Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128147
30 YEARS AStJ••• AprlI4, 1972 __ -.,,~__ ~ __ • the Three members of eN Test ream - or worst nightmare. Depends who you are, of course. But until the recent IRTA tests, it was possible to hope that the reports emanating from Honda's private test sessions - of blinding lap times and race·enduran.ce times· were as meaningful as those received from Yamaha's test sessions during last season. D Crew were photographed alongside Mulholland Drive, which was the subject of our Road Test (quite literal, aren't we?), for the cover of Issue 12. The test crew found that the top speed of the road was approximately 90 mph, and passing opportunities were few and far between... Eve! Knievel announced that he would begin filming a documentary that would follow him from Sacramento to the Snake River Canyon, where he would be attempting to jump the canyon in his fabled Sky-Cycle ... Jim Weinert (Yam) defeated Brad Lackey (Cl) and Bill Clements (Hus) for the 250cc Pro win at round three of the Pac-AMA MX series in Uvennore, California. * 20 YEARS ASO••• AprIl 7, 1982 The 1982 Honda CBllOORC was photographed for the cover of Issue it 12 and then promptly named "The ultimate street sports machine." The bike was available only in Australia, England, France, Germany and the Netherlands... Mark Barnett (Suz) and Rick Johnson (Yam) won the first round of the AMA National Motocross Series at a muddy Hangtown Raceway in Sacramento, California. Barnett won the 125cc class ahead of Johnny O'Mara (Hon) and Jim Gibson (Hon), while Johnson won the 250cc class (his first such 250cc National win) ahead of Warren Reid (Suz) and Scott Burnworth (Yam) ... Bob Balentine rode an XR500 to his second win in a row at round two of the SCORE/Pernod Off-Road Series in San Felipe, Mexico. Balentine's solo effort topped the second-place team of Brent Walllngsford and Scot Harden (Hus) ... Colin Edwards won the Teeny Mini class at the Houston Astrodome Grand National Championship MX Finale. Back in July, we marvelled at how Carlos Checa had sliced chunks of the Brno lap record and, more importantly, race average time. When the Yamaha met the rivals at the earlier IRTA tests, however, it turned out that lap times achieved in isolation are not necessarily the whole story. The two-strokes beat the new M 1 at both Valencia and, even more soundly, at Estori!. The same syndrome, sadly, did not apply to Valentino Rossi and the beautiful new RCV-211. Although superhuman efforts by Loris Capirossi put his two-stroke Honda within two tenths of Rossi's booming V-five, Rossi had been dominant throughout, and handsomely headed the topspeed tables as well, just a shade Short of 200 mph at 314.8km/h, some 10-mph faster than the twostroke speeds achieved last year. His teammate Tohru Ukawa was third on lap times, with Checa's Yamaha a full second away. This was faster than he'd been on a two-stroke the year before, but not fast enough to wipe away the worried frowns at Marlboro Yamaha. Is it still too early for foregone conclusions? The first race is still a month away. Probably not. And even if there was any lingering hope that we will see anything other than Rossi and his V-five buggering off into the middle distance, Honda has a plan. They have booked an extra pre-race test at Suzuka in addition to the regular open-to-all IRTA tests before the season-opening Japanese GP, just to make sure they can get everything dialed in to their traditional home circuit, even if the IRTA tests are rainy. Which means if they are already impressively that much more ready to race than the rest, they will be even more so by the time the green light shines. The only mistake Honda seems to have made, according to Rossi's crew chief Jeremy Burgess, was to attend the Catalunya tests at all. He tried to argue HRC out of it, but the Japanese were as anxious as everybody else to measure their progress against their rivals. "We've shown our hand now - and the others have a month to try and catch up," said Burgess. I rather think they will need rather longer than that. Yamaha was the closest, but had every reason to be disappointed. As their star rider Max Biaggi put it, rather surprisingly: "I'd like to congratulate Honda." Since their M 1 is the most thoroughly tested of all the new MotoGP bikes, anyone seeking a scapegoat for their unexpected struggles here and elsewhere has an easy target. John Kocinski, who was the central rider in their test team, but who has been criticized in the past by ex-team boss Kenny Roberts for his, err, unconventional approach to machine setup. As for the rest, they may have been reeling in shock, but at least they had some excuses. Suzuki's new GSV-R was almost two seconds off the pace, but it was only its fourth outing, and the top speed was encouragingly only 3.72-mph slower than Rossi's Honda on top speed. Regis Laconi's gorgeous-sounding Aprilia triple was even further away in terns of lap times, almost three seconds a lap behind Rossi, but "the Cube" was only on its third test, and was also extremely fast, setting second-best top-speed time. Anyway, both of them always said they would still have work to do when the season began. It is Yamaha who was hurting the worst, after the drubbing handed out by Honda. And the two-strokes? As this column has been pointing out for months, unless it rains or something really weird happens, they're stuffed. Just not fast enough. Unless they can find a miracle. I can help them there. It seems that none of them had yet thought of a solution that will tip the balance right back the other way - a small change of rules that they should be able to push through with a simple vote with team's association IRTA - a supposedly democratic organization with many more two-stroke team members than four-stroke. The answer came to me as I watched yet another four-stroke team (they are all in the same boat) wheeling out the starter-unit and spinning up the rear wheel to vast speeds in order to get the engine running. The new rules have brought back the golden sounds of the old racing era. Why not continue the process? Bring back also dead-engine push starts. If they do that, the two-strokes will already have fmished a couple of laps by the time anybody gets their four-stroke engine running. eN 10 YEARS AStJ••• AprIl 1, 1992 Team Honda's Jeff Stanton graced the cover of Issue it 12 after scoring his second win of the AMA Supercross Series at the Hoosierdome in Indiana, round nine of the series. He finished one second in front of teammate Jean-Michel Bayle, with Hoosier Mike laRocco (Kaw) in third. Damon Bradshaw (Yam), the points leader going into the event, crashed out on lap 12 and lost the points lead to the two Honda teamsters, who were tied for the lead. Jeremy McGrath (Hon), in his third 250cc race, finished sixth. Jimmy Button (Yam) raced to his second consecutive 125cc Eastern Region win ahead of Brian Swink (Suz) and Doug Henry (Yam) ... Scott Summers (Hon) won the opening round of the AMA Grand National Cross Country Series in Greeneville, Tennessee ... Larry Roeseler (Kaw) won the Tecate 250 in Mexico. Among his competitors was supercross racer Tommy Clowers (Kaw), who did not finish the event. .. Craig Decker (Kaw) won both the 125 and 250cc Intermediate classes at Las Vegas International Raceway. Danny Hamel (Kaw) finished second to Decker in the 250s. The new Suzuki: Fast enough to wheelle, but not fast enough to match Honda's Vfive. They are not alone. Innext .....'. Cyt:IfI • Houston Supercross • Australia WSIK • Valkenswaanl USGP • GnensbonI NatIonal Enduro • VallCOUV8l' Areaacross "IllS a U c I e n e _!IS • MARCH 27. 2002 103