Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Cycle News 2003 04 16

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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By 30 YEARS AGO... APRIL 24, 1973 An unnamed, Husqvarna-mounted enduro competitor splashed happily through the mud on the cover of Issue 4/15. Inside, we rode the Triumph-Rick· man ISDT team bikes and found them to be pretty good, considering the weight of the twin-cylinder Triumph engine and the lack of power from the Rickman 125... It had been announced that Jim Pomeroy had actually won the Spanish 250cc MX GP aboard his Bultaco. Originally, it was thought that he finished second overall, but a recount of the points and a look at the rules pointed out that he had actually won - and he sat second in the points overall. .. Of the approximately 400 riders who started the High Mountain Enduro in Navada Camp, California, few finished, although there was still a tie for first place among three riders. 20 YEARS AGO••• APRIL 27, 1983 Honda-mounted Freddie Spencer graced the cover of Issue #15 on his way to the win in the French 500cc Grand Prix. Spencer battled early with Yamaha's Kenny Roberts before Roberts suffered exhaust problems and fell back. Honda riders Marco LucchineUi and Ron Haslam rounded out the podium, and Spencer took firm com· mand of the points lead... Mike Bell (Yam) won the Dallas Supercross, while Bob Hannah (Han) and Ron Lechien (Yam) rounded out the podium. After nine rounds, Hannah led Mark Barnett in the championship, 336·289... Bubba Shobert (H·D) won the Sacramento Mile over Jay Springsteen (H·D) and Randy Goss (H·D) ... Mike Melton (Hus) won the Little Harpeth Enduro in Bucksnort, Tennessee, round four of the AMA National Champion· ship Enduro Series. 10 YEARS AGO... APRIL 21, 1993 We wheelied the new KTM 400 LC4 E/Xe across the cover of Issue 4/15, and inter· estingly we found that the machine was well suited for tight trails but was significantly wider than most of its competitors... Wayne Rainey (Yam) led the Grand Prix of Malaysia from start to finish aboard his Marlboro Yamaha. Darryl Beattie (Han) finished second, while Kevin Schwantz (SUl) fought through from a bad start to finish third, even though he had the pole... Greg Albertyn (Han) won the overall at the third round of the 250cc MX World Championships in Holland. Stefan Everts (SUl) and Mamicq Bervoets (Kaw) rounded out the top three overall. .. At the 125cc World MX opener in Italy, Pedro Tragter (SUl) won the overall, while Mickael Pichon (Han) finished second and Fredrik Werner (Hus) third... David Pingree (SOl) won the 125 and 250cc A classes at the Dallas Amateur Supercross, Kevin Johnson (Kaw) won the 65cc (7·11) class, while Jacob Martin (SUl) beat Keith Johnson (Yam) for the 85cc (12-13) crown. Chicane HENNY RAY ABRAMS 5 I t was, in the motorcycle world at least, not a bad weekend for the United States. In their trials by fire, champions Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden survived a hectic first few laps en route to impressive finishes in their first Grand Prix, at Japan's Suzuka Circuit, showing the world that they more than belong to be in the field when the U.S. GP returns to America in 2004, hopefully at Barber Motorsports Park, a racetrack you could drop onto any European hillside. The flip side is that it was a tragic weekend for Japan. Daijiro Kato, the quiet yet immensely talented former 250cc World Champion, and Japan's best hope for a MotoGP World Championship, was gravely injured in a senseless and unexplained accident on a track that several of the top riders felt, in the immediate emotional aftermath of more than one serious accident, was no longer suited to host the best road racers in the world. That he was hastily removed from the track on a stretcher, and that the race wasn't stopped, was a travesty. "Going into the chicane where [Daijiro] Kato crashed was pretty scary; there was a boot on the track," Hayden said. "There was a lot of dirt. Oh, man, I could not believe it. You know, AMA, there would've been a red flag before I got there." Neither was the weekend very promising for Team Suzuki, made up of former 500cc World Champion Kenny Roberts Jr. and teammate John Hopkins, now in his second season on the world stage. The concerns they had late in testing proved grounded in reality. The all new GSV-R990 is deficient in any number of areas, Roberts having handling, transmission and velocity problems. The most speed Roberts could squeeze out of his bike was 187.228 mph, nearly 10 mph down on the 196.673 achieved by Loris Capirossi's Marlboro brand-new Ducati Desmosedici, with Valentino Rossi's Repsol Honda RC-211 V sec· ond at 196.3, and Nicky Hayden's Repsol Honda third, having run to 196.114 mph. The speed certainly didn't hurt Hayden in his first race in nearly eight months. After clinching the AMAjChevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship at Virginia International Raceway last August, a heated bidding war for his services ensued at the highest levels, Honda emerging victorious