Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

ful, even if , d idn't win," Biaggi said . "I congratulate Ma koto: not only a fine rider, but a fr iend . I heard him coming in th e last la ps, opening the throttle in the corners while I st ill had to wait, and I realized I was in danger. " Hayden was outpaced in the closing laps, almost fo ur seconds behind Biaggi at the flag. lt was still his best result of th e year - and his first finish out o f three front-row starts. "I wanted a good solid finish today - it's been a good weekend all the way, and the race was a lot of fun ," Hayden said . " Pulling away with Max , I t hought w e were going to be okay, then all of a sudden I saw 'Tamada plus zero' on my board - he just came from nowhere. Towards the end I had a few moments, and I thought I needed to chill out a bit for a result. The podium's nice, but I'm not he re for podiums and front rows. I want The paddock was shocked by news that former 125 and 250cc Grand Prix racer Jaroslav Hules, o ut of a ride this year, had attempted suicide on Friday, his 30th birth day. The Czech racer was found hanging and was taken to the hospital in grave con dition. Hules raced in the I 25cc class from 1996 to 200 I, missing out one year, taking a best of two sixth places; and a 250cc in 2002 and 200 3, finishing e ighth in Australia last year. He was not given an entry by IRTA for th is year, although it is reported he had the opportunity to join at least one team. We may soon hear the last of Ducati's musical "fou r- pu lse" Desmosedki motor, with three out of four of the factory team's motors at Rio in the new "twin-pulse" Big Bang format. Loris Capirossi had both bikes fitted with the new basso profunda motor, but team mate Troy Bayliss had one of each - the reason beinga sho rtage of time to make more, since the machine's public debut at Assen the weekend before the Rio GP. Bayliss was obliged to switch back to the old four-pulse in the final session after his twin-pulse had a clutch failure . "It's difficult hopping from one bike to the other when they both have different engines," said Bayliss. "It does n't make much difference to lap times, because on a flat-out lap the twin-pulse and the four-pulse are pretty much the same. 1he twin-pulse's advantage is over race distance, because it's to win races." Fourth, the best finish of a slo w-starting year, went to Loris Capirossi, riding the new Twin-Pulse Marlboro Ducati. "It shows we're goi ng in the right d irection ," the delighted rider said. "1 could have been better, but I got a lot of wheelspin at the start, on the dirty side of th e track, and that put m e way back at the first corner." His teammate Troy Bayliss, riding the Four-Pulse, was not so happy, sliding out of the race on lap fou r. Repsol Honda's Alex Barros was a disgruntled fifth, never able to challenge aft e r running into front-end problems afte r five laps. '" almost crashed, just like Valentino and Sete , four or five times," he said . At the finish, he was less than a second ahead of Telefonica MoviStar Honda's Colin Edwards. Sixth was not Edwards' best finish , but his consistency is starting to tell, and he moved up to a (distant) fourth in the World Championship. He had a midrace battle with Roberts, who had led the first lap from pole posi tion, after zapping Biaggi at the first corner then pulling out enough of a gap to remain in front at the end of the long back straight, in spite of a 10 mph deficit. He finished a season-best seventh and said : "When we get some motor under us, we've proved that we'll be right up there. We need more acceleration, that will come w ith more power, and we desperately need traction control for when the tires go down. I noticed some of the other guys were using it." Norick Abe was fou r seconds adrift, best Yamaha finisher, with Shinya Nakano's Kawasaki behind him, just not quite powerful enough to get by. Carlos Checa was another nine seconds away in tOth, lucky to survive a red-an-red attack from fellow Fortuna Yamaha rider Melandri in the early stages. Both ran off, but Checa recovered more quickly. smoother and easier to ride . It Valentino Rossi crashed for the first time since 2001, opening up the cham· pionship as it closes in on the halfway mark. "It d idn't make any difference to my result: