Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

That was only temporary. Rossi was back to second one lap later. the 20th. and both he and Gibernau slipped inside Edwards at the comer before the back straight and took off. Gibernau had been the fastest man on the track. but Rossi now proved that he had an answer to anything the Spaniard could throw at him. His only lap below I:34 was his last. the fastest of the race. and it was enough to keep him clear of any last-minute attacks. While this was happening. there was plenty of action for the higher places. Behind Melandri and Nakano. Barros had been going strong, with Biaggi following closely and the impressively collected Elias on his back wheel. The young rider lost touch after six laps. By then Biaggi was ahead of Barros. and both were about to get mixed up with Nakano. The Italian escaped from this tussle to close on Melandri for a fight that would last until the end of the race. Barros had a time getting past the Kawasaki-mounted Nakano but was in front when he crashed out on the 13th lap. Nakano then ran into a minor misfire, and his battling was done. But Biaggi and Melandri continued to battle back and forth. After half distance, the pair started closing in on Hayden. Biaggi was first past the fading American, but Melandri followed him on the same lap. the 20th. to rejoin battle, finally getting ahead on the last lap. Capirossi was a couple of seconds behind them, with Nakano much farther behind. Then came Elias and a big gap to Bayliss and Jacque, with the Honda-mounted Bayliss only getting ahead with seven laps to go. Another big gap and then came Xaus and Roberts, the latter losing the position to the young Spaniard on lap 17 and trying but failing to fight back. Van den Goorbergh was 18 seconds behind. in 14th. Rolfo never really recovered from his first-lap tangle with Checa, but he did claim the last point, with Hopkins and Franco Battaini behind him. Second WCM rider James Ellison had crashed out on the third lap. Gibernau rode a fantastic race, which only proved the strength of victor Rossi. The Yamaha rider's 2S-point reward stretched his points lead to 37. Rossi now has 95 to second-placed Melandri's 58. Gibernau moved to third, with 53 points. Biaggi is fourth, with 47. Barros has 43 and Edwards 41. Even if Rossi does get beaten by bikes with a higher top speed down Mugello's long straightaway at the next round, even if he doesn't finish at all, he will still have a comfortable points lead. at - Briefly... Valentino Rossi to Formula One in 2oo7? The headline was too tempting to resist to an Italian newspaper, after some admittedly ambiglfous comments from the Yamaha team manager Davide Brivio - but the facts of the matter, if any, proved elusive. Rossi, who confirmed in China that he hopes to stay with Yamaha in 2006 and has made no decision whether to continue bike racing in 2007, shrugged off the question. Brivio was more fulsome in a team statement. "I said [to the press] that we are going to start working on an extension to Valentino's contract and we will be discussing it after Mugello. I was then asked about any plan Valentino might have to drive in Formula One, and I said that would be Valentino's decision and it might happen. I certainly did not say that he would be in FI from 2007. From Yamaha's side, we hope that he will still be riding for us, but I cannot predict Valentino's future." Rossi himself found a typically astute way to spike the guns of questioners. "For me, the media is becoming a big problem," he said. "I see nothing new. Everybody is managing my words. So now I say: I will finish my career in MotoGP. I will never stop. I will be here for another 10 years." Confusion surrounding the Team KR/KTM project was cleared very little at Le Mans. But after canceling planned pre-race tests of the new motor the week before, both team and engine suppliers were at Le Mans, circu~ lating rather infrequently in practice with new-engine teething troubles. But they qualified, were ready to race and are ready to go on racing until the end of the season. Absence from the Chinese GP due to a lack of engines, followed by cancellation of the tests, had added fuel to rumors of the imminent demise of the team. But while the marriage is not necessarily always smooth, Team KR manager Chuck Aksland was anxious to reaffirm the Kenny Roberts-owned team's continuing commitment. "I don't know how ail these rumors started, but it's not all doom and gloom," he said. "From our side, we have a commitment to develop the best bike we can." Aksland contradicted reports that Roberts had gone to KTM on the weekend of the Portuguese Gp, asking for a substantial payout to keep the show on the road. This was said to be the turning point - that not only had KTM refused, but that it had started to consider other options for developing the engine, possibly With another chassis, as a second bike in the d'Antin team. These were rumors running out of control, said Aksland. "Kenny never did ask for more money," he said. "Over the Estoril weekend, he had a meeting with Stefan Pierer [KTM CEO] in Salzburg. He said it was very positive. Kenny is on the project side, involved with development. The budget is my side." KTM sporting director Heinz Kinigadner was at Le Mans, and he had a meeting with Aksland and Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta. Dorna has already supported the project, keeping the bike on the grid after losing Aprilia. "I wasn't even aware of the meeting until the day before," said Aksland, who denied that a refunding arrangement had been agreed. was because there were some details between ourselves and KTM." He would not elaborate. ''Of course, funding is a concern for everybody - ourselves and KTM - and we're constantly trying to work on that. It doesn't help when you have rumors like this," Aksland added. "We have a commitment to complete the season. and unless something beyond our control prevents that, we will do so." Asked if they had considered using the old V-five engine for this race, Chuck Aksland said: "Alii can say is we're committed to be at the races, and if something might stop us, we have to consider all options. Using the Vfive is not a very realistic option. because we haven't done any work on that engine to improve fuel economy." This is an issue because of the reduced tank size this season. A different story came from the KTM side, with Heinz Kinigadner telling a Germanlanguage journalist that a new agreement had been reached, whereby KTM and Team KR would share running costs for the upcoming races. "There has been a lack of coordination, but you cannot blame KTM or Team Roberts. It is the fault of both of us," he said. Missing the tests meant that the Le Mans race was a shalkedown test for the new KTM Mkl motor, and inevitably there were plenty of teething troubles and breakdowns to the three new engines, including a gearbox problem on day one and another mystery problem that they at first thought might be electronic but then seemed to have another cause, since it afflicted all three engines. In the end, Shane Byrne switched to the last remaining Mk I motor to qualify a respectable 17th, ahead of Rolfo's '04 Ducati and van den Goorbergh's Honda (in only his secon!! ride on the bike), as weil as the Blata WCMs. Byrne reported positive progress, however, from a new chassis and swingarm, designed to address his queasy front-end feeling. "We've revised some of the geometry and weight distribution," Chuck Aksland explained. Lots more bad weather in France gave Nolan helmet-wearing riders plenty of chances to test out some "very big work" done at the factory after the visor-fogging problems encountered in Estoril and China. Major sufferers in Portugal included MotoGP's new star Marco Melandri and 250cc World Champion Dani Pedrosa, the latter unsighted enough to drop out of contention to fourth as a result. When even worse weather struck at Shanghai, Melandri borrowed his mate Andrea Dovizioso's helmet for the race, taping over the Shoei stickers, saying diplomatically afterward that "a Chinese friend gave me a helmet." Pedrosa tried teammate Hiroshi Aoyarna's Shoei on the sighting lap but found that it was too big, and it was back to the Nolan, more fogging problems and sixth in the race. "My Nolan helmet is a prototype, and after China, the technicians did very big work to soive the problem," Melandri said after practice in i.e Mans. "So far in the rain here, it is working fine." The failure that beset Kenny Roberts Jr. while he was leading the Chinese GP was due to a big-end bearing. It was described at "There is no change in the agreement." Asked why the tests of the new motor had been canceled, Chuck Aksland said, "That the time as "something on the engine that has never broken before." Details of this Continued on page 34 CYCLE NEWS • MAY 25, 2005 33

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