Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World Championship Road Race Series Round 1 : .Japanese Grana Prix Arnaud Vincent won the first 125 Grand Prix of the year on his Aprllia. to make a charge at the leaders, the Spaniard took a solid third. "The main thing was to keep the leaders in sight," Checa said. "After Rossi and Ryo passed me, I pushed hard to stay close to them, and then started working on Itoh. I passed him when he lost the front through the esses, his bike went sideways and his rear wheel hit my fairing, so I lost the front too. I looked and him and he looked at me, like we were both BRIEFLY••• What Kenny Roberts Jr. also has to make the most of is the tire situation. Suzuki. at the factory level without consulting the race team. made the decision unilaterally to switch from Michelin to Dunlop. The team has struggled. most recently in last weekend's tests here at Suzuka. Roberts Jr. was asked if there was any truth to the rumor that he and teammate Sete Gibernau had requested a switch back to Michelin. "It's a very delicate question. I emphasize 'delicate.'" he said. "We have our hands full with every aspect of the bike and the tires and the chassis and the engine. It's basically up to Suzuki. They decided to go in this direction for some reason. Whether if s to use us as some sort of a test rider for next year to get the bike better or if iI's for the future for their relationship. It is difficult to test the tires and the bike and all these things. Anyway. I'm happier in this position than in last year's position because it's a new opportunity for me to change what I know about the motorcycle and the way that it works, Last year. I didn't change much on the bike. We didn't have much to work with. The problems from the beginning of the year were the same to the last. Now iI's a whole new set of problems. We can fix a lot of problems. Whether we fix the tire problems right away or a long time depends on Suzuki. The weight of their decision depends on also where we finish with our results. Dunlop is trying extremely hard and they have new management. so hopefully they can come up with something fairly quickly. " Aprilia racing director Jan Witteveen said the MotoGP team will expand to two riders next year and that there would only be one this year. even at Aprilia's home GP at Mugello in Italy, "This year. we are going to concentrate on the development of the bike and that means that we have to work very hard. and with two riders it's a handicap." he said. "We have at home a test rider, Marcellino Lucchi. what help us this year. especially Mugello to develop the bike quickly and we are focused on that." Witteveen said there would be teething problems with the new Aprilia RS-3 Cube. but that was to be expected. "We tried to make a bike for a long distance. That means not a bike that we have to improve every year with more new technology, because we think that the technology that we have applicated now can be for used in the next years. Not after one year to change the concept because we have a lot of margin in the next years to improve and also to develop the potential of the bike that we have today." Aprilia and Honda are the only two factories competing in all three World Championship classes, 125cc, 250cc, and MotoGP. as well as the World Superbike Championship. "Of course, iI's a very hard job to do everything well. but I think we have the resources and everything we need to be competitive. The story sounded too good to be true. Turns out it was. The first telling went like this. After not being asked to return as the crew chief for Marlboro Yamaha's Carlos Checa. Mike Webb took a 14 APRIL 17, 2002' cue. _ n going to crash. After that, I pushed hard again and I'm so happy to get third in my first race with the M 1." Checa had the use of a new chassis for the Suzuka weekend, but didn't use it. With the faint possibility of a dry race, the team set up the wet bike with the older chassis. "I think the new chassis would've been better because I could see that the bike was a little difficult to turn at the hairpin and chicane," VZR-M 1 project leader Icruro Voda said. After Checa came Itoh and Abe, whose view of the future is bleak. "The differences with the fourstroke bikes are really big, even in wet conditions," he said. Abe led the rest of the twostrokes, Barros seven seconds in front of Aoki, the final rider on the lead lap. Barros said he rode too cautiously at the beginning and had a front-tire problem. "I had excellent rear-end grip, but I was losing traction in the front and this made it difficult to ride," he said. job as technical inspector with the FIM. replacing the recently retired Jack Findlay. When the factory Yamahas rolled through tech. the fairings were all found to be too wide. some by as little as 5mm. Who was responsible for the scrutiny? Webb in the early telling. Not so. as it turns out. It was. in fact. a zeaious local scrutineer. one of those who are hired locally that report ultimately to the clerk of the course. The Yamahas were too wide, two-stroke and four-stroke alike. all except for the VZR500 of Garry McCoy. which uses an older fairing that the Australian prefers. Webb did provide Repsol Honda with a few uncomfortable moments. All machines are weighed without their gas tanks. and given a 2 kg. (4.4 pounds) allowance. The fuel tank on the Honda RC211 V is under the seat and houses the fuel pump inside it. Honda asked if they could remove the tank, but leave the fuel pump resting on the frame. No way. said Webb. Luckily for Honda. the RC211 V was over the mandated 143 kg. (314.6 pounds) weight even without the fuel pump. After initially thinking his work with Yamaha was finished. John Kocinski said he will continue his work as a test rider for Yamaha's VZR-M1 project. "It appears iI's going