Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I iIr The depleted Sridr of the MotoGP class will receive a wel- comed boost in 2008 with the arrival of a two-rider team from Benelli, one of ltaly'' mort glorious and historic trophy marques. Benelli has been abrent from the Grand Prix paddock since 1973, when Walter Villa, who would later win four World titles in the 250€c/350cc clasres with Harley- Davidson, raced a solitary four-cylinder entry in the 350c and 500cc classes fo. the ltalian company, which had recently then been purchased by Argentinean entrepreneur and for- mer car racer Alejandro de Tomaso. Diisatisfied with the aesults, de Tomaso pulled the ltalian factor,, out of.acing; the factor,, had last tasted World Championship success in 1969, when Australian Kel Carruthers won the 250cc world title for Benelli with another musical-sounding four-cylinder racer. Since then, the Pesaro-based factory's onry involve- ment with competition was in 2002-03, when another Aussie, Peter Goddard, rode the prototype three-cylinder BenelliTomado in the World Superbike Championship, with- out any siSnificant success. But in a move likely to have long-team s€nificance for the tlobal motorcycle industry, Qianiiang - China's largert motor- q/cle/scooter manufactuaer, ahead of their better-known rirals Zongshen - purchased Benelli last October. Thereafter, Benelli production restarted in .lanuary after beinS suspended since June 2005. while Qianiiang president Lin Hua Zhong, 50, puE licly committed the new Benelli Ql company to producing 3000 bikes in 2006, increasing to 5000 in 2007 and 10,000 in 2008, durinS which time it5 investment in the company will be targeted at establishing a full range of products bearing the his- toric ltalian badge by 2010. Five new models will enter production du.ing 2006 alone, and Benelli has already reseryed a massive S4o-square-yard display area for lnlermot 2006 in Cologne next September - at which they pian to present no less than 20 new models for 2007. No, that's not a misprim. Winner of the 2003 China Exporter of the Yeer competi- tion, and an oflicial sponsor of the 2008 PekinS Otympics, Qianiiang (pronounced "Chin-jung") only beSan makint motorcycles ifi 1985, and it is now the matket Ieader in China, producing more than 1.2 million powered two- wheeled vehicles and 2 million entines every year. About 80 percent of those are motorcycles up to 250cc in capaciq/, and the rest are scoote6. Qianjiang exports 20 percent of its p.o- duction under the Kq ,'/ay name, mainly to the USA South America and Europe. "Wi$in rhe next two yeaB, Benelli will enter lvlotocP - either in 2007 or more likely in 2008," he reveals. "We already have an 800cc MotocP enEine under development for the n€w formula coming into existence next year, and are closely examininS the best way to take part in this prestitious category either with our own factory race team or with an outside partner. Probably, we will work wirh an existing team to begin with, while we gain under- standing of rhe challenge which MotoGP represents, and measure ourselves against our rivals. We believe compet- in8 in MotoGP is a tood way of obtainint recognition of Benelli as an important manufacturer, and showing the excellence of our technolog/, as Benelli trows in size and expands its range of products. ' And it doesnt end there: Benelli is also planning to com- "Within the next two years, Benelli will enter MotoGP - either in 2007 or more likely in 2008." - Lin Hua Zhong Of its 9000 employees, more than 2000 are engineers, and under the business plan unveiled by Lin Hua Zhong, rhe Chinese have big plans for Benelli, which extend some way beyond merely savinS one of ltat's historic trophy marques from extinction. As part of this process, Lin has confirmed rhat his new Italian subsidiary will return to mcing at the highest level in the near future. pete once aSain in World Superbike, once the impendint restructuring of the capacity limits and te.hnical regulations sought by Ducati and other twin-cylinder manufacturers has been completed, with the €xpecled raisint also of the (apaci- q, limit from the present across-the-board l000cc for three- cylinder bikes such as Eenelli's new I 130 Tornado triple. "We will do one thing after another,' assefts Lin. "Firs! Moroce then World Superbike, if