Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

CHICANERY By HENNY RAY ABRAMS All That Glitters Is Not Gold s o it turns out Honda was fibbing after all. Not a big fib, not hing like "I did no t have sexual relationships wit h that woman, Miss Lewi nsky." Nothing that good. No semantic gymnastics. No discussions on what does and doesn't cons titute sexual relations. No , its was a little fib, more a change of direction, a kink in the roa d, a chica ne added in t he interest of safety. It turns out th e vow to provide its s ix MotoGP riders with identical RC2 1IVs was less sincere than a hooker at a bachelor party. Two months before the start of the season and it' s backtracking faster than a moose in an avalanche and w ith about as much grace. The original pronouncement was equal RC21 IVs all around, and this was before Honda knew who the riders would be months before Alex Barros would come on board as Nicky Hayden's Repsol Honda tea mmate. The first fissure deve loped dur ing the early December test in Valencia. O f t he four riders, only two, Sete Gibern au and Max Biaggi, had the good stuff. Colin Edwards and Makoto Tamada w ere left out. The main difference was in engine management parts. To Gibernau and Biaggi, the difference was dramatic. Both said they now unde rstood how Rossi did w hat he did. It put a smile on Biaggi's face. The official acknowledgement came during a press gathering w ith HRC development manager Suguru Kanazawa at the recent Sepang test. Kanazawa, known as a st raight shoote r, said that the fact ory Repsol Ho nda team would be the fi rst to ge t new parts, then the trickle-down effect would take over. "This season is very important for Honda, because unfortunately Mr. Rossi moved to Yamaha, " Kanazawa said. "Everybody in the MotoGP family is obviously very excited abou t this, but unfortu nately at Honda it means we have to improve ou r machine's performance. That is why I am here at the tests. Ou r aim is not to look at o ur rival's performance, though, but to better our o wn times fro m last year's races as a whole by arou nd 2 to 5 percent." There was no explanation for why Honda was now changing its game plan, but it isn't hard to figure out . Repsol, the Spanish oil and chemical giant that backs the factory team, couldn't have been happy knowing everyone was getting the same gear. It spends the most, even though it's a fract ion of Honda's total racing cost, so it should get the most, was probably the thinking. Not an invalid argu___ _ • • • _0 1 _ _ ment. The Telefonica MoviStar team is backed by rival Castrol, and Camel Honda uses Mobil lubricants. Co lin Edwards didn't really see it com ing. In a meeting with senior HRC officials in his hotel room at the Pacific GP at Motegi last year, he'd been told that all six bikes were going to be t he same . "I tho ught, 'Sweet, sign me up. I'm ready,''' he said. Not so fast. By the time they got to Sepang, "They kind of backtracked a little bit and said they won't all be the same ." Preseason testing is the time to make yourself heard, not that it paid off. "What I was told and w hat I was given were tw o diff rent things," Edwa rds said. e "I've done just about alii can do, and I just have to take what I can get . From what I understand, I will be o n the same as Sete [GibemauI by the first race . This is what I'm hearing, so I'm a bit happie r about that. Obviously, Set e, Max [Biaggi), myself and [Makoto) Tamada , being the only four satellite guys, I can say I'm 99 percent sure we 're all going to be on the same stuff by the first race, I think. It's purely my wish, and I think that's what's going to happen ." Edwards has an odd relationsh ip with Hond a. He wo n t he company two World Superbi ke Championships and two Suzuka 8-Hours, and yet Honda treats him, in his words, like "the red-headed stepson. " The relatio nship is all business, unlike his re latio nship with Michelin, where he's made friend s as one of the most prolific and percepti ve test riders in its sto ried history. It was that relations hip tha t ke pt him fro m taking the Honda offer last year to ride for the Pramac team on Bridgestone tires, a choice that loo ks smart er with every passing day. Sure , he had a tough year on the Aprilia, but seei ng Kawasaki's Shinya _ A_.LL Nakano and friend Kenny Roberts Jr. blow up Bridgestones at recent tests confirme d his de cision was the right one. So for now he'll take what he 's given and do what he's always done, ride t he ever-loving crap out of it. He was on the pho ne from Australia, on his way to a three-day test at Phillip Island where there were tire s to try and little else. "That's o ne I'd say downs ide of being on a satellite team; the facto ry team gets to test the new stuff and choose if it's better or worse, where you just kind of have to sit and wait," he said. "That's the game and we'll play it." The way Honda w o rks is tha t t he hot rider gets t he goo ds. If Valentino Rossi starts applying a little heat, look for the satellite teams to get the good kit quicker. So concerned is HRC about Rossi that it accelerated its off-season testing program. Wha t Gibernau and Biaggi te sted in Valencia normally wouldn't show until the first test of the new year. "I th ink Honda are sitting back just waiting to see what Valentino does, see how much heat he app lies on the m and see which one or two of the sate llite guys starts going good ," Edwa rds said. "That' s Honda's game, and that 's how they've always played it, and I don't see why they 'd change that." O n the first day in Sepang, Edwards hooked up with Rossi more than once. Rossi may have do ne his fast lap chasing Edward s, w ho en de d up with the fourthbest time , three other Hondas in fro nt of him. A __ : . •• The Yamaha wo rks better in some areas, Edwards said, but the Honda is strong eve rywh er e , at every tra ck. Now they 're in Australia for a tes t at Phillip Island. a tra ck w here the best Yamaha finished sixth . 28 seconds be hind Rossi in the O cto be r race. "I think th is week will tell a lot ," Edwards said. "The Yamaha didn't go that gre at her e at the race , so it'll be goo d to see what they do ." Fo r now, Edwar ds is conce ntrating o n stocking the database that he'll need come race time . He's working with a new crew chief, Fabrizio Cecchini. "I've bee n brushing up on my Italian and teaching him some English, we ll, Texan is mo re like it, so we're meeting somewhere in the middle." The communication is already paying off. Edwards ended the first day at Phillip Island w ith the best time . Loo king back, he could see Gibe mau and Biaggi and Rossi and Hayden . It was a nice view, one he 's known in the past and one he co uld eas ily get used to . But it's not what he most wants to see. In a few days he'll get back on a plane and fly home to Texas to be with his w ife, Alyssia, and I3-month old daughter Gracie Kayte. "1've got almost a month at ho me to do noth ing, get in shape, go do some motocross and hang out w ith the baby and my wife. She start ed walking about three days after her first birt hday, pro bably a mo nth ago. She 's cruising all over. Everything's goo d, peachy keen ." eN Nothing can change that.

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