Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

fits the front outer cylinders with a two-in to-one with a long tapering megaphone, and the central BRIEFLY••• Texan Tornado Colin Edwards earned a new nickname on the first day of practice at the Sachsenring, when his Aprilia Cube literally exploded at high speed. Henceforth he might as well be called the Texan Inferno. It happened when an improperly tightened fuel cap came off on his out lap as he hit the brakes at the end of the short back straight. Fuel sloshed everywhere and ignited explosively. Within a split second, Edwards was riding a fireball and had to abandon ship directly. At a speed of about 120 mph, he was lucky to escape injury. beyond a blistered burn to his right hand and a scorch to one thigh. The bike somersaulted end-over-end through the gravel. leaving a burning puddle of fuel at every point it touched down: Edwards walked away, his leathers blackened, looking bemused, "At first I thought It was ralnlOg," he said. after fuel had started spraying around. The impreSSion lasted only until he found himself surrounded by flame, unable to see the handlebars, let alone where he was going. "I've had to jump off twice before in my career, once when my brakes failed." he said. "Luckily it was an out lap, so I wasn't going at full racing speed." It's understood that the cap was Improperly replaced after the fuel system was depressunzed before starting the 990cc triple - a routine operation. Both Edwards and Haga had new chassis at Sachsenring. A second explosion was only slightly less scary, when Loris Capirossi's Ducati caught fire after a spectacular tumbling crash in race-morning warm-up. Fuel spewed from the bike as it spun through the air, but it didn't ignite until four marshals picked the bike up to wheel it away. At that point. it exploded violently, scattering the marshals, one of whom was taken to the hospital with first- and second-degree burns to his arms and neck. Capirossi had already walked away. cylinder with its own short megaphone exiting through a big-bore slash cut just under the rider's beet. It makes a delicious rasping sound, much louder than the stock Honda drone, Details of the power-up kit, a response to the threat from DucatL have not been revealed, but it is understood to include wilder cam profiles and more revs, beyond the conservative ceiling of around 14,500 rpm, demonstrating that there is still more to come from the already dominant engine. Rossi's crew chief Jerry Burgess confinmed that the noisier engine is more powerful than the quieter one, "but it's marglnal." he said. Iran played an unexpected role in MotoGP over the weekend - at some cost to Japanese Proton KR rider Nobuatsu Aoki. The team had tested the V-five four-stroke at Brno but were already running short of parts as they waited for the first crankshaft redesign. It was only the second day of testing. and it is understood that it revealed the need for yet another crankshaft change. possibly to firing intervals. This confirmed an earlier deCision to bring only two-strokes (taken out of mothballs at Donington Park) to the two-stroke-friendly Sachsenring. But there was something of a shortage also of two-strokes. with just three race-worthy machines and a fourth off on he motor show circuit iO Iran, where sponsor Proton Cars has a new factory. It had been difficult to get through the red tape to get the bike into Iran: now it proved even more difficult to get it out again. After a couple of weeks. however. they managed it - not quite in the nick of time. Aokl had to practice on the first day with just one machine while his spare was en route to Heathrow Airport and from there by road to the Sachsenring. It arrived midway through Saturday morning's free training, in time to be fettled for the afternoon's final qualifying. Valentino Rossi had his first crash in more than a year on the first day of practice in Germany - an KTM's MotoGP plans have run out of steam, and the proposed V-four challenger, originally promised for 2005, has been" put on ice" for the foreseeable future. The plan for a V-four road bike is another casualty of difficult financial circumstances. caused by the slump in the dollar (the Austrian company sells between 40 and 50 percent of its off-road production in the United States) and the realization that its budget for the GP project fell tens of millions of euro below the reality. Off-road superstar Heinz Kinigadner was at the Sachsenring during qualifying and told pressmen of the decision. "We decided to put the project on ice." Kinigadner said. "We will finish building the five engines because we have ordered the parts, but we will not build the frames or set up a test team, for economic reasons. At the moment. everybody is