Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World Superbike Championship Round 6: Silverstone, Great Britain The British wildcards were of a strange shape and size this season at Silverstone. British Championship runaway leader Shane "Shakey- Byme. who has won eight races out of ten on his Monstermob Ducatl 998 F02 (same as Bayliss and Xaus from 2002. and the same as Toseland and Walker this year) was not among the local Brits at Silverstone. however. A number of fac· tors contributed to this. A team spokesman cited the fact that Byrne cannot be risked in SBK in case of injury. but a more press· Ing reason may be the proximity of Silverstone's race to the previ· ous TT festival. in which John McGuinness was racing Byrne's machines in anger. The is notoriously hard on bikes. and thus the extensive work required to get Byrne's machines ready for the Brands Hatch BSB round. one weekend after Silverstone. was deemed to be too much for the team. the budget and the bikes to bear, The conspiracy theorists also put the idea into the pot that maybe Ducati did not want yet another Full-on Ducatl 998F02 making its 999 look less than Fully convincing· if the Ducati was in the hands of this year's British Championship demigod at least - and thus had a quiet word in the ear of team owner Paul Bird, BRIEFLY••• The fears that despite the many attractions for British fans. Silverstone would not draw a significant crowd appeared to be incor- rect on Sunday moming. There were long queues to get in from the conventional direction of the A43 bypass. and the bike parks were filled with 16.000 machines by 10.30 a.m" prompting the organizers to introduce emergency provision for the rest on the n way in. The high temperatures and a Brit on pole position were one of the many reasons for the popularity of the weekend. The eventual crowd was given as 83,000 all weekend - a pleasing prospect for the Silverstone management and FG Sport. An article in the infamous "News of the World" Sunday tabloid in the UK featured Neil Hodgson prominently. but it was the comments of Carl Fogarty that formed the sting in the tail of the article. Fogarty was quoted as saying that -I used to beat Neil every week. and r d do the same now. It's frustrating seeing the same old faces out there, I beat them all so it's hard to watch. I did and said what I wanted and drew massive crowds. No one will ever be as big as I was." With his second rider crocked for the Misano SBK event. many of those in Pit Lane at Silverstone opined that Fogarty should get his leathers back on the for this race and see what he could do on his own FP-1 three-cylinder. Ruben Xaus took his personal tally of crashes to nine this season when he tipped off on the entry to the final chicane in Sunday The wild cards In Superbike proved to be the Renegade Ducati pairing of Michael Rutter and Sean Emmett. plus the Rizla·spon· sored Crescent Suzuki duo of John Reynolds and Japanese import Yukio Kagayama. Reynolds was on the pace from day one, the restricted British spec Suzuki proving to be little slower than the full UK spec one· and equal to Lavilla·s. it appeared. The Rlzla team, which had the option of filling the restrictor plates and sys· tem used by the Aistare team, opted to use their own versions, warm·up. after some experimentation in the run up to the race. The t.... scope and scale of Superbike racing. and also MotoGP. was brought home at the Silverstone race on Saturday evening. As the medium-sized crowd departed the track. a convoy of trucks and buses was awaiting its tum to enter the Silverstone track. No fewer than five Ferrari Fl transporters and two double-deck offices on wheels were lined up in an endless stream of wealth. waiting to hold station out the back of the paddock, gathering for a test session after the Superlbikes had completed their weekend of toil. The sight and sheer financial commitment of this much hardware really brought home the difference between the various series. but not as much as the realization that this was Giovann; Bussel blew everyone's minds on Friday after his Yamaha Rl. hardly the sharpest weapon In SBK's armory this year. propelled him to fifth place on the time sheets. Stories from America suggested that Bussei was going to replace Anthony Gobert at Ducati Austin. after the wayward Aussie had been given the flick by his latest team. Bussel refused to comment at Silverstone. smiling enigmatically at the questions put to him. It Is understood that he may be keeping quiet until the last details of the deal are tied up. Gregorio Lavilla shot to prominence on day one. haVing qualified over 0_7 seconds ahead of Laconl's sweet handling Ducatl 998 RS. His lap was put down to running qualifiers on an almost aCCidentally well-balanced combination of suspension settings and gearing at such an early stage. Lavilla was left In a quandary after his excellent showing. wanting to change the gearing to the theo· retlcally perfect intemal and overall ratio for Saturday, but unsure of whether he would find any Improvement. He did not particularly find anything, as neither he nor anyone else could beat his best time. and thus he entered Superpole as fastest man and was last away. "only" Ferrari's test team - the real team were of course in Mon· treal. for the Canadian Grand Prix... It is. as they say. a different world. The new chicane at Silverstone, designed to prevent the riders from lowsiding at the ultrafast Woodcote comer (which has almost zero run-off) was universally panned by virtually every rider on show. Situated between the