Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

(Above) Ben Bostrom also rode th e 200 1-model Ducati, using Dunlop tires on his soon-to-be-tobacco-backed mount. (Above right) Paolo Casoli had his first outing on the Ya maha R6 at the te st, and he was the qu ickest of the World Supersport men. (Below) Gregorio Lavilla rode a mostly unchanged Kawasaki during the test. BRIEFLY••• Juan Bo rj a . a spectato r at Valencia. is rumored to have signed a deal to ride for the former Pacific team. now called Racing Time. The Circuit of Valencia will still support the former Ducati factory pilot. albeit not in a financial sense. M a rty C ra ggill was in attendance at Va lencia. tes ting a former Pacific D ucati with a view to riding for the team next seaso n. The multi-time Australian Ch ampion has had two hard years behind him in the British Superbike Championship. but is determined to kick-start his career in World Superbike. "This bike feels really fast to me. and the team were very pleased with the time I set. I have to speak to them again soon. so we' Hse how it turns out." A smash hit at the Valencia tests was current 250cc European champion Ricca rd o Ch ia re llo. with the 18 year-old Italian very fast on his first-ever four-stro ke outing of any kind. Expect to see more of him very shortly. especially if The Italian Federation can find some budget to help kickstart his career in a bigger pool than the one in which he has finished sixth. second and now wo n over the last three years. Hitoyasu Izutsu 's All-Japan Championship win has had one immediate effect. his part-time inclusion in Harald Eckl' s factory squad for seven Wo rld Superbike races in 200 1. In the frame for a crack at a full time Superbike ride at one time. lzutsu's consolation prize will mean hard wor k for the otherwise compact Eckl operation in 2001. The Aprilia an d Kawasaki team-up. which resulted in the test s at Valencia coming together, will be repeated at Jerez on D ecember 13· 15 , with many tea ms expect ing to return to V alencia before the first official tests there in ea rly February. Kawasaki will also have tested again just after time of press, heading from Valenci a to Je rez for a two-day test on N ovember 20 ·21. L a vill a from p u tting in thr ee 1:3 7 laps in su cc e ssi on . n ot b e c ause o f a n y lack o f ab ility on h is b eh a lf , but bec ause A p rilia put so T h e main thrust o f th e gre en t eam much importance o n h is d e v el opm ent was t o t e st a n e w WP fro nt- fo rk setup, e f fo rt. Gu id o tti c o n fi rm e d t ha t April - with th e exper imen t judg e d a part ia l la 's idea l choice would b e a you n g er su ccess b y L a v illa . rid er t o match up w it h C orser' s expe - " W e are n ow at the p o int w here th e rien c e. Dean Thomas and his new teammate Vitto Guareschi took their first steps in the D&E Wo rld Supersport team. with the British-based squad trying out the ex-Paolo Casoli and Ruben Xaus's 2000 -spec machines in earnest for the first time. Thomas. impressed by the extra top-end power of the factory machine. was positively verbose about his first Wo rld Supers port season. but Guareschi. still technically under contract With Yamaha. refused to make any on-the-record comments at all. His lap times appeared to be loud enough. "The bikes have come straight from Ducati. so mine has been set up for Xaus, who has a very different riding style to me ," said Thomas. " 1like to fire it into comers faste r. but Ruben's got his all set up to be good when hard on the brakes. The whole bike feels completely different to the ones we were running in the UK last year. and the engine is the biggest difference. It' s really stro ng. especially at the top end. Our British Supersport bikes made power between 6000 and l ' .000rpm. but the new ones make power from 7-12,000rpm. W e've known we were going to have the rides in World Supersport for about three weeks now. and when I got the chance to go into a World Championship team. I just had to take it. even though I had been offe red rides in British Superbike." n ew fork is w ork in g just a s w ell as th e " It w ould b e very g o o d for Aprilia old one, whi ch is good a ft er sta rt in g t o have a you n g rider in W orld Super- f rom scratch on ly yesterday, " he said . bike, but we have st ill n ot made an y " It takes some time t o get th e fee l dec i s ion as to who it will b e . The rig ht with any n ew part. I am happy t im e s from all th e rid ers have b e en w ith the t im es , es pec ia ll y as we d id g ood , but Chia r ell o wa s particu larl y not run qualifiers like Ducati did. " impressi ve . H e is on l y 18 and