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/128351
By CHICANERY HENNY RAY ABRAMS Next Up for Ducati hat to make of Ducati? A year removed from humb ling all but one of t he estab lis he d firms in th eir d e b ut Moto GP season , they stum bled bad ly. T he sum total of their po diums in 2004 was two, one each from Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss in the final two races not e nough to keep Bayliss em ploye d by the facto ry for w hich he won the 2002 Wor ld Superbike crown. In his place comes Carlos Checa, a gentleman of the highest o rde r with very little to show for his 140 pre mier-class starts. Two wins in all, the last co ming by a whisker over Norick Abe at jarama in june 1998. "What were they thinking?" was t he refrain in the Valencia press room when Ducati announced they were re placing the 36-year-o ld Bayliss with the 32-yearold Checa. Teaming with fellow 32-yearold Capirossi guarantees the superannuate d team the title of most se nior o n the grid. Checa scored less points in 2004 than during any of his previous full seaso ns, despite riding with one of the greatest riders of all time . The high point of his career was the magical 1998 season when he ended up fourth overall. Next came Ducat i's switch to Bridgestone tires from the almost allco nquering Michelins. Bridgestone made a quantum leap forward in 2004 , winning races and taking pole positions, but inco nsistency meant each race was an adven ture . Ducati's switch was surely motivated by finances. Marlboro's cigarette dollars are significant, but Ducati remains the smallest of the major facto ries and can't hope to compet e on equal terms with the big boys. Bridgestone donating to the bottom line would certain ly help. With the ascen t of the Ten Kate Hond a in World Superb ike, along with ren ewed interest from t he jap anese factories, Ducati may find their stra nglehold broke n in tha t ser ies. The only se ries where the y made a sensible move forward was in the AMA Superbike Championship, or w hatever it's to be named this year. Former World and British Superbi ke Cha mpion Neil Hodgson will be under the Ducati Austin canopy a year after a disast rous year o n the unde rfunded d'Antin Ducati MotoGP team . "I just want to go home after this round and burn my shirt ," Hodgson said at his final GP appearance in Valencia, Spain. Will he be singing the same tune at W 118 NOVEMBER 24 , 2004 • VIR a year from now? "I'm looking forward to having him over," five-time AMASuperbike Champion Mat Mladin said. "I think it's going to be really good for the series. I mean , you've got Ame ricans, Canadians, Australians, Englishme n in the field now - that's awesome fo r a national series." Mladin res pects not hing so much as titles. Ment ion a rider and he'll ask, "What's he done?" The re was little in the way of compliments for Regis Laconi and Lore nzo Lanzi at the final VIR race this year. But Hodgson he respects. "We couldn't ask for anything better in our se ries, that's for sure, as far as who you'd want to have in there," Mladin said. "I think it'llbe a good measuring stick for a lot of our riders," recently crowned Supers port Champion Tommy Hayde n said. "Our series, hopefully, it will bring a little more excitement to the Superbike class. Honestly, it was fairly boring last year." Eric Bostrom welcomes the arrival of the Englishman as his teammate. "It's de finitely a positive thing fo r Ducati and myself because we'll be able to get so much farther ahead so much sooner," Bostrom said. "There's nothing negative about it at all. The guy brings a lot of experience to the team, and he's worked with Michelin." But the obsta cles Hodgson has to face are formidable, Mladin first among them. "Y u can't learn new tracks and expect o to beat guys that have been here their who le lives, like [Mat] Mladin and Miguel [Duhamel ]," said Ben Bostrom, a former World Superbike adversary of Hodgson. O f the half-dozen AMA riders inte rviewed, none thought tracks wou ld be much of a pro blem. Most mentioned Hodgson's expe rience in British Supe rb ike , a se ries with its fair share of dodgy tracks . "When you're that level of a rider, that caliber of a rider, you te nd to pick things up pre tty q uick,' said jake Zemke, now on a facto ry Honda. "I don't think it'll take him too long to figure it out ." T he bigge r con- CYCLE NEWS cern will be backmarkers, according to several riders . "Honestly, he's not even going to believe it," Eric Bostrom said. "He's going to be like, 'What is going o n here?' He's going to be a little bit beside himself for the whole deal." jake Zemke agrees . "I think backmarkers is pro bably going to be the biggest thing he's not going to be used to. I think Be n [Bostrom] could probably answe r tha n question better than anybody, coming from World Superbike and over here." Ben Bostrom's answer: "The biggest risk I take all year is passing those guys. That is risk number one, and I hate it. I think it's such a joke and it destroys every race . I've got the worst opinion on it. It's not the backmarke rs' fault. It's the AMA. They've got no foresight, and that's going to kill Neil [Hodgson]. He's going to be beside himself not knowing what to do." Not knowing what to do fairly describes the Ducati Austin team this year. Eric Bostro m started brilliantly - he could have won Daytona and was competitive at Fontana - but, except for his lone win at Pike's Peak, he had a trou blesome year. "What was the underperforming part of the team?" Mladin asks. "I'm not too sure. Was it the motorcycle? Was it the tires? Was it the rider? Was it the team?" Tommy Hayden thinks Hodgson "will identify what the problem was this year. Honestly, I feel that's what Ducati is doing by bringing him over here ." Eric Bostro m admits that he was never HODGSON'S CHOICE... 40th Anniversary comfortable getting the 999 to steer through the corner. "The Ducati, I have to brake a little longer to get it to steer into the corner. So, it's taken a lot of getting used to . I've just got to hang on to the brakes so much longer tha n I'm com fortable with, kind of trail braking off in there. And I need to sort that out . I basically can't get through the corner fast e nough, and it's mostly on the entry area where I'm struggling, and through the apex. The bike drives out of the corner wonderful. " That said, Eric says that the twin does n't have the accelera tion edge it once held. "It definitelydoesn't have that punch out of turns advantage that it used to, because of all the tor que that the four-cylinders have." So, can Hodgso n win? Zemke thinks so. "Anybody can win at any time . I'm not counting anybody out, that's for sure." Eric Bostro m likes his new teammate's chances. "I think it's going to be one of those deals that he'll probably go faster as the year goes on." Winning races is one thing, but a champio nship? ':.\t least the bike and the tires he 's got under control, and the fact that he's a great rider," Ben Bostrom said. "Those three things are going to benefit . [But in the e nd,] it's just too much for him to overcome. To try to shoot for the championship the first season would be ... if he cou ld do it, that wou ld be unbelievable ." Wh ich certainly makes it worth watching, for no one mo re than Ducatl. eN