Clipboard

Clipboard

Rossi...again

MotoGP’s fourth season began with a bang—literally. The collision, at the final corner of the last lap of the season-opener in Jerez, Spain, sent erstwhile leader Sete Gibernau careening off into the gravel trap while defending series champion Valentino Rossi recovered to take the checkered flag.

After setting a blistering pace close to the previous year’s pole time, the pair had left their rivals trailing. The end-of-race, full-contact desperation made a riveting start to an expected vintage championship year. It was also a salutary climax to an intensive, record-breaking and equally riveting series of pre-season tests.

Testing began late this past January, with teams and riders completing at least six tests at tracks as far away as Malaysia, Australia and Qatar-a mini-season in itself. Rossi, Gibernau, Ducati-mounted Loris Capirossi and others took turns setting fast times. Then in the year's first "contest," a 40-minute dash for a BMW hatchback at the compulsory test in Cata lunya, Spain. in March. (iibcrnau won the keys. leaving Rossi to punch the air in frustration. Insiders suspected the Italian ot bluffing.

Rossi's switch to Yamaha last year turned MotoGP from Honda territory into a two-factory contest. Ducati slipped after a strong start in 2003, Kawasaki and Suzuki were technically lagging, while both the Aprilia Cube and Kenny Roberts' English-built Proton-backed V-Five came to an end.

This year, Yamaha “lost” lackluster Carlos Checa to Ducati, but gained double World Superbike champ Colin Edwards; the four-cylinder YZR-M1 is the Texan’s third bike in three years. Two relative rookies-Rueben Xaus and Tony Elias-make for a quartet of factorybacked Yamahas.

The seven-strong armada of Hondas

was rearranged. Max Biaggi, serial second best to Rossi, was promoted to the top Repsol team alongside third-year incumbent Nicky Hayden. Gibemau, last year’s runner-up, remains in the nominally satellite MoviStar team, but was officially promoted to factory status; his new ex-Yamaha teammate Marco Melandri is saddled with a second-level RC21IV, as are Camel riders Alex Barros and Australian Troy Bayliss, and Konica Minolta man Makoto Tamada. The difference was small at the start of the year, but the top three get first go at any development parts.

Marlboro Ducati held onto Capirossi while adding Checa, accompanied by strong backing from Marlboro Spain. Suzuki retained long-serving 2000 500cc World Champion Kenny Roberts Jr. and AngloAmerican John Hopkins (bom in California, but now with a home in England, too), at 21 years old the youngest on the grid. Kawasaki kept Shinya Nakano and German Alex Hofmann. Proton did come back, with exAprilia rider Shane Byrne, its carved-fromsolid chassis now powered by KTM’s VFour, from the Austrian factory’s own abandoned MotoGP project.

Technically, everyone has improved, as broken records at every test track have made clear. Honda’s V-Five now boasts even more power (reportedly approaching 260 hp) spread even more widely across the rev range. This comes in addition to being more economical to comply with a drop in fuel capacity from 24 to 22 liters. But the need to run leaner mixtures means this bike and all the others “feel more like the oldtwo-strokes-delicate and aggressive on the throttle,” says Gibernau, who added, “I prefer it this way.”

Yamaha has a redesigned, more compact engine, retaining the still-top-secret crankshaft timing that makes the inlineFour a virtual Vee. Ducati concentrated on achieving a better overall balance for its already powerful big-bang V-Four Desmosedici, and furthermore switched from the dominant Michelins to the fast-rising Bridgestones.

Suzuki has many electronic and horsepower improvements, although if Jerez offered any indication it’s only enough to maintain its position at the back of the Japanese factory pack. Relative newcomer Kawasaki had new big-bang crankshaft timing for its inline-Four, enough for a significant step up the order, both in tests and at the first race.

While the Proton/KTM effort is just beginning, the old Yamaha YZF-R1-based WCM is coming to an extended end; the replacement Czech-built Blata V-Six originally promised for the first race will now debut in August. Maybe.

Jerez is always special, with more than 100,000 biking fans flocking to southern Europe to celebrate the imminent arrival of summer in the sherry capital of Andalucia with all-night wheelie contests and general mayhem. On the track, Rossi waited until the last of four one-hourlong sessions (this year, only one counts for grid positions) before knocking Gibemau off his perch. The Spaniard might have won the hatchback, but Rossi was on pole.

