Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Ukawa chases Biaggl in front of a crowd estimated at some 80,000. front meant he dropped his guard and gave Nakano a chance. "I came close to crashing, but I had to take the risk," said Nakano afterward. McWilliams was 13 seconds behind at the finish, and coming under a distant threat from McCoy as they started the last lap. But McCoy also made a slip, and Aoki had been shadowing him for much of the race, after spoiling his good start by trying to pass on the outside into the first corner, and ending up down in 15th instead. "He passed me coming up the hill for the last time, and it was going to be too risky to pass him back," said McCoy, happy to be regaining race fitness and finding his rhythm again. Alex Hofmann did well to claim 1Oth ahead of a hard-pushing Ryo; Cardoso finished last and all alone. Rossi's holiday spirit was lifted still further by his lucky win. He now has 220 points, almost 100 ahead of Ukawa on 124, with Biaggi closing on 109, Barros on 87 and Checa on 85. BRIEFLY••• Rostrum places will get harder for the opposition to gain after the summer break. with news coming at Sachsenring that for the rest of the season there will be three V-five Hondas on the grid. The third machine will go to reigning 250cc World Champion Daijiro Kato. who rides for Team Fortuna Honda Gresini. but is backed by HRC. So far this year, he has campaigned a two-stroke NSR Honda, with a rostrum third place at Jerez. Kato's HRC links meant that he received a string of development parts during the year, which he admits have damaged his results at recent races, The four-stroke, however, will be "exactly the same as Rossi's and Ukawa's bikes," according to team manager, former 125 World Champion Fausto Gresini, who added: "We are very proud to be the first non-factory team to get a four-stroke." Kato will not get a chance to test the bike before the GP, partly because he will be racing at the Suzuka Eight-Hour during the break, partnering Ukawa. .. I'm really looking fOlWard to it. .. it will be a great challenge," he said. Rossi's opinion is not yet on record, but he said earlier this year that. while he could not stop Honda giving anyone else a machine, he would not be pleased, haVing been the major factor in developing the bike to its present dominant state. "The Japanese test riders will never tell the engineers something is bad, .. he said at the time. There may be a fourth V-five Honda before the end of the season, with Team West Honda Pons in line for one bike for the last four rounds, at Motegi, Malaysia, Australia and Valencia. The news came in a carefully worded statement. which said the team "will have the chance" to use an RCV, after reaching agreement with HRC. This raises at least one vexing question. Which of Pons' two riders will be given the bike, Loris Capirossi or Alex Barros? Pons' statement sidestepped the issue. No decision had been taken, he said. But there was Spanish speculation that the whole affair may be more a political move than reality. It has demonstrated to potential sponsors that Pons has sufficient credibility with HRC to secure four-strokes for next season. It also gives Pons, who has a reputation as a shrewd operator, power over his riders. He can promise the bike to whichever of them first signs a contract for next year. Marlboro and Yamaha are to part company again at the end of this season, with the biggest sponsors in bike racing expected to move to Ducati. This partially confinms rumors that have been circulating for several months - although the Ducati connection has not been confinmed officially. This leaves Yamaha again hunting for a sponsor, In 1997 and 1998, they lost Marlboro to Kenny Roberts' Modenas team. It also adds another dimension to the uncertainty to the overall situation, with all but four significant riders CValentino Rossi. Daijiro Kato, Garry McCoy and John Hopkins) not yet contracted for next year, and major sponsors also about to reach the end of their contracts with the teams. 250cc GRANO PRIX Rolfo got the jump and stormed away on the Honda, Melandri and fast-starter Naoki Matsudo in pursuit. Soon, the two Italians were pulling away, while Matsudo was dropping back quickly, Porto moving to third on the third lap and doing an impressive job of keeping close to the leaders, though not quite close enough to mix it up with them. Melandri seemed content to follow Rolfo, and when he did finally attack under braking into the first corner on China is scheduled to join the GP calendar from 2004. at a brand-new circuit to be built almost in the shadow of the Great Wall. 25 miles from Beijing. The stadium will be the largest sport· ing venue in the world. with a capacity of half a million people. With admission price to be free. the new event will be set to break all records for spectator attendance. "This is an historic day for motorcycling and I would even go as far as to say for the world of sport." said Canmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Doma. Around a dozen major events are planned for the venue each year. includ- ing a live broadcast of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Will they also host an F1 race? Officials visiting the Sachsenring remained tight-lipped. How much longer will Valentino Rossi continue to dominate Grand Prix racing? Until he gets bored, runs the usual refrain, and leaves to take up a rally driving career. It may happen sooner than anybody expects, with the 500cc World Champion confinming that he will take part in the World Championship NetworkQ Rally of Great Britain (the RAC Rally) between November 14 and 17 this year. Rossi will drive a Peugeot for an italian team, and is still seeking sponsorship for the venture. "It should be real fun," said Rossi. "For sure it will be cold and wet. but I'll be sitting inside for once. " Kenny Roberts Jr. was absent from the German GP, recuperating