Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

After the Special Stage press conference, a journalist asked Edwards if winning the 8 Hours was a stepping stone to MotoGP, "Ah, shit. I've been stepping on stones my whole entire life, it seems like, I don't have a Spanish, Italian or Japanese passport at the moment, so it's a bit difficult. I just keep dOing what I'm doing, I'm getting paid for what I love to do, and I have the number-one seat in World Superbike, • called "Prototype,' based on the current MotoGP regulations. Two bikes were entered in the Prototype class, the Kenz J-Trust Suzuki GSX-R 1000 ridden by Keiichi Kitagawa and Noriyasu Numata, and the Yoshimura Tornado S-1R, another GSX-Rl000 derivative, ridden by Tamaki Serizawa and Shinya Takeishi, Theoretically the most potent class in the 8 Hours, neither entry was a factor in the race due to crashes. The two factory Honda teams had LED pitboards at the 8 Hours, a first The pitboards were made from four red LED panels mounted on a pIVoting ann. The LEDs were controlled by a computer, and exceptionally bnght. "They're good, simple, and easy: said Edwards "I can't see them any better. but they're easy for the team to work, They just punch it In and go.• According to FuJlo Yoshimura, the Tornado S-lR was putting-out 190 hp ,n endurance form. For spnnt races, it makes more power yet. Colin Edwards' crew chief Adrian Gorst was at Suzuka, again, and happy to be there. "This is a totally different sort of challenge. For me I enJOY this race. It's the one different sort of race each year. When I started racing In New Zealand, the most important race of the year was the Castrol Six Hour. This sort of reminds me of those days, ,n some ways. It always presents new challenges and taCtiCS involved. And there are things you Cljn do in the pits that makes a difference that affects the outcome of the race, It's interesting. It adds another dimension to the year, something else to do to keep you sharp. " Though the demands on a crew chief are greater in endurance racing, Gorst stili felt that the 8 Hours was a good event to do, "' think a change is as good as a break, almost. It's something different. It gives you new things to think about. and you've got to work slightly different." So what's more work? An 8 Hours event or a World Super. bike event? Gorst: "It's gotten more organized over the years, At one stage, we'd come here and we'd be here from sIx in the morning till midnight for seven days. These days, the Japanese are so much more organized. A lot of the work is done before we get here, We don't end up spending the amount of hours in the garage like we used to. The number of hours we spend in the garage is probably just like a normal World Superbike weekend these days. That's down to the preparation by the Japanese before we get here, you gat to give them credit for that. ' According to Koji Nakajima, general manager for the Cabin Honda team, the official reason for the six-pit-stop strategy was MotoGP fuel-economy-technology development. "Fuel-consumption rate of the VTRloooSf'IN is much better than last year. In order to achieve good fuel consumption, the engine charactenstics have been modified, friction has been decreased, and riders must be smooth when working the throttle. For MotoGP, the fuel-tank capacity will be reduced from 24 to 22 liters In 2004, and these technologies will work for that." With the 8 Hours now over, HRC has promised Edwards new 'Evolution' engines for World Superblke that provide an additional two horsepower. "If it's only two horsepower, I told them don't even bring it." said Edwards. "I need 15,' For the second straight year, Alex Barros had a conspiracy theory regarding why the team failed to win the 8 Hours. This time, the villain was his teammate, Yuichi Takeda. Takeda races in the All-Japan Superbike Championship on a Dunlop-shod Honda. For the 8 Hours, Takeda was partnered with Barros, and Honda selected Mlchelins for the team, "Maybe he is racing for Dunlop in Japanese Championship," theorized Barros. "For Michelin, maybe he didn't feel well. If he couid go a little bit faster, maybe we could have a chance to win." When asked why Barros did not object to Takeda before the 8 Hours, Barros stated that Takeda's riding was promising in the tests before the 8 Hours. "I came here for onetime test. He try just one-half hour, and make 2:08.8 first time. But he never repeat this time, never this weekend. I think, gosh, maybe he's not so bad, maybe he can improve. I thought he was okay. For the race, I have contract with HRC, and HRC choose which team I ride. This year, I must ride for Sakuri team. I don't know what IS going to happen next year." During the post-race press conference, the air between Barros and Takeda was rather frosty, and later Barros was a no-show at the Javish Honda party. In case you were wondering, Sakuri is a large chain of Honda motorcycle dealerships in Japan. They have entered the 8 Hours for over 10 years, and riders who have raced for Sakuri Honda in the 8 Hours Include Randy Renfrow, Dale Quarterley, and Rich Amaiz, Barros was also perturbed about Honda's recent decision to furnish DaiJiro Kato with a RC211 V four-stroke MotoGP bike for the rest of the year, though Kato's results in MotoGP have been generally less than that of Barros. "This is politics, you know. If you look at the results, it's so clear. I don't know.' Barros stated that the West Honda Pons team will receive one RC211 V for the Motegi Grand Prix. "I just know my team receive one four-stroke for the last four