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/128350
". N icky Hayden ended the 2004 MotoGP season in disappointing fashion bu t started his plans for the 2005 pre tty bad, " Hay den said . "T he tip of the bone is also broke n, though you can see it doesn't have a great impact on the bike because I did over 90 laps on the first day." If an operation is the only solution, Hayden will have to postpone until early Dec em be r, as he's due back in Europe later this month for another three-day Honda test at the Jerez circuit, commen cing on N ovembe r 21 . The Valenc ia test also gave Hayden the o pportuni ty to campaign with a morale- boosting d isplay at the Valencia test that immediately fo llowed the final GP. When rain cut short the second da y shortly after 2 p.m ., Hayde n found himself at the top o f the timesheets, having clocked an impressive 1.33. 18 in the 40 laps he managed be fore the weather intervened. Th at was comfortably inside Max Biagg;'s best lap se t in the race just three days when he set --. ~ Briefly... Hayden Goes Fast earlier, - size up his new crew for the first time . Following a mass exodus of his c re w that he has worked with in his first two MotoGP cam paigns, wh ich included British chief e ngineer Trevo r Morris, Hayden 's new man at the helm is Aust ralian a 1.33.582. And Hayden was .6 of a sec ond inside his own be st race lap and just .2 of a seco nd shy of his qu alifying time set on supersticky Michelin qu alifiers , The former AMA SuperbIke Champion , fresh from having just signe d a Pet e Benson. Benson is a longstand ing a nd successful data techn ician w ho was part of the do minan t Honda yea rs wh en Mlck Doohan and t he Rossi swept all before them in t he pre mie r class. new tw o-year extension to his Repso l Ho nda fac tory deal, was the busiest man on the opening day o f the test. He clocked just over three race distances with 92 laps and was a fract ion ou tside of Valentino Rossi's opening-day benchmark o f 1.33.45, as Hayden's former teammate rode the new 2005 Yamaha MI . With HRC no t set to ro ll out its new 2005 contender until a test at the Se pang circuit in Malaysia on January 2 1, Hayde n tested new clutch settings, Michelin t ires and fro nt fork modifications o n his RCV lIVe-cylinder. "We had a ra nge o f d iffere nt t ire s, just yo ur name at the top. I wasn't able to run con sistent low 33s, but I was alwa ys around the mid -33s, which was good." Hayde n was headed home back to Kentucky afte r the test, with a stopover in Florida before arriv ing in Owe nsbo ro to get his troublesome left knee injury assessed . Hayde n is still unsur e whethe r complete mainly different constr uctions to w ork rest or an operation is needed to rectify th rough, " Hayden said . "We also w orked a lot wit h th e clutch, to try and help wi th so me stop, t he bike snaking ar o und so m uch going into the corner. I'm happy with the t ime I did and o bviously it' s good to see serious ligament damage in his kne e , wh ich he injure d filming an Alpinesta rs ad sho rt ly before the Esto ril GP in earl y September. "T here's a lot of medical terms that I do n't really und ers tan d , but the knee is still Benson has now been pro - moted to Hayden 's crew chief, an d another o f the fa mo us Do o han and Rossi backroom staff in the shape of the vastly experienced Dickie Smart will also w ork on his RCV next season. Hayden added: "This was my first chance to work with Pete, and it went really good. He's in a new position, so we're jus tryingto t find our feet and understand each other. He's got to learn about me, and I've go t to do the same. I can' t say enough about the guys who left me. Trevor is one of the best guys in the paddoc k, but the cre w chief-to rider relationship is so important, and I guess we neve r really co nnected . Th e re 're no hard feelings tow ards anybody, but it seem ed like some changes needed to be mad e ." Matthew Birt Ryan Hu gh es and Doug Dub a ch were the big winners at the W hite Broth e r Wo rld Ve t MX Cham p io n ships at Gle n He le n Raceway, Nove mbe r 6-7. Hughes, riding an Escondido Cycle Center (ECC) Honda CRF450R, won Satu rday's Ov e r 30 Pro class ahead of Yamaha's Do ug Dubach , w ith de fending champ Spud Walters, aboard a Honda, finishing th ird. In Sunday 's Ov e r 40 Pro matchup, Dubach sco red the overall win , followed by Suzuki rider Willy Musgrave and Kawasaki-mou nted Matt Tedde r. Acco rd ing to sources in Europe , Yuk io Kagayama will jo in the Alstare Coro na Suzuki Wo rld Sup e rb ike team fo r 200 5, teaming wit h Australi an Troy Co rse r on facto ry GSX-R IOOOs. In addition, so urces also re po rt that Corona has inked a two-year de al w ith FGSport to be the title sponsor of the World Superb ike Championsh ip in 200 5-2006 . Kagayama rode a GSX-RI000 in the British Superbike Series this year as a member of t he Rizla Suzuki team . Five-time AMA Supe rbike Champ ion Ma t Mla d in and his Yoshimura Suzuki teamm ate Aaro n Yates rec e ntly co m plete d thei r first test aboard th e all-new 200 5 Suzuk i GSXRI000. Mlad in and Yates rode th e ne w bike for three days at the Sep ang C ircuit in Malaysia, the teammates having t he track to themselves. "Suzuki has mad e some very str ong improvements with the moto rcycle , and the whole package prese nts itself with something that we can work straigh t away," Mladin said in a re lease issued by his publicist. "It' s very pro mising after the first test . It was hard to compare lap times with what we have done there pre viously, as it rain each night we were there , so the track was 'green' each time w e went ou t in the morning. We had o ne o f our '04 models that we rode th is year to compare it wit h, and It sta cked up ve ry w ell. Grip was an issue fo r us under those conditions, but we had a few th ings to com pare t he perform ance with . Dunlop was the re in full force as well . They had a full range of tires to test and are working very hard towards ne xt year. T he comm itm ent Jarrett Takes OMA National Title Yamaha rider Jimmy Jarrett wra pped up the first Parts Un limited Off -Road Motorcycie/ATV National title after finish ing a conservat ive third place in t he series final in Anda rko, O klahoma, on November 7. Just eight points separated Jar re tt and fellow Yamaha rider Nathan Kanney going into the rac e, but Jarrett e nded up finishing seventh on t he day and second in the series. Taking the win in Oklahoma was Kawasaki Team Gree n's Cole Calkins, wh o led the whole way after getting by early leade r Tony Joiner, who was slowed by brake problems. Joiner still finished out th e race in second, followed by Jarr e tt and Yamaha rider Just in Wi lliamson, who ended up third in the series. Australian Matt Fish, on a KTM, rounded out the top five overall . J im m y Jarrett celebrates th e fi rst OMA National t itle with series promoter Bill Gus se. www.cyclenews.com by our team for next year is highlighted by the way my cr ew bas ically landed back home at the end of the race seas on , dropped their families o ff and th en headed o n to Japan , w he re th ey have been preparing the bikes t hat w e used at the tes t over the past three weeks - a massive and totall y com mitted effo rt by those guys. Eve ryone was keen to ge t go ing, but with t his test now complete, they have be e n ab le to hea d back home and have a w elldeserved ho liday before they head back to Am erica for our next test in early January." Th e ne xt scheduled test appearance for Mladin and his Yoshimura Suzuki team w ill be th e Dunlop tire test at the re vamped Daytona Inte mational Spe ed wa y in Florida, January 3-5. Continu ed on page 9 CYCLE NEWS • NOVEMBER 17, 2004 7