Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World C h a m p io n s h ip R o a d R ace S erie s R oun d 7 : Catalunyan G r and P r ix Johan St ige felt , enga ged in their own battle. Nakano s till lead s t he championship with 12 8 poi nts - e ight bette r than Katoh and Jacqu e , who eac h ha v e 12 0 . U kaw a has 10 7 , wi th Melandri a distant fifth with 71, Wes t with 69 and Wald mann with 64 . 1 25cc GRANO PRIX With rai n fa lling , attrition sta rted on only the second corner as Ui slid off, tak ing a c o up le of other people into th e dirt with h im . Givi Hond a 's Lucio Ce cch inello seemed invincible, however , a s h e s u rge d a way to a huge lead over th e first three la ps . But Sanna wa s flying , and em erged into second pa st Azu ma o n lap four , qui ck ly cl os in g the gap ag ain and taking th e lea d o n lap seven. He was never he ad ed , but Ce cch inello threw awa y a s a fe seco nd place after 14 la ps . Th en a gain, it was ve ry ea sy to fall off, as no less tha n nine riders had alread y d em ons trate d , a nd anoth er four were still to do so . With Ueda , Alzamora , Sca lvini, de Puin iet , Loc ate lli, J en kner and a host of othe rs a mong them , this left a thin field we ll spaced out, with Gino Bor- soi sc rapp ing hard with Azuma , th e Apr ilia r ider suc cum b ing to th e Hon d a man onl y on th e last la p . Pabl o Nieto had be en with the m on th e thi rd De rbi (th e second one , ridd en by Poggiali, had already retired in the pi ts ), bu t lo s t th e cha nce o f a strong finish at hom e whe n he also s lid off with four laps left, re mounting to save sixth pla ce . Onl y 14 riders fin ish ed , and 10th pla ce was no disgrace fo r Leon Haslam ( It a lje t ) , sco ring his fi rst points. Non -starter Giansan ti 's t itle lead was th us preserved, 96 points to non finishers Locatelli and Alzamora with 92 and 90. Azu ma moves up with 80, with Vinc ent fifth with 73 and Ui dr opeN ping to s ixth with 70. Monbnelo Circuit Barcelona, Spain Results: June 11, 2000 12 5 c c QUA LI F YING : 1. Robe rt o Loca telli (1:52.588 ): 2. Youichi Ui ( 1:52 .864 ): 3. NoboruUeda (1:53 .067 ): 4 . Lucio Cecc hinello ( 1:53.097): 5 . Pablo Nieto (1:53. 174 ): 6. Gianluigi Scalva nl ( 1:53 . 198) : 7. Em i li o A lzem cre (1 :53 .442 ); 8 . A lex De AngeJis ( 1:53 .545); 9 . Jaroslav Hules (l :53 .622 ); 10. Stev e J e nkner ( 1:53. 677 ); It. MaSCIO Azuma ( 1:53. 978 ); 12. Sim one Sanna ( 1:53 .9 85) : 13. Gin o Bor soi ( 1:54 . 198) : 14 . Randy De Puniet ( 1:5 4 .294); 15. Manuel Poggiali ( 1:54 .409 ); 16. William De Ang eli s ( 1:54 .54 5 ); 17. Ivan Goi (1 :54 .600 ): 18 . Marco Petrni (1:54 .627 ): 19. Antonio Elias ( 1:54 .644): 20 . i Max Sebb ati n l ( 1:5 4 .7 16 ); 21. Arna ud Vincent BRI EF L Y••• The allowance for wet p ractice - cause of serious delay s that affli cted . among others, this yea r' s Spanish G P at J erez - has been dropp ed from the regulations. Changes announced by the Grand Prix Commissio n on the eve of the Catalunyan GP mean that, if weather conditions change from practice to race, rider s will simply have to put up with it. Previous rules allowed for 20 minutes of practi ce if it rained on race day, if there had not been any earlier wet pract ice, and vice versa jf it had been wet throughout and now became dry. This meant that if a race was sto pped by rain. it could only be restarted afte r the requisite practi ce had been allowed. At Jerez this year . it led to the ludicrou s spectacle of the 125cc class having off icially nominated ' wet " practice on a dry track. in the middle of what should have been a busy racing sch edu le after their race had been sto ppe d. Furth er delays at Jere z, when the 500 cc race sto pped, meant that TV stations all over Europe had already switched to other prog rams long before the actual racing stopped . The new system means that races can st ill be stopped if we ather co nd it io ns change, but w ill restart promptl y . A sk ed wh eth er th e rider s were sa t is fi ed , Ken ny Robert s Jr . - an outspoken crit ic of lax safety regulations - said: "I spok e with race