clearly behind Honda. and we can't afford to spend 30 million euro a year to get blown away for three or four years. Also, as a new entry. we would have to spend another three or four million to sign up a top rider." They would continue with their three-year 125 project. he said. This IS bad news for the 12-strong development team. especially race engineers Harald Bartol and Warren Willing. who both joined KTM at the end of last year_ "This was the only reason I left Gilera." said Bartol. Kinigadner's visit to the Sachsenring was cut short by tragedy. and he flew home on Saturday after his 21-year-old son Hannes was critically injured in a motocross accident. He is feared paralyzed from the neck down, after crashing in practice for a charity event. Ironically. the charity was in aid of victims of paralysis. Kawasaki took a step forward in Germany. with a new lighter crankshaft designed to make it easier to change direction. as well as a full set of the latest revised chassis, which offers greater adjust· ability at the front and a lower swingarm mount. At the same time, a new Dunlop tire has matched the upward trend, with a new profile and compounds offering better consistency and feel. The immediate effect was to restore the correct order to the team on the first day of qualifying, with GP winner Garry McCoy for once clearly the fastest: German wild card Alex Hofmann was a little adrift. and class rookie Andrew Pitt. seeing the Sachsenring for the first time, was at the far end of the qualifyIng order. In fact. McCoy - 15th fastest on day one - had stuck with the older and heavier crankshaft and put most of hiS speed down to the new chassis settings. with the front kicked out, the tire. and the fact that thiS was the first race where he had had two Identical chassis to work with. "It's the closest to pole I've been all season, and it's a good feeling." he said: "Especially as I'm doing a lot of my fast laps on race tires." Sadly, tire chatter problems on day two meant he failed to improve, dropping to a more familiar 20th. The new Dunlop rear has a taller and flatter section, with a slightly larger contact area "The big step forward IS the consistency of the gnp levels." said McCoy innocuous low-speed get-off on the tight first corner - after hitting a wet patch on the track. "At 60km/h, I didn't even reach the gravel." said Rossi later, after spending some time sitting on the track where he had landed, radiating sheer disbelief. His last tumble was in practice for Donington Park last year, when he cracked his thumb but returned to qualify on pole and win the race. Alex Barros had surgery on the broken outer metacarpal (hand bone) on his right hand after Donington Park. with the bone plated so he could race at the Sachsenring. But he was still suffering, he said. with pain in his right shoulder. "After this I need to have a full medical examination - it's quite difficult for me to ride." he said. Barros was skittled on race morning when Suzuki Roberts replacement Yukio Kagayama had a braking problem at the end of the pit straight. Barros had just joined from the pits and was cruising on the outside of the corner when Kagayama plowed straight into him. Barros was off to Dr Costa's painkilling center after practice and said: "I think I'm going to suffer a lot tomorrow. Still. it's nothing new to me. I've raced with broken bones in my hand. broken ribs and broken bones in my feet before. like then. I probably shouldn-t be racing now, but as long as I think I'm capable of scoring points. I'll be on the grid. I'm used to suffering." Troy Bayliss went prematurely bald overnight at the Sachsenring. appearing on the first day of practice with a scary tough-guy shaven head. It was an act of altruism. he explained. "One of the team cooks turned up here with a new haircut which everyone else thought was a bit daft. so they cut it off." he said. "I said I'd have mine shaved as well to make the guy feel better. " Motorcycle clothing manufacturers Alpinestars ushered in "a new age in safety development" at Sachsenring, with an all·electronic measuring suit worn by John Hopkins. After each session. techni- cians would plug a laptop into a port on the hump on the back of his leathers to download data including movement and temperature sensors, as well as physiological details such as heart rale. Not tested so far are external and internal impact sensors, designed to gather information in the case of a crash - both to measure the physical loads on the rider as well as the efficacy of protective features. Sadly, not everything was working right. Asked for details of his heart rate at the offiCial launch, the technicians were obliged to admit that in fact this had been picking up some sort of interference from the machine. Either