Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Briefly... Dakar Gets Started the end of the special test, and there we dis- covered we were first and second." Chris Blqis held down l3th over- oll in fhe Dokor Rollv olter the rhirJ sroge oI the roce ond the first stogo on AfriEon soil. Van den Bosch To Aprilia \ A ,th lhe Dakar Rally arrivint on rhe shores of Africa for stqge three on Monday, Y Y lanuary 2, it was Repsol KTM'S Andy Caldecott winning his first stage of the race, (he Australian taking his first stage of this year's race and his third-ever Dakar stage victory AlthouSh Caldecott took the victory it was defendinS champion Cyril DesPres who recaptured the overall lead after finishinS third. DesPres won the opening staSe of the event in Portugal, a 5l .46-mile special test that kicked off the 28th edition of the Euromilhoes Lisboa-Dakar event on New Year's Eve. ln the second staSe of the race on New Year's Day, Ponugal's Ruben Faria was a hometown hero wirh his victory in the stage, held between Portimao and I'lalaga in Portugal. lt was Faria's first-ever state wifi in the ralt and PortuSal's eithth-ever win in the history of the rally - the third for a Portuguese motorcyclist. But then the mce headed to Af.ica and, alter a seven-hour crossinS of the Mediterranean. the stage took comPetitors on a 417-mile run between Nador and Er R.achidia in l'lorocco, including a 195-mile sPecial. Faria was the first to hk the sPecial sta8e, but, as expected, he failed to do as well as he had in his homeland of Portugal and he ended up 34th on the day. Starting 25th, Caldecoft went on to clock lhe fastest times at the two CPs and reached the finish line ifl a time of three hours, 2l minutes and I I seconds Caldecott spent mosr of his day battlint wirh Yamahrs David FretiSne, American Andy Grider, Carlo De Gavardo and Despres. At the finish, Caldecott had opened a 8aP of three minutes over Grider, the Red Bull KTM rider coming ofl a third-Place finish in lhe Tunisia Rally. Despres made the best of his late starting position to finish third, the exPerienced Frenchman movint back into the overall lead in the rally. DesPres'main rival, Repsol fil'4's l'1arc Coma, finished sixth in stage three and w:s one minute and I 6 seconds behind Despres- Dakar rookie Grider is the top-ranked American in the overall standin8s, sittinS eighth. Chris Blais, ninth in the firsr African stage, is l3th overall. ''Everything was new for me," Grider said in a KTM team release .our manager, Joe Barker. has trained us in many tests in the American deserB, but this land is completelT different. Every time you learn something, and you can feel more and more confident- I enioyed the state, and allwas uoder control. I started fast this mornlnS, but raPidt the landscape changed. I suddent fel! completely alone in the middle of the desert, but I also felt comfonable. and I opened the gas. ln a few minutes, I noticed far over there a cloud of dust. I forced it and then I reached Andy [caldecott] we rode together until The linal round of the AMA Superbike Cham- pionship at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Coul=e will not use anything other than the standard points syitem after the road mce advisor,, board made its feelings felt during the recent Dunlop tire test at Daytona. Vvhen the llnal round was announced, the Al4A irsued a poorly wlitten release that read. in part, that the race "wlll fedure a unique for- mat and points arrangement. wlrile details have yet to be linalized. plans call for entries to be limhed and a special poinE structure to be utilized. ln addition to determinintthe AMA Superbike Champion, the Mid-Ohio finale will crown champions in each of the series' slpport classes, including AMA Super- sport, Sup€rstoak and Formula Xtreme." AMA road race rnanager Ron Barrick later confirrned that the statement was fals€. that there was no guarantee that the linale "will" crown champions. The issue was one of many discursed when the road race advisory board met with Barrick aM other Al'lA oflicials at Daytona. Barrick said there we.e Yerious pro- posals on how to ma&e the event unique, but none oI them involved altering th€ points pay- out. "Workin8 with anything other than our current points system didn't seem to have much support," said Barrick, who added dlat h€ would discuss the proposals from the board with AHA Pro RacinS CEO Scott Hollingsworth and dirEctor of competition Merrill Vanderslice. Another issue discussed was what a typiaal event weekend would look like. Some of the advisory board tnem- bers said there was some supPort for h:vint one 600cc and one l000cc race on each day, ro alleviare the confusion of two I 000cc or tvvo 600cc races on each day. One plan would have Superstock and Formula Xtreme on Sat- urday, along with Superbike if it was a double- heade( and Superbike and Supersport on Sunday. "l have a lot more work to do with Speed Channel and all that