Silly Season
Silly Season
RACE WATCH
Shake-ups and break-ups both here and abroad
EDDIE LAWSON ON A CAGIVA? Doug Chandler on a Yamaha? Doug Polen on a Ducati? Yes, these scenarios and more have been played out during what will surely go down as an epic off-season, as Silly Season 199091 got underway.
True to form, much of the gossip has centered around Eddie Lawson. Seems the four-time world champion tested a Cagiva 500cc GP bike at Rijeka, Yugoslavia, back in October. sparking much speculation in the press. However. Lawson and his management wouldn’t say anything official until after New Year's, when Lawson’s Yamaha/Team Roberts contract ran out.
BRIAN CATTERSON
But now the word is out. and yes, Lawson is negotiating with Cagiva to pilot their supposedly outclassed GP racebike, and if everything works out, he'll reportedly earn in the neighborhood of six million dollars for two years’ work. That's eonsiderably more than the numbers being bandied about when Randy Mamola signed with the Italian team in 1 988, but so far there's been no mention of Cagiva's Castiglioni brothers offering Lawson a Ferrari Testarossa for his first win. Mamola never managed to achieve victory aboard the fire-engine-red V-Four. putting the bike in the winner's circle only once, when he finished third in the rain at the 1988 Belgian GP.
Rumors abounded that Cagiva would throw in the towel at the end of last season, leaving Mamola without a ride, and, in fact, the team opted to sit out the season-ending Australian GP. But the company has contended all along that what it needed was a top rider to develop the bike, so maybe Lawson will be able to do what Mamola, Ron Haslam. Didier de Radiques and Juan Garriga have been unable to.
Joining Lawson on the Cagiva squad will be Brazilian youngster Alexandre Barros, who has a twoyear contract with the team; British veteran Ron Haslam has apparently been hung out to dry. Rumors from Europe also indicate that John Kocinski's tuner Bud Aksland is being courted by Cagiva to offer technical assistance.
Lawson’s departure from the Roberts team gave newly crowned 250cc World Champion Kocinski the opportunity to move up to the 500cc ranks, and Kocinski, who had a twoyear contract to race 250s. has decided to do so, joining Wayne Rainey on the Team Marlboro Roberts Yamaha squad. Roberts, then, will not field a 250 team abroad, although his U.S.-based team of Rich Oliver and Robbie Petersen will likely ride 250s and/or 500s in the WERA F-USA and newly formed F-2 Series. According to Roberts. Oliver will also have the opportunity to compete in select GPs, though he's not yet sure which ones.
Roberts is also directing the future of another of America's bright young hopes, U.S. Superbike Champion Doug Chandler. If all goes according to plan. Chandler will ride a Yamaha YZR500 for a new team headed by 1982 World Champion Franco Uncini, possibly with a yet-to-benamed second rider. Roberts is helping Uncini obtain bikes and money. and has also pledged technical assistance; the move is seen as the first step toward what would he a Roberts farm team. Chandler turned down a lucrative World Superbike offer from Kawasaki, so it will be interesting to see if he’s made the right choice.
Meanwhile, Mamola will be back aboard a Yamaha for the first time since he rode for Roberts in the team's formative years of l 986-87. Mamola will fill the seat vacated by Frenchman Christian Sarron, who retired from racing at the end of last season and will now concentrate on managing the Sonauto Yamaha squad. However, the team lost its sponsorship from French tobacco giant Gauloises, thanks to the French government’s outright ban on tobacco advertising, and is still seeking support. The careers of Mamola and his proposed teammate Jean-Phillipe Ruggia hang in the balance.
The man many consider the fastest of them all, Kevin Schwantz, will return to the Lucky Strike Suzuki fold in a bid to give Suzuki its first world roadracing title since the aforementioned win by Uncini in 1982. The announcement of Schwantz’s teammate in the 500ce ranks came as a bit of a surprise, though; none other than Belgian Didier de Radigues, who rode 250cc Aprilias for the last two years and who teamed with Lawson on Giacamo Agostini’s 500cc Marlboro Yamaha squad before that. Replacing de Radigues on the 250cc Aprilia will be Italian PierFrancesco Chili, who in the past rode 500cc Hondas.
Schwantz’s former teammate, Australian Kevin Magee, sidelined following head injuries suffered at the 1990 USGP, has been given the go-ahead by his doctors and by the FIM, but Suzuki feels he needs more time to regain his skills. Still, Suzuki warns, don’t be surprised to see Magee aboard an RGV500 some time this season.
