Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Not content with a 2004 calendar already sorted. a provisional 2005 calendar was circulating at Brands Hatch. mostly due to the adoption of a race in Qatar that season. The 2005 season will be kicking off early if the date of February 20. 2005, is to be believed. The new track. as yet unbuilt, will be in Doha. capital city of Qatar. President of the Qatar Motorcycle Federation. Naser al Atteiah. and the chairman of FGSPORT Maurizio Flammini announced the deal jointly at Brands Hatch. The proposed 2005 calendar is as foliows: Doha. February 20; Valencia. March 6; Phillip Island. March 27; Misano. Aprii 17; Sugo. May 1; Monza. May 15; Oschersleben. May 29; Silverstone. June 12; USA (TBM, June 26; Laguna Seca, July 12; Brands Hatch. July 24; Assen. September 4; Imola. September 24; and Magny Cours. October 2. After Fabien Foret's seemingly miraculous Supersport win at Misano on an underpowered Kawasaki machine. the Frenchman scored another small victory at Brands Hatch, with an engine spec that has been on the dyno ever since. Second in dry qualify. ing after Pere Rlba had been second after Friday's wet sessions. Foret proved that the Kawasaki may still be behind. but by a much smaller margin than before. Christian Bourgeois. boss of the Kawasaki France Team. explained some of the progress. "We started from a long way behind this year. but now we are getting closer. Even though the championship battle is finished for us, we are working very hard, and we know the engine specifications for next year's bike. We have been testing new engine parts and a lighter generator in an effort to get better acceleration. at Kawasaki France's workshops. Brands Hatch is the first test on track with the new parts. For Misano we had four bhp more and now. maybe. another three. We have a test at Magny Cours in August: we will race in the National Championship and try some more new parts." the series next year. Maurizio Flammini also drew a line under the speculation that the spec tires would be the thin end of the wedge for single make rules - for exhaust or suspension or other aftermarket products. "The spec tires will be the last: there will be no more single make rules." my own Rl road bike," The second batch of Petronas road bikes have now been produced and have passed FIM homologation. Built in Malaysia this time by Petronas, but with tooling and equipment from old Kenny Roberts team sponsors Modenas, the assembly work took two months at Modenas' factory in Gurun. Kedah, and the next stage is a launch of the roadbike in Malaysia - maybe in August. What used to be Dingle Dell at Brands has been remodeled and renamed. Sheene Corner is an homage to the recently departed Barry Sheene and now features a more smooth entrance and midpoint. The alteration has cut a few yards off the old circuit's 2.617 mile, with the tale of the tape now 2.60 miles. The wet weather conditions in the first practice sessions didn't allow for a direct comparison of lap times between old and new layouts, but the British Superbike championship guys had been to the new track. and John Reynolds set a qualifying best of 1:26. 1B4 on his Rizla Suzuki. The final dry session had Shane Byrne fastest at 1:26.24B. Regis Laconi. a fan of the old track said of the new layout, "the new track's profile looks to be more safe, even If in the grip in the new part isn't the best in wet conditions," Foret was in the wars yet again. taking out his legendary temper on Robert Ulm after the Frenchman felt that Ulm had been going too slowly on the racing line and that he had prevented him from setting a possible pole time in the last minute of final qualifying. Kicking and pushing the Austrian on the slowdown lap, Foret rushed up to Ulm once in Pit Lane and restarted his pushing tactics. He said later, once he had calmed down marginally. "I'm angry with some riders as they stayed on the racing line and ruined my fastest lap. I could have been on poie, but it is not pos· sible because of this problem. " Ruben Xaus. who has been known to crash a motorcycle every now and again, railed on the pre-race press conference interviewer - Fred Clarke - after he mentioned this fact In a question - stating that he had a record number of crashes .last year. At first not answering anything at all except to pass the microphone on to Frankie Chill with a dismissive grumble. Xaus eventually answered Clarke's follow· up question - why did journalists always write about his crashes? "I think they are all jealous of me because I get to ride the best bikes and get paid money for it." Clearly miffed at being asked in the first place. Xaus nonetheless almost defused the situation with his half-serious/half sarcastic answer. Xaus had a big lowside crash at Brands Hatch on Saturday morning, falling on the exit of Paddock hill after straying onto the white line on the exit. At such a fast spot Xaus seemed fortunate to have the rear tire spin and keep spinning out from under him rather than recover grip and launch him over the hi9hside. Xaus did not escape uninjured. breaking a finger on his right hand on the way. "In the dry we are struggling because we had a little problem when I fell off, losing precious time." Xaus said. "There is a big hole in my finger. and it hurts. For sure it's broken. but the race is the most important thing for me, ' Ernesto Marinelli, technical guru in the Fila Ducati pit. was missing in action from Brands Hatch, having broken his right femur in a road bike smash in Italy. Riding