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Kocinski and Cagiva ready to race
American bad-boy racer John Kocinski has signed a one-year contract to race the Cagiva 594 in the 1994 500 GP championship. Kocinski, who raced 1993’s last four GPs aboard the Cagiva 593, winning the USGP, says Cagiva’s brass is fired up and is “No longer satisfied to just win races. Now they want to win a championship.”
Kocinski, who divides his time be tween homes in Henderson, Nevada, and Vicent de Monalt, Spain, believes a championship is possible aboard the Italian bike. He says the Honda NSR500 is fastest in a straight line, and that the Suzuki RGV500 and the Yamaha YZR500 "are good off cor ners. But at the last GP we were faster than the Suzuki or Yamaha. We're real close now.”
In California to introduce his new Bell Ml John Kocinski Replica helmet to the press-the helmet will be available in retail stores this spring at a suggested price of $329—Kocinski said he’s enjoying his experience with Cagiva.
“It’s important to have fun with what you’re doing,” he said. “I feel better, I’m more able to concentrate. I have more confidence in these people. We talk and laugh-it’s like a big family,” he added.
Polen to Honda, Corser to Ducati
Ducati, in a very carefully worded press release, announced in December that two-time World Superbike champion and 1993 AMA Superbike champion Doug Polen will not ride one of the Italian company’s racebikes in 1994. Polen told CW he plans to ride a Honda RC45 in World Superbike events.
Polen will be teamed with Aaron Slight on a two-man team operated by
HRC out of Britain, and it was HRC’s involvement, he said, that caused him to make this change. “It gives me a chance to ride for HRC and see what that’s like,” he said. “I’ve competed against them and seen how meticulous and perfect they try to be. It’ll be > interesting to be involved and see how it helps me,” he said.
Polen’s move to Honda left an open seat in the Fast by Ferracci team. That was quickly filled by Aussie sensation Troy Corser, who against all odds won the 1993 Australian Superbike championship aboard a Honda RC30.
Observed one pundit, “Honda has signed a Golden Oldie and let go of the star of the future!” Corser will be teamed with Canadian Pascal Picotte for the 1994 AMA Superbike season.
Another American champion
American Guy Cooper, 31, showed Swiss Supercross fans what he was made of in early December, winning the World Supercross Championship with a gritty charge. He did so with a fourth-place finish after getting a poor start and then crashing his Suzuki RM250 so hard its handlebar was bent. Cooper’s only rival for the title, South African Greg Albertyn, was coping with a case of flu and opted to
sit out the Swiss event, held in Gene va. Finishing ahead of Cooper in the event, but behind him in overall points, was winner Larry Ward, fol lowed by Steve Lamson and Ron Tichenor.