they modify the rules to I l\ous Chandler's return to AMA lJsu;erbike racinS at california Speedway last weekend didn't 8o as planned. From the starg the teaIn nru8tled, and wtren all was said and done. he'd fin. isk I sth in the firn of the two rrces. Then some problems on race day on Sunday forced him to sit out the second lace. But the three-time AMA Superbike Champion isn't deterred. He'll be back for the lnlineon Raceway round, May 20-21, with som€ lessons learned and looking to do better. "We had some issues and didn't race the recond race," Chandler said, "We ran it in the morning warmup after they switched the tr.nry. lt shifted, but it pump€d oil into the airbox. We ran it on the dyno to check it. I thought that sornethinS was goint on, and iather than smoke that engine, we fig- ured we'd be better ofi to retroup and try it again [at Inlineon]." One of th€ initial problems the team faced was that its number-one engine, a Rob Muzy-built Kawasaki ZX I 0, never ran riglt. That forced the team to use the Dout Chandler-briiit engine. "We sent the engine back to Rob ['4uzzy]," Chandler said, "We have to see what's up with that and why it lort po ,!rer, We'll go throuth the one that we've got, and hopefulv now we've got a bit more time to get everything sorted out so it will run," wllen he was on the track Chmdler was h+py witir his efrort - and somewhat rur- prised by his speed, 'Actualb/, I felt bener than I thought for not doing a full race in a lonttime," Chandler said. "l was a bit unsure how I was toiru to feel, physically and mentalt, but actually it was fun. I enpyed it. I felt better than I expected to." Naturally, he exp€cB befter when the team gets to lnfineon - with mor6 time to 8et thints sorted out prior to gettint there. "l thought for how long we had to work and to show up at the track with a stock e"xhaust and to mess around with stuff - if we can have something out of the truck that's going to run, I think we'll be okay," he said. "We iust had too marry things Soing on. we had to get the engine to run, and it was the first tirne the Marzocchi guys were at the track wift me. lt was their first time workinS with somewhat of a real motorcycle, and we went through five dilferent sets of those, and each time it was improved. lt iurt got better and better, " Chandler's goal with dl of this toes beyond him enioyin8 getting back out on the track and racing. He waflts to own a team so that he can pass on what he knows about racing to younger race6. "That's my goal," Chandler said. "l'm still enioyint the racing part of it, but I still want to be there re8ardless. with what l've done in the past, helpinS Tommy [Hayden] when I had him as my teammate and Nicky lHayden] and now doint my schools and working wkh these other kids there. I enjoy it. I think it's a good flt for me. I reaily enjoy it. You find a good kid with the rigk attitude and it's almos! a5 good a5 racing yourself. You see the improvement and spark in their eye, and that's prett), cool. I think with my knowl- edge I can be very beneficial in speedinS up their learning curve and trying to Eet them to better understand the motorcycle under- neath them and what it's doing - and leam how to make it better- 'A lot of these kids, there s a lot of natu- ral ability or fearlessness, but you cafi't just get on a bike and .ide it into the ground," he continued, "You've got to get them to think about stuff and fi8ure it out, and try to have some length in their career and not get all wadded up. I think iI you can better educate the ones who are fearless and have talent, they'll last a lot lonSer-" But for now Chandler 8o€s it alone. He wants to show people that he has the abili- ty to put totethea a professional team and run it at the top level. And that means he'5 the rider, the team owner, the tuner... 'The goal is to improve," Chandler said. "l dont know what we had going on with this engine. but I think it it would have rah consistently, I don't think we would have been too lar out of the top 10." Poul Cafivthats "You see the improvement and spark in their eye, and that's pretty cool." - Doug Chandler a lo MAY r 7, 2006 CYCLE NEWS l 7 Chandler Doug Chondler in qaion ot Colifornio Spccdwqy. e ftl F f N 7rt\ r\ t/ Benelli To MotoGP? I FILE

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