Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World C h a m p io n s h ip R o a d R a c in g S e r ie s R o und 6 : Italian Grand Prix F r an c o B atta in i was n e x t , after a m o v ing up strongly and is t h ir d with ing r ise to fears t hat h e m ig ht o nce solitary r ide; th en U k a w a , four seconds 95 poin ts . Th e n it 's U kawa (8 7) , again se ize defeat fro m t he jaws of West (62) an d Me lan d r i (61) , wi th victory. adri ft after scrambling b ack o n board . H i s tea mmate Antho ny West wa s sev en t h . Muc h b attered after practice, Wa ld m a n n d ro p ping to seven th with . two with e ngi ne prob lems, w h ile Po g giali ha d been p unted off in a la p -: th r e e co llis ion w it h Azum a , rejo in in g At t h at halfway stage, a mere two th e t r a c k w ay d o wn i n 2 4 t h p lac e . seco nds cove re d a hu g e ga ng of a a n d explain ing t hat h e ha d some t h ing 1 2Scc GR AND PR IX B ut as th e ga ng scra pped it o ut, h e doze n pursuers, inclu di ng d e f end ing 55 . was surg i n g thro ugh , r ej o in ing wi th c ham p ion Emil io A lza mora, both Giv i fo u r l aps le ft, and imm ed iatel y g a in - after t wo crashes , th e yo u ng Aus - Loca t elli t o o k a fl ier f rom th e lin e H ond a s of Cecc h ine llo and N orobu in g p lac es. t r a li a n h ad started s lowly , but speed- a n d was a lmost t wo seconds cle a r b y U eda, G iansanti , Gino B orsoi, French - Th e last l a p saw h im l eaping f or- e d up as th e r a c e w ore o n a n d a b ig t he e n d of t he f irst la p . H e d i dn 't l o ok m en Arn aud Vi ncen t, Rand y de Pu niet ward a nd the y p iled into t h e last b end g ang o f p r i v ateers f ormed u p b ehind ba c k u ntil h e ' d st re tched t he g ap to as well as G ianlu igi Sca l v ini. h im , takin g ad vantage of his tow but b etter th an 10 seconds a fte r e ig h t o f a c onfi dence gap in t he f ront wh ee l Alth ough Pablo Nieto's D e r b i was - L o cat e ll i a lre a dy g one - with C ecch in e llo h ead ing A lzamora , only la p s, and maint ained hi s a dva nta ge hanging o n the back , bot h h is faster for Pogg iali t o come sweepi ng a ro und N akano r ega ine d th e lead wit h 11 2 t o th e en d o f a n a lmos t imm a cu l ate t e ammates w e r e absent. Yo uichi U i t h e outside and di ving t o w ard s th e p o i n t s to K atoh's 1 0 7 . J acqu e is race - ju st o ne t r ip o n to th e grass giv- h ad r etired o u t o n th e tra ck o n l a p a pex , t aking C e c chin e ll o's fron t unable to p as s . ance as him. G oing into the tum , even when I'm not touching the BRIEFLY. •• brake. the bike starts to get out of shape. His just stays dead stable and then motors out of the corner. " All the top teams and almost all the top riders stayed on at Mugel10 to test the lat est ti re variation - 16.5-inch fronts to go with M ichelin's l 6 .S-inch rear . The smaller rim size, with the same Historic Italian racing firm Moto Mondia l is t o r etu rn to racing - with a four-stroke built for the new 500 -c1ass rules to be rolling diameter. has made big inroads with rear tire s. Ga rry ment at the Italian GP. The Italian firm. which won the first-ever 125cc World Championship. the first of ten titles. and last raced in the ·60s. made the announcement durinq Mugello practice. at McCoy used one to win in South Africa. and Norick Abe in Japan. In Italy. as well as those two Yamaha riders. Kenny Roberts Jr.. Carlos Checa, Nobuatsu Aoki . Tadayuki Okada. Regis Laconi and Max Biaggi also switched to 16.5-inch rears - though winner Loris Capiro ssi had a 17-inch rear. Michelin is the only tire manufacturer for the V-four 500s, and. since Aprilia SWitched. they now supply everyone in the class except for Modenas and a couple of Vtwin Honda privateers. who use Dunlops. But race boss Jacq ues Morelli said: " I don't want people to think we've gone to sleep in the 500 class. The 16.5-inch front is the same size as a tire used in Su pe rbikes . but it is a different tire . and it is a direction in which we want to develop ." introduced in 2002, according to a rather mysterious announce - the same time as announcing a re turn to road-bike manufacturer with a new superbike. to be on sale next year. But while Mondial became the first facto ry to announce that they wo uld build a fourstroke GP racer for the new rules. their pians announced by the firm's new ow ners were vague and shrouded in mystery , and also see med to be in contravention of the intention of the new rules. Ma king the announce ment at a special pre ss conference , staff declined to reveal the number of cylinder s of the planned mot orcycle . described in a written statement at a 100cc tw in-cam. but thought to be 1000cc. saying only: " It is too early to say." And they said that the GP racer would be evo lved from the sports bike. making it some sort of a retr o-type - while the rules insist that only true prot otyp es will be eligible. The new road bike wou ld cos t around $25 .000 . according to M ondial. and will off er very high technology . Derbi is planning a return to the 250cc c la ss , after achieving growing success in