after initially turning its back on its own champion; Yamaha, who'd immediately seen the potential of the 22-year-old Kentuckian, the loser in the high-bucks battle. The weekend didn't begin well for Nicky. Seven laps into his MotoGP career, he and his RC-211 V were sliding and tumbling, his fiy-by-wire throttle having stuck open in a fourthgear corner, the machine triple jumping over a series of trackside barriers. Hayden walked away but was shaken up. When the bell rang for the qualifying session later in the day, he wasn't at his best. Neither was his team. The session began on a slightly wet track that dried for about half an hour before another light rain fell. The tire choice was intermediates; DOTs as Hayden first called them. Not surprisingly, Hayden's teammate, Valentino Rossi, ended up on the pole. The Italian came in when he needed to, his team ready to send him back out on slicks. That would be the key to qualifying. Those with experience would prosper, able to make the most out of the short time they had. Hayden was watching his pit board. By the time he got the "IN" sign, it was too late. The best he could do was 23rd, the back of the six row grid. There'd be more dodgy track conditions on Saturday, rain in the morning, half-wet, half-dry in the afternoon. There was no moving up. Then the wind came up on a sunny and chilly Sunday morning, and the meteorological nightmare continued. "This morning, we had all the conditions this weekend, throw one more in," Hayden said through his millionwatt smile. Edwards has as many miles around Suzuka as almost anyone. This was why the sight of the Texan's sliding along the wet tarmac in Saturday morning's free practice session was so strange, his front having washed out without warning. "I've got 10-15 hours of rain time here, and that's the first time I crashed, and it took me half a lap," Edwards said. In the dry he did better, coming within a tenth of a second of the second row. But without the hours of experience that the others had, and with his machine still in the very formative stages, he did well to qualify ninth. Roberts had qualified seventh, the perfect example of a rider and team being prepared when they had to be. The same approach had earned him his 500cc World Championship. Hopkins was 12th with only two dry laps in qualifying and certain gambles to be taken in tires and set-up for the race. The first few laps were hectic, riders going everywhere. Edwards and Hayden had never seen anything like In an upcoming Issue of Cycle News it, not at these speeds, at least. Where were the world's best riders? They were out front and getting away, the trio of Valentino Rossi, Max Biaggi and Loris Capirossi on their way to an all-Italian podium. How did all of the non-Honda teams feel seeing a brand new machine on the podium in its first race? Edwards and Hayden weren't used to the cut and thrust of the rear guard. The front is normally their domain. Both had to work to move up, and when they met before the mid-point in the race, there was a happy reunion. "Even though he's been in Europe a while, it still felt like an American style, kind of like I was used to," Hayden said. Edwards' view was, "We had a good time, and there was nothing really too close." Edwards got the upper hand, finishing sixth after a setup gamble, which he wouldn't elaborate on, didn't pan out. Hayden made his final play going to the final chicane, losing out by .086 of a second. Not long after the start, Roberts ran into transmission gremlins, a potentially lethal problem given the speed and acceleration differential. He just wanted to get to the finish in one piece, which he did, one spot behind his new teammate. "I'm out there realistically trying not to get hit," Roberts said. Hopkins put the best face on what could well be a very frustrating sea· son. The Suzuki is well behind the others, and the problems may be too fundamental to significantly improve. "A lot of the manufacturers were here, and they saw the machine and promised us some more effort down at the factory," the soon·to-be 20year-old Hopkins said. "I'm just going to keep going 100 percent and riding my best and stay positive and hope for better results." Next year his friends and colleagues will once again get a chance to see him in action. There will be a U.S. GP in 2004, according to those who make the decisions. The choice is down to Barber Motorsports Park, a purpose-built 2.3-mile, 16-turn road race course set in the undulating hills east of Birmingham, Alabama, or Homestead-Miami Speedway, a back and forth road course, tucked inside the speedway's tri-oval, that needs some work to be GP-spec. From a rider's point of view, Barber is the obvious choice, an old-fashioned racer's course of the kind that seems to be in increasingly short supply, with safety being paramount. Given the tragedy of this weekend, it's the least the riders are owed. eN Dallas Supercross South Carolina GNCC Netherlands MX GP Atlanta Prostar Drags cue I e n e _ os • APRIL 16, 2003 111

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