Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128334
had been battling with him and Fabrizio before he fell back and retired, leaving the last point to the Italian , with his WCM teammate Chris Bums a lap down . G ibernau dro pped to third overall with his 126 total, while Ross i gained a slender points lead , 139 points to 138 for Biaggi redux. Barros m oves to fourth, with 79 points to Edwards ' 75 ; Hayden is sixth with 70 . 250CC GRAND P R IX Rolfo made the jump, Po rt o , Pedrosa, de Angelis and de Puniet heading the pursuit down the looping first section. Pedrosa pushed through to first on lap two, and immediately he started to pull away steadily. He was never hea ded again. so that by lap 22 he ha d more than six seconds in hand, head down and inch-perfect. Rolfo was getting mobbed, with de Punie t second by lap three, and Porto past him on the fo urt h. He also moved away at once. " I tried to stay with Pedrosa, but we already knew this was not a good track for Aprilia , so second was good for me," Rolfo said late r, after his lonely ride. The action was for third, and it was to r rid , though one absentee was defending champion Manuel Poggiali, ninth on lap one and still balding to close up on the brawl when he crashed out again on lap six. The reason was odd: He has been wearing the same (not so) lucky boots since South Africa, for superstitious reasons, and they had a hole that got caught in his gear lever. De Puniet, nursing a heel injury fro m a practice crash, led t he pursuit pack at this point, from de Angelis , Elias, Rolfo and Aoyarna, with lo ts of racing still in it. T he Frenchman managed to keep t hem at bay to the end, with Rolfo drop ping to the back of the group, and Elias crashing out on lap 18, remounting in last place. But De Pun iet had serious front grip problems, and tho ugh he was still third as they started the final lap, De Angelis and Aoyama were po ised to attack, and both of them d id, the young Italian tim ing his run perfectly to claim a first rostrum by three-tenths. Aoyarna also got de Puniet, and Rolfo was just a second behind at the nag. Anthony West was seventh on his twoyear-old Apri lia, after once again crossing swords w ith an out-of-sorts Fo nsi Nieto on a factory bike. This time West managed to avoid getti ng nerfed o ff and led t he Spaniard over the line by seven-tenths. Pedrosa's march toward the title gained further momentum, with 155 points and a full race margin over de Puniet on 130. Porto has 108 , Elias 86, and Nieto 8 3, under threat from the impressive de Angelis on 80 . Briefly... Continued from poge 15 ate more torque, which is important at a track like this, with so ma ny lower-speed bee stu ng me on the finge r," he said. The Anglo-American rider suffered an allergic turns." react ion, causing severe swelling to his Kenny Robe rts had proposed discuss ions about co ntro l tires for MotoGp, follow ing t he introduction of Pirell i-o nly tires in World Superblke racing. Ro berts is currently suffe ring with D unlo p tires, currently some way short of the Michelin opposition, and claimed to have found support fo r the Idea fro m satellite teams including Team Pons , who use Michelin but complain about the cost. Michelin's bike-racing boss Nicholas Go ubet had an answer to that. "So mething can be done about costs, and should be done," he said . "We rece ntly saw new rules introduced to extend the moratorium on winter te sting, and we'd like to go furt her than that. Last winter we already proposed to the Mo to GP promoters to limit the numb e r of tires available to each rider over each GP weekend, just keeping in mind that costs need to be maintained at a reason- able leve l," he said. The misfortunate Case y Sto ne r had his 12Scc title hopes dashed with another crash and injury at the end of Saturday morning's free train ing session. The 18 - year-old Australian suffered a displaced fracture of his right collarbone, and he will left hand, and t hough he d id manage to Improve his time marginally, "It was pretty hard hangi ng on to the handleb ar," he said. Thi s is progress - the tec h nic a l adva nc e of the MotoG P class has yielded new record times for pole position at every race so far this year, with Max Biaggi's Sachsenring time a full second faster than last year. Tire advances playa big part in this, but so also does horsepower. Figures computed from the first seven races show that at the five directly comparable tracks (We lkom , Je rez, Italy, Catalunya an d Rio) the average improve me nt since last year has been 1.2034 seconds, th e biggest con tribution coming at Muge llo, with an improvement from last year to this of more than 2.374 seconds. Compared with the SOOcc class of 200 I , the average imp rovement has been 2.47 1 seconds. The relentless march toward an F l-style p add o ck took another step at the Sachsen ring . when Team Suzuki's new team catering unit arrived, to park in a paddock already resembling a new-town high street, with the old, cheery and chummy be out for at least two races. Race winner Tech Talk F I-style aerodynamics have a troubled