Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Supercross' Gas Crunch T he proliferation of four-strokes in the THQ AMA 125cc Western Regional Supercross Series may have less to do with sheer displacement than it does because of what's going into the bikes - namely the unleaded fuel mandated by AMA Pro Racing for the 2004 series. "I'll tell you what," Team Pro Circuit's Mitch Payton said after his team 's Kawasaki KX250Fs scored a one-two sweep of the podium at the Phoenix Supercross, "our two-stroke is either the same or maybe within one percent [horsepowerwise] of where it was last year, and that , honestly, was hard to do . The unleaded fuel for twostrokes is a disadvantage, for sure." VP Racing Fuels is the official fuel of the THQ AMA Supercross 5er ies, and while the brand is not mandated, all of the factory teams use it. At the Phoenix Supercross, we caught up with VP's global sales manager, Bruce Hendel, who said that creating fuel parity between the two-strokes and fourstrokes under the new regulation was a difficult challenge. "We actually did R&D for probably five months, looking at a lot of different formulas, just trying to find the right combination between octane and performance," Hendel said. "Whe n you go to an unleaded fuel, it' s a totally new formula compared to what we Ward To Speak At Daytona Five-t ime AMA Motocross National Champion and two time AMA Supercross Champion Jeff Ward will be the keynote speaker at the 16th ann ual Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum Fr ie nd - Raisi ng Breakfast , to be held during Daytona Bike Wee k at the Holiday Inn in Deland, Florida. on Friday, March 5 at 8 a.m. Ward will address what has traditionally bee n a sell-out crowd of industry, AMA member and media guests. The annual event ben- efits the preservation and stewardship pro grams of the Moto rcycle Hall of Fame M useum. The breakfast is open to the public with an admission price of $ 15 per pers on. Associate sponsorships are available for an additiona l tax-deductible donat ion of $50 or more ; event sponsorships are available for an addi- tional tax-ded uctible donation of $750 or more. D onors will be recognized in the event program. To make reservations, call the M otorcycle Hall of Fame Museum at 6 14/856 -2222 , or email info @m otorcyclem useum .org . For had last year," Hendel said that the four-strokes are less finicky than the two-strokes on the new fuel blends. "The four -strokes defin itely had an advantage because they run better on loweroctane fuels, where the two-strokes need more octane so that they can run more com pression and more timing because they 're a little bit down on power compared to the four-strokes. The challenge under the new rule was to get the right amount of octane and still give the two -strokes the power that they need," The unleaded fuel does not seem to be as big a factor in the 250cc class, as the 250cc two-strokes have a better power-ta-weight ratio compared to the 450cc four-strokes. Hendel said that VP came up with sepa rate formulas for the two -strokes and the four-strokes, designated MR-Pr02 and MRPr04, respectively. While the new unleaded fuels do the ir job well, the drawback is that they are expensive, running about $28 per gallon. "We told the powers that be that that's what would happen." Hendel said. "The factories drive the prices, because they say, 'We don 't care what it costs , just make us the most power. We don't care ifit costs $50 per gallon, we need that one more horsepower,' So that's what you end up with . It's much harder to make that power back up without lead in the fuel, and it just costs that much more money to get it back," Thus the issue in the 125cc class becomes more a case of privateers ' making the switch to 250(( (our-strokes to remain within rea- sonable performance range of the factories , who are now the only players with the resources to develop the I25cc two-strokes further, which, as Payton alluded, is a tough proposition and another reason that Pro Circuit practically bled on the dyno in the off season to make sure that its four-strokes were competitive. "We have been known as a two-stroke company, and if this thing is going to swing to four-strokes, then I have said that I didn't want to suck at four-strokes because people might look down on us and not buy our products," Payton said after Phoenix. "O ur 125cc two-stroke is very good , but it took a lot of work to make it that way, and it's more radical than I'd like. As long as the manufacturers sell two-strokes, then I'll have a keen interest in working with them, but this fuel rule is stupid because it has raised the cost of racing for the privateer. Instead of paying $6 per gallon, you're paying $28-35 per gallon. I realize that we don't burn up a lot of fuel, but that's still a