Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Cycle News 2004 12 01

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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Bayliss, Barros To Camel Honda M o re pieces of the MotoGP puzzle came together with an announcement on Monday, November 22 that former World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss and Grand Prix veteran Alex Barros would make up the two-man Camel Honda team for the 200S season. The Camel Honda team, led by former two-time World Champion Sito Pons, finished third in the 2004 MotoGP Team Championship with Max Biaggiand Makoto Tamada, but it will feature two new riders for the coming season. Both riders will ride yellow Camel Honda RC21 IVs with Michelin tires . Bayliss won the World Superbike Championship in 200 I and just completed his second season of MotoGP racing with the Marlboro Ducati team. The Australian has four MotoGP podiums to his credit. Bayliss' crew will be headed up by Santiago Mulero and Ramon Aurin, according to the team. Barros returns to Pons' team after riding Rutter Wins Macau G~ Hayes Fifth Red Bull Honda's Michae l Rutter won his th ird Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix in a row and fifth overall , the Englishman holding off fellow countryman John McGuinness in Saturday 's southeast Asia street race on November 20 , while the American contingent of Josh Hayes, Geoff May and Jeremy Toye finished fifth through seventh, respectively. Rutter passed Monstermob Ducati's McGuiness at the halfway point in the 15-lap race and held him off to win by .5 18 of a sec ond . Rutter completed the race in 37 minutes, 30.397 seconds at an average speed of 91.253 mph. With five wins , Rutter is one behind Ron Haslam, his fellow Englishman who holds the record with six. Haslam's last win came in 1987. The fo llow ing year the race was won by Kevin Schwantz, the only win ever by an American. McGuinness's teammate Stuart Easton was third, 24 seconds back with a gap of nearly 13 seconds on Yamaha -mounted Austrian Thomas Hinterreiter. Hayes described his first race on the 3.85mile Guia Circuit, a temporary race track on the streets of Macau, a Special Admin istrative Region of the People's Republic of China near Hong Kong: '" was a lillie slow on the start, but I worked my way past Markus Barth on the first lap and the leaders [McGuinness , Rutter and Easton] got out pretty far out. [Thomas] Hinterreiter got out to a 12-second gap . The next couple o f laps I was in the in 31s, and I reeled him in to a 2.2-second gap . Then I caught some traffic in some bad places , like Lisboa Bend [a right-hander that leads up to the San Francisco Hill]. It kind of hurt my drive. Hinterreiter got pretty far out there again, and at that point , had pretty good gap [on May] and I said, 'I'll take it easy 8 DECEMBER 1,2004 • for the Spaniard for four seasons, from 1999 to 2002 . The Brazilian won five GPs and scored 14 podium finishes during his time with Pons. One of the most experienced riders in MotoG?, with over 240 GPs to his credit, Barros rode as a teammate to Nicky Hayden in 2004 on the Repsol Honda team. Barros brings his crew chief from the Repsol team, Ramon Forcada, with him to the Camel squad . ':After two highly successful seasons , the Camel Honda team now moves up a gear with the incorporation of two highly gifted and experienced riders, " Pons said in a statement. "With Alex and Troy leading the charge, I am confident that the yellow Camel Honda bikes will be constantly battling for MotoGP World Championship," Zanni said. "The thrilling exploits of the Camel Honda team will continue in earnest in 2005, with a brand-new lineup. We welcome our two work ahead of us this winter, I am confident that this exciting new project will bring much success to everyone concerned once the the leading positions in every race. I would 2005 championship gets under way in April in Jerez." Roberto Zanni, the worldwide marketing and sales senior vice president of JT like to thank Honda, Camel, Correos and the International, agrees with Pons. other team sponsors for their constant sup- "For the third consecutive year, the prestigious Camel brand will take part in the port. And while we clearly have a lot of hard and go to Thailand .' I backed off like four sec onds a lap." new riders, Troy Bayliss and Alex Barros, to whom I wish a