We just didn't have balance or grip," he said . Kawasaki's Ale x Hofmann was close in I I th , after surviving a last-lap attack from Suzuki's John Hopkins at the end of the straight. They collided, Hopkins ran on straight, hit the tire wall and fell at low speed but remounted for l Sth, passed by d'Antin Ducati's Ruben Xaus, Melandri and MS Aprilia's Jeremy McWilliams as he ran back through the gravel trap. Rossi's misfortune was a blessing for the championship - a break to his tri plewin momentum that threatened to make a rather sterile finish to the year. Rossi had never found a good handling balance. "We made some modifications before and after warm-up this morning," he said . "Even though I was rid ing better, the setup was still not quite right. We were having a strong race, and I felt I was catching the leaders. I lost the front, and that was that. What a shame. If I had finished fourth , I would have had some good points." The MotoGP race was th e first of the day, r e sche d ule d to fit European TV schedules. The 125" GP was next , won by pole starter Hector Barbera and his Aprilia, with KTM's Casey Stoner less than a tenth behind , and Italian Honda r ider Andrea Dovizioso third. Last weekend's w inner Jorge Lorenzo crashed his Derbi out of the leading group, st ill num- bering five at the end, w it h Roberto Locatelli and Mirko Giansanti making up a gang that crossed the line within seventenths of a second. The 250cc GP brought misfortune to pole starter Sebastian Porto and his Repsol Aprilia (he was lying third when his bike went onto one cylinder); and to Scrab Aprilia's Randy de Puniet, who dropped out of the front pack with tire problems to finish eighth. But it brought lo ng-de fe rre d joy to defending champion Manuel Poggiali, with a first win (a nd only his second podium) of the year on the MS Aprilia . He manfully resisted fearsome pressure from Telefonica MoviStar Honda's Dani Pedrosa, less than a tenth behind over the line . Fortuna Honda's Toni Elias defeated the im p re ssive class r o o kie Ale x de Angelis and his Aprilia for th ird. The same news from Suzuki, where John Hopkins had one bike fitt ed with the new 360-degree crank engine , replacing the original IBO-degree de sign. Team mate Kenny Roberts Jr. has raced the new motor fo r the last tw o eve nts. "1like it a lot - but my problem he re is chassis setup and nothing to do with the effects of the motor" said Hopkins after placing a disappo inted 17th in the first day of practic e, almost tw o seconds behind teammate Roberts , o n po le. "We' ve tried Ken ny's sett ings and about every oth er setti ng we co uld. I wish I knew what we were do ing w ro ng, becaus e then we'd fix it. Obviously it's possible, because Ke nny's going we ll." Roberts was not so sure that it was only a sett ing problem , when he learn ed of his te ammate's poo r position . "It's pre tty hard to find settings for the new moto r," he said. 1he racke ty charm of Brazil's marginal paddock facilities was underlined after the first day of practice , when an elect rical overload in the press cent er caused a massive blow-o ut and the first of a se ries of major power failures . The building was evacuated as it filled with acrid smo ke, but luckily the fire went no further. Power was restored by the following morning but re mained erratic. MOTOGP Blaggi took off in the lead, but Roberts was right on his wheel and dived underneath at th e first opportunity, riding like a man possessed to try to get enough of a gap not to be blown away down the straight. He managed it and finished the first lap in first place. Next time around , Biaggi and Hayden both blew by easily down the straight, and almost Bar ros as well. Ross i had pushed through to fifth on www.cycleneW5.com Cartos Checa scaled the heights in Riotadd inga tw o-hour ISO ter (495 feet) -me climb up the southeast face of the mountain distinguished by the famous "Co rcovado" statue of Christ, a major landmark of the scenically spectacular city. 1he peak is 7 10 meters (2343 feet), o ne of the highest of the impressive bald granite sugar-loaf mountains that surround the city, and also overloo k the Ne lson Piquet circuit, from a distance. Checa, an experienced climber, admitted that the task Conrinued on page 23 CYCLE NEWS • JULY 14, 2004 21

• Cover