races. Just one machine for two riders, It's a big problem for Sito Pons to decide. I don't know what Sito will do,' Honda has not reached a decision regarding where Japanese star Makoto Tamada will race in 2003. It's looking unlikely to be MotoGP or World Superbike, as Honda has not started English lessons for Tamada yet. To fill the grid for the 8 Hours, the Suzuka Circuit creates • promoter classes' that feature race bikes of particular interest to Japanese race fans. One such class that was new for this year was When the Prototype class was announced by the Suzuka Circuit. Honda infonned Colin Edwards that Honda might enter the RC211V. According to Edwards, the more powerful RC211V would actually be easier to ride In the 8 Hours than the VTR1000Sf'IN. Fujio Yoshimura said at Suzuka that he reviewed the prol>osed technical regulation changes for AMA Superbike, and supported the AMA's proposal. 'I think It'S good for the sport, If you look at the market for 750cc motorcycles, n's a lot smaller than the big bikes. Like they said nght from the beginning, they should be racing whatever they can buy from the showroom floor, This is good for the aftennarket.· To critics of the rules proposal. Yoshimura had this to say: "In America, you have a lot of different racing. If you don't like [the AMAl, you can go somewhere else.' Through clever reading of the FIM rulebook, Honda devised a new pit-stop procedure to use at Suzuka, The FIM Endurance rules require that no work be perfonned on the motorcycle during refueling. Even wiping the windscreen and rotating the rear wheel are expressly forbidden during refueling, Thus, what all teams had done for years was to first add the fuel, and then change the wheels. Alex Barros explained the old and new procedures: 'We changed the method from last year. Before we stop, put the gas in, take off the gas, take off the wheels, and put the wheels in. Now we stop, take off the wheels, put on the gas, take off the gas, and put in the wheels. We changed the method. and it's two seconds more fast. The eqUipment is still the same. All of the Honda teams have done that. I worked on the pit stop on Thursday, and it worked very, very well. The times were constant. and the times were two seconds faster than last year.' What is novel about Honda's reading of the rules is that the original language was meant to keep the motorcycle Intact during refueling, thereby allowing the motorcycle to be pushed away In case there is fuel spillage. Not anymore, In terms of top speed, the fastest motorcycle of the meet was the Yoshimura Tomado S-1R, at17g mph. The two Sakuri Hondas and another satellite Honda VTR 1OOOSf'IN tied for second fastest at 178.4 mph. Fifth fastest was the Kenz J-Trust Suzuki GSX-Rlooo prototype at 177.8, followed by the Edwards/Kato factory Honda and the GMT94 Super Production GSX-R1000 at 177.2. The factory Yamaha and Suzuki Superbikes were tied at 176.6 mph. The Corona Extra EBSCO Media Suzuki team was at Suzuka through invitation - and finanCial support - from Suzuka Circuit General Manager Tetsuo Mihara. "He introduced himself to us at Daytona, which was pretty flattering," explained Corona Extra team principal Landers Sevier. 'It meant that, obviously, we have a professional appearance, and we've had historical results out on the track," Racing the Suzuka 8 Hours meant fulfillment of a promise Sevier made to himself 12 years ajlo, "I was here in 1990, as a spectator, When i left the Suzuka Circuit in 1gOO, I told myself my personal goal was to come back and race it one year, When the offer came at Daytona, I said, 'yeah, we're going to do it, I'm going to put it together.' We connected up with Toobee, who manufactures TI-Force exhaust systems. Then we started cementing the deal and looking at the program, and seeing if we could actually put together a worthy effort. We had about five weeks' lead time to prepare for it, which made It really difficult. This race fell right between two AMA rounds, so logistically it became a difficult mountain to climb, But we bUilt an entire team to do this one event. New motorcycles, everything, in a matter of five weeks, in a way that the AMA team would not be compromised whatsoever.• One of the keys to Corona's success at Suzuka was that they prepared everything themselves before the race. Often the approach of two teams merging ,nto a joint effort results in a team where the whole does not equal the sum of the parts. "There's a lot of guys here right now like our sister team, the Hooters team, that are having difficulties,' said Sevier, "They're having a bunch of mixed eqUipment, manpower, and personnel. We're offering assistance. [By doing it yourself] you're in more control. You know what to expect when you get there, what little things may need to be done to finalize a better setup when you hit the track. It was five weeks of hell preparing to get here, but hopefully by 7:30 p.m. Sunday night it will have all paid off. Even so, right now [SaturdayJ, we've accomplished so much, we've done more than we anticipated, We've come here to win our class, for sure. We knew that it would be hard. I think the people are opening their eyes that we have a worthy program. ' Riding for Corona Extra were Australian Adam Fergusson and Canadian Jordan Szoke, Szoke encountered paperwork problems at Suzuka that prevented him from riding until Friday afternoon, 'We had some licensing problems - we didn't have the right papers that we didn't know about,' explained Szoke. "It wasn't really anybody's fault, it was just rushed because it's mid-season, I had to have an FIM release from my country to be here. I actually ended up getting a release from Ron Barrick [of the AMAJ. because of the time difference. We talked with him directly, and he sent over a release so I could ride, • The size of the Suzuka Circuit and associated grounds runs contrary to the Japanese tendency to scale things down, as Szoke discovered. "I have been to some other world tracks over in Europe and stuff before, so I know that they are amazing. This place, you know - walk from your hotel to the pits and you have to walk 20 minutes through an amusement park that's at the racetrack. It's pretty amazing. it really is. It's ,n a place of it's own.