history in MotoGP.It's not that bikes don't need penetration and low drag, it's just that they 're not really big enough - or more especiallylong enough - to make it all work . It's not the drag that suffers. It's engine cooling. Last year, Ducat i's supersmooth te nts rep laced by Insurance-company- Stoner, who rides the KTM, had just set fastest time in the session and was lying a close fourth ove rall in the championship, 21 points adrift of leade r Andrea sty le glass-fronted "units," passersby closed out by hissing automatic doors. D ovizioso, with two second places and two thirds. IRTA' s d o na t io ns to charity have been dropping off since Honda fitted speed lim iters to its MotoGP bikes to avo id PitLane speeding fines . The limit is 90 km/h, with fines on a sliding sca le, starting at 100 Swiss Francs ($81.46), and rapidly rising to 500 ($407.28) , the pro cee ds going to charity. At o ne meeting this year, Rossi has had to shell out well over 1000 Swiss Francs ($814 .56) . Honda brought the lim- Desmosedici ran into trouble at the second race. In the heat of South Africa , the Dukes not only cooked the riders, but at the next race melted an on-board camera unit. Pretty soon, the Dukes' sleek fairings were covered with holes all across the nose , while a redesigned fairing soon afterward had extra air intakes on the nose and the flanks. Something similar has happened at F 1- iters in at Assen. The system is switch- able . "But my rider keeps forgetting to sw itch his on," said Nicky Hayden's crew inspired Proton . chief Trevor Morris. The ultracompaet KR V-fIVe appeared in Brazil and again at the Sachsenring with the sleek fairing reduced to skeletal form on the sides. Even the closing panel sealing the top of the fairing flanksto the chassis has been hacked about . "It may have spoiled the aerodynamics , but at least it has cured the overheating:' said a team member. But the issue is sensitive, because the aerodynamics are part of the highly integrated bike's overall package. designed by former F I guru John Barnard . And it presumably should work not only in cutting through the air, but also in passing air through the radiators as well as into the airbox. Team insiders with a more motorcycle thanF I background explained what they believed to be the problem. The intemal airflow simplydoesn't have enough length for the requisite ducting. A radiator works by passingair through its matrix, but at higher speeds the flow is seriously impaired, and the air piles up in front of the radiator. Cooling efficiencyis dramatically reduced. In a car, a small air intake willopen out in a cone upstream of the radiator. This slows the air speed and avoids the problem . A bike simplydoesn't have the space to do that. This is not the first such problem for Proton. Last year, a new aerodynamic front mudguard was fitted. The end result was to shroud the brakes so that they overheated, forcingJeremy McWilliams to retire from the Moteg; GP. Suzuki's impressive edifice - a trailer that hydraulically folds open to make a large designer-style restaurant area - replaces the long-standing open-windowed te nt that has served the team for some years, and removes one more factory team behind frosted glass. This furt he r blow to the once info rmal paddock atmosphere is in line with similar closed units already used by Marlboro Ducati, Repso l Honda, Fuchs Kawasaki and MS Aprilia, among ot hers. But as well as ensuring pr ivacy fo r inmates, t he new Suzuki unit sets new standards in size and desig ne r chic . And unlike t he others, it is new and purpose built, rather than being yet anot her Formula One hand-me-down . Yamaha is now the only major team that continues to feed staff and entertain guests in an open - The D ucati De smosedici Fo ur· P ulse has been laid to rest for the moment, at least by the factory team, with both Marlboro riders Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss equipped with a pair of the new grumbling Twin-Pu lse machines at Sachsenring. They report that the bike is friendlier to ride and kinder to tires. The satellite d'Anti n team of Nei l Hodgson and Ruben Xaus still have last year's TwinPulse machine. Far fro m floati ng like a butterfly, Suzuki rider John Hopkin s had his final practice spoiled when he was stung by a bee half an hour before the session. "I was on the scooter, and I felt something in my hair, and as I put my hand up to feel it, a honey www.cyclenews.com sided marquee, the last not to join an unstoppable trend. T he d'Antin Ducati team's sponsorship w oes have been somewhat diminished by the acquisition of new backi ng, starting at this race, of a Valencia-based Spanish ho liday company, Clu b T ie m po Holidays. But the puzzle over the machines ' livery remains. The year-old De smosed icis, ridden by Xaus and Hodgson, are painted orange, white and blue· the colors of Visa credit cards. But no logo has appeared, and it seems the livery was chosen more in hope than anything , and that promises by the Spanish branch of the company were not backed up by the head office . C Y CLE NEWS • JULY 28,2004 17