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/128184
Suzuki GSV-R MotoGP Racer RIDING ..UNIORJS THUMPER By ALAN CATHCART PHOTOS By PAUL BARSHON ~uzuki was the leading member of ~ the supporting cast to the Honda/Yamaha duopoly in MotoGP's 2002 debut season, in a year which very much represented work in progress for the company's brandnew Y4 four-stroke GSY-R prototype. After starting work on its MotoGP contender rather late in the day compared to its two main Japanese rivals, only in the immediate aftermath of regaining the 500cc World title in 2000 with its RGY500 two-stroke, Suzuki deserve some credit for making the brave decision as late as October a year ago, just six months before the start of the 2002 Grand Prix season, to be there on the starting grid at Suzuka in April for the first-ever race under the new fourstroke formula. It meant spending a development season doing all its testing in the open by actually going racing with the new bike, rather than spending a year in closed circuit R&D testing and occasional wild card race outings. There was nearly an improbable winning payoff for that affrontery, too, with Suzuki factory tester Akira Ryo leading preseason favorite Yalentino Rossi's RC211 Y Honda throughout the wet JapaneseJ(GP aboard his Dunlop-shod GSY-R, only narrowly losing victory in the closing laps but still finishing second in the new Y4 Suzuki's debut in public. F airytale stuff. But Team Suzuki riders Kenny Roberts and Sete Gibernau found it less easy in succeeding races to bring the new bike into contention on a dry track, especially using the Dunlop tires Suzuki had switched to while all their Honda- and Yamaha-mounted four-stroke rivals remained on Michelins - as did the leading 500cc twostrokes. Switching back to the French rubber helped eliminate one more variable in developing the new bike, even if it was only after mid-season that Michelin was able to supply them with the same top-level tires as the other works teams'. But constant hard work saw the GSY-R gradually pick up the pace, even if the fact that Honda and Yamaha were also working equally hard to beat each other meant the prototype Suzuki remained a bit-part player in the hunt for top honors. Well, except for just one time, once again in the rain, at Estoril in September, where Sete Gibernau underlined the GSY-R's wet weather abilities by leading the Portuguese GP 16 DECEMBER 11, 2002' cue until five laps from the end, when under pressure from a closing Rossi he slid off the track and into retirement. Pity - looked at from outside, it seemed Suzuki deserved at least one 2002 race victory, to reward their bravery in taking on their rivals with an adolescent machine that was doing its growing up in public. As it was, after Ryo's promising performance that first time out, Team Suzuki visited the rostrum just once more in 2002 with the GSY-R, when Roberts finished third in Brazil, and though at the end of the season the former world champion rejected sev- !Above, right) Cycle News European Editor Alan Cathcart became the first journalist ever to swing a leg over Kenny Robert's factory Suzuki GSY-R fourstroke MotoGP racer. Cathcart noted that the "diesel" handles similarly to the RGY500 twostroke it replaced - right down to the handling quirks. It's also ungodly fast under acceleration. eral other offers in favor of signing a two-year contract to stay with Suzuki, his Spanish teammate decamped to a Honda seat for 2003, leading Team Suzuki boss Garry Taylor to invest in the future by replacing him with the brightest young talent on the MotoGP scene: 19-year old American John Hopkins, fresh from an impressive debut GP season aboard the Red Bull Yamaha two-stroke. Previously he was the winner of the AMA Formula Xtreme and 750 Supersport titles in successive years on Suzuki four-strokes. "It's kinda like coming home but getting to sit with the grownups at dinner 'cause of having grown up in the meantime," said "Hopper" as we scooped up a plate of pasta in a break for lunch at Malaysia's Sepang circuit, where I'd been invited to join him and KR to ride the GSY-R in Suzuki's first post-season test alongside a certain company test rider named Kevin Schwantz. "John stood out as someone we could hire who'd proved his speed