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/1542393
Metzger Flips At Gaesar's
Ereestyler
l'4ike l4etzSer set
I a world record on May 4
when he successfully landed a
backflip over the fountain at
Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas,
Nevada, to hype the release of
the movie /vlission: ,mpossibre
l, and the
,lfth
anniversary of
Caesar's Palace this August.
The
iump
was televised
live
by
ESPN, with
some
15,500
spectators in attendance,
MetzSer
ioins
Evel Knievel,
Gary
Wells
and Robbie Knievel
as riders who have
iumped
or
attempted to
jump
the foun-
tain in the pasr 40 years.
MetzSer was the flrst of the
four to attempt a backflip and,
in doing so, he set the
Guinness World R€cord of
125 feet.
"l
am so excited to be here
in Las Vegas, in front of this
huge crowd and doing what I
love," said MetzSer following
his
iump.
'Landing
this
jump
is
anorher chapter
in
my careei
a5
l'm
anxious
to move on to
the next
project."
P
o
MAY 17,2006 I I
Mike Metrger bockflipr
his
wcy
over
the
Coe.ort Polo.. founrain
in los Vegos.
allow us
to take
part
with the bikes we sell in the marketplace;
that,
so I understand, is the
purpose
of the modified-produc-
tioh Superbike class."
With
conlirmation of
Benelli's retum to th€ racetrack, it
transpires
that the developrneot of the 8o(kc racer that'll
cary
its colors
in MotoGP from 2008 onward
(which
is under-
stood
will
b€ power€d by a four-cy'inder l5-\,,ah€ in-line four-
q/linder motor) has
quite
remarkab, been confided to
Frenchman Michel Ma.queton, the man who
prs/iously
took
their maior fellow Chinese rivals Zongshen to
world
Championship ruc.ess,
From its debut in the
1999
Bol d'Or,
Marqueton succeed-
ed in laking Team Zongshen
right
to
the top of
the
endurance-mcing tree,
winning the World Endurance tide in
2002
with self-prepared Suzuki GSX-R|000
machinery
with
which
it transferred to the World Superbike series ln 2004 -
wirh
the two-man team of PierSiorgio Bontempi and
Warwick Nowland.
8ut once it b€came common knowledge that the Chinese
manufacturer, which
produces
more than
I million
powered
two-wheelers each
year
and had already dweloped a
proto-
type eight-\rafue
V-twin
sportbike
in 2000, was working on it5
own l000cc
four-c,,linder Superbike, tfie shuner came down
and Marqueton
found it difilcuh even to
get parts for
his
GSx-
R1000 machinery
let alone technical suppon
from
Suzuki,
or
help with setup.
The
announcemert
of the lirst
China
GP
at ShanShai one
year
ago
proved
a watershed,
though, and a
proposed
second
season
in World Superbike for 2005 was abofted in favor of
riarderring
to the Grand Prix
paddock
with the Marqueton-
run
zon8shen T6am of Chlna employing R5\f250 Aprilias, rid-
den by a
pair
of
young
Chinese ride6
lvhenever wild-card
slots were available.
Howevei
these
proved hard to get from
local federations eager to promote their own yount riders on
to the world stqge, rather than Zongshen's inexperienced duo
of l5-year-old U Zheng Peng and l7-year-old Zhu
wan&
who
had difii.ulty even
qualifying
to start the few races
for
which
dley were aacepted.
ln the meantime, though, lYarqueton had beSun
working
on a zongshen 800cc HotoGP
racer
to be
powered
by a
V-
four
engine developed by
French-based race enSine specialists
Mecachrome, which
previously
built the Renault
V-
l0 engines
that took Damon Hill
(williams)
and Michael Schumacher
(Benetton)
to the Formula One World titles
in
tfie
1990r,
and
currently assembles the Renauh
Fl motors
that
powered
reiSnint World Champion Femando Alonso to the 2005
Formula One
World
title.
ln 20O2, Mecachrome
purchased
Le Mans-based compo-
nent manufacturer
JPX,
which, alongside
producing
high-tech
parts
for
today's
Ferrari, McLaren and Renault Fl engines,
also in the
past
manufactured the complete Fior 500 four-
cylinder two-stroke GP motorcycle enSine, as well as those
for the 250 Pernod
and 125 Hotobecane
GP
racers
-
and,
more recentry, produced the complete engines for British
entrepreneur George Eeale's replica six-cylinder Honda
RCl65 project. l.'lecachrome was understood to have been
interested for some time in developint a MotoGP engine, and
apparently it found a client in Zongshen, for whom it had
already
previously
worked in the automotive seclor on a one-
liter car engine.
ln
addition,
it is
currently developing
an
advanced 500cc four-st.oke bike en8ine
for
the Chinese
man-
ufacturer to
use in a \rariety of models ranging from a com-
muter bike to an off-r@d endu.o
bike.
Now' ho\,v€v€r, it appears that Marqueton - who lras a
Chinele wife and is fluent ln the lanSuage, and who is also
familiar with Chinese business
practices -
has transferred his
allegiance to Zongsher's rivals Benelli
QJ
to develop
what's
believed to be a YZR.M I Yamaha-like four-