director Paul But ler today and it seems that if condition s are dangerous, like when there's a down pour, the riders will be able to delay the start . In some circ umstances, as in Jerez this year . that extra practice isn't really neces sary, but there are circum stance s w hen there should be ten or 15 minutes practice if it w ill be unsafe otherw ise . I believe the riders will have enou gh say , but I hop e the rain doesn ' t follow us aroun d any more than it has already this year. ' The GP commission is made up of a repre sentative from Dorna. IRTA. the manufact urers association . and the FIM . A high-level row with in racing inte rests in Spain spilled over into the Spanish national daily press at the time of the Catalunyan G P, with respecte d paper ' EI M undo - publishing per sonal criticism of D orn a chief executi ve Carmelo Ezpeleta and head o f TV M anuel Arroyo . A wide-ranging article accused them of running a M afia-style fiefd om in which jou rnalists who dared to be critical were banned fro m the sport , accused Dorna of being tow eringly mediocre, and also criti cized other areas where Dorna' s control goes beyond what is reasonable or ethical. The article pointed out that Ar royo is not only head of TV , but also Alex Cr iville's manager - a co nflict of interes t. ..He decides what logos appear on his leathers, and then decides how ofte n and how long those logo s appear on television ," ran the art icle. This is the first time this information has been published in Spain - but w hen this reporter asked Arro yo abo ut this situation last year, he said there was no co nflict of interest, because he was not e nville's manager, merely • helping him with contracts " for no fee. The fight began with criticism of Dorna's high-handed management style in popular we ekly Spanish magazine Solomoto , afte r which -severe restri ctions we re placed on that magazine's reporte rs. 22 .JUNE 21 , 2000' cue I e Ken n y Robe rts Jr. and Norlck Abe celebrate their 1·2 finish i n the 500cc GP. It was Roberts' t hird w in of the season. As if to con firm accusatio ns of pettiness and overbearing contro l. Doma banned long-time racing supporte rs Michelin from handing out a special co mmemorative broc hure to ce lebrate their 250th 500 cc-c1ass win. The lavishly produced brochure. prod uced as a so uvenir for press and ot her racing fol k. was adjudged to be advertising. by Doma. and thus inadmissible to the media center, where only informa tion may be freely distributed . Given the dedication to G P racing show n by Mi chelin ove r 25 years . this was thoughI by many to be a gesture of stupefying petti ness , showing a spec tacular lack of vis ion. Further embarrassment for Dorna came when one of their BMW course cars spun off the track and got stuck in the gravel trap on Saturd ay, delaying the start of Ihe BMW Cup support race by almos t half an hour , as marshals st ruggled to extricate Ih e Z3 coupe. This is the seco nd occasion of an over-enthusiastic local driver putt ing one of the misnamed " safety cars " into the dirt the previous occasion was also in Spain. after the start of the 500cc GP last year. On that occasion the driver managed to get out himself, spraying mud and gravel all over the track. Italian rider Roberto Rolfo , who walked out of the Tino Villa 250cc team aft er his kitt ed TSR-Honda failed to arrive. now has two jobs - as a substitute for injured German rider Alex Hofmann. and as a new Apri lia test rider for the 500 cc twin . Rolfo. 