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/912289
VYRUS 986 M2 STRADA FULL TEST P54 T he Vyrus was designed to com- pete in the Moto2 class inaugu- rated back in 2010 as a replacement for 250 GP's two-strokes, complete with a 600cc four-cylinder Honda four- stroke control engine derived from the CBR600RR street bike. Seizing the opportunity to demon- strate the worth of his design in what was promoted as being a chassis build- ers' class, Ascanio created the 986 M2 racer to demonstrate in head-to-head racetrack competition the validity of his design concepts on the level playing field represented by the control engine formula, meaning engine performance is theoretically equal among all con- tenders. But while like many others Rodorigo initially hoped the Moto2 series would provide a showcase for alternative frame designs, that's not the way it's turned out. In launching the 986 M2 as a pure Moto2 racebike in 2011 he'd hoped to forge a partnership with one or more Moto2 race teams— but such alliances proved hard to come by. Race team directors are the most pragmatic and conservative of people, given that any team's sheer existence is depen- dent on sponsorship generated by results which allow them to survive and prosper. This means that what works well today for another team in turn becomes must-have material for the others (how else to explain the fact that Moto2 is now almost entirely made up of Kalex chassis?) leading to a general reluctance to experiment with anything out of the ordinary, rather than risk being left behind by using something novel, but unproven like the Vyrus. Which explains why the Vyrus 986 M2 ended up making its racetrack debut not at a MotoGP race, but in the opening round of the 2012 Trofeo Italiano Amatori club racing series at Misano, ridden by Ascanio's son Davide Rodorigo, who finished 33rd in the 600cc class, one place behind his team- mate Marco Chiancianesi, the Swiss- Italian property developer who'd shortly acquire Bimota the following year. Rodorigo did a couple more rounds on Dad's racer, which was then parked up for a year while Ascanio kept searching for anyone to team up with. He found an ally in the shape of Stefano Caracchi, the son of the co-founder of NCR and a former works Ducati rider and 250GP racer. He'd been running his own race team in the Italian Superbike series, and became fascinated by the technical innovation of the Vyrus. Car- acchi arranged to run the bike in the six- round 2015 Spanish CEV Moto2 series, Dorna's feeder class for the MotoGP support series, and recruited 17-year old Brit Bradley Ray—today a regular All the way from Moto2 Bradley Ray showed not just his but the Vyrus' talents in the extremely competitive CEV Moto2 series, until the funds ran out.