Upheavals

Upheavals

TDC

Kevin Cameron

FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING. AND suddenly I'm awake. Where is this? I must he somewhere. I slowly understand that I'm not at home-the windows are wrong. and this isn't my bed. Yes. I'm in a hotel at Laguna Seca. Reality reconstructs itself, and I again know what's happening.

The last few weeks have been a slow-tempo version of this scenario of disorientation. I awakened one day to find that Cycle, the magazine for which I have written since 1973, is to be folded into Cycle Wortel. The telephone rings, and familiar voices purport to explain unfamiliar facts. I'm not sure I understand, but I find myself somehow over here at Cycle World. I expect this is a good thing, inasmuch as I still have things to say, and it would be a shame to have no place to say them. My professional reality is also reconstructing itself. When I call my editor, a new voice answers; the editors and staff of Cycle remain my friends, but are no longer my colleagues. I've thrown away all my Cycle business cards, and my red Cycle hats from last spring’s Daytona are orphaned.

I'll miss the old life, its people, and its certitudes, but there is no rock in the river of time from which to glare disapprovingly at life's surprises. We all have to swim. Since what's done is done, I hope that those of you who read my stuff in Cycle will see fit to give it a try in Cycle World. I hope that we all —readers of Cycle World, exreaders of Cycle. 1. and the people on staff at Cycle World — can find one another congenial companions in the months to come.

That being said, let us continue this agenda of upheavals in another quarter, the FIM proposals for changes to 500cc GP roadracing, and the furor they have created.

Two seasons ago, a design breakthrough gave us racing tires that stuck like crazy until—twang—they let go completely. There were a lot of getoffs and injuries. The popular outcry, coming from everyone but the racers and teams, was that 500s had finally become un ridable. It was proposed they be: 1 ) intake-restricted; 2) given unleaded fuel; 3) made heavier; 4) given narrower rims. Never mind that the factories had brilliantly brought powerbands under control. This new technology limits torque in lower gears through ignition retard or exhaust-valve control, or by directly sensing lire spin. Never mind that the new 500s were actually easier to ride. Never mind that Eddie Lawson had said any clubman champion could safely qualify one of the new torquecontrolled 500s for a GP Never mind that the rash of crashes had ended. A newsworthy debate had been generated, and had developed a life of its own. The debate interested people more than the facts, and the debate thrived.

So the press, the manufacturers and the FIM traded proposals like baseball cards. Two-stroke 500cc Twins to run with existing but intakerestricted 500s? Add in 750cc fourstrokes? Maybe 375cc two-stroke Triples with 500cc four-stroke Fours? The latest trial balloon—four-stroke 500cc GP bikes—allegedly comes from “top-level corporate people in Japan." who believe “four-strokes are the future." Now turn to the auto page of any newspaper to read about how Ford, Chrysler. Toyota, Subaru and others soon will introduce efficient. low-emissions two-strokepowered cars and trucks. Please, what is the future?

In the meantime, the 1991 grand prix season goes about its business, providing stunning racing among several well-matched riders, bikes and teams—with no rash of crashes. Why fix GP racing if it's not broken? We already have a fine international four-stroke racing class—World Superbike. GP racing is now open to both two-stroke and four-stroke machines. but when the FIM proposed to cut out two-strokes, the race teams exploded in protest and talked openly of revolution. Why?

In 1949, when the GPs began, racing was a gentlemanly contest among the several manufacturers, regulated by a blue-blazered coterie of sporting older gents—the FIM. Since then, other sources of power and influence have come into