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Racing Boxers?
A roadracing BMW? Are we talking vintage, maybe the supercharged kompressor 500s of the late 1930s? Or the Rennsports of the ’50s? How about the AMA Superbike-winning R90S? No, we’re talking about the present.
Ridden by Martin Joos, the German Boxer Team’s Rll00S-based special finished fourth in Daytona’s Pro Thunder event. The effort was partially financed by the factory and BMW North America. This is fascinating because it gives expanded dimension to the German manufacturer’s experimentation with sportier production models. What next, we wonder?
Developed for European BoTT endurance events, the machine retained much of the RllOOS’s original appearance, while achieving a low weight of 403 pounds through the use of carbon-fiber bodywork. Stock suspension was used, with adjustable Sachs shocks front and
rear. The 1170cc engine delivered 123 horsepower at the crankshaft through the use of a modified R1200C crank, titanium rods, special Mahle racing pistons and lightened valvetrain. Peak torque came at 5500 rpm, giving a wide power spread that allowed the use of a tweaked RI 100S gearbox.
Conversing with team mechanic and BMW dyno technician Martin Schmid, I learned that the team tunes conservatively. Not only because endurance racing demands it, but also because “it is not permitted to explode the engine in public-it is contrary to BMW’s reputation.” I saw Herr Schmid at the coffee truck Sunday morning before the race. We talked about cooling and lubrication, and then I excused myself, because I didn’t want to take him from his work. He replied, smiling, “There is no hurry. Everything is prepared.”
The team originated in 1994, discussed support with BMW two years later, and has since enjoyed many BoTT class wins in endurance races of 4, 8 and 24 hours. Because the class limit for rear-wheel horsepower is 115, the team now would like to move up to the Open class, which has no power limit.
Nine of the 14 team members work for BMW. Bringing 10 of them to Daytona for this race contains a message: BMW’s interest in sport is on the rise. We have seen this in the product for some time, and off-road, BMW won Dakar with its F650-based Single. Now, to appear at Daytona is a bold stroke.
Kevin Cameron
McGrath races toward record
ileremy McGrath was surprisingly calm prior to the start of the AMA Supercross season, as if he knew something that his competition didn’t.
At the series opener in Anaheim, California, McGrath was super-cool about his run for the 1999 title. Claiming his new Yamaha YZ250 was world’s better than last year’s machine, he seemed unconcerned with anything other than the championship. Even after the first two rounds, where Hondas dominated, the reigning champ appeared nonplused. No worries, he told the press, just getting warmed up.
It looks like McGrath did know something after all, because he’s since dominated the series. The 27year-old Mazda/Chaparralbacked rider won the third round at Phoenix, finished fourth in Seattle, second in Anaheim and Tampa, first in Atlanta, Daytona and Houston, and fourth in Dallas.
With two-thirds of the 16round series already in the books, McGrath holds a solid 42-point lead over Mike LaRocco, who is enjoying a standout season on the Factory Connection Honda. With a record 56 SX victories to his credit, McGrath is on track to win his sixth SX championship.
Paul Seredynski
Everts out
Four-time 250cc World Motocross Champion Stefan Everts will be sidelined for at least three months after crashing out of the Beaucaire International, held in southern France in late February. Everts, who earlier in the day had DNFed and finished fifth, crashed while racing for fourth in the final moto of the pre-season event.
“I got a little sideways coming down a hilly section and put my foot out to stop myself from crashing,” the Belgian said. “I didn’t crash at that moment, but my leg got twisted and I felt severe pain. Then, I couldn’t correct the machine and I crashed into the fence.”
After a two-hour ambulance ride to a hospital in Nismes, Everts was operated upon by one of France’s top soccer surgeons. “Stefan snapped a lot of his knee ligaments,” the doctor explained. “If he doesn’t take it easy over the next few weeks, he could get an infection and his knee will not repair.”
Everts is expected to be out until June. If he suffers complications, though, he may never ride again. “My main concern is getting the rest needed and not getting sick from this,” Everts said. “My season is over, I can live with that. I just want to get back as soon as possible and start riding for my team and sponsors.”
The crash was a cruel blow for Everts, who had narrowly lost last year’s title to Sebastien Tortelli.
Geoff Meyer
More power for Ducati’s 996
If you’re a Ducati fan, you’ve likely reveled in the Italian company’s continuing World Superbike success. With word of heavily revised machinery coming from Japan this season, even ardent fans are likely wondering how long Ducati can continue to win with its current desmo V-Twin.
Not surprisingly, Ducati has improved support for the 996 Superbike, much of which is coming from corporate changes as well as mechanical tweaks. For one, Claudio Domenicali, the young engineer who gave determinate contribution to the development and growth of the 888/916, is now the managing director of the nascent Ducati Corse branch of Ducati Motors.
Ducati Corse is a separate entity within the Bologna-based company. It will handle all aspects of Ducati racing, from R&D to the sale of racebikes, parts and service. “Ducati has undergone a major evolution in the past few years,” Domenicali says. “This trend has been dramatically accelerated with the advent of the new TPG ownership and management. The creation of two separate R&D departments-one for the product and one for the racers-is the final act of a global rationalization of all our efforts to stay at the top on both scenarios.”