20. quit the Honda 250cc team afte r being disillusioned with poor equipment and demands for to p-up spo nsors hip money. He'd already lost a ride as second man on the Ap rilia 500 , when it was given instead to J eremy M cW illiams - the Ulster rider' s appointment was underw ritte n by Dorna. in the overall interests of the championship, and especi ally to help pro mote GP rac ing in England , where it has fallen badly behind W orld Superbike in popularity . Marlboro Y amaha t eam mechanics were lining up for a special treat on the day after the Catalunyan GP - rides on the bike s they fettl e for the wo rks riders. In fact. they w ill be riding last year 's machine · an ex-Abe bike that is normally used as the two-seater pub licity bike . w it h ex-race r Randy M am ola giving sundry cele bs a taste of 500-c1ass perform ance . Single-seater bodywork will be fitted for the mechanics. and all data-logg ing functions w ill be active, for later analysis to see just how far they opened the throttl e. L u c a Cadalora will test the M odenas for a seco nd time in the week afte r the Catalunyan GP , and the Italian three-times W orld C hampion hopes to race the latest Mk 3 version of the lightweig hl t hree-cylinder machine before the end of the season. Cadal ora was quicker than regular rider David de Gea at the Mugello tests, and said later: "The base is already quite goo d, and it just needs small things - though quite a few small things - to make it better. Aft er t he test. I made a list of what needed to be done. Now they have done most o f those things, so I am look ing forward 10 testing it again." Cadalora has not ridden a GP bike since he was dropp ed by MuZ halfway throug h last season, but won the BMW Cup race at Catalunya the day before the G P. • David is doing neuvs great w ith what we have. but he is very inexperie nced , and the bike is at a real early stage of development. " said team owner Kenny Roberts. • Luca told us what he wanted done - including making a new seat. and we did it. The bike's still at an early stage - we 're developing it in public at the races, and in a way racing get s in the way of our program. ' he said. The team tested new cylinder heads and an all-new ignition syst em of their own design on the first day of practice. The Mk3 machine is a last chance for Robert s' dream of provid ing an alte rnat ive to leased Japanese machines for private teams. Mirko Giansanti was an early crasher at Cat alunya, fractu ring ' his right wrist. and putting himself out for at least two races - just two weeks aft er taking the lead in the 125cc championship for the first time. Ar e rid er s supers ti tio us? Ju st a bit , in t he case of Noboru Ueda . Accord ing to his leathers suppliers, Dainese. he always makes sure there is space for a small pack of his grandfathers' ashes. Stro ng rumor s surfac ed in Spain that Honda is we ll advanced with their pro totype for the 2002 reintr oduction of four-strokes to the 500cc class . It is thought that Honda will have a three-cylinder oval-piston design up and running early next year. An oval-pisto n cylinder. with eight valves and twi n co n-rod s, has virt ually the performance of a twin cylinder, thus a triple is a virtual six-cylinder, but wit h a smaller frontal area. It will also enjoy a lower minimum we ight limi t : a three -cy linder machine w ith ro und pistons can equal current two -stro kes at 297 pounds. oval piston s carries a 22-po und penalty to have parity w ith a four or five-cylinder motor, while a motor wit h six or more cylinders has a minimum of 3 19 pounds. There are also rumors that Honda is contemplating an oval-piston V-twin. but there are st ill issues to be settled with the rules co ncerning tw o-cyli nde r engines. w hich Su perbike series pro mote r M aurizio Flammini hope s to have banned from GP s. Honda is thought to hold a pro hibitive panoply of patents on the oval-piston design, making it impossible for other manufact urers to follow suit. However , oval pisto ns we re banned from F1 car racing some years ago. much to Honda's chagrin. Sp eak ing of rumor s, teams ' asso ciati on IRTA may have been taking courses in how to start them , jud ging by a joint statement issued in league w ith Dorna. The contrac t betw een IRTA and Dorna expires at the end of 2001 , and there is a strong opinion that D orna would like to dispen se with IRTA and make contracts directly with entrants . Hence the statement, saying: "To quell unfoun ded spec ulat ion, D orna and IRTA w ish to make it clear that they have every inte ntion of continuing their partnership beyond 20 01 . " Cyn ics thought thi s sounde d uncom monly like IRTA 's death knell.

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