Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1542352
The rtq of lhe Glotor MotoGP sow pole sitter Corey Stoner (27) iump to the front,followod by Loris Copirorsi (65), Nicky Hoydan (691. Yolenlino Rorsi (116) ond the rest of the field. Kenny Roberts ,r. showed up in Qatar with new leathers, a new paint iob, and a new sponsor - Phantom EnerSy Drink. 'we're try- ing to talk to sponsors aod still te/in8 to tet a litde bit better Sraphic-presentatioo lookint on the racetrack," Kenry Roberts Sr. said. 'iAnd Kenny's leathers are a litde bit differenr. We're iust tryint to kind of make it mo.e attractive other than putting those funny dollat signs on it." Phantom is an Austrian company run by one ofthe former principals of Power Horse, a name from the pan in World Sup€r- bike, accordint to Roberts. "That's the first step. They s6ll it here. They sell it in lndia: They're fairly popular in lndia. They don't s€ll it in Europe. \ /e were really lucky enough to trab them beGuse obviously Kenny liked it," Phantom's webshe says jt's available in Ohio, West Mrtinia, and Mi(hipn. Roberts said Phantom \ ?s on for the sqson, but, beinE a new companyi wain't rsrdy to be the pri- mary sponsor, "and, yes, we are itill lookin8, aa always, ' That said, his fathor was alread/ lookant to the ra.es ahead. "We'll have a complete new thing coming for Le Mans. I don't like to say France because it's on strike," he said. "lt's tidying some things up, the swinSarm pivot, to adiustment for differert rwiryarms. The swiflgarm's 8oin8 to b€ a little bit different, po6sibly by then. That has to do with strengths. Steering stem and steerinS head all revamped to make it liShter and stronger. We're workint on tidying up allthe little ends - you know ,/ve sort of kind of &essed in the beSinning, this should be like this. We ran it. This could be a little better - this could be a little better. Okay, that's for the new tenera- tion, b€caus€ ritlt now we had tro'rble get- ting what w€ 8ot here done. So now th€ next teneration is goint to be that. Also we havenl put enough detail in makinS the changeable stuff, like shocks and rtuff like that, quick enough. lf we have to change shock in prac- trce, we cant do i! quick enough [it takes l5 minutesl. we also have a liftle bit more linkate setup that we warf to try From liflkeses and rate to evEn mountint the shock on the fr3me, We're Eoing to try to incorporate all that into the new Seneration. We developed, made for Jerez very quickry, a gas tank, out of aluminum instead ol carbon. We've b€en flat ouL We made a new iadiator for this event. I don t think the old one would have made this event. The one that I ordered abour November, a good radiator compan), in BriEin, finally give up ofl us, th€y couldn't make it." t t I Wh€n vvas the last time lbam Roberts had a day hke that? The team owner couldnt resist Conrinued on poge 19 Briefly... d-r - a } e \ I F !t es I r I \ t ! iF. lr I I trf r I I L I { : J - I /t' i -\ Rossi (rt6) methodicolly worked his woy through lo th6 frcnt taking over from Stoner bul hoving his hondr full with Hoy&n (69) for the durotion. a I r CYCLE NEWS APR|L r9, 2006 17 I ) 7 L 't I ., I I 1 - - -! \ f, I I I / l,_ a k ,/ t v (t t- Rober6lr s'lrprised evel/one by settin8 the fastest time on Thursday, the lirst day of MotoGP practice. His lap time was a scant 0,006 of a second faster than Casey Stoner's and lhe top I O ride6 we.e covered by 0.664 of a seaond, blt as a srmbolic act of arri\ral at the front, he could do farworse. "We're not where we need to be by the s[gh(est of imag- nations," Junior said. "lf we could have raced right now in that hour s€ssion, probably would've been in the top three. we had a chance to be pretty close- Th€ b€tter your bike is, the more yoll refine it, the better it's going to be over ra.e disrance." -r-- =:- :=t 4 e .? -*-1 l- - t g - 6 { Rr N \ TI -it - F -