Opening Shot
OPENING SHOT
RACE WATCH
Doohan does it again
MICHAEL SCOTT
THERE WERE FEW SURPRISES IN THE WINner's circle at the season-opening Malaysian Grand Prix, held at the tight, 2.2-mile Shah Alam circuit. In both the 500cc and 250cc classes, defending champions Michael Doohan and Max Biaggi claimed resounding victories.
Of greater importance, though, were the major changes that had taken place to the machinery. Doohan rode a motorcycle outwardly identical to last year's championship winner, but very different internally. And Biaggi had switched from his beloved Aprilia to an Erv Kanemoto-tuned Honda.
At Shah Alam, the implication was clear: The two riders who have won their respective classes for the past three years are simply so good that they could win on anything. But, as
usual, things are never as simple as they appear. L SCO1T Doohan's performance hinged on the fact that he was prepared to challenge convention; Biaggi's massive win was credited to a canny choice of cut-slick tires for a quickly drying racetrack.
Doohan had ditched the dominant Big Bang V-Four for the previous-generation "Screamer," which fires its cylinder pairs in 180-degree intervals. And instead of unleashing wheelspin and runaway tire wear, as in the past, the result was complete ly the opposite: Port timing similar to that of current Big Bangs gave the engine excellent torque characteristics while re-establishing lost feel for the rear tire.
Instead, it was Doohan's Repsol teammate Alex Criville who was sliding around as he chased the steadily disappearing Australian. Criville faded toward the end of the race, his rear Michelin beginning to shred. Honda-mounted rookie Nobuatsu Aoki tallied third. In fact, Hondas filled all but one of the first seven places.
Ex-World Superbike wild child Anthony Gobert, now with Team Lucky Strike Suzuki, didn’t survive beyond Friday’s timed practice. Having twice broken his right collarbone in testing, he lacked the confidence to ride with his familiar abandon. “I can’t risk crashing again until it’s fully healed, so I can’t give 100 percent,” he said. Teammate Daryl Beattie, back after a year ruined by injury, pulled out of the race after six laps, complaining of handling problems and sluggish engine performance.
World Superbike champion Troy Corser made his GP debut on the Promotor Yamaha in typically restrained style-a minor get-off in practice notwithstanding. He qualified llth and finished 13th, and learned a lot. “The result was so-so, but I enjoyed my first GP,” he said. “In fact, it just felt like another race. By the end, I was sliding the bike, so I’m picking up speed.” More to come, no doubt, but a relief to those who insist GP racing is senior to Superbikes.
And Kenny Roberts’ all-new Modenas V-Three impressed just by being there, barely 12 weeks after some parts were first commissioned. Niggling problems (one involved a blocked fuel filter) plagued practice and kept riders Jean-Michel Bayle and Kenny Roberts Jr. off the pace. In the race, Bayle was up to 14th before his engine blew up; Junior lasted 11 laps before a rear suspension failure junked the rear tire.
Roberts was disappointed by the results, but happy with the relatively good reliability, particularly after new pistons had been flown in to cure a problem with the exhaust port chewing up rings. “We expected to have problems with seizing,” he admitted after practice. “But there’s been nothing, and we’ve learned a lot of other things.” More new pistons and new cylinders are expected for the next GP in Japan. Revised bodywork is on the way, too, after wind-tunnel tests revealed that, though the bike is very small and neat, it isn’t very aerodynamic.
Of all the Honda riders, Doohan was head and shoulders above on his shrill-sounding machine. “It’s a big mistake to compare this engine with the one from ’91,” he explained. “I wanted to try the old firing order because that always seemed to have a more direct connection between the throttle and the back tire. You could control the slide more and it would over-rev to sustain the wheelspin, whereas the Big Bang would run into a brick wall, and the tire would hook up when you didn’t want it to.”
The old engine was a bit wild, though, in line with its exhaust note. “One big concern was whether going back to that timing would be the same, (whether it would) wreck the rear tire,” Doohan added. “But when Honda revised the crank timing, they also brought in more torquey port timing. And the tires are better than they were then, not to mention the advances in electronic engine management. We first started testing the ‘Screamer’ seriously in January, and we were surprised that tire wear wasn’t too bad at all. The only thing we don’t know is how it will be in the wet.”
In the race, the more fluid and responsive power had an unexpected result: “Because of the new engine, I didn’t have to spin the tire to get away from the other guys.” Most significantly, Doohan broke the lap record with a time of 1:24.84. The previous best was set by John Kocinski on a Yamaha in 1991, the year before all the works bikes switched to the Big Bang configuration. This result, at a track where heat and sharp corners punish tires, begs a question that will probably be answered by mid-season: Has the entire Big Bang thing been nothing but a red herring?