Another unexpected announcement from Suzuki was that German Martin Wimmer had signed to ride its new 250cc GP bike. Whether Suzuki will be a factor in the 250cc GPs will largely depend on the team's ability to develop the new bike, but Wimmer is a proven commodity.
Over at Honda, Australians Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan will again campaign NSR500s in Rothmans livery, with newcomers Luca Cadalora and Jean-Pierre Jeandat on 250s. Kocinski’s impending departure to the 500cc class paves the way for a new 250cc world champ, and leading the list of possible contenders has to be Cadalora, who, save for Kocinski, was unarguably the quickest Yamaha pilot during the 1990 season. With Cadalora now riding one of the rapid Honda NSR250s on a team managed by technical luminary Erv Kanemoto, the others will have their work cut out for them.
Joining Cadalora on the 250cc Rothmans Honda squad will be Jeandat, the 20-year-old French 250cc champ who finished 12th at the 1990 French GP.
Also returning to this year’s 250cc title chase is Spaniard Carlos Cardus, who was Kocinski’s primary championship rival going into the final round of the ’90 series. Strengthening Cardus’ effort has to be the word that Kel Carruthers, with Yamaha for 19 years both as a racer and as a team manager, has signed on as Cardus’ Repsol-Honda crew chief, replacing George Vukmanovich, who's joined Erv Kanemoto’s Rothmans Honda squad. Kanemoto and Vukmanovich last worked together on Freddie Spencer’s factory Hondas.
The Home Front
Leading the league on the U.S. front is the announcement that Texan Doug Polen, for the past three years contracted with Yoshimura Suzuki, has signed with Fast By Ferracci to campaign a Ducati 85 1 in the U.S. Superbike Championship, with the odd appearance in the World Superbike Series, as well. Polen's move left ex-FBF Ducati pilot Jamie James out in the cold, but now James has found a new home in the Vance & Hines Yamaha camp. James will join existing V&H pilot Thomas Stevens on Superbikes, while James will also contest the 600cc Supersport Championship alongside new V&H recruit Larry Schwarzbach, the Texan who was impressive on Team Mad Dog Yamahas last year.
So, it’s now former V&H rider Dave Sadowski, the defending 600 Supersport Champ, who’s without a home. Word from “Ski's" Georgia home is that he likely won't return to racing until he’s recovered from a nagging lower-back problem: in the interim, he’s opened a shop specializing in racebike preparation.
Meanwhile, Martin Adams’ Commonwealth Racing has added new European Superbike Champion Richard Arnaiz to their team, joining Randy Renfrow on Ray Plumb-prepared Honda RC30 Superbikes and CBR600F2 supersport machines. Renfrow won the last Superbike national of 1 990 at Willow Springs, and is looking to become the first man to win championships in all four major AMA roadrace classes. He’s already won the F-l, F-2 (now 250cc GP) and Pro-Twins titles, so a Superbike championship would be the final feather in this crafty veteran's cap.
Another Honda-backed effort will be mounted by Two Brothers Racing, with Mike Velasco prepping machines for Floridian Jeff' Farmer. Freddie Spencer is slated to ride for the team at Daytona, as well, but whether the three-time world champ will contest the remainder of the U.S. Superbike Series is contingent upon his obtaining sponsorship.
Kawasaki's program will again be handled by tuner Rob Muzzy, with Georgian Scott Russell returning for a second year. Russell will be joined by French Canadian Jacques Guenette on the potent new ZX-7Rs and proven ZX-6s.
As we mentioned a few issues back, the ever-evolving Yoshimura Suzuki squad has again cleaned house, with only California teenager Tommy Lynch remaining from last year. This year. Lynch will be joined by Georgian Mike Smith on Suzuki GSX-R750s in both the Superbike and supersport classes. Smith was a member of Team Suzuki Endurance in 1989 and '90, and helped that team to two consecutive WERA endurance titles; he's also the reigning WERA Formula USA champ, and will campaign a Team Hammer-prepared GSX-R il 00 in select rounds of that series.
Pre-season indications are that Polen and the Ducati will be the combination to beat in '91. Polen and his 85 l showed up for a combined FBF, Muzzy Kawasaki, Team Suzuki Endurance and Vance & Hines tire test put on by Dunlop at Daytona International Speedway in early December, and he promptly set the quickest time, unofficially breaking the track record. Polen then headed south to Mexico City to compete in the International Masters Superbike race at the Circuit Hermanos Rodriguez, where he won both legs. Among those Polen beat: newly crowned World Superbike Champion Raymond Roche.