home from Ducati Corse in Bologna, Marinelli was sideSWiped by a car and suffered a severe femur break. the bone digging way into the muscle of the leg. He was replaced at Brands by two development engineers from Ducati's test team. Fabiano Sterlacchini and Luca Ferracioli. A strange piece of track furniture was on show on sunny Thursday at Brands Hatch - literally a piece of furniture. A wizard wheeze by the BBC types had a white sofa lined up on Pit Straight. and Suzi Perry took tums interviewing the top SBK riders on the sofa, with the grandstands and hospitality units as a backdrop. With the riders told to wear what they wanted and just to be themselves. Pierfrancesco Chili wore a child's furry tiger on his head (reason unknown). and Neil Hodgson decided to do a shot-by-shot strip. He started fully clothed. answering Perry's first question. then in between the next shot he took off more of his clothes. then more and more until he was just wearing a cushion to cover his modesty. The TV bods had a busy Thursday at Brands, as ex-GP riderturned-commentator Steve Parrish took his turn to do a few laps on the Foggy Petronas FP-1. with TV cameras on it. for a magazine program. Parrish said. "The handling was excellent. really well sorted. The engine power was a bit like a light switch. really came in harshly. It was hard just to tap the power on gradually exiting the comer. as it made the bike want to step out immediately. My admiration for Troy Corser has just gone up again. There isn't that much at the top end. because you wind up the revs and wait for the top end to kick in. It feels about the same as The technical rules may have terminally cheesed off the manufacturers with the Flammini Sport Group. but most teams in Superbike acknowledge that there will be genuine benefits for most competitors. and everyone will benefit if they are not lucky enough to be supplied with factory bikes at no or little cost. The biggest bone of contention is still the spec tires. especially for the Supersport teams. In Superbike. the balance of the budget is down to other equipment and personnel. espeCially for those teams who enjoy free tires from Dunlop. Michelin or Pirelli at pre· sent. Those appear to be mainly Ducati Fila (Michelin). Alstare. GSE. Chili - to a point (Dunlop) . and DFX (Pirellj). These teams will now have to pay for the privilege of running the tires, but for the top four teams in the championship this year, the tires will be free for next year. Given the figure of 45,000 Euros ($51,772) per rider. a two man team will pay 90.000 Euros ($103,545) for the year, about the same as they would pay now, given that there are limited number of tires allowed in qualifying this season. Some argue that this would be a high figure. but Maurizio Flammini went on record at the post-Superpole press conference to say that the Bertocchi team had told him they spend around 150.000 Euros ($172.57B) on tires each year - a claim other two-rider teams have stated is a very high figure. If FGSport have used this as a calculation. then its claims that using the spec tires is cheaper by around 40 percent will hold water from its point of view, but most riders reckon that the arithmetic is flawed. For sure the teams that had free tires will find themselves out 90.000 Euros ($103,545) from their budgets. There was much talk at Brands Hatch of the legality of imposing one make tires on the series, but the Flamminis rebuffed any such claim, with Paolo Flammini saying, "We have made a very thorough check Into all aspects of this move." In Supersport, with a healthy Dunlop-versus·Pirelli tire war on the go at present. and Michelin already working to get back into the championShip, the imposition of spec tires is a particularly difficult one to justify to the paddock, especially as some of the top teams in this class have something like 25 percent of their overall budgets supplied from tire companies - a far higher figure than Superbike's 25-percent average. Markus Schneider. who is the link man between Honda's four supported Supersport teams and Honda Europe, claimed at the Friday meeting that the tires rule would cost a cumulative 700.000 Euros ($B05,373) for his teams. This claim was given veracity by Ronald Ten Kate's claim that overall this decision would cost his team something like 150160,000 Euros ($I72-$1B4.00OJ. "As well as financial and technical support, Pirelli pay for all our winter testing at Valencia," Ten Kate said. "So now that will be gone, and we will aiso have to find the money to buy tires. If that is the way it is, we will have to race somewhere else next year, maybe the UK or Spain." Ducati. the most sponsor-rich team in SBK, announced another midseason sticker on the side of Hodgson's and Xaus' machines: the Italian power tool company. Stayer. Ducati sponsors Shell Advance also announced a joint SBK/MotoGP competition in which the best racing pie of the year would win a Ducati Monster for the accredited photographer who took it. Redamo Assirelli was the replacement for Giovanni Bussei at Brands Hatch, draped in the colors of UnionBike Yamaha team. as he will be for the rest of the year. Giancarlo Di Matteis replaced the still not fit David Garcia in the NCR team. The list of participating wild cards at Brands was the biggest of the year in Superbike, the smallest in Supersport. Only Jamie Robinson and Tom Sykes were full wild cards in Supersport action, but there were a full nine wild card Superbikers in attendance. Alessandro Gramigni, Nick Medd. Sean Emmett. Michael