Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Erit{'Bq Rolfo And Othens To World Superbike lralian road racer Roby I Rolfo will ioin fellow for- mer MotoGP riders Ruben Xaus and Troy Bayliss, and possibly Alex Barros, in the World Superbike Championship for 2006. Last week, the 25-year- old Rolfo sitned an aSree- ment to ride a Ducati 999 F05 for Scuderia SC Caracchi. Rolfo's llrst test on the Ducati will be .lanuary 6-8 at Valencia "Roberto is one o[ the most interestint yount riders [in the] world motorcyale mcinS arena, .ouplin8 his youth with a large experience," (eam owner Slefano Caracchi said in a release. "lYoreover, he has the experience of a tull season with the MotoGR and so he has the knowledge of four-stroke engines, I believe that Roby, who has been a first-class star in the 250 GP arena, winnin8 three world events, could successfully follow Marco Melandri's winning model after a short apprenticeship. " ln 2005, Rollo rode a Desmosedici for $e d'Antin Ducati Pramac team on Dunlop tires, finishing lSth overall in the MotoGP World Championship. Xaus will ride a Ducati 999 F04 for the newly formed SterilSarda Berik team, with Ilarco Borciani as his teammat€. Bayliss will team with young ltalian Lorenzo Lanzi on Ducati Corse's official te:rm. now sponsored by Xerox. Yet another MotoGP vet- eran may be making the move to Superbikes. BraziliM Alex Baros, who lost his ride with the Sito Pons' Camel Honda team, has said he expeds to land in Wodd Superbike. "l don't wam to compete if I can't be a aon- tender," Barros, who had a l6-year career an 500cdMotoce told lonce, a Brazilian sporB daily. "|'ry goal now is to be a World Champion in Superbike." o o o 5 Mladin Close To Being Back Despite missang the Daytona tire test, Mat Mladin will head into the season with more qual- ity test time than most of his competitors. Mladin, who missed the December tire test because of linSering recovery issues from an October ankle suryery will test on two quality racetracks in his native Australia prior to the February 7-8 test at California Speedway in Fontana, Calilornia - the final all-teams test before Daytona. The plan, accordinS to Yoshimura Suzuki team mahager Don Sakakura. is for Mladin to spend January 7 through 9 at Eastern Creek, a former GP track on the outskirts of Sydney, and then four days at Phillip lsland, site of the Australian Grand Prix. "lt's iust a matter of whethe. Suzuki. Yosh, and the factory can pull it to8ether," Mladin said in a telephone interview from his home in Australia, "l'm sure they can manage a lot of other stuff to be competitive in Arnerica, so I don't think that would be a problem." Sakakura said Yosh would send one of Hladin's GSX-R1000s, alont wjth a full comple- ment of spare pans. Crew chief Peter Doyle and head mechanic Reg O'Rourke, both ofwhom live in Australia, will tend ro the bike. The Phillip lsiand test will be especially news- worthy, since i4ladin will test alontside a larte number of the World Superbike tea-rns. With Mladin on Dunlops, and the World Superbike rid- ers on Pirellis, no doubt there will be heated competition for bragSing rithts. lt could come down to qualifiers: Pirelli supplies qualifyinS tires for World Superbike weekends; Dunlop doesn'r. Henrry Raf Abrorns IO JANUARY II,2006 . CYCLE NEWS Roberts' Honda To Break Cover The Honda-powered, Kenny Roberts- framed MotoGP weapon will break cover at the lirst ln1otocP test of the new year, accordinS to general manager Chuck Aksland. ln an interview at the race tearn's head- quarters in Banbury England, Aksland said they would have one bike ready when 2006 MotoGP winter testinS beSins in SepanS, Malaysia, on January 23. "Hopefully, our tar8et would be to have the second one by Phillip lsland less than a week later]," Akland raid, "but it's pretty doubtful, because they're pretty close togethei So probably by the time we get back to l,laiaysia [soon after Phillip lsland], we'll have two." Kenny Roberts.Jr will be the ridei accordinS to his father. though no contract is signed, "There's no panic on Kenny's part or mine to sign anythinS," Kenny Roberts Sr. said in a phone call from his home in Hickmen, Califomia. "W€ iust haven't even 8ot to that point yet where we've 8ot to have something. We don't have sponsor activi+ Kennl will be riding it at all the tests. He's quite excited about that." Roberts said that the team will probably buy Michelin tires. but nothint has been signed. "The tire deal looks tood. but we still don't have a piece of paper