Pole position went to Japanese Repsol-Honda rider Tadayuki Okada, as it had last year. Then, though, he’d been given the new lightweight Honda NSR500V to debut. This year, he’s switched to a V-Four, proving once again that the rider is ultimately more important than the bike.
Okada led the race, too, taking over from fast-starting Criville on the second lap, only to gesture furiously as he crossed the start-finish line. Only yards before, the drive shaft to his exhaust powervalve had broken, robbing him of top-end power. He dropped back rapidly, eventually finishing 1 Oth.
Next to take over was Takuma Aoki, the middle of the three racing Aoki brothers, and reigning All-Japan champion. He was on a twin-cylinder Honda, and riding with determination. Following closely behind, Doohan decided to revise his tactics. “My game plan had been to follow Criville, then race it out toward the end,” he said. “But Takuma took off like it was a three-lap race, not a GP, so 1 had to get to the front and try to break away.” He did so on lap four with an impressive move at the kink near the end of the main straight, one of the fastest corners in racing.
Once he made the pass for the lead, Doohan moved away steadily in familiar style. It was plain to see that he was riding well within the limits of the tires. And it was equally obvious Criville’s spirited-but-fruitless pursuit was taking the Spaniard beyond the grip of his Michelins.
By mid-point, the jostling up front had been sorted out. The eldest Aoki, Nobuatsu, up from the 250 class to ride an ex-Doohan Honda, had im-
pressed in practice and qualified third. He impressed again on Sunday, eventually prevailing over brother Takuma, and nearly catching Criville.
The rest of the race saw several pairs of riders locked together around the tight track. One of these was last year’s winner Luca Cadalora, now back on a Yamaha, and the only rider to challenge the Hondas. The Promotor-sponsored machine was fitted with Michelins, rather than the Dunlops Cadalora despised when he rode for Team Yamaha Roberts. Most of the race, Cadalora was stuck behind Carlos Checa’s Honda, which was faster out of the corners, but significantly slower through them. Unable to get past, the Italian waited for Checa to make a mistake, and when it came, in the last third of the race, he nipped past. He eventually passed Takuma Aoki, as well, to claim fourth.
Everyone but Doohan complained of
tire wear, with the slithering Checa eventually falling prey to MovistarHonda teammate Alberto Puig and Team Rainey Yamaha rider Norifumi Abe. In the end, though, they finished Checa, Puig and Abe-all within half a second of each other. This close battling for points bodes well for the season to come, and gave fans plenty to shout about. Sadly for television viewers, this sort of stuff isn’t often shown, as most cameras linger lovingly on the leaders.
After the race, Doohan was typically cool. “I’m not even thinking about the championship,” he said. “At this stage, you just want to rack up as many wins and points as you can, then start to look at the overall situation at the end of the year. What’s more important to me is that I’m still enjoying myself. An element in the decision to switch to the new engine type was to make it more interesting for me. It really is more fun to ride, and that’s important for me to keep my motivation high.
“But I’m not totally dedicated to it,” Doohan added. “Make no mistake, if it turns out later that there’s some disadvantage to it, I’ll be straight back on
the Big Bang. But I don’t plan to switch from one to the other during a race weekend. I haven’t ridden a Big Bang since the last tests, and I don’t know when I will again.”
The other focus of the weekend concerned Max Biaggi’s switch from Aprilia to Honda. Biaggi is viewed with puzzlement and concern by his fellow Italians for his independent attitude, and this year is seen as a war between him and the Aprilia factory.
Biaggi is anxious to prove it was the rider and not the motorcycle who > dominated 250cc GP racing for the last three years; Aprilia wants to prove the opposite. To this end, the factory has hired former 250cc World Champion Tetsuya Harada, as well as ex-500cc rider and former 250cc star Loris Capirossi. The latter broke at Shah Alam, while Harada showed his riding flair in dogged pursuit of Biaggi. With his intermediate front tire, though, Harada’s quest was hopeless, and he was almost 15 seconds back at the finish. Honda-mounted Olivier Jacque, also hampered by tire problems, placed third.
It is disappointing that in a year when everyone expected tight competition in the 250cc class, the first race was a processional. Given the role played by tire choice, however, it’s likely that only a small part of the story was told in the first chapter.
Honda’s rivals-and Doohan’s-likely are hoping the same is true in the 500cc class. □