from surgery earlier this week to his right foreanm. Roberts flew straight home from the British GP to have the operation with renowned surgeon Dr, Arthur Ting in San Francisco. He had been planning to wait until the summer break, but a serious deterioration at the last two races changed his mind, At Assen and Donington Park, his right anm pumped up in the condition commonly known as Racers' Wrist, though in this case it affected his anm muscles rather than the carpal tunnel. The surgery was a fasciaotomy - cutting the muscle sheath to relieve pressure. Ting pronounced it completely successful. .. Kenny had compartment syndrome of the foreanm," said TIng. "This causes excruciating pain, making if difficult if not impossible for a rider to hold on to the bike. I perfonmed a cutting and releasing of the fascia sheath ... because the muscle was getting too big to be contained by the sheath." Nonmal recovery takes five to six weeks, but the superfit Roberts might recover quicker, he added. Roberts explained that the weight and throttle blipping for downshifts while braking on the GSV-R four-stroke had exacerbated the problem, and promised his retum at Bmo would see him back to full fonm. "I'm looking fOlWand to getting back on the bike without the psychological and physical baggage the anm pump created," he said. "I'll ride as hard as I can at Bmo, and I expect to have my best performance and finish so far this year at that race," he concluded, Valentino Rossi may have been dubbed Mr. 46 Percent after his win last weekend at Donington Park in the British GP, for taking 46 wins in 100 GP starts." but his record in the premier class is even better. That was his 20th class win in his 40th start, giving him 50 percent. The next-best percentage of wins to starts is 39,4 percent. achieved by Mick Doohan, with Kenny Roberts Sr" Freddie Spencer and Wayne Rainey filling out the top five, lap 19, it was a smooth move. But he wasn't able to run away, and the Honda stuck with him. On the 23rd lap, Rolfo moved ahead again at the bottom of the hill, with Melandri diving back underneath into the last corner. There was clearly plenty of racing left in it. Or would have been. Halfway around the next lap, Melandri was down, and the red flag came out directly. Game over, Melandri the winner. Fourth place had been disputed for a while after Matsudo dropped away by Locatelli, with Nieto first finding his way past de Puniet (Aprilia), before the Frenchman ran off the track once, and then suffered a spectacular highside a few laps later. Nieto was with Locatelli by lap eight, and ahead of him two laps later, and from then on both continued alone to the premature finish. "All weekend, things went perfectIy ... until the race," said Nieto, who blamed a bad start and a power dropoff for an undistinguished and costly result. "I can only say that I will keep on working, and I am not about to surrender. ., Matsudo continued to lose ground, and after 15 laps he'd been caught by Suzuki's GSV-R MotoGP machine had a new chassis for the German GP - but while rider Sete Gibemau thought it feit somewhat better. technical adviser Warren Willing gave it a lukewanm reception. "It has only some small changes to stiffness around the swing-arm pivot. but it doesn't seem to have made much difference to our problem area." he said. HRC is upgrading its Belgian headquarters in line with plans to bring more V-fives to the grid, The latest addition to the Aalst facility will be a dynamometer, demonstrating that they intend to move engine-rebuilding facilities to Europe from Japan. Why has the Yamaha M1 stopped backfiring on the overrun? Why is it the only bike that allows riders to stamp down the gearbox without declutching or blipping the throttle? Rendered somewhat sensitive after their earlier advance publicity on the "awesome M 1" backfired when the bike was disappointing at first. nobody at Yamaha will reveal exactly why. This leaves the field open to speculation by rival teams. The conclusion seems to be that the new clutch-control software introduced before Le Mans also increases the idle speed under braking and backshifting, and that they are using a decompression system. Asked directly, team director Davide Brivio denied that there was any link between the software and the carburetors. And the decompression system? ~ No comment. " There were relatively few crashes at the tortuous Sachsenring during practice, at least in the MotoGP class - but the ones that did take place were spectacularly destructive. The victims, at one of the fastest comers on the track, where it plunges past a blind apex and steeply downhill, were Nobu Aoki on Saturday moming, and John Hopkins in the aftemoon. Both escaped serious injury, though Hopkins did crack a bone in his left hand, and was out of the race, spoiling his perfect points record in his first season_ Hopkins' Red Bull Yamaha escaped with only comprehensive damage, including shattered bodywork and snapped-off front discs. Aoki's Proton was in a far sorrier state, however. The bike somersaulted to destruction, with the front fork yokes snapped clean through, and the rear-seat subframe also snapped off, KTM's MotoGP plans are taking shape, with an entry in the 125cc ciass planned for next year, and a V4 990cc four-stroke for the big ciass in 2004, The Austrian firm has signed up renowned Austrian engineer Harald Bartol to head the project. Bartol's long and distinguished career includes many years with Yamaha, including design and development of their short-lived 125: followed by design and development of the much more successful Derbi and hence Gilera 125s. MZ is also still making the right noises in anticipation of an entry in 2004, with a statement saying they have new backing from China and another manufacturer to continue with their MotoGP project. cue I e n e _ 'IS • JULY 31,2002 1

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