modified Luffield complex and what's left of Woodcote. the new chicane has at least been christened with a new name - albeit an unholy one. Uke all the best names it is descriptive and Simple in origin, and by popular consensus the riders have called it, "That Fucking Chicane! - complete with exclamation mark. Bumpy and even less than 90· on left entry and right entry, the new chicane is easily the tightest and least accommodating for racing motorcycles ever seen. Such was the speed of Lavilla's Friday lap that many thought he had found a new way of negotiating the Final chicane. One beautiful, if seemingly off the mark, theory was that any rider wanting to have a real advantage in lap time could cut the Final chi· cane altogether. using the old layout instead. Obviously. rules state that that particular lap would be cut from the rider's tally, but the theory Is that even if the previous lap was cut. the speed gained by entering the main straight at a much higher velocity would make the next lap - during which the rider would negotiate the entire track as normal· superfast compared to any other. The idea that Lavilla or anyone else had done this was quashed by the powers that be, who would ordinarily rule out any lap that was gained by any Inappropriate advantage, but it added a certain fris· son to the discussion on Friday afternoon nonetheless, James Haydon felt he had got away with his astonishingly heavy crash at Oschersleben (two weekends before the Silverstone event). but he was forced to miss his home event after serious problems with his neck came to light a few days before the race, Having suffered from pain and lack of movement since Oschersleben, plus pins-and-needles In his hands and legs, an MRI scan showed that Haydon had indeed crushed and prolapsed a disc In his spine. which was leaking fluid Into his spinal column. Strangely, medical opinion states that most of this problem is a result of a car crash Haydon suffered a couple of years ago as much as the Fresh injury - after bouncing down the grass, tumbling on his neck - at Oschersleben. Haydon will also miss Misano, and the Foggy Petronas team are duty-bound to attempt to replace Haydon beFore then. Possible names include out-oF-work Brits Jason Vincent and Paul Brown, plus UKSB privateer Dean Ellison and any number of others From around the globe. Aaron Slight would be a tantalizing prospect for a short retum to the fray, For example. Haydon hopes to be back for Laguna. but given the results for the team thus far. maybe he is just as well out of the firing line at present. Sponsors of the Crescent Suzuki Team in UKSB Rizla. makers of ciggie papers for the masses, Instigated a small competition at Silverstone. With high top speeds being recorded on the fast Hanger Straight, Rlzla commenced a top speed contest, awarding one English pound for each kilometer per hour recorded by the Fastest rider. The prize Includes a "stunning anodized alloy trophy. " The sudden rush to prominence by Thierry van den Bosch and to some extent Matthleu Lagrive pushed the French pairing toward the top of the Supersport timesheets on Friday. a very pleasing tum of events for joint boss of the Yamaha Motor France Team Christian Sarron. "There is nothing special thiS weekend except that Thierry has found a better way. - said the Former 50Ccc GP winner. "He has been fast in some session this and then got Injured. so he has h~d to take some time to leam. For Matthieu. he had to spend some time gelling confidence in the front end. Supersport Is also a new class for us, and It Is very competitive. We have been just a little off From the fastest riders. but in Supersport this can be 20 places on the grid. " Neil Hodgson had a Far-from·perfect preparation For the Silverstone race_ Having lost his old friend David Jefferies in a accident at the Isle of Man just before Oschersleben. Hodgson went home only to catch a nasty flu bug. which wiped him out a few days beFore Silverstone and held him back somewhat on day one of qualifying. The InFection affected his mouth and throat particularly. Hodgson and Co., the local riders In the SBK firmament. were joined. by a good smattering of wildcards at home. and the local press and media In general were running what appeared to be a greater number - and quality - of Features In the run up to the Silverstone race than normal. The all·British podium In Oscher· sieben, the Foggy Petronas FP-l showing on home ground In anger For the first time, and Hodgson's runaway lead over the Spaniards. Italians and Frenchmen seems to have struck a cord with the general UK media. This Is not actually that normal. sur· prise to say, Although SBK has traditionally been much more prominent than MotoGP in the UK for the past Few years, there Is stili no particular coverage of bike racing In the UK's maintream press· even with good BBC terrestrial and Eurosport satellitefcable coverage of British and World Superblke. plus Increasing coverage of MotoGP. There was, however. unques· tlonably more InFormed newspaper coverage than normal In the run.up to the first British round of the year. 28 JUNE 25. 