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/128393
Bostrom Crashes But Remains Happy enegade Koji Honda's Ben Bostrom was remarkably upbeat after injuring his back in the worst highs ide of his career in the first race of the British Superbike Series at Silverstone on Sunday, August 21. The reason for the optimism was improvement of his Honda CBR IOOORR, despite only three laps of race action. "I'm really excited for Assen [the next round of the World Superbike Championship)," Bostrom said by cell phone from England. "Today, a real breakthrough on the bike. Good for the brain. [I'm) really excited, the most excited I've been for a long time, hurt back and all." The plan was to use the Silverstone British Superbike meeting as a test. The Renegade Koji Honda team had made improvements both over the past few races and over the course of the weekend. But on the third lap of the first race it all went R wrong. Stobart Honda's Michael Laverty fell at Copse, with Bostrom and Karl Harris crashing on fluid from the fallen motorcycle. Bostrom unavoidably hit Laverty as he was getting up. The accident brought out a red flag. "It was the biggest highside I ever had in my life," Bostrom said. "Fourth gear, wide open, on the gas. As I was flying through the air, I swear I didn't hit the ground for 10 seconds. Seemed like forever. "When I came down, I just landed flat on my back," he continued. "It knocked the wind out of me. I couldn't breath for a while. The whole back went numb. That scared me. And then everything came back, and I was in pain. I took muscle relaxers and stuff. As soon as the muscles seemed to release from the back, I was up and walking around, and now I'm fine." Spaniard Gregorio Lavilla won the first Pirelli Says... Critics of the World Superbike spec-tire rule will point out that current World Superbike lap times are only now closing on Shane Byrne's Dunlop-shod lap records set in 2003. But what is often overlooked is that the idea of a control tire was to level the playing field - and it certainly has achieved that. Pirelli could build prototype tires (like its rivals do for MotoGP or even British Superbike), but its task is to provide an entire paddock (it supplies tires for every class), so it has to mass-produce tires - up to 6000 for every race. Half of those are for the World Superbike class in 36 different specifications - depending on size, construction and compound - and they have to suit twins, triples and fourcylinder bikes. "Three years ago we made prototype tires for DFX [Ducati 998s in World Superbike1 - different materials, different carcasses. But with the control tire we had to forget these prototypes," Pirelli racing 12 race over Airwave Ducati teammate Leon Haslam, with HM Plant Honda's Riyuchi Kiyonari beating Lavilla in the second race. Between the pain in his back and che destroyed motorcycle, Bostrom chose not to ride race two. Bostrom had qualified 18th on a bad qualifying tire but jumped up to sixth in the morning warmup. Bostrom was one of two riders in the field on Pirellis. "We didn't get enough [track time) because the first practice was rain," he said. "The next practice, we were jumping back and forth - we had a little bit of bike gremlins. And then Saturday was qualifying, so we kind of focused on different things, and we tried some different tires, and they have a tire rule here where you're only allowed seven tires. So it kind of cheated us out of the second practice. Today was going Ben Bostrom in action at the Silverstone round of to be our big day to put in laps, but we didn't make it very far. gremlin, we didn't make Superpole. "It just runs good," he added. "Now we "We had two 20-lap races, so we could have a couple of the motors. We're ready put in a lot of laps," he added. "Putting in laps on race tires and trying to keep our times set. It's so fast. We have the bike working very well, and the rider could be riding betdown and consistent. I crashed in three laps, ter. Nice combination. It's exciting." so I never got to do that." Only three meetings remain in the World The team had made a vast improvement on the Honda before Brands Hatch, two Superbike Championship - Assen, Imola and Magny-Cours. Bostrom feels he's hitting his weeks ago. "They've developed new cams that stride, better late than never. "Look for results," he said. "I'm not kidmake tons more horsepower," he said. "We ding. The bike, it's fast - really, really fast. had a set of them, and when the bike broke in Superpole at Misano, it destroyed the That says a lot also. The rider is also feeling better. But also, when you sit on a bike and it motor. We had another one for Brands Hatch. It was qUite good. I think we would has a lot of horsepower and you can rear steer, and as long as you get off the corners have done a lot better had we made with the guys, you're with the guys or going Superpole. Because we had an electrical manager Georgio Barbier said. "We think pure prototyping is too far from the road market. We see this [involvement in World Superbike) as an investment into our street tire. This was our philosophy when we took on this project." So unlike their rivals who go racing to promote the brand, Pirelli is using racing to effectively produce the ultimate sports tire for the racetrack - which in turn should improve the quality of their road rubber, according to Pirelli. Given that Pirelli had to go to mass production of racing tires, it took the designs and production methods from its successful Supersport line. This tends to suggest that the construction of the superbike tire is very similar to a soft sidewall Supersport. very different from rival superbike tires, which use stiff carcasses and require the chassis to be more supple. Hence the discovery that after two years of the control tires, superbike chassis are getting stiffer. One aspect of racing that has virtually disappeared in World Superbike racing is chatter AUGUST 31.2005 • CYCLE NEWS - something that plagues both MotoGP and British Superbikes due to the high levels of grip the tires give. Troy Corser's crew chief Giacomo Guidotti said: "Chatter? That's something caused by extreme grip. We'd love to experience this problem!" But the constraints of the control-tire rule do not mean Pirelli is standing still. Testing of new compounds of constructions continues (as in British Superbike last year with the Jentin Yamaha team), but one of the restrictions that affects Pirelli is that it cannot have a tire that favors anyone make of motorcycle. "This year we came up with a new 200 [the 190 is the standard size), but it doesn't suit every circuit," Barbier Pirelli boss Georgio Barbier talks with Ducati's Davide Tardoui. the British Superbike Championship. by them. It does a lot also for your brain, for your confidence, for everything, for the excitement of being on the bike." A mostly disappointing season - ISth in points with a best finish of sixth - hasn't stopped him from thinking about next year. "You have to think about next year," he said. "I was thinking when I came here the first time in 2000, I had the worst season, and the next year you have a lot more confidence. You've been there. Everything's worked out, and you maybe race for the win. That's the whole idea. The first year here's been a lot tougher than I thought it would be. Try to finish the season on a high and start strong. " Henny Ray Abrams said. ''And we had a new compound at Brno, and the riders were able to sustain lap times right to the end of the race in very hot conditions - something we'd not seen before. "We've also tried new ideas and have come up with tires that suit certain bikes [twins instead of fours, for example)," he added, "but we can't bring them to the races, because we cannot afford to favor anyone type of machine." Neil Spalding