue I e n e _ S • MARCH 6, 2002 91

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