2003' eye e n e vv A new form of SBK paddock show, the quaintly entitied "SBK Ring." wlli be relaunched In Mlsano, Featuring appearances From the top riders, It Is expected to be the new center of SBK's onday promotions at every European race from now on. Steve Parrish, BBC TV commentator, former 500cc Grand Prix rider and multiple European Truck Racing Champion, has spent most SBK weekends riding road-going versions of the machines that actually compete In SBK For the TV cameras, as "color" coverage, but at Silverstone on Thursday. June 12. there was a slight twist. His very own R1 Yamaha had numerous TV cameras bolted onto it. with the lenses pointing In all directions. The idea is to do a small TV magaZine show piece on how the rid· s ers control the machine on a lap. using close-ups of the rider's throttle and brake hand and so on. at the relevant points in the description. The idea is to show the nonspecialist viewer the mechanics of what the riders do each lap. to enhance audience interest - and to experiment with altemative camera angles as well. Looking like some Form of mobile oil rig. Parrish and his R1 completed almost 40 laps of the track to perfect the footage. SBK legend Giancarlo Falappa Is the latest volunteer to take the Superside "Taxi Ride- around a racetrack. A 16-time race winner in SBK, Falappa said of his three-wheeled adventure. "It was an unbelievable experience. Steinhausen drives very well, but I must say that two wheels are more my thing!" Riders for Health, bike racing's very own charity. was due to collect a good payday at Silverstone, with an auction of memora· bilia scheduled in for Sunday, right after the Supersport press conference. The Foggy Petronas team had their long-awaited titanium exhaust end cans in place at Silverstone. but only just. The delay In producing them was down to the Fact that the complex nature of the exhaust prevented hand-built items being made up, and the tooling required to make each half of the cans . pressed from a sheet of titanium· took some time to produce, The titanium cans are designed to prevent the fires caused by the previous carlbon Fiber cans from catching light· as the too·hot exhaust gases worked away destructively on the nonmetalliC material. A TSR Honda was on show at Silverstone. ridden by Japanese home Honda man Takeshl Tsujlmura. who was equipped with an ex·Ryulchi Kiyonari CBR 600RR. in tow with the small Honda Factory oFFshoot team, destined For the British Supersport Cham· pionship round at Brands Hatch a week after the Silverstone race. The team decided to include Silverstone as well, to try out some new parts in a racing setting, under the watchful eye of the man at least partly responsible for most of Honda's recent outstanding sportsbikes and racers, Hejiro Yoshimura. His task in Honda R&D is to make bikes Virtually ready to roll. before being turned into finalized items by road-going production departments or HRC. James Toseland. who was promised a piano for his new house should he win a race this season. held his GSE team main sponsor John James to his word after his recent Oschersleben suc· cess. A talented piano player who reached grade six exam stan· dard as a kid. Toseland was taken to Stelnway and Sons in London and left with a Full-size grand piano worth a reputed £83,000- around 140.000 Euros ($165,000l. Such is the scale of the beast that he has had to alter plans for his new place to allow room for a dedicated piano room. You couldn't make It up. Pierfrancesco Chili, along with the other top Dunlop runners. was presented with a set of special tires as a ceiebration of his hard work for the Anglo/Japanese American-owned tire company, with his name Inscribed on the tread in his team's black and yellow colors, Others received similar awards. The cooling problems of the Petronas triple were aided at SiI· verstone by the adoption of two additional holes. cut into the sides of the fairing panels, to allow more alrfow around and out of the motor, The effect was enhanced by a widening of the gap between the bodywork and the fairing edges as they met the chassis spars, with all of the mods being blessed by the FIM before the track action commenced. The front-end grip problems that have unexpectedly afflicted the 999s of Hodgson and Xaus thiS season made a rude reappearance from first to last in the qualifying sessions. It even prompted the team to take the drastic action of removing the detachable chassis spars which link the top frame tubes. to improve frame flex and therefore feel. The tubes are designed to come off simply to allow the rear cylinder head easier access but this time were removed for a more drastic purpose. Just how bad the problem of a remote front end has become for the only official Factory team in the series with 999s is evident on the timesheets. Hodgson improved on his Friday best to go seven pre-Superpole, while Xaus was down in 12th. almost halfway to last place In a field of 25. A1stare Suzuki Italia's Michel Fabrizio took a thrilling race win In a brilliant fourth round of the European Superstock Championship at Silverstone. Pole man Rox Racing Team DucaU's Lorenzo Lanzi made a perfect start to lead and looked set to do his now familiar disappearing act at the front. but a loose wire on the ignition box Forced him In to the pits and out of the day's action on lap four. With Lanzi out, an epic Superstock battle commenced with the top seven all well in contention For the win. UnlonBlke 01 Motorsport's Gianluca Vizzlello looked the most committed. and with some breathtaking passes at Bridge corner. he took over the lead from William De Angelis on lap seven. He held on until the final lap when Monza winner FabriZio timed his run perfectly from fourth position to lead on the final lap, The fourth round of the World SlcIecar Championship at Sil· verstone saw Castrol Suzu'ki's Steve Webster and Paul Woodhead take the race win to move within six points of the champl· onship lead.

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