to continue." he said after a meeting with Yamaha brass on Friday afternoon. "I don't know the details. - Yamaha team director Davide Brivio said that Kocinski had worked with Yamaha's Japanese test team on reliability and tire testing. and to offer another opinion. "When the riders are more concentrated on fine setting or trying different tires, he can try something more. maybe more extreme. Also we can go in a different direction with him without losing time with Carlos [Checa) or Max [Biaggil." Great Britain has the distinction of having both the oldest and youngest riders in the World Championships, though thaI's subject to change. At 38, Proton Team KR's Jeremy McWilliams is currently the oldest. That likely won't change. CWF-Matleoni Racing's 125cc charger Chaz Davies is the youngest. at 15. That will change by the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez when 14-year-old Mallorcan Jorge Lorenzo turns 15 and joins the Caja Madrid Derbi Racing team. Lorenzo is currently in Barcelona recovering from a crash at the Catalunya circuit. In all, there are 17 teenagers in the 125cc class, Davis said that he had some familiarity with the Suzuka Circuit because if s one of the tracks on his PlayStation 2 MotoGP game. The knowledge didn't keep him from crashing in the first qualifying session on Saturday afternoon. Maybe it was because on the PlayStation 2. he races a 500. Pramac Honda Racing Team's Tetsuya Harada made the switch from Michelin to Dunlop tires just prior to the Japanese GP. Harada. who used Dunlops throughout his 250cc career. made the switch after running Michelins throughout the testing season, Harada wasn't in Dunlop's early plans due to budget and resources. But when Fortuna Honda Gresin;'s Daijiro Katoh was switched from Dunlop to Michelin late in the testing season, the budget was available to add Harada, _., s Teammate Loris Capirossi was lapped, and finished ninth. "The tires lost grip on the starting grid and, from that moment on, it was practically impossible to stop the bike [from] sliding off," he said. "It was really tough because I found it impossible to ride in these conditions as I had no grip in the front or the rear." Capirossi finished behind Laconi in the debut for the Aprilia RS Cube. The team had never raced in the rain and viewed it as an academic exercise. "We had no previous experience in the wet, and we didn't have enough data to intervene effectively on mapping the engine," project leader Jan Witteveen said. Katoh knew from the start of the race that he'd have troubles. "I had no feeling from the bike and could only hope to finish the race," he said, which he did, in 1Oth, in front of Tetsuya Harada. Harada was making his wet-race debut on the Honda NSR500. "Until the track was completely covered by rain water, 1 was able to ride pretty well," he said, "but when Pere Riba probably wishes he'd stayed in the World Superbike Championship. The Spaniard. who left the Ten Kate Honda Supersport team a week before the first World Supersport race in Valencia. was forced to withdraw from his Grand Prix debut with the MotoGP Antena 3 Yamaha D'Antin team after breaking his right shoulder in the first qualifying session at the Suzuka Circuit.. Riba was on his third lap on the Yamaha YZR-500 when he crashed. rupturing a ligament in his right shoulder where the deltoid muscle connects to the bone. Riba also stretched a tendon in his right arm. It wasn't known whether he'd be ready for the next GP. at Welkom, South Africa. in two weeks time. "This moming [SundayJ. I've started my rehabilitation process. in order to be nearly 100 percent for Welkom." Riba said. "Doctors told me this is possible and I will fight for it." Riba was drafted onto the D'Antin Yamaha team to replace fellow Spaniard, and former 500cc World Champion. Alex Criville. Criville took a leave of absence from the World Championship in order to cure a long lingering head injury. Word circulating in the pits at Suzuka was that Criville may not return to racing this year. if ever. The last time a four-stroke started from pole in the top class. then 500cc. it was at the Grand Prix of Finland at Imatra in 1975 whe" Gianfranco Bonera started from pole on an MV Agusta. Rossi's four-stroke win was the fist since Giacomo Agostini won the 1976 German Grand Prix at Nurburgring. Rossi joins fellow Italian. and 15-time World Champion Giacomo Agostini as the only rider ever to win on both two-stroke and four-stroke machinery in the top class of GP racing. HRC President Suguru Kanazawa hinted that this could be the last year of the Honda NSR500 two-stroke. "There is a cost problem, and also maintenance of the two-stroke and four-stroke machines are different. so we will see what is the best this year." "Four-strokes aren't as demanding as we thought." Michelin's Nicolas Goubert said. though the French tire company developed a new tire which works well for both two- and four-strokes alike. At Suzuka, Michelin introduced a new. taller rear slick to handle the stress of the four-strokes. The four-stroke tire has a larger center diarpeter, giving a different profile to increase the contact patch and thus reduce running temperature. The new profile. which has been embraced by all of the Michelin runners. offers improved edge grip. needed because four-strokes have more torque available when the riders start to open the throttle at full lean. and more traction. because you need a lot of acceleration grip if you've got 240 to 250 hp. The trade-off is tire life. There was some question whether it would last race distance at full abuse levels. The larger-profile tire also works with 500s. The tire comes in four different profiles and multiple different compounds and constructions, A 16-inch slick is being evaluated.

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