before we can really say," Barrick said. Adiustable twingann piyots are out for the Suzuki GSX-R I 000s, it was announced at the road race advisory board meeting held during the Dunlop tire test at Daytom an December. A breakdown in the appro\ral process had allowed tll€ pivots to be used by a number of teams in 2005, includinS Yoshimuia Suzuki. Team lt'14 EMGO Suzuki, and Jordan Motor- sports, accordiog to AMA road race manager Ron Barrick. The issue was raised at the penultimate round of the championship at VirSinia lmeanational Raceway, when Graves Motorspor6 Yamaha's Chuck Graves lirst dit- covered the piece- Yoshimura Suzuki had been usin8 it since the second round ofthe series and made no atternpt to hide it: The alternative part was a different color than the stock piece. The protest was disallowed, and Graves chose not rellle the protest at the final round, at Road Atlanta. "[Al'4A technica] inspectorl Kevin [Crowther] brought the bike in and pulled the parts off of it to s€e what it was we were dealing with," Barrick said of the VIR incident. ')And of course we discussed the situation back and forth. And ultimately that day we decided that the approv"al of that was not correct." Former Al4A technical manager Rob KinS had +proved the piece in question, but KinS hadnt put the pivot through the proper appra,val process. "l would say it wa' a breekdown in the system, basically, the way that process of appro/al is supposed to Eke place," said Barrick, who added that the piece wouldn\ be allowed in 2006. "lt's really not in the spirit of Super- stock- or Supersport-type rules," he said. "You cant allow just any manufrcBrrer to cre- ate an optional part and put it out on micrc- frche as an available part. Then you can make carnshafts and crankihafts and pistons and vafueG aM whatever you vrant." Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates said the team had reverted to the stock swingarm part at a Novemb€r Fontana test, and that he could tell the difference. "lt was definitely a plus when we went that direction last yean' he said. "We'd really like to have that in it now But we just kind of adiusted the chassis around and kind of got back where we were. lt's working pretty decent." The worst-kept secret at the Dunlop tire tes! in Daytona prior to the holidays was that Buell was serious about aontesting the Daytona 20o. Buell had tested twice prior to the tire test - once in October, after th€ F-US&CCS finale, and again a week Prior to the Dunlop test. guell's Shawn Higbee rode, as did Mike Ciccotto, a longtime Buellcam- paigner. They were ioined by Ulsterman and veteran road racer teremy McWilliams, thouth he wouldn't admat it. Arl were swom to secrecy, and when Mcwilliams was con- tacted by England's Motorcyale Ne$1s, h€ instructed the reporter to call Buell. Darin Motoda, an industry representative for companies such as White Brothers, AIloy. Ogio, RS Taichi and Bell Helmets. died on Thursday, December 29, after sufferint a brain iniury in a cra5h at Lake Elsinore l"lotocross Park in lake Elsinore, California, on Friday, Dec€mber 23. "Darin, we will ajl miss you so much and never forSet the laughs and good times we shared," wrote Mark Rodgers of White Brothers. "You lit uP a room and always made everyone you came in contact with feel liked. lf we are only half as appreciated as you were, we will all be a success. we love you, buddy." British road racer Shan€ Byrne came away from his first test on the Rizla Suzuki GSX- R1000 impressed, according to a release from his new British Superbike Series team. The former Britirh Superbike Charnpion spent two days iust prior to Christmas at the Almeria circuit in southern Spain. learning about his new Suzuki and the team. ''The test has been blinding - absoluteb/ me8a," Byrne said. "l am really happy with the progress we made and only wish I was stay- ing on for more riding." Fain drenched the track on the opening day, but that didn't stop the Londoner from reacquaintinS himself with a Superbike after spending the last two years racing in MotoGP Although he crashed the 2005 Rizla suzuki twice in the treacher- ous conditions, he walked away unhun each time. The second day was dry, and he start' ed o'rt on the 2005 bike before chanting over to the 2006 model at lunch and com. pletinS nearly 60 laps. "Today was really my fi6t time on the Rizla Suzuki in eamest, as it Contir.ued o" poge 9 CYCLE NEWS . JANUARY I1,2006 7 P Two-time World Supermoto ChamPion Thierry van den Bosch has siSned a contract that wrll see him aboard Aprrha's sXV twln- cylinder Supermoto bike in the 2006 world Championship. The man known as "Mr. Supermoto" should help further establish Aprilia in the series. with the ltalian manufacturer set to begin its third year of World Supermoto com- petition. "l am extremely motivared to race for Aprilia." the 3l-year-old van den Bosch said. "The S)

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