Though cosmetically unchanged, the 996 has evolved significantly. “At the 1998 WSB opening round in was bumped up by some 8-9 horsepower. We needed that. But what we really wanted was more top power and more tractability. Our bikes were a handful to master in the rain. Too much torque, I must say, a real
Australia, the factory bikes produced 147 horsepower at 12,000 rpm,” Domenicali explains. “Then in Kyalami, South Africa, the first step of the present evolutionary wave took place, when peak power
bang. And in the wet, you were in trouble unless you had a safecrack er's touch."
Official figures for the `99 race 996 are 160 horsepower at 11,000 rpm. That's 13 more horsepower at 1000 fewer rpm-staggering. What's more, riders report that the new power arrives with more tractability throughout the range.
"We've been able to develop the core of our computerized R&D sec tion, giving life to our math simula tions with modeling software that has helped us identify, for instance, the limits of the desmo cam grindings we had been using until then," Domeni cali states. "Our software helped us get rid of a number of mechanical flaws-excessive load peaks on the valvetrain, micro-floating phenome na that were not perceptible in terms of sudden power loss and valve-topiston collisions. The results have been very positive in terms of en hanced reliability."
Domenicali also says the recent in flux in capital and restructuring has led to immediate gains on the race track. "Our present software pro duces mathematical simulations so accurate that we can realistically compare the projected power and torque curves without ever putting the engine on the dyno," he says. "This produced an unbelievable timeand-money savings, and that is how it all happened so quickly and with such positive results."
The software has led to refine ments that are already making their way into production. "We have de veloped a new head casting, which is homologated for 1999," Domenicali says. "We did not alter the basic head geometry, it would not be al lowed. Yet our software indicated where the combustion chamber's shape needed a few touch-ups. There is more potential left in our 996 than most would expect, and by mid-sea son we'll be ready for a further up grade, if needed."
So, thanks to heavy U.S. invest ments, gone are the days when Dr. Taglioni would determine the volu metric efficiency of a Ducati's inlet runners by gently sliding his finger up and down the aluminum surface, hand-polished to perfection by old time racer Franco Fame. But fear not Ducatisti, Franco is still there.
Bruno de Prato
Bill Boyce, 1923-1999
Sill Boyce, long regarded as the backbone of AMA roadracing, has died at age 76. He was an AMA official for many years, most recently director of Pro Competition, and served on committees of the FIM. Retired since 1990, Boyce continued to go into the AMA offices two days a week to work on special projects.
Boyce’s job was to make races happen, on schedule if possible, despite all the imponderables like weather, human frailty and acts of God. Many respected Boyce for his fairness and commonsense decency. Although a succession of “czars of racing” were employed by the AMA to build up motorcycle sport, it was Boyce whose experience and behind-the-scenes management kept the show on the road.
Boyce tried to do everything at once.
At Laguna Seca, as the first modern U.S. Grand Prix was about to take place, it was he who stayed up all night to make the starting lights work.
If anything, he erred on the side of fairness, always trying to handle even the smallest matters in meetings, in answering correspondence, in hearing everyone’s opinion or complaint. No one is all-knowing and all-seeing, and Boyce had his critics, but he was always on the job, trying to be fair, working hard, making the program go forward in the best way he knew how.
He was a good-hearted man, and we will miss him. -Kevin Cameron
French moto madness
France’s annual Le Touquet beach race was won by Yamaha Motor France’s Jean-Claude Mousse. In front of 300,000 screaming spectators, Mousse outlasted 700 other riders, including teammates Arnaud Demeester and David Fretigne, who finished sec ond and third, respectively. It's not so much who wins the wildand-wacky event, as who finishes. Prior to the start, former race-winner David Hauquier was kicked out for practicing on the course. Not to be deterred, the huge crowd turned its at tention to the Yamaha France riders, blasting air horns every time the trio appeared from behind the dunes. Defending champ Demeester raced with a broken arm. "I didn't want to miss this thing," he explained. "I wanted to win, but near the end my arm started really hurting, so I had to slow down a little." One need not feel sorry for Demeester-he has four wins and three runner-up finishes in the past seven years.
Mousse was ecstatic. "I've been here seven years running," he said. "To finally win is my dream. I could not have done it without the Yamaha team. I'm very grateful." Geoff Meyer
Hayes leaves mark in AMA debut
Honda's Miguel Duhamel was no doubt surprised to win the AMA 600cc Supersport race at Daytona. After all, the French-Canadian wasn't fully re covered from last season's debilitating leg injury, and the competition includ ed the likes of Jamie Hacking, Nicky Hayden, Rich Oliver, Kurtis Roberts, Aaron Yates and Josh Hayes. Who is Josh Hayes, you ask? Just one of roadracing's brightest hopes, is all. The 23-year-old Mississippi na tive made his AMA debut at Daytona. Hayes not only gave Duhamel and the other series regulars a run for their money in the 600 race, where he finished sixth, but he won the 750cc Supersport race. It’s rare to see a three-digit numberplate in Victory Circle, but Hayes nonetheless put his #131 Valvoline Suzuki GSX-R750 atop the podium.