the 125cc class in their seco nd year back . The final decision has not been made. accord ing to race designer Harald Bartol. but will be soon for a possibie comeback in 2002 . Derbi raced a V-twin 250 to one victory in 1972. but made their name in the 125 and 80c c classes, There will be no American Grand Prix next year. afte r a co llapse of negotiations between the promo ter s and the Road Ameri ca circuit owners. The growing rumor wa s confirmed at the Mick Doohan was honored at a special tribute at Mu gello. with Italian GP by Dennis Noyes. a principal of Tag Sports and would- a trip around the trac k on race -day in an open Fe rrari. and presentatio n of a silve r medal - the first cere mony in the newly con- be promo te rs of the revived race , last run at Laguna Se ca in 1994 . The Elkhart Lake. Wi sconsin. saga has been going on since 1995. when it was briefly on the GP schedule. The Wisconsin cir- ceived Mot orcycle Grand Prix Hall of Fame. But while nobody cuit seemed an ideal venue for the race, which failed to draw big could question five-time champion D aohan'5 right to a prominent place in the hall. many we re surprised that such a recently retired crowds when it was held at the California venue at Laguna Seca. But there were safety prob lems. and ultimately these proved insoiuble. The contentious part of the track is the loop from the rider should have been chosen to launch this celebrat ion of racing - history. in the home country and in the presence of the legendary 15-time Wo rld Champion Giacomo Agostini. The hall of fame. in its. early stage s more of a shed. has yet to find a permanent home. Vari ous sites are being considered, according to Dorna. Racing veterans expected a Spanish venue to be high on the list. As well as the permanent exhibit of items of memorabilia. there will also be an itinerant exhibition - a sort of Motor home of Fame that will visit major cities near each GP. Carousel to C anada C orner, short of run-off area and with no easy way of confo rming wit h modern GP safety conditions. The new promoter s and the circuit owner s were looking at a way of replacing the whole sec tion with anot her loop. "We co uld not arrive at a commercial agreement. n said N oye s. "There were too many issue s concerning the pricing of nece ssary modifications, and we ran out of time." Now the target is a race in 2002 . at a venue ye t to be decided. "We should have somet hing to say an the subject at the end of th is season. bu t not before." said Noyes. " But Tag Sport has a renewed letter of intent with Dorna The Paton made a rare re -appearance at the Italian GP , ridden once again by Paolo Tes sari, the homemade V -four nar- Patience makes perfect - or something like that. Alex Barros's first-ever pole position came afte r 168 GP starts and a career now in its 15th year - the 2g-year-old Brazilian lied about his age to start GP racing below minimum age back in 1986. Barros now rides wo rks Hondas for the Pons satellite team . but has ridden fact ory Suzuki s and Cagiva s in the past. The Italian GP wa s his 137th 500 cc-cla ss start. put ting him equal with Mi ck Doohan. More statist ics: Figures released at Mugello showed that Italy is the most successful nation in 51 years of GP racing . with 550 wins out of 2 144 races held. Britain is the second most successful nation with 380 wins. even though the last was by Ian McConna chie in the 80cc class at Silverstone in 1986 . Then comes Spain (20n . Ge rmany (169) . the USA <1 6n . Au stralia (122) . Japan (119) and then Rhodesia (7m . Modern races. however, are harde r to w in, according to other sta tistics, wit h the 500cc class now closer than ever. The French GP was the fourt h out of five races with a winning margin of less than one second, and average finishing time s this sea son are closer than for any season in the 51-year history of the championship. Aust ralian rider Anthony West gave ambulance staff a shock at M ugello. as they took him to hospital for a precautionary check-up after a first-day crash, The teenager's father Tony was wit h him. and explained. "Anthony has a naturally slow resting heart rate - as low as 36 beat s per minute . The ambulance guys had him hooked to a heart-rate monitor . but they got a bit worrie d whe n it dropped to below 40 ." Wha t had been a gentle cruise beca me a dash to th e hosp ita l. the ambulance slidi ng around the corners of the Tuscan roads. - I tried to tell them to slow down. that it was normal for Anth ony - but they didn 't understand." Three-time Wo rld Champion Luca Cadalora was slated to test the Mk 3 Modenas the day after the Italian GP. The Italian rider. a GP winner in all th ree classes. will ride the machine raced by David de Gea fo r the first time at Mugello. At present there is only one of the new bikes, w ith a shorter engine in a more com - pact chassis. The engine ran for the first time barely a month ago. and the bike appeared in prac tice fo r the French GP. althoug h crankshaft prob lems meant it did not race. But it achieved reliability at the Italian GP. making it all the way thro ugh practice with only niggling