that's signed," he said. Team KR is working flat out on the design ofthe new bike, building it around a nonrunning enSine that the team's had sinae October, "The engine shows up tomorrow flanuary 3], so it starts to go together tomor- row" Robens said, "l'll probably be over there l'm guessing the fifth, and I'll stay there until Laguna. Last year I didn't have to do much, because we leased the team out. This year we've got a chance to be on the podium. lt makes it a different deal. I expect to be at all the tests and most of the races," Roberts said there was ongoing activity on the sponsorship front, but that noth- ing had been signed. "Unfonunately, at this time of year, everything's closed," Roberts said. "l iust talked to Chuck [Akland] a little while ago. I don't really think there's toing to be much happening in the next two weeks. Then we hit the racetrack- We've got some people sitting on the sidelines. There are some people sittint on the fence, ins and outs, as there always is." Camel isn't among th€m. Aksland said that Max Bia8ti, and the Cam€l sponsor- ship he'd bring. were only brieq/ consid€red. The biStest impediment was that Honda atreed to supply entines for only one rider in 2006. "Yeah, it did come up," Aksland said of Bia88i and Camel. "Obvioust, like the other teams when that situation arose, you try to see what you can do to bring a sponsor into your program. And I did brint it up. and it was that in our ori8inal deal we were only supplied for one rider." The team never considered running Bia8gi in place of Robens.lr, even with the Camel money. "l iust can't really see [Biaggi] and Kenny [Senior] kind of jellin8," Akland said with a smile. "Pe.sonally, I don't know Max [BiaSti] ver], well. When I have talked to him. it's b€en cordial and llne. So I can't really say aD,thinS bad about him. He's never done an/thiry bad to me. You hear things, but it's not my place to say. But iust talking to other people that he's worked with, you could see that he could make for a difllcult situation. The last thing we would need right now is a difficult situation," It will be diflicult enough tetting ready for the first test. "We're not sayinS that w€'re gojng to come out riSht away and cha.llenSe forthe top positions. because we've gone throuth a couple of years of not really havin8 a good engine in the package," Akland said. ln 2004, the team ran its own V-five. ln 2005, they ran KTM engnes until the Austrian compafly withdrew its support on August 12, prior to the Czech GP "5o, really, we don't know where we are with the chassis- We're goinS to test the chassis. We've been buildint our own bikes for eight years now, so if we're not there straight out ofthe box with a chassis thatwork, l(hink we could react quick- ly to get one before we go racing." As to what the Honda-powered machine will be called, Aksland doesn't know. "We iust stafted discussing that, really," he said. "Obviously, Moriwaki called theirs the MD [or Moriwaki Dream] 2l l. Ours could be the KR2l L lt could be the KR. lt could be the KR V-5, like it was at first, arryway. We could just call it a KR. We can call it what we want to call it. Kenny [Roberts] was here last week, and liust brouSht it up to him. Pretty soon we're goinS to have to put it on an entry [orm], what we're going to call it. The focus has been on Setting the bike done; it hasnt been a prioriq,, what the name of it is toint to be. We jl]st want it to work." Henn'l Rd/ Abrams 8 a o o o \ Kenny Roberts 7 q t "ll Robby Rolfo ETtr. SIGNED: KTI4's Kurt Caselli. to a contract with Motonation that will see him wearinS Sidi boots in 2006. SIGNED: Andrew Short, to a contraEt with the DVS Shoe Company for the 2006 racing season. Short joins h.an Ted$co, Kevin Wndham, nler Eyans, Mike M€rter, Drrke McElroy, DouS Parsons, Carey Hart and Ronnie Fakst on the DVS team. CORRECTION: ln isrue #48, we errorcousty r€poned fld Mac(is tirB ga/e $ I 000 ch€cks to every Pro who ran worcsraaing.com on their frofit number phte. Tho6e firnds were in fact po$ed and dinrihrted by tlE WORCS organization. BORN: A baby boy, Hayes Michael Edwards, on December 20, to former World Superbike Champion and current Yamaha MotoGP rider Colin Edwards and his wife, Alyssia, in wood- lands. Texas. SIGNEDT A two-year deal b€tween Whekend Vvhrrior Trailers and Clear Channel dnt will see the t ailer company be the oflicial toy hauler oI Cbar Channel's Superaross, Ar€mcross and Monst€r Jam Serl€s. l F

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