Despite his minimal AMA experience, Hayes is a seasoned roadracer. Last year, he competed in the Formula USA series, finishing second in the 126-horsepower class, and winning the 103-bhp class championship.
“I’ve been involved with Hayes for four years,” says Valvoline Suzuki Team Captain (and former Cycle World staffer) John Ulrich. “The first time I paid attention to him was at a WERA National Challenge Series race in Grattan, Michigan. He demonstrated a key thing that I look for: a guy who’s racing out of his region at or near the front.”
Ulrich has seen many riders come through the ranks. Among the notables are Kevin Schwantz, Scott Russell, Jamie James, Thomas Stevens, Mike Smith, David Sadowski, Doug Toland, Kurt Hall and Chuck Graves. “Some very good riders have come through my program,” Ulrich admits. “(Hayes’ teammate) Grant Lopez is just as good as Josh, and Ryan Landers may be better than both of them.”
At Daytona, Hayes planned to compete in the 600 class. When the 17year-old Landers was injured, Hayes was asked to also ride the team’s Michelin Pilot-shod GSX-R750. He led every lap and won by more than 4 seconds, beating series regular Jimmy Moore and former factory Superbike ace Tom Kipp. It was the French tire maker’s first victory in the Dunlopdominated series in nearly two years.
-Paul Seredynski
Parker announces retirement
First Jordan, now this. History’s most successful and arguably most talented dirt-tracker, Scott Parker, will retire at the end of this season.
The 37-year-old Flint, Michigan, native began his professional dirttrack career 20 years ago. In 1979, his first year as an AMA Pro, Parker was ninth in the championship, earn-
ing Rookie of the Year honors. Throughout his career, Parker has only finished out of the top 10 once (llth in 1981 ). Since 1985, he hasn’t finished worse than third. Last year, Parker scored his fifth-consecutive Grand National title, finally breaking Carroll Resweber’s 1961 record of four in a row. Parker originally tied Resweber’s record in 1991, but lost the ’92 title to Chris Carr and had to start over again.
“Bike racing has been good to me,” Parker states. “It’s just come to the point where I’d like to do something different. I don’t have any plans right now. I just want to go in a different direction. I’ve got two kids at home. I’ve been doing it for 20 years, and I’m calling it quits.”
Unfinished business remains, however. With nine championships and 91 career victories, the defending champ still has a few goals that he’d like to achieve. “We need to do 10, and everybody is fired up on 100 wins,” he says. “So that’s sort of what we’re shooting for.”
While the records would be nice, Parker has nothing left to prove. “Like I’ve always said, if I never won another championship, I’m happy for the ones that I’ve won.”
Though nothing is concrete, Parker may enter a couple of events per year after retiring. “Dave Despain has made the Hall of Fame race such a big event,” he says. “There’s a lot of money up for grabs for a one-day deal. It seems silly to stay home when you’re still competitive. I’ve always enjoyed going to Peoria, too. Three races would probably be the max, though, if I even did that.”
For what it’s worth, Parker has little interest in switching to pavement. “I can’t really see myself going roadracing,” he says. “I’m just sort of past that point in my life. I wouldn’t rule out putting together a ride for the Daytona 200, though. That would be something, just because I’ve never done it.”
Cars are an option. “Car racing would be cool, but someone’s got to open the door on that,” he says. “I’m not going to spend the money I’ve earned to go out and do that. Not to say that I wouldn’t put something into it, I’m just not going to finance the whole package.”
Parker has spent his entire career with Harley-Davidson, and The Motor Company would like to remain involved with him. “Harley has talked a little about putting together some type of school,” he says. “We haven’t really gone into detail at this point.”
For now, the reigning Grand National Champion is still focused on racing. “It would be cool to leave as a champion,” he says. “If not, there’s still some competitive racing out there, and I’m going to give it my best shot. I think a lot of people are putting more of a drive into it because they don’t want me to walk away and have to say, ‘Well, we never beat him.’”
So, Chris Carr, Will Davis, Brett Landes, et al will get one more shot at the champ. As for the future, one thing is certain: The 20th century will always belong to Scott Parker.
Paul Seredynski
Lavado finally tops Daytona 250s
After 12 tries, 250cc Grand Prix rider Luis Lavado was finally victorious at Daytona. The Venezuelan finished on the podium in 1993 and ’96, but had never won the race.
Lavado and his Yamaha TZ250 were hounded throughout the 18-lap race by another veteran, Al Salaverria. With three laps remaining, though, the Californian’s Aprilia seized, leaving John McGuiness to take second, with Greg Esser third.
In terms of the championship, most of the news predated the race. Semiretired Randy Renfrow crashed in practice, breaking his wrist. Then defending champ Roland Sands crashed in the 600cc Supersport final, also breaking his wrist. In the race, Chuck Sorensen, third in the series last year, finished fourth, following a secondwave, 1 lth-row start.
As a result, Sorensen is now the championship favorite. This may seem premature, but with Sands out, and Lavado and Brit McGuiness back in their respective countries, Sorensen is the top dog.
