Strength Renewed

STRENGTH RENEWED

RACE WATCH

Yamaha advances but Honda wins at Laguna Seca

KEVIN CAMERON

RIGHT AT THE END OF MOTOGP QUALIFYING AT MAZDA RACEWAY LAGUNA Seca, polesitter Jorge Lorenzo and 2007 world champion Casey Stoner were thrown by corner-entry, off-throttle highsides. Stoner walked off—apparently

okay—but Lorenzo went away on a board, returning to the press conference strapped for an apparent collarbone fracture and with toes taped, carried into the room on a chair. He spoke wryiy of "Lorenzo Air lines" and said he would ride the Sunday morning warm-up and then decide whether or not he could race. Valentino Rossi told his crew chief, Jeremy Burgess, that a fast qualifying time was an iffy affair and that he could easily have been among the crash ers. This reminds me of golfer Gary Player's famous remark: "The more I practice, the luckier I get."

And race Lorenzo did, as the second most power ful force in the event. At the flag, Repsol Honda rider

Dani Pedrosa, newly recovered from a recent menu of injuries, got a rocket start from the second row and engaged warp drive. Stoner, tough and capable despite reports of

obscure chronic illness, reversed the play from last year when he was blocked by Rossi. The Italian, cautious with uncertainty over a last-minute change to the front end of his Fiat Yamaha, rode lap after lap right behind Stoner.

Lorenzo took time to assemble his offensive then advanced unstoppably, applying heavy pressure to Rossi himself. Now it was pass or be passed, and on

lap 12, Rossi finally pushed past Stoner in Turn 2. Lorenzo followed Rossi’s lead 10 laps later, and the Yamaha teammates set off after Pedrosa, only 2.7 seconds away.

There would have been no further drama had Pedrosa watched his pit board. Thinking he had adequate mar gin for a last-lap wheelie, the Spaniard slowed and Rossi closed on him. A less-thinking rider might have made the attempt to pass, right there on the entry to the last turn. But veterans know that closeness in slow corners is an illusion. Rossi saw the pass was impossible and didn't try. The final order was Pedrosa, Rossi, Lorenzo, Stoner and a newly faster Nicky Hayden.

Instantly, all the Repsol Honda crew had their phones out, reporting to Japan. Honda has been nowhere for a long time and is glad to be back on the pace. The win was the first for Pedrosa since Catalunya last year. He uncharacteristically grinned as he said with typical Spanish formality, “Great race, great day, great feeling!”

Up to this point, the championship had been a dead heat between Stoner, Lorenzo and Rossi. As of Laguna, it was Rossi (151), Lorenzo (142) and Stoner (135). As Stoner dismounted, he turned to give his Ducati a little pat. Hayden, back from mid-pack oblivion, flashed his big irresistible smile.

Why crashing off-throttle during corner entry? The riders’ answer was that the difference between rear tire right and left temperatures, normally 10 degrees Celsius or less, increases when you knock back the throttle following a slower rider. That, they believed, brought the cooler right side of the single-compound spec tire down out of its operating range, making grip tricky in the few right-handers.

Every year of MotoGP brings a fresh revolution. Last season, Stoner’s “electronic” Ducati was clearly the fastest and quickest machine, cornering at eye-popping angles of lean and accelerating without peer. Since then, Yamaha advanced, first closing and then reversing the gap with a variety of technologies. All the Yamahas are working-not just one-and they are as wonderfully stable as the Ducatis are squirmy. Honda is back, too. A year ago, the 21-liter fuel allowance stopped some riders’ drives, the “economy” light flashing on many a dashboard, bikes slowing a bit as their fuel systems automatically leaned out. The problem is to somehow get higher performance from the same amount of fuel.

A walk up toward the left-right Corkscrew revealed new engine sounds. From 2006, traction control and torque smoothing had to abandon ignition retard as a way to cut torque because it wastes fuel. Computer modulation of the throttles took its place. But now I was hearing a blizzard of fuel cuts from the Hondas and Ducatis, their engines sounding ragged, as if they needed to “clear out.” Why?

Without electronics, smooth torque is available from a four-stroke engine only by camming and piping it conservatively enough to eliminate regions of steeply rising torque. But conservative engines lack the power to win, so Ducati tuned to the limit, then shaved and puttied the resulting Matterhorn torque curve by fluttering the throttles this way and that to deliver the smoothness riders and tires need. How much difference does this smoothing make?

I talked with Loris Capirossi, formerly a winner with Ducati and now on a Suzuki. He said, “Without the electronics, the engine is unrideable-worse than two-stroke 500. It is brrrrWOOPV’

It may be that fuel cuts have replaced or supplement auto-throttle because cuts act instantly. Or it may be that because cuts allow throttles to stay more open, fuel is saved by reducing pumping loss. And why was fuel-cutting from the Yamahas so much less audible? The M1 s have always had crankcase vacuum pumps, which lessen pumping loss. Not all makes have them.

Now it becomes clear that much of the electronics is made necessary by the 21-liter fuel allowance-exactly as production autos need electronics to reach mandated fuel-economy levels. Maximum power requires a rich 12.5:1 air-fuel mixture, but 220-horsepower racebikes are seldom at maximum power. Therefore, mixture can be leaned down and ignition advanced to give the part-throttle power the rider requires while saving fuel. Hayden said after the

race that his fuel-warning light came on for a number of laps but then mysteriously went off again.