· Szoke was not amused about the shenanigans he and teammate Fergusson were subjected to by the Suzuka Circuit before the race. "Adam and I had to do a breathalyzer test this morning, " said Szoke after the race. "So we were down there for like an hour, dOing a damned breathalyzer test. Which is fine. I don't drink, but I had a beer Friday night because we weren't dOing much Sat· urday. I was With Colin [EdwardsJ, Mick [DoohanJ, Adam [FergussonJ, and I. You're not going to pass up drinking a few beers with Mick Doohan, are you?" Further, Szoke was livid with the Suzuka Circuit for actions after the team finished third in class. "We missed the podium presentation because they held us down in Medical, making us do drug tests, You think they could have made us do that after our podium, Our crew worked so hard this weekend. We had such a great weekend. We're extremely happy to be on the box, and then Suzuka does something like this, We were watching the podium pre· sentation from the Medical room, and there's our spot missing on the box, They could have done it after the podium: the drugs aren't going to leave my body in an hour, For the crew, there's nothing better than to cheer their riders on the box. They took that from us. That would have been a nice picture to take home, 'Look, I finished on the box at Suzuka.· Now I don't have that.' Suzuka Circuit hastily assembled a make-up podium session for Szoke and Fergusson later, long after first place. second place, and most of the crowd had left. Photographer Brian J. Nelson, flown to Suzuka at Team Corona Extra's expense, was shocked to see the mock podium ceremony suddenly appear on the circuit monitor in the press room. Excluding the medical-test debacle, Team Corona Extra was happy with their race at Suzuka. "It's pretty good for our first time here," said Fergusson, • but it's just a bit disappointing [to finish third] because we were definitely the fastest team out there today, We had a couple problems, and climbed back up." Fergusson developed a large blister on the bottom of his right foot after three hours of racing. "That last stint I had done was my fastest of the day. I just put everything into it. I had a lot of pain ,n my foot. We come here as a new team. We out-qualified everyone, we outlapped everyone, and we just about out-raced everyone. But we didn't have all the luck today. " American David Estok was another Suzuka rookie, riding for the Verboven Hooters Team and enjoying the Suzuka experience. "The track is real fun to go around. After watching it so many years and playing it on video games, I finally get to go around it. It's real neat.' For Estok, the toughest section of the track to leam was the Casio Triangle. "Took me a while to get used to that tight chicane, I think I blew through it my first 10 times. You can't see that chicane. The track crests up, and by the time I'd see it I can't stop. I'd just go through the grass every time. But I finally got that figured out. ' Estok teamed with Mike Ciccotto and Kyoichi Kosaka on a bike that came from FIM team Herman Verboven Racing, fitted with Hooters bodywork and shaded, when parked, by a pair of blonde Hooters umbrella girls, "We're having some bike problems." said Estok after practice. "Between the two teams· Herman Verboven and Hooters - things didn't come together, everything didn't get worked out right. Things that were promised by one team and the other team weren't all done. We got here and we got a bike that we have to ptece together, and it wasn't the same bike we have been riding in the endurances. We had to start totally over. We're getting it faster and faster, but between learning the track and trying to get the bike set up, it's a handful. It's one of Hennan' s bikes, but it's not the one we've been racing. I don't know why they decided to put a new bike together, to tell you the truth. It would have been nice to be on a bike that we're comfortable with, and that we've rode. I know Ciccotto and I, and the Japanese rider, we can go faster than we are going." The team qualified 66th, and finished 36th overall with 197 laps. Aral introduced a new helmet liner with Improved water,absorp. tion capabilities at the 8 Hours. The liner will be offered on Astro-J production helmets. and the new model is known as the Astro-JSV. The new liner adds approximately $10 to the cost of the helmet. Colin Edwards and DaijirO Kato scooped up 10 million yen, or $85,000, for winning the 8 Hours. T~dayuki Okada and Makoto Tamada earned 2 million yen ($17,000) for second, and Alex Barros and Yuichi Takeda earned one million yen ($8500) for third, Barros and Takeda picked up another 1.2 million yen ($10,000) for qualifying and winning the Special Stage. A total of $350,000 was paid out in prize and qualifying money across all classes, cue' e n e _ S • AUGUST 21,2002 33

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