season fullof satisfaction and success. I would like to thank Honda for lending their support once more and for having contributed to the continuity of our MotoGP project. I am certain that the RC21 I V, our team and our riders will hold the Camel name up high next season, on the long and challenging road that is the MotoGP World Championship." Honda Boys Win Baja Again Hayes and his crew were to vacation in Team Honda's Steve Hengeveld, Johnny Campbell and Kendal Normall won th is year's 37th running of the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, which got under way Thursday, November 18 and concluded a day later. The XR650-mounted team was Thailand the week after the race . "It' s a pretty scary place, " Hayes said of the street circuit. "You don't realize how fast it is from the pictures, how fast you're go ing." How bad is it? " lt makes you appreciate Daytona," Hayes said. "There are two turns you have the ability to go straight, and they only go for 200 yards . Only two turns on the entire track. Everything else is a guardrail wall." With so little margin for error, Hayes said you change your approach. "You do all your braking straight up and down. You don't trail brake in and take chances, and you work to get off the turns pretty good." the first to cross the finish line, complet- ing the Ensenada-to-La Paz race in 15 hours, 57 minutes and 37 seconds at an average speed of 63.505 mph . The win was the fifth for Hengeveld and the eighth straight for Campbell. Second overall in the motorcycle divi- sion went to the KTM team of Chris Blais, Kellon Walch , Andy Grider and Scot Harden, the five men riding a KTM 700 LC4 specially built for this race . The team finished about 25 minutes behind the winning Honda crew. Third overall motorcycle was the winning Class 40 team, made up of Jim O'Neal, Tim Withers and Jeff Kaplan. They were aboard a Honda XR650. The top-finish ing four-wheel vehicle was a Class I Ford F-150, driven by Tory Herbst and former motorcycle Baja 1000 winner Larry Roeseler. Herbst and Roeseler finished the race in 16 hours, 18 minutes and 14 secondsat an average clip of 62 .17 mph. The Mississippian survived one particular- Davis Takes Idaho WOReS ly harrowing incident in unt imed practice when a crashed rider's flaming motorcycle bounced into his path . It began with the rider going straight into a guardrail in fourth gear on a 1000. "Wh e n I tipped it in I could see something behind the guardrail, and when it opened up, it was like a wall of smoke had completely engulfed the whole racetrack," Hayes said. '" had no idea what to do . I decided to get as close to what I thought the wall was . They had some bed mattresses on the wall and w there were mattresses all over the track. The o bike had bounced off the inside wall and was on fire, the forks knocked off of it. I had to accelerate hard to get in front of it ." Hayes said the racing ends at 5 p.m. and ;:; Nathan Woods came to Idaho with the W ORCS title already in hand, but that didn't stop Ty Davis from giVing everyone a riding lesson on November 21. Davis took the holeshot on the long uphill start and led all but a couple laps to top Bobby Bonds and Woods in what was the final round of the World O ff-Road Championship Series , held a: .....- -J: a: o champions with new motorcycles and handed out cash and other prizes worth over $12 ,500 . Yamaha came out the big winner for the season. Along with Woods, :::> Davis and Russ Pearson >m taking the top three places in the series, Yamaha took s the streets are returned to public use. g "What you're racing on is what people park their cars on and drive all night on ." Wou ld he do it again? ':A,s far as the people, I'm having a blast," he said "Yo u come here, you surv ive through the race and have a really good time with all the rest of the people hanging out." He nny Ray Abram s ~ CYCLE NEWS - - - :=""-:'If'IfMtm at the Clay Peaks Track in Payette , Idaho . Lance Smail and David Pearson rounded out the top five. The season was capped off with an awards banquet held after the race at the Payette High School Auditorium, where the WORCS organizers presented the 10 class 40th Anniversary home the Manufacturers Championship and Zip-Ty Racing's Kenny Parry was awarded Team Manager of the Year. Ty Davis won the final WORes race of the year in Idaho.

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