Jeremy Burgess observed much the same in last practice: “You get behind somebody, and in a certain section he makes a jump on you. Oh! I’ve got too much control on this bike.” This has led to a policy of putting more of the bike in the rider’s hands rather than starting with electronic controls and working backward.

The above example means either the other rider is running with fuel conservation switched off or that his system squeezes more from its fuel at those points. In any case, during qualification, the economy systems that sometimes limit performance are switched off, while the power smoothing essential to rider control remains in effect.

Idealists may object-“This is not racing!’’-but history disagrees. Riders and drivers have always had to conserve tires, clutches or rpm in the interest of finishing. The legendary car and motorcycle racer Tazio Nuvolari supposedly said, “In racing, there is only one speed-that at which the valves bounce hard off the pistons!” Romance aside, no one can ever just go for it, start-tofinish. Racing is a very subtle business, requiring not only fabulous skills and motivation but also continuous analysis and judgment by the rider. Burgess remarked, “I’ll say it again: It’s the intelligent rider who will win from here on. Valentino spends 20 minutes with me on suspension, gearbox, the geometry > of the bike part of it, and 45 minutes with the electronics guys.”

Rossi himself said Yamaha uses electronics only to solve specific problems (“such as wheelie”) and that they have tried not to let electronics become a “second personality” that can potentially clash with the rider (this made me think of a horse and rider, who so often disagree). Burgess credits the large gains made since last year to the work of Andrea Zugna, formerly Colin Edwards’ “data guy” and now a Yamaha engineering manager.

With so many strongly interrelated variables to be braided together, only a quick, intelligent rider has much chance of a strong result. And so-despite the fact that electronics technology is finding a more nearly equal level among the teams-the same men are up front, race after race. Racing is a test of intelligence and absolute determination to win-no place for brave guessers, sideways on no-hope bikes.

Despite this, it appears that a machine’s electronic set-up must be tailored to the rider. First to achieve this were Stoner and Ducati in 2007, but the other three top men are right with him now. Marco Melandri, now on the Flayate Kawasaki, told me that he chose this team because he felt they would adapt the machine to him, not the other way around. This, despite the fact that Kawasaki is performing maintenance only-no development. Melandri was briefly on a Ducati and had much the same experi-

ence Hayden has had until Laguna-unable to adapt to the electronics. Riders not moving ahead for any reason are replaced by fresh warriors from the 125 and 250cc GP classes. This has given Melandri and Hayden, their careers held up by “electronic incompatibility,” a now-or-never urgency.

Suzuki’s situation? Tech chief Stu Shenton told me the team has made big advances-but so have the others, leaving its position unchanged. Chris Vermeulen has finished a lot better in the past at Laguna than he did this July, when he was eighth. Capirossi, who did fantastic things on the 990cc Ducati, crashed out on the fourth lap.

Edwards, seventh at the finish, said of the spec Bridgestone front tire, “It loves load. The more load you put on it, the better. You run it in deep and keep braking, brake harder, turn it in and it keeps working-it doesn’t make sense.” But it does make sense: The greater the load, the larger the footprint and the greater the grip. Bridgestone rubber, with its remarkably wide temperature range, naturally makes a good front tire because front-tire temperature varies so much, rising steeply during braking, then dropping as front load falls near zero on comer exit. Bridgestone engineer Tohm Ubukata acknowledged, “Front tire is the most difficult problem.”

Money is short. There was no fancy Yamaha aquarium party this year, its place taken by less-costly extra displays at the track. Honda dropped rider Yuki Takahashi, whose Scot team was late with payments, replacing him with 2007 125cc World Champion Gabor Talmacsi, who is backed by all of Hungary. Kawasaki tried to leave the series but rights-holder Dorna waved their contract. Dorna quietly assists some teams, in some cases for years.

The hot paddock rumor is that Dorna plans insurance against team bugouts and as a hedge against lasting hard times. One version predicted a return to 990cc displacement, but this has no survival value. What does, is to introduce a second tier to MotoGP, of suitably modified lOOOcc production bikes, sharing the grid with the 800s. This is desperate stuff that Mr. Flammini of World Superbike won’t like.

But there are just 17 or 18 real MotoGP bikes. Only the factories-or a rules change-can make more. Rumors of eight Hondas for next year sound good, but it’s belt-and-suspenders time.

Think back to when Formula One thinned out in the early 1950s-just a couple of super-expensive Alfas and a warmed-over prewar Maserati or two. Promoters nimbly switched to Formula Two races instead and had plenty of entries. Soon the sanctioning body adopted a more realistic formula.

I love MotoGP and the rapid advances it has brought: fabulous tires, electronic aids, sophisticated and lightweight four-stroke engines. Who can fail to be impressed by their unreal lean angles and steadily falling lap times? Rossi admitted that there is good racing in World Superbike, but he insisted that GP bikes are “more emotional,” as they are the purest creations of the collective rider/engineer imagination. They answer the perpetual question, “What if...?” I hope they survive the new forces at work in this world. □