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/128365
American Honda and the CBR I OOORR nents developed by American Honda would be available to privateers. Our approach, and the use of local talent and vendors, should reduce the cost to privateers. True growth in AMA Superbike racing happens when speed reaches farther downfield, and putting more affordable racing components in the hands of privateers will accomplish this. It will make a better show for fans and will close the gap between factory teams and privateers. uch of the off-season talk in AHA Superbike racing as it pertains to the factory Honda team of Miguel Duhamel and Jake Zemke has been about the further development of the CBRIOOORR - not so much as to the actual development of the bike, but as to who exactly was doing that development. When the story broke that American Honda was going to be handling the majority of the development work on the bike without the aid of HRC, people took the information and ran with it. Not all the information was the same and the answers depended on what faction within the racing team the questions were posed to. American Honda's head honcho Ray Blank wanted to set the record straight on Honda's plans for the 2005 AMA Superbike Championship, so he answered some questions regarding the 'OS program. M It is common knowledge that American Honda raced superbikes built by HRC in the past. How has that changed for 2005? For several years now, American Honda has raced superbikes built by HRC, The development of these bikes was done jointly by American Honda and HRC, though HRC largely controlled and executed the development process. For 2005, American Honda will control and execute the development process. We will begin with a CBR IOOORR modified with HRC parts, many of which are the sarne as last year. This will serve as our baseline. From there, we will develop our superbike throughout the '05 season with components of American Honda's choosing. 8 Will American Honda receive any assistance from HRC? Yes. This is really a co-development program between American Honda and HRC. In 2004, we raced a leased bike. In 2005, we are driving our own development with the assistance of HRC. But we will have more independence, more creativity in the kinds of modifications we will make, and that means quicker turn-around times. We are already experimenting with different braking and suspension systems, something we were not doing in the past. Now it is possible to try many different combinations in real time and make our own decisions based on the stopwatch. We can be more respon· sive and more flexible than in the past. Will Superblke "kits" of HRC parts be readily available to privateers in 2005? At this time, the answer is no, they will not be readily available in 2005. But it is our intention this new program leads to parts availability and technical assistance to AMA prwateers in the near future. Honda has a longstanding philosophy of building products where we sell them. This has evolved into Honda also developing produet5 where they are sold, and we are now evolving further by developing here what we race here. Ultimately, this will drive down the cost of racing. The fluctuations in international currency alone make it very costly not to develop here. By developing the race bikes here and involving local racing-parts vendors, we are striving to stimulate the market to ultimately make superbike racing components available to privateers for a reasonable cost. We can foresee a time when compo- FEBRUARY 16,2005 • CYCLE NEWS Why has this change taken place now, in 2005? Because American Honda is capable of developing a superbike now, and because the platform is such an improvement over the past. The production CBR IOOORR was developed as a racing platform. When you design a production bike to go racing and you succeed, you have an ideal platform that is much closer to the front line than, say. a stock RC51 was. Making a superbike out of an RC51 was a whole lot tougher than building a superbike from a CBR IOOORR. We don't need to take the same approach as before. It doesn't take everything HRC can muster to build a racing bike. It is a much less complex process. When you have a production bike like the CBRI OOORR that is this close already, and you have tracks and rules particular to your own racing environment, you are better off doing development here. We can act more quickly and more efficiently by causing the development to take place in this cooperative fashion. It eliminates our dependency on HRC for every little thing we need. HRC is now helping us get on our own feet. We are like children who have grown up. Additionally, we don't want to have to share a make-do motorcycle that is a compromise of World Superbike and AMA rules. You have to be able to develop the bikes specifically for the markets where you are going to have the usage. The tracks and rules alone dictate it. In order to respond to our rules. our conditions, our environment, we must control the development ourselves in conjunction with HRC. This really uses HRC as the resource it should be, rather than American Honda being dependant on an organization that has so many responsibilities and is so far removed from the racing site. There are rumors that HRC has focused all its efforts on MotoGP and no longer considers Superblke an important class. There is no question Honda has dedicated considerable effort to develop MotoGP, but HRC still considers Superbike an important class, and developments are being done. While we have achieved the highest performing machine in MotoGp, we have also built a sportbike that embodies a lot of the technology developed in the MotoGP machine. We are seeing technology trickle down to our production machines. That makes the CBR IOOORR closer to a racing machine than bikes built purely for street use, and that puts better raw materials in the hands of our team to build a formal superbike. The recent Daytona tire test is a good example: Our 2005 CBRIOOORR went 193 mph at Daytona the first time out, and we've barely started the development process. American Honda's development in AMA racing will also contribute to better production bikes for Honda customers. For example, the 2005 CBR600RR production bike incorporates features and technology pioneered on both the World Supersport FIM machine built in Japan and the 2004 Formula Xtreme machine that was built and developed by American Honda. There is a rumor that HRC will come back to World Superbike. Yes, we've heard that rumor, and if they do, we believe they will come back in a cooperative effort with a tearn or distributor, similar to our program in 2005. There are plans for Honda Europe Motor to be supporting some tearns. Look at what the Ten Kate team was able to accomplish last year. That bike was built by a shop and ran many stock parts, and it won World Championship races. What does this change mean for the Erion Racing team, and other teams supported by Honda in the U.S? The Erion Racing tearn will be part of American Honda's co-development program in 2005. As part of this program, the Erion team will have a baseline bike and parts, same as American Honda. We develop our bike, the Erion tearn develops their bike. Uke the American Honda tearn, the Erion team can now seek faster resolution to development problems. They will have the freedom to seek local solutions. As a result, they too will be a stronger, more capable team. Will the Honda factory bikes be Identical, or is It possible one rider may choose one setup or brand of suspension and the other rider will select another? Development begins in-house at American Honda. It is quite possible that Miguel's superbike could be tuned significantly differently than Jake's Superbike. We can now tailor the machines more to the rider's particular style and needs, rather than asking them to adapt to a more rigid standard formula. This comes back the primary question: Why the change? The answer can be found at the racetrack. In racing, there is no set formula that gets you to the winners' circle. The path to success is comprised of coundess decisions and individual small steps. Beginning with this season, American Honda has the ability to decide exactly which steps will lead us to our goal.