Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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the rest with an immaculate start-to-finish run . He took a one-second lead on the first lap and just kept on stretching away. But he wasn't ever ab le to re lax, because de Puniet was all but matching his pace later in the race, both slithering over the wet pa tches. At the finish , the Frenchman was eight seconds behind . "The weather was horrible; my race was perfect," Rolfo said . "We've had problems w ith the new bike in the dry, but in the wet it was good." Both had early relief from any Pogg iali threat - the champion sliding off on the first lap, damaging his bike too much to continue. '" made a mistake:' was Poggiali's simple explanation. Pedrosa also took an early bath - second at the end of lap one, fourth one lap later, and in the gravel on the fifth. By then wet specialist Hiroshi Aoyama had also gone. He 'd taken second on lap two and held it for just one lap more before he succumbed to the appalling conditions. This le ft the leading pair all alone for the rest of the race, as fast-starter Alex Debon he ld up the pursuit. Franco Battai ni got past him , only to fall himself; Sylvain Guintoli got ahead on lap eight but d ropped out of contention with a big slide on lap 13. Fonsi Nieto was close... but the best of the rest was rain -master Anthony West. Fourteenth on lap one, he moved through steadily and was ahead of Nieto and Guintoli when the latter left t he party. West was too far behind de Puniet to ga in any more places but seemed set for a rostrum. N ie to had other ideas, dogging the Australian's wheel tracks after one collision earlier on . He attacked again in the same way nea r the end of the last lap and denied his rival the rostrum by twotenths of a second. Debon was almost 30 seconds behind, class rookie Alex de Angelis an impressive sixth , holding off veteran and pole starter Sebastian Porto over t he line . Arnaud Vincent had been with them but lost touch by the finish. Gregory Le fo rt was ninth, Naoki Matsudo tenth - all rode Aprilias except Ro lfo a nd Debon (Hondas), and Mats udo (Yamaha). Rolfo's teammate Toni Elias d ropped back from the first lap to finish 12th ; 21 of the 32 starters finished . De Pun iet leads on po ints, 40 to Rolfe's 32 . Pedrosa, Nieto and Porto have 2S, Debon and de Angelis 21 . Briefly... Conlinued from poge 29 the next race at Le Mans. "We want to make it more like a motorcyde engine and less like a F I motor:' explained Roberts . Aprilia also had a new crankshaft at Jerez but its goal is not rephased timing, but simply to make its powerful but twitchy Cosworthdesigned engine more rider-friendly.The new crankshaft is fully 70-percent heavier than the old and according to a statement "greatly improved traction," espedaIly in the rain. Apriliariders have all commented on the very powerfu l three-cylinder engine's mean streak, but oddly the current pair McWilliams and Byrne - "have been told not to say anything" about the new development. 125 GRAND PRIX It was already pouring down as Stoner Kurtis Roberts made his radng return at Jerez, two weeks after withdrawing from the South African GP after just nine laps, because of fears that his recently dislocated shoulder might "pop out " again. Hard work and intensive physiotherapy have lessened that fear, he explained at Jerez. "I was riding dirt bikes and trying to reproduce the awkward position and bad feeling I had at one comer in South Africa - but I couldn't do it," he said. "Iwas home for nine days, and eight of them I rode minibikes, pretty hard. I wore out three minibike tires. Now I just want to get back to the feeling I had with the bike at my first Valenda test." That was last year, when he posted very impressive lap times on the old MkI Proton KRV5 bike, on Bridgestone tires. Since then. the new chassis has come out, and the team made a last-minute switch to the ill-favoredDunlop tires. "I've barely done 50 laps on the new bike. I need to get comfortable with the bike and the tires, but it'll take time . I'm looking forward to testing after this race, so I can get some laps in without 120,000 people watching." The MSMA (manufacturers ' association) has proposed increased weight lim its and a smaller engine size, "to place a limit on the increase in motorcyde performance." A statement released on race morning at Jerez described proposals for the GP commission. "In the inte rests of safety, the manufacturers have unanimously decided that it is necessary to place a limit on the increase in motorcyde performance. "This willalreatly start in 2005, when fuel tank capadty will be reduced from 24 to 22 liters, but in the long term this measure would not have been suffident. "Fo r this reason , the MSMA has decided to propose a reduction in engine capadty from 990cc to 900cc, starting from 2007. "The intention isnot to reduce performance, but to prevent a continuous improvementin speed and lap times." They also proposed increased minimum weight limits, as follows: OLD LIMIT 2 cylinders 3 cylinders 4 cylinders 5 cylinders 6 cylinders NEW LIMIT 138kg 138kg 148kg 148kg 158kg 133kg 140.5kg I48kg 155.5kg I63kg Cynics were wondering how long it would take for the engine size to drop back to SOOcc. The new Ducati's disappointing performance - factory riders Bayliss and Conlinued on poge 33 www.cyclenews.com CYCLE NEWS • MAY 12,2004 31