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Continued f,om poge J 9
the KTM 250 is a parallel twin in a field
dominated by V-twins. Why? "When you
design an engine, you scart with one test
cylinder," Bartol said. "In my experience
with vee engines, if you put two together
you never get twice the power of one test
cylinder." This was because of different
cylinder angles, intake and exhaust paths
and volumes, and so on. "Each cylinder is
like a different engine," he said. The parallel twin suffered no such problems, and at
the same time, fitting a balance shaft
allowed Bartol to experiment with different firing intervals. "We have two types of
engine here: one with 180-degree timing,
and the other at 270 degrees. The 270degree is always better, so for the next
race we'll have both bikes with that configuration," he said.
Privilege is to be paid for in modern racing,
and the plight of the British Telecom engineers at Donington Park demonstrates the
case. ResponSible for maintaining the obviously vital telecommunications at the track,
they operated out of a VIP suite with a
magnificent view over the Melbourne Hairpin. They were only able to look at it for
the first day, however. "Tomorrow, they
draw the curtains," one of the engineers
said. Perhaps BT was offered to keep the
view in exchange for an extra fee - but why
would they want to pay staff to look out of
the window?
just taken the lead and then crashed spectacularly. Then the red flags came out.
This meant a restart, and a new race cut to just nine laps to avoid too much
delay to the remaining schedule. And it
was a crash fest, with I3 fallers, at least
two of them (early leader Gabor Talmacsi
and Bautista) crashing twice.
In the end, survival as well as speed
gave a first victory to KTM's Julian Simon,
after a long battle with Honda-mounted
Mike di Meglio, with teammate Fabrizio
Lai narrowly taking third from Marco
Simoncelli.
MOTOGP
It was pouring down as they lined up, and
then the starting lights failed. Engines
were stopped, the one-minute board
held out, and they went out for another
warmup, for a race reduced by one lap.
This time the lights worked, and
Gibernau surged straight into the lead
going into Redgate corner, followed by
Melandri, Barros, Edwards and Bayliss,
with Rossi sixth.
Rossi picked up two places by the end
of the lap, with Biaggi the first to fall, picking up to rejoin at the back, and Gibernau
fully VI-seconds clear. The spray was
awful, the number of slips, slides and tumbles striking. Xaus was out on lap two,
Melandri, Bayliss and Hayden on lap
three, and Gibernau one lap later, as well
as Nakano and Biaggi, for a second time,
this one terminal.
The next time around, Shakey Byrne
touched the brakes and also fell - a cruel
fate, with the Proton KR lying an unprecedented sixth at the time. In this way,
severe rain makes fools of heroes, and
vice versa.
Hopkins was charging through from
12th on lap one, up to fourth by lap four,
and in the lead the next time around,
however reluctantly.
Rossi was second and remained in
there when Barros took the lead on lap
seven. Then Rossi was third, as Roberts
nosed ahead. Edwards was close up
behind, Tamada losing ground behind,
Checa soon to close up as Capirossi
closed and eventually overtook Hofmann
behind him.
The highly variable grip over different
areas of the track also varied the positions
of the leading group. Roberts led for one
lap, the I I tho At the same time, Rossi
made his slip at the chicane, dropping
behind Edwards for two laps. It was now,
as he caught up again, that he discovered
for sure just how much faster than the
others he could go.
On lap 14, Rossi passed Edwards onto
the back straight and Roberts at the other
end of the straight. Now he tucked in
behind Barros for eight laps, and on the
22nd, he tucked in underneath him at the
penultimate hairpin - and put his head
down.
Rossi took almost two seconds out of
Barros on lap 23, 2.S seconds on the next
lap, 3.3 on the one after it. This was a
(Above) John Hopkins (21) led early
before crashing out of the race. He
remounted to finish 11th. Colin
Edwards (5) ended up finishing
fourth in the race after suffering a
few nasty moments that slowed his
progress.
magnificent display of courage, brinkmanship, commitment, confidence - and the
most extraordinary of skills.
By the finish, he was totally in command. Roberts popped past Barros on the
last lap, and Edwards was by now more
concerned with staying ahead of Checa
than trying to catch up again.
Checa was next, then Capirossi,
Tamada and Hofmann, with Elias and
Rolfo a lap down, then Hopkins.
Rossi's points lead is now more than
100 points - 21 I to double nonscorer
Melandri on 107. Edwards is closing fast,
on 106. Biaggi has 100, the misfortunate
Gibernau on 95, and Barros on 90. eN
KTM does not expect to bring more than
DONINGTON PARK
DONINGTON, ENGLAND
RESULTS: JULY
24, 2005
Are future World Champions born or
made? Both, it seems, in the case of thrusting young Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo. Not
that the youngster has won a title yet, but
the way he is going in his first 250cc year it
can be only a matter of time. For one thing,
it's all been planned already. From early
childhood in Majorca, Lorenzo has been
groomed for the job, even to the extent of
practicing press conference techniques and
getting used to standing on a child-size
podium. It's all part of his father Chicho
Lorenzo's grand scheme, and you can
check on the system and on progress so far
in his new book. In Spanish and titled As; s_
pr_para un futuro campion ("Thus a Future
Champion Is Prepared"), it is published by
Hispano Europa. Lorenzo, meanwhile, is
doing well on the riding part, on the Fortuna Honda. He's already led twice in his first
season and claimed two poles and two
podiums, Including a second place. His best
finish before the British GP was second, but
watch this space. Lorenzo celebrated his
first I25cc win (in Brazil in 2003) with a display of air guicar on his slow-down lap.
minor improvements to its Proton KR(ROUND
9
OF
17)
HOTOGP QUALIFYING: L Valentino Rossi
(1:27.897): 2. Set. G;bemau (1:28.182); 3. MMCO Melandri
(I :28.295); 4. Alex 8..-ros (I :28.394): 5. NKky Hayden
(1:28.415): 6. CoUn Edwan!, (1:28.656): 7. Troy SayU..
(1:28.720); 8. Max 8;agg; (1:28.726): 9. Makoco T..-nada
(I :28.976): 10. john Hop!<;", (1:29.231): II. Loris Cap;''''';
(1:29.731): 12. 5h;ny.l Nakano (1:29.742): 13. eano. Checa
(1:29.816): 14. Ruben x.", (1:29.890); IS. Alex Hofmann
(1:30.151): 16. Kenny Robens j,. (1:30.260): 17. Ton; Ella>
(1:30.342): 18. Shane 8yrne (1:31.026): 19. Rabeno RDlfo
(1:31.180): 20.J""'" EII_ (1:31.791): 21. F