has minute." said Whitham early in the tests but. after going in an untried direction with the suspen- n e v er ridd en a four-stroke before! " with the settings. and that' s been a big help. Yesterday. I was ready for chucking it all in but now we 're getting somewhere." An early flight time back to the UK meant Whitham had to shorten God da rd, still w ithout a ride for the 2001 seaso n , has however been i n Bussei, look ing to move fr o m pri - d is cussi on with several World Super- vateer t o w orks status had h i s first b ike teams , nota bly a c o u ple of good eve r ta ste of big V-twin powe r , and D ucati privateer t e ams , thought to be fo u n d it somewhat misleading . " It is a big c h a n g e t o g o fr om a th e NCR and Gerin Red Bull . Apri lia's multi-man test w as m iss - f our-cyl inder t o a tw o c y li n d e r, but ing t he most i m por t a n t face of the not too ha r d, " he sa id . " It actuall y day, w hen Ralf Waldmann f ail ed to feels sl owe r than a fou r , b ecaus e of turn up, forsa king th e Itali an bike fo r the d elive r y a n d t he lower re vs , but the delight s o f DTM c a r r a c e t e st at w hen y ou hit the b r ak e s y ou r e a li ze Hock enheim . It is n o t expected t h a t just how f ast you we r e g o ing ! It is In a season of drastic changes for many W orld Supersport teams. J ames Whitham 's initial test on D unlops (after many complaints about a lack of fee l from the previous Miche line) did not deliver any great advances . "We've got worse chatter than we had with the Mlcheltn s at the sion. things began to improve for the exasperated Yorkshireman. ..Basically we 've gone softer his second day, aJlowing his new team manager, and former teammate , M assimo Meregalli to become player-manager for the last few hours of the test. His return to the saddle was not a happy trip, crashing toward the end of the day. without injury. Whitham's new teammate, Meregalli' s old pal Paolo Casoli was an instant hit on the four-cylinder R6 Yamaha. although he found the Dunlops a more difficult concept to g;asp - despite setting good times. "1am very happy with the bike and obviously the times are good considering I am not so familiar with the Dunlops. I know the Michelins very well. but not the Dunlops. Obviously they are good tires because they won the championship on this bike this year. Overall, I am qurte confident because I think we are only about 70% there right at this moment. " In the Kawasaki camp, lain M acpherson and A ndrew Pitt were testing different fork internals on their ZX-6R s, but otherwise they we re cove ring old ground, "I am making an eve n more serious effort on race fitness and preparation for 2001 ." said Macpherson, who had a winless 2000 after a great debut season in '99. Waldmann will n ow play an y p art in v ery im pressive, v ery easy t o turn . I Aprilia' s Th e h ope t o r id e fo r th e tea m n e x t ye ar. m a chin e s G i ov ann i B ussei , D ani el The y a re very profess iona l an d work although the talented Aussie had only a 2000 machine to play with . Stephane Chambon. in a similar position on his Superbike. is not expected to take delivery of a fully sorted 2001 machine Oli ver and Ri c card o Ch iarell o t e st ed reall y well t o g eth er. " until we ll into next year. Sup erb ike plan s . were , a ccord ing t o t eam chi e f F ab - Dan i el O li ve r , albe i t t h e slowe s t r izio Guid o tti , just as th e y left t h e fi nal A prilia rid e r t e st ed , fo u nd a fu ll race ro u nd at B r a nds H atc h , with no new s pec RS V a wh o l e d iffe ren t b e a s t parts on display . from th e Supersto c k m a ch ine h e h as Alessan dro Ant on ell o , p r e s ent a t Val en c ia , i s n ot expec te d t o h a v e a World Sup erb ik e ri d e n e xt sea so n , According to Paolo Casoli . the real reason for him refusing the Ducati factory ride he was offered for 200 1 was the fact it was only a one-year deal. "I wanted to have a two-year contract with Ducati, but they wouldn't do it. Then I was given the chance to ride for Belgarda and I was happy to accept their deal... Big changes in the post.Haga Belgarda firmament have seen many of the mechanics and the campai gned for th e las t t w o y e ar s . "The c h a ssis is fa r m ore ri gid tha n th e S u perstock bike," h e said . Karl Mug g e ri d ge·s first taste of S uzuki power came in a test at Almeria in southern Spain, previous team manager G iulio Bardi out of the 200 1 team . S ome of Haqa' s mechanics have bee n pulled into the team as replacemen ts for the ousted men. eN cue I e nevvs: NOVEMBER 29 . 2000 15

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