problems. "The problem is that David has never ridden any other 500. and he hasn't the experienc e on all the circuits." said team manager Chuck Aksland. " Luca has vast experience , and know s the team we ll. We asked him some time ago if he wo uld test the bike. and we expect to learn a lot about the new bike in a short time ." Cadalora, who rode one World Superbike race as a subs titute for injure d Ducati rider Carl Fogarty thr ee weeks ago. said: " I'm happy to test t he bike for Kenny and the team , beca use they did a lot for me in the past. and also because row ly qualified. But it was not the slowest 500 - Sco tt ish rider Callum Ramsay took over the Sabre Racing V-twin Honda ridden by Ron Haslam in France (both substituting for the injured Shane Norvall . but failed to make the qualifying cut of pole plus seven percent by less than a 10th of a seco nd. to continue the sea rch for a suitable venue . " The factory Honda t eam's problems lingered in spite of Aiex Crivilles race win at the last GP in France. with the defend- day of prac tice, It didn't help , however. but being ou t of the it's a pleasure to get back onto a GP bike. I wat ched it in practice . and it looks quite interesting. The engine is very compact and it is light - very close to the minimum limit. This kind of bike is very intere s ting for me . " The Moden as uses Du nlop ti res. wh ich Cadalora has had problems with in the past . but he insisted he was open-minded about the possibilities, " I am approaching the bike and the tires with no pre-concepti ons. and I hope that I can breez e instead le ft him ove rheating in the early summe r sunshine. give them some good information. " W ould he continue with the Australian charger Garry McCoy may be the sma ll e st 500cc ri d e r who regularly comes at or near the top through the speed traps. but that didn't stop him look ing for even more top speed. with a larger-than-usual w indsc reeen the team tried on the first ing champion crashing both his machines in the final practice ses- sion while struggling to get onto the front row of the grid, so that FIM President Francesco Ze rbi's suggestion that the GP and World S u p e r b i k e sea s o ns sh o uld be ru n consecutively, one from January to June and the other from July to December, was greeted with amusement and disbelief in the GP paddock at M ugello. Zerbi, currently coming under serious he was unable to complete the session. Teammates S ete Giber- nau and Tadayuki Okada were in even more trouble, after staying on at Le Mans for tests to try and find out why they could oniy manage to finish 14th and 15th while Cnville wo n the race. Criville used last year's bike for the race, and his teammates teste d the 1999 motor in their 2000 models. to see if it was that making the diffe rence. It wasn' t , but they believed they had isolated the culprit - the latest suspens io n equipment. In Italy . how ever. both were still struggling, with Okada watc hing pole qualifier Alex Bar- pressure from World Sup erbike series ow ners O ctagon as hi:;, atte mpts to finalize the four-st roke rules for GP racing. made the suggestion at the Monza Wo rld Superbike round last weekend. Jeremy McWil liams had one of the new 2 0 0 0 Aprilia 500s for the first time at Mugello. where he said he was enjoying the new Michelin tires. But though he was fast. he crashed in both timed sessions. both times after gelling up into the top for a potent ial front-row start . McW illiams has consiste ntly outqualified his teammate Tetsuya Harada. who was on pole position here last year for the first time in the V-twin lightwe ight' s racing history . ros's lea se-team bike with envy. WI was able to see how far off we still are when I followed him," Okad a said. "There 's an incredible difference between the way my bike and his acce lerate out of the comers. I reckon he makes at least a couple of tenths of a second on me in every corner. In fact. he makes time all through the corner , becau se we haven't yet found the same suspension bal- 10 JUNE 7 , 2000' cue • e n e _ s team. and possi bly race the bike. He smiled. "At the moment. it is jus t for one test. We will have to see what happens after that. " The M k3 Modenas is the last chance for Kenny Robert s' s threecylinder lightweight alternative. which achieved reliability with the seco nd version at the cos t of size. weight and nimble handling. The latest version has a redesigned bott om end. with the balance shaft shifte d to save 50 mm of length . and is housed in a new chassis. De Gea. a GP novice. joined the team in the middle of last season, after a number of rider problems culminated in injury to previous substit ute rider Jamie W hitham. IRTA had to step in to avert a minor crisis befor e the start of t he 125 race at Mug ello. when over-zealous off icials cleared a large number of 500 and 250cc riders off pit wall. including title leader Kenny Roberts .Jr. IRTA officials hastily ran acro ss to usher them back into place. The riders always wat ch the start of earlier races. to st udy operation of the starting lights.

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