Gibernau led most of the race, too, before Rossi took over. When the Italian ran wide at the far hairpin, the Spaniard eased ahead and then firmly resisted a fierce attack at the next double-rights. Gibernau kept a tight line going into the final comer, with Rossi almost alongside and late on the brakes. Neither gave way, and the inevitable contact sent Gibemau off into the gravel, where he recovered for an angry second.

Some criticized Rossi’s hard move, but he was not penitent: “I understand if Sete is angry, but this is motorcycle racing.” Others blamed Gibemau for not protecting the inside, or not being more forceful earlier on the lap, when he could have done the same thing to Rossi. The Spaniard remained tight-lipped. Either way, the incident strengthened an already fearsome rivalry.

Where were the rest? Melandri inherited third after Hayden slid off. Slowstarter Barros came through to fourth, while Nakano brought his Kawasaki home fifth ahead of an assertive Bayliss. Biaggi had a bizarre weekend, qualifying 16th, but finally picking up speed to finish seventh.

A fading Tamada held off Edwards, who suffered handling problems (allegedly fixed during a private test the following day) in his Yamaha debut. Checa was 10th-top Ducati in a bad weekend for the red bikes. He was already battling injury, then Capirossi fractured his ankle in practice, riding to a painful 13th. Roberts retired, never higher than 14th before his Suzuki had an engine-management glitch; teammate Hopkins eventually took the position. Roberto Rolfo on the D’antin Ducati scored the final championship point.

Some questioned whether Rossi would remain motivated after his slightly unexpected turncoat championship win last year. Jerez proved there’s nothing missing in that department. He’s going to be hard to beat this season. -Michael Scott

Michael Scott

Britain's future flyers

Forget bronze statues, cut-glass bowls and trophies teetering on ridiculously tall pillars, the best prize in motorcycling is a full season on a Virgin Mobile Yamaha YZF-R1 in the hotly contested British Superbike series. Win the Virgin Mobile Yamaha R6 Cup, and you’ve got the ride.

The brainchild of former 500cc GP star and Isle of Man TT winner Rob McElnea and Yamaha U.K. Marketing Director Andy Smith, the R6 Cup is a spec race series like no other.

“There have been a lot of one-make series in the past that have produced good racing, but the winner is never heard from again,” McElnea points out. “The idea of the R6 Cup was to develop a real academy-type series that would allow us to get closer to the riders and give them more insight into what is involved in the job. And the winner gets a genuine step up.”

Anyone who pays the $34,000 entry fee gets an unprecedented chance to shine. The only stipulation is that he or she must be between 16 and 22 years old. The championship is a turnkey affair. Racers arrive at each meeting with their leathers and helmets to meet their bikes. They are given the same machines all season, and except for suspension adjustments, the addition of any personal sponsor stickers and tailoring of handlebar angle and footpeg position, they are only allowed to touch their bike to qualify and race. At the conclusion of each race, all 30 bikes are loaded onto a truck and returned to a central workshop.

Okay, so the series itself is not particularly innovative. What is innovative is the fact that the winner graduates from a 115-horsepower 600cc sportbike on DOT rubber to a 200-hp Superbike on Dunlop slicks. McElnea, who also manages the Virgin Mobile Samsung Yamaha Superbike team, estimates the ride is worth $380,000-but you can’t put a price on the break the winner is given.

Those who don’t win the championship (or even a single race) still benefit from an apprenticeship in the BSB paddock. And because the races are run between the two Superbike legs, riders race in front of as many as 40,000 spectators as well as a live television audience. Also unusual for a domestic youth-based series, the R6 Cup serves as a support race for the British GP, with riders taking to the track less than 30 minutes after Valentino Rossi has doused pit lane with champagne.

But isn’t it a risk? After all, running a Superbike team in BSB is hyper-competitive without having a rookie on your bike. “I always thought young riders spent too much time on 600s with street tires and struggle to get to the next level,” McElnea explains. “So getting these guys when they are raw and spending time with them helps them break through. And it’s working really well with Tommy Hill.”

Hill won the inaugural R6 Cup in 2003. He worked for his parents building race transporters for the family business to help pay off his debt. Now, the situation is different. “Eve got a nutritionist and a personal trainer,” he says in a tone that makes one think he hardly believes it himself.

Hill’s first Superbike season set the high watermark for every subsequent R6 Cup winner, with front-row qualifying and top-10 finishes in a series that has spawned riders who have won three of the last four World Superbike Championships. McElnea re-signed Hill for a second season two-thirds of the way through the first. Now, he’s the team’s number-two rider behind former GP privateer Sean Emmett.

Don’tyouwish the U.S. had something similar?

Gary Inman