lot of mo ney," VP Racing's Bruce Hendel Hendel did want to make clear that while AMA Pro Racinghas an unleaded fuel rule for supercross and motocross, it does not extend to any of its other professional disciplines nor does it include any AMA-sanctioned amateur competition. "If you're running under Pro -Am rules, like at Loretta Lynn's, then you can run leaded fuels, which are less money and perform better than the unleaded fuels," Hendel said. "It's important to know that because you don 't want the amateur guys to go, 'O h my god , I've got to spend $28 per gallon,' They can actually buy cheaper fuel that performs much better than what w e have in supercross this year." Scott Rousseau Yosh: Back To Malaysia Yoshimura Suzuki is sitting ou t the early foul widened that gap. We definitely w eather testing season to prepa re for wha t have some work to do." shou ld be a more prod uctive test with the Suzuki GP team in Malaysia later this month. Mat Mladin and Aaron Yate s will return to Malaysia, where they first tested last year at this time , to test their GSXR-I000 5upe rbike s alongside Kenny Roberts Jr. and John Ho pkins on the Sep ang Circu it outside o f the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, January 20-23. Ben Spies, still recovering from the 5akakura said the absence of a Suzuki World Superbike squad, at the Sep ang test and in genera l, woul dn't affect them. In the United States, 100 percent of the base development of the prod uct is done out of Suzuki Japan. In Wo rld Superbike, the Alstare severe abrasions he suffered in a tire failurere late d crash at D ayto na International different suppliers. "The re was Speed way in O cto ber, will forgo the Asian trip to take part in a multi-team test at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, January 22-23. Th e first time the entire Y osh team will be togethe r will be at California Speedway in Fontana, California, February 3-4. I Corona Suzuki team used some some interchange, but it was m ore specialize d for their machine," Sakakura said. Because the Superbike team will be sta ndard two. "If you do require th ree, four, five stops, ret urning from Ma laysia at the same time as obviou sly the tire manufacture rs are going to the AMA:s extraordi nary January 25-2 6 Daytona tire test, Suzuki won't be able to develop tires that perform bet te r in that area. O ur feeling. Suzuki's feeling, is the speeds we Yoshimura Suzu ki team manager D on take part . T here was som e consideration now see at D aytona are too great . Even the Sakakura said the Superbike s wo uld be test- given to sending Spies on the new G5XR-600, but ther e won't be any Supe rsport test ing. just Super bike and Superstock. Still, 5uzuki, like everyone else in racing, is Daytona, espe cially in light of Mat Mladin's Superstock machines. I just can' t believe they' re racing 185 mph also, and they're 20 pounds heavier than Superbike .' The banking punishes the riders with a com bination of unpreced e nted speed, oppressive G-forces, and an abrasive , highly vow not to race in the 200 . irregular surface. "O bviously, it' s very discouraging for the riders," Sakakura said of Dunlop's major rea r "Y wou ld not believe the po unding they ou take on the banking," Sakakura said. "The tire failures in tw o consecutive tests, first ext reme loads and the actual pavemen t irr egularitie s they see there , the seam s, the ing new engine components in an atte mpt to mat ch the speed the new Honda CBR1000 Rs showed during December's Dunlop Daytona tire tes t. " It was quite disappointing with the D ecem ber test, the times we we re able to run, " Sakakura said. "Th e new restrictions with throttle body and airbox really affected the Suzuki," 5akakura said prior to going to Florida they 'd run the engines on the dyno in California, but that didn't pre pare the team for the machine's performance in Florida. informati on about sponsorships, contact D an "It was quite a bit slowe r," he said. "The 5mith at 614- 85 6-2222 ext . 11 98 or dsmith@ motorcyclem useum.org. new regulation is choking us dow n a bit . Eve rybody else has a later tec hnology. It's just 12 JANUARY 21,2004 • CYCLE NEWS concerned about the tire situation at with Spies in October and again wit h Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo in Dece mbe r. "It's tough on Dunlop right now. They worked very hard on deve loping new produ ct, and for som e reason it failed again." Some thought has been given to mandating at least three pit stops, rath er than the 40th Anniversary cracks, obviously when the tire's loaded it ampl ifies the load. It's a very concerning pro blem that everyo ne has now. We just want to see us get through the event w ithout any serious injuries." Henny Ray Abrams

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