Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Troy Bayliss had his best performance of the season at Valencia, putting his Ducoti onto the podium in third. Camel Honda's Makoto Tamada won a TISsot watch for taking his third pole position of the year, then prompdy gave it away. In a gesture of sportsmanship and generosity, Tamada gave the watch to teammate and secondfastest qualifie r Max Biaggi, who was making his return to the front of the grid for the first time since taking pole position for the German GP in mid-July. BMW Williams FI driver Ralf Schumacher presented the newest of BMWs M-power cars, the BMW MS, at a Thursday press conference, taking riders and team managers for a lap around the Ricardo Tormo C ircuit in the fo urt h-ge ne ratio n four-seate r. T he new BMW fea tu res a V-I 0 engine producing 507 horsepower, channeled through the first mass -produced, seven-speed gearbox and activated through a wheel-mounted paddle gear change . Repsol Honda had planned to debut its new rider at a combination test/p ress even t at the new Shanghai circuit. Then someone looked at the cost: $34 ,000 per day, too rich even for Honda's blood . Instead, Max Biagg; was scheduled to take a few laps on the new bike the day after the GP.alongwith a number of others, including 250cc World Champion Dani Pedrosa and 12Scc World Champion Andrea Dovizioso. The Hondas willgather at Jerez, Spain, on November 24-26 before the December I-January 20 moratorium goes into effect. second behind his fellow Italia n. "We work very hard, and also this morn ing, we try to prepare for the second half of the race because we knew the first half o f the race everybody can be fast w ith fast t ire s ," Biaggi said. Bu t he h ad a front-end chatter, the same problem that has bedeviled the Honda r iders all year, and second was the best he could do. " I think I make good jo b ," Biaggi said . "This is the las t race of th is season. Little bit no t so g reat. was expecting m o re, but I t hink maybe I have a no the r ch an ce ." The othe r c han ce is wi th the Repsol Honda team, which he 's expected to join in 200S . In his final race on the Marlboro Ducati, Troy Bayliss came a beaming third. The Australian is likely to take Biaggi's spot at Camel Honda but wanted to end his Ducati career on a positive note . "You probably have n't seen th is smile on me face for a wh ile like t his, " he sa id . " It' s be e n a really to ugh year fo r m e and also everybody at D uca t i; it's been a really d ifficult year. Bu t to cut a lo ng sto ry short, t he bike's been coming along be t ter since halfway through the year, but we've had a little b it of bad luck as well." Fourth went to Telef6nica MoviStar Honda's Se te G ib e rn a u , the Spaniard dis appoint ing h is ho m e c rowd of over •••;-1 opposite for the American contingent - at least this weekend. Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden crashed out of fifth place eight laps from the end . Telef6nica MoviStar Honda's Colin Edwards was a disappointing eighth, the Texan choosing the wrong rear tire. Suzuki's Jo h n Hopkins ended up 12th afte r losing edge grip on his rear Bridge st o n e . N e it h er of t h e Roberts brot hers st a rte d the race. Kenny Rob e rt s Jr. withdrew after Frid ay morning's pract ice and Kurtis made it through Saturday morning's practice before pulling out. Bo t h were handicapped by linge r ing racerelated injuries. In his swan song for the Camel Honda team, Max Biaggi charged to an inc identfilled se cond place, ending just .42S of a 12 2 ,000 by making a bad rear-tire c ho ice . " It' s a real shame because I would ha ve liked to have put on a better show for the crowd here," he said. Then came Camel Honda's Mako to Tamada, the Japanese ride r who'd battled Rossi in the first half of the race before h is rear Bridge sto ne lo st grip. Be hind Tamada, th e race was mostly processional. First in line was Alex Barros in h is last ride on the Repsol Honda, the Br az ilia n expected to move to the Te lef6nica MoviStar Honda team. To d ay, Ba rro s wore out his tires while trying to move forward after a bad start. Fuch s Kaw asa ki's Sh inya Nakano was nine seconds be hin d Ba rros , wi th fo u r on eighth-placed Edwards. " T he way the t ire was, the b ike was set up so on my own I could do the times, but once you get in traffic, you almost have to go slow to get a run on them to catch them," he said . "Just didn't work out. Pain in t he ass." Edwards has signed o n as Valen tino Ross i's Gauloi ses Yama ha te a mmate fo r 20 0S. Marl boro Ducatl's Lo r is Capirossi slid around to a nint h -place finish with rear traction problems. " I could feel that fro m the second lap, so all I could do was try to finish the race and get some points," he said. Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3 Yamaha's N o ric k Ab e completed t he top 10. www.cyc lenEWs.com The l25cc class will les e a number of riders to the 250cc class in 2005 . Among those makingthe move up are Andrea Dovizioso, Casey Stoner, Hector Barbe ra and Jorge Lorenzo. '" will never forget the opportunity that Oerbi and Caja Madrid gave me during these three seasons in the World Champi onship ," said Lorenzo, who has won fou r races for the Spanish outfit and will ride for Honda next year. "I have onlygot w ords of thanks and respect for them." Repsol Honda's Niclky Hayden thought he might have a leg up on the others when the GP circus comes to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. "I would just as soon nobody test because I know the tra ck," he said, "You've got every man for himself.There're guys who know it. Last year I got to go to plenty of tracks I'd never been to that they had a lot of laps on , so flip it on them. If we te st there, great, because it's easy to just fly to California, whereas to flyto Qatar or somewhere like that to test. But ifwe don't, it won't be a huge problem, I think it could be an advantage for me and World Superbike guyswho know it so well. But I hadn't been there in a few years, and at this level it doesn't take these guys too long to catch on." Hayden said he expected a large contingent of frie nds and familyto show up. "Obviously,it's going to be a big honor for me to go to Laguna, my home coun try, and have a GP and get some of my friends and family go . Just the U.S. fans, I have a lot of people there, especially Northern California, that support me - fans fro m allover the U.S. that can't come to Europe." Star Motorcycle School's Jason Pridmore said the last three months had been Continued on page J4 CYCLE NEWS • NOVEM BER 10,2004 13

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