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/128196
The problems Alex had last year were mostly physical. He broke his foot training on his motocross bike and struggled to get back in shape and back in form. Alex returned home to Australia after the season ended to train at the same center as the Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe. "Last year I think I was fit enough to get by, where this year I want to have a bit in reserve," he said. "I look to get up to the front a little more this year, and to do that, I think you have to hold a pretty good pace through the whole race." Alex moves from the Bruce Transportation Group to the Erion Honda team in 2003. He's brought his Australian mechanic Dale McVeigh to work on the Honda CBR600RR that he'll be racing in both the Supersport and Superstock classes. "And if anybody gets injured, then I'll step onto the Extreme bike: he said. (Left) Aaron Gobert will concentrate on the 600cc Supersport class this year. (Right) Roger Lee Hayden will ride both Fonnula Xtreme and 600cc supersport. still, and it handles so good - it doesn't feel like a 600." The new 600 is so small that he said he had to adjust his riding style, specifically how he rides the front end. "The old 600 used to chatter everywhere, but this one sticks like glue," Hayden said. Alex Gobert felt the same way. The youngest of the Gobert brothers hadn't ridden a road racer since the final race in Virginia, but he immediately felt the increased traction of the new Honda and the new Dunlops. "I think the track feels a lot grippier this year," Alex said. "I think it's Dunlop's new tires combined with the new bike's handling. This track's always a little bit slipperier than all the other places we go to, so I'm looking forward to seeing how good it is on a track like Laguna Seca. "It turns in really good into the corners,"' he added. "I used to go into the corner and used to have two goes at it. Uke I would go into the comer and brake and then slowly lean over, where now, on the new bike, it's all in one motion: just straight in and turn. And on the banking yesterday, I got behind a few guys on the other brands of bike. The Honda's got no problems there." Tea'" Kawasaki: !I3D~@[? !I3@[?@ Eric Bostrom very nearly won the AMA Superbike Championship racing his Kawasaki ZX7 against the dominant Honda V-twins. If he only had a little more displacement... wish granted. For 2003, the four-cylinder 750s are allowed a 2mm overbore, giving the Kawasaki a displacement in excess of 800cc while allowing them to keep the chassis, setup and data they've accumulated over the years. It isn't perfect, but it'll do, for this year anyhow. The reality is, they had no choice. Un.like Yoshimura Suzuki, whlch went for the 1000ct option, K.awasaki doesn't have a big bore inline four that would be competitive. Its choices were to go big or pull out, as Yamaha did. It was hoping for a 1mm overbore; the AMA's doubling it was a bonus. How it will work remains to be seen. Kawasaki expects to have it at some of the tests later in the winter, possibly at Laguna Seca toward the end of January. But it was the old tried and true at Daytona, with a few changes. One of the bigger changes was in personnel. Matt Worbes, Eric's crew chlef, decided to move back to Oregon. He was in Daytona for the test but will be replaced by former Honda mechanic Dan Fahie. Fame was hoping to catch on with a Grand Prix team, preferably the Repsol Honda crew of Nicky Hayden, but that didn't happen. This will be his first stint as a crew chief, though team boss Mike Preston is convinced he can hanclle the job. "I think Dan's ready to lead the ship," Preston said, adding that Fahie had worked with Eric at Honda in 1999. "He'll be in the shop when we get back. Most likely, his first test will be Fontana at the beginning of the year." Fahie isn't the only new addition to the team. Mike Perez, who handled the team's data acquisition, left for a car race team. He's been replaced by Howard Rossoff. Thea Lockwood, who's been working with Chris Walker on the Fuchs Kawasaki World Superbike team, will be building engines for the team. Ross Nearpass will be working with Joey Lombardo on Tommy Hayden's machinery. Brian Kinney will be working in the engine department. "We're just trying to beef up to get a little bit better," Preston said. That Eric will be racing in the U.S.A. was something of a surprise. For a time he was hoping to spearhead K.awasaki's MotoGP effort and also talked with Aprilia. The plan was to reunite on the world scene with his brother, Ben Bostrom. Then a few things changed. First and foremost, Ben signed with American Honda. If Eric wanted to resume the sibling rivalry they'd abandoned in 1999, he'd have to do it in the United States. Having watched Kawasaki's early efforts in MotoGP, and having run far from the front of the pack in his World Superbike forays, Eric knew that racing the Kawasaki in MotoGP would be an exercise in frustration, especially because the team was committed to using Dunlop tires, which weren't competitive in 2002. Eric may ride the MotoGP machine at some point this season, though new MotoGP rules mean that wild card entries will be difficult to come by. "The plan would be for him to fill in if something happens to one of the riders," Preston said. Eric's contract with Kawasaki is for two years. Eric acknowledges that there will be no shortage of competition, but it's his brother he's constantly battling, whether on the track or on the rocks. "Last year my [rock] climbing was at a standstill," he said. "The last two months, even getting over breaking my wrist [at a World Superbike race in Germany in August], I've been going up stuff I've never been up before. ' 50 he's back for his fourth year with Kawasaki. The work at Daytona would reVOlve around the chassis. "When we were down here in March, it was complete crap. I couldn't even hardly ride the thing," Eric said. By the end of the first day of the test he was second fastest, just behind Ben, a vast improvement. He also got to ride with Ben and Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat M1adin and was pleased to find that he could pass them on the banking. "I feel like I should be that fast," Eric said after the first day. "I'm really impressed with the cue I e n e _ S • JANUARY 15. 2003 23