that. one assumes. or the Hopper really does have a heart rate peaking around 14,500 rpm. nsing and falling rapidly as he backshifts on the way into the corners. tissue damage to both ends of hiS nght collarbone, which doctors said would normally have broken The paddock hospitality area took another step toward some distorted corporate Fl dream in Germany. with the arnval of yet another overelaborate F1 hand-me-down. ThiS was a rebuild of an ex-Marlboro Ferrari hospitality uM. a giant edifice constructed of no less than three separate trailers. Glassed in and accessed by an Imposing staircase. thiS replaces a fnendly open tent. Now the great and the good enJoy a low-ceilinged I1Ightclub-styie area. where they can bask In (used) self-Importance This is the latest such unit In the paddock. JOining Camel. Apnlia and Kawasaki In making hospitality row more like the main bUSiness street of some new town. pavements lined with mIrror-front- ,n the kind of Impact he sustained after running IOtO teammate John Hopkins at Mugello: and while ed Insurance company head offices. Marlboro (unlike CameD have reSisted the temptation to use Roberts could have returned earlier. he and the team thought it wiser to take medical advice and allow the Injury to heal fully before he returned. Since he is hardly battling for a championship posi- mirrored windows and at least at these tobacco-sponsored units allow smoking. so they are not also Identified by desperate gangs of functlonanes who have had to pop out the front door for a quick cigarette. And at least there are still some people who go out and race motorbikes on Sunday_ Kenny Roberts Jr. returned to the Sachsennng after missing three races through injury· just in time to celebrate hiS 30th birthday. And to sport a fresh IOjury: a sprained left ankle sustained while playing basketball for training a week before the race The prevIous Injury entailed ligament and soft tion. "It's good to be back on the scene but extremely frustraling not to be part of the action up front." said Roberts... PhYSically my body is dOll1g great. apart from a black-and-blue left ankle. but It'S nothing maJor. But I can't use my ability to make the bike do a better lap time. I can only sit on top of it and do what It wants to do. That's what we're trying to improve right now. R Kevin Schwantz was back for a second race in the Suzuki pit. to try to help them unleash the recalcitrant 2003 GSV-R's full potential. "I can see how both riders have to get off the gas to change direction where you would want to keep the throttle open. It unsettles the bike. then they have to wait before they can open the throttle again. I'd be asking for some chassis changes and engine position changes to try to get it out." John Hopkins confirmed the diagnosis. "This track GP racing legend Erv Kanemoto was at the Sachsenring and plotting a return to the paddock. The Japanese-American tuner and team chief. who has shepherded Freddie Spencer. Eddie lawson, Luca Cadalora and Max Biaggi to a total of seven 250 and 500cc titles. may return to run a 250 or 125 team .. If I can find a sponsor" but said he was also considering offers from MotoGP teams. Kanemoto could probably name his price to the factories but is fiercely independent and has more than once in the past run into fearsome debt to finance his ambitions. In 1996, Luca Cadalora won two GPs and finished third in the 500cc class on an unsponsored "white bike" Honda NSR. seems to magnify one of the weaker areas of this bike. It's hard to keep the throttle on at maximum The U.S. GP, planned for the Alabama Barber Raceway for next year, is now in doubt. with the lean because it pushes the front - but when you back off, it tends to get out of shape. And here you all-new track said already to require resurfacing even before it has seen serious use. and an AMA Superbike race scheduled there for later this year is also under threat of cancellation. Next year's GP calendar has yet to be announced, but it was thought that a MotoGP-ciass only race at the Birm- are leaned right over for such a long time." Department strength to strength: Honda had engine upgrades for both Valentino Rossi and Sete Gibernau at the Sachsenring, in two configurations. One had the stock twin tailpipes. the front bank three-into-one at low level. the rear two-in to-one under the seat. The other. as seen briefly in Assen, ingham circuit would bring the total of events to 17. But the first-ever nighttime GP race is on the cards for next year. with the Qatar GP expected to join the calendar at Doha. Because of the fearsome heat of the desert state. they are contemplating running the race after dark under floodlights. cue e n e vv s AUGUST 6. 2003 13

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