Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

IRTA Jerez Test By MICHAEL SCOTT PHOTOS BY GOLD £, GOOSE JEREZ, SPAIN, FEB. 21-23 fi\ lex Barros dominated the first IRTA tests at Jerez, in the absence of Honda, setting his best time on the latest fuel-injected Ml Yamaha, and fending off a close challenge from Superbike World Champion Colin Edwards on the l..!:t.l open-to-all Aprilia. Barros had led the first dry day, giving way to fellow Yamaha rider Shinya Nakano on a slow and damp second day, with several riders only running a handful of laps. The third day was the fastest for almost all the riders, with Edwards' making a surprise bid for glory, overcoming several engine breakdowns to take the Cube to the top of the three. Then, with only a few minutes to go, Barros went out again to drive home his advantage. Edwards was pushed to second, but Fortuna Yamaha rider Carlos Checa wasn't able to do better than third. "I'd been faster on the carburetor bike until the very end," Barros said. "That was because the chassis setup was better. The injection power is more linear, but we don't have all the Alex Barros was impressive on his Gauloises Yamaha M1 during the IRTA group test session at Jerez in Spain. The Brazilian was the quickest rider at the test and showed that he should be a factor in this year's MotoGP World Championship. answers yet for settings. Then at the end Yamaha asked me to try another change on the latest bike with injection - and that turned out to be the fastest without having to try any harder." 1. Alex Barros (Gauloises Yamaha) .........................• _.•.... 1:42.640 2. Colin Edwards (Alice Aprilia) ........................•.••••••....1:42.818 3. Carlos Checa (Fortuna Yamaha) 1:42.861 4. Troy Bayliss (Marlboro Ducati) ..................••..••..•.•••....1:42.890 5. Marco Melandri (Fortuna Yamaha) 1:43.236 6. Shinya Nakano (d'Antin Yamaha) 1:43.302 7. Loris Capirossi (Marlboro Ducati) 1:43.541 8. Kenny Roberts (Suzuki) 1:43.910 9. Noriyuki Haga (Alice Aprilla) 1:44.218 10. John Hopkins (Suzuki) .................................•.•....1:44.652 11. Olivier Jacque (Gauloises Yamaha) ...........•.•••••• • •••••.... 1:44.783 12. Norick Abe (Yamaha) 1:45.271 13. Garry McCoy (Kawasaki) 1:45.361 14. Andrew Pitt (Kawasaki) .............................••.•••....1:45.835 15. Alex Hofmann (Kawasaki) .............................•..•....1:45.962 16. Akira Yanagawa (Kawasaki) ............................•.••....1:58.712 28 MARCH 5. 2003' eye • e n e _ S Suzuki's new GSV-R broke cover at Jerez, with the biggest changes of any of the factories racing last year. The bike is new from front to back, using last year's first GSV-R Vfour "as a sort of a prototype," according to general racing manager Yasuo Kamomiya, but taking the concept a big step further. The bike was running in black at Jerez, not yet in its final form or colors, but was shown on Friday evening in the corporate blue-andwhite: Suzuki has no sponsor for 2003. The XRE 1 version looks very different, with a minimalist fairing body surmounted by a wave· form nose with a pronounced S·shape . 41to generate downforce," according to Kamomiya. The fundamental change is to the engine, with the V·angle opened up by five degrees to 65 degrees. This frees up space for straighter induction tracts for the fuel injection, which has also been substantially revised; the target Is increased power. "The new motor is greatly improved, but not enough yet," said Kamomiya, adding: "We will have a new version of the motor for the Catalunya tests in March." The chassis is also revised, moving away from the two-stroke RGV500 pattem adopted for the first year to something more tailored to the four-stroke. At the same time, the new design allowed the engine to be shifted to test different weight distribution. The machine now has a pronounced central air intake in the fairing nose. The duct leads straight back into the airbox, where last year's machine fed the air in each side, through holes in the ma in chassis members. Team and riders Kenny Roberts Jr. and John Hopkins had greeted the new machine warmly when it arrived unexpectedly at Malaysian tests in January, when Roberts said: "Already I can do things with the new bike that the other guys were doing to me last year," praising the much improved initial throttle response. The first version showed the potential to be a fully competitive bike, he said, and proved that the factory had really listened to what the riders had said, cutting the wish list for improvements down from a dozen or so urgent items to two or three. At Jerez, however, the bike was showing its youth and was a couple of seconds off the pace set by the Yamahas. After the first day at Jerez, asked if it was difficult sharing the track with 250s, Roberts joked: "I have no problem with that... until they pass me down the straight." More seriously, he said: "We're still looking for a good base setting. It's a bit like when you're lost, and you feel really hopeless - then suddenly you see a signpost, and suddenly everything's okay again. We're looking for that signpost now." Team manager Garry Taylor said: "We have a lot of work to do, but there is a lot of testing to go before the season starts."

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