Rutter, John Reynolds, Yukio Kagayama. Shane Byrne. Dean Elli· son and Rocket Ron's son. Leon Haslam. Despite wet weather conditions and a new track layout in places, there were remarkably few crashes on day one at Brands, only two in sidecar and two in Superstock. There were only a few more on Saturday. with Xaus and Chili the unhappy few in SBK. and Ian Macpherson a lone faller in WSS. With the mysterious single·make tire supplier still unnamed by FGSport but everyone acknowledging that it is not Michelin or Dunlop and is Pirelli, the only other tire manufacturer represented in SBK - Yokohama in Sidecar" made 'a jokey but outwardly official press release to those present in the media center. Signed by Malcolm Haisell, manger of Yokohama Tire's sidecar wing, it read. "In light of recent speculation, Yokohama tires would like to point out that they are NOT the specified tire manufacturer for the World Superbike and World Supersport championships in 2004." Another, scrawlingly handwritten" press release" was left on each joumalist's desk by way of enhanCing the situation. and it read - "In light of recent speculation, Yokohama, Dunlop. Michelin, Goodyear, Bridgestone. Avon, BF Goodrich are NOT..." etc .. etc. Yamaha teams also seem less weil off with Belgarda Yamaha also about to lose financial support. free testing time and so on. For one of the Dunlop guys, Terrell Thien. boss of the Yamaha Motor Germany team. the figure of 110.000 Euros ($126,560) was stated. "We have a very tight budget to come racing. For sure we want to continue racing in the World Championship. but without the money for tires it will be very hard." As an incentive for the teams thinking about signing up for SBK next season. the FGSport management have offered anyone who joins before the end of September automatic entry to the new top teams' club. granted the status of Superteams These teams will get extra allowances and financial recompense plus a seat on a commission to discuss any matters pertaining to the championship. Five teams have apparently already been granted automatic entry. Petronas. GSE. Bertocchi, Ducati Fila and Alstare Suzuki. GSE representatives did not attend the Friday meeting, proposing to speak directly to the Flammini brothers individually. ,James Whitham was in attendance at Brands Hatch. collecting his very own Belgarda Yamaha to add to his collection of machines at home. It was apparently a fairly proper racing R6, with all the goodies on it. Whitham is now working up the courage to tell his wife that it is scheduled for a spot inside the Whithams' front room .. Politics. finance and intrigue ruled again at Brands Hatch. With the proposed technical rules for SBK In 2004 unveiled to the teams on Friday evening. the tire regs were explained to the teams in a closed meeting on Friday evening in the Foulston Centre at Brands. According to Alstare Suzuki team boss Francis Batta. there will be no factory Suzukis in SBK in 2004. "As it was written in the MSMA statement. it will be in 2004. and that decision was made before the spec tires rule came out," Batta said. "Maybe there was a chance for a change, but not after the tires rule came out. For Supersport? I have a very big commitment and presence in the paddock. and I cannot justify it for Supersport alone." Batta acknowledged that maybe not all of the manufacturers would have returned with official teams in the 2004 championship but counted out the numbers all the same. "If the restrictors had been kept in for the 1000cc fours, we would have had two Ducatis, two Suzukis. two Hondas. two Petronas and probably at least one Yamaha. It is not every single factory, but it is a good startl" The basic outline is that Pirelli (although unnamed officially). will charge each Superbike rider 45.000 Euros ($51.790) per season to compete with its slicks and wets. and each Supersport rider will pay 15,000 Euros ($17,263). There will be a parallel development program for tires suitable for twins. triples and fours. plus a choice of three compounds/constructions per format of engine. Wets for all will also obviously be supplied in poor weather conditions. There will be tires and a service supplied for the two official winter tests, and tires but no service supplied for tests out with the official SBK envelope. Choice of rim sizes was not mentioned. but it is suspected that there will be a universality of rim sizes to prevent swapping from 16.5 to 16. To prevent any skullduggery in terms of tire choice for specific favored teams, there will be a lottery of each particular tire choice in practice and race. There is expected to be the same limit of 13 sets of tires for Superbike, ten for Supersport. Suzuki's James Ellison won the Superstock race at Brands Hatch, with Luke Quigley finishing second. Michel Fabrizio was 2.692 seconds back from the front running battle, a clear third; Alex Martinez was fourth and Gianluca Vizziello fifth. Steve Webster and Paul Woodhead scored win number four this year at their home track in the Superside race, but only after a wonderful battle in wet conditions with Jorg Steinhausen and Trevor Hopkinson. The double Brit combination regained the Superside World championship lead after winning by only 0.440 seconds. To offset costs in the 2004 season. Paolo Flammini stated at Brands that there would be an increase in the freight budget for the teams. from $300.000 to $70B,000. This was said to be because the organizers expect there to be many more teams In a U a I e n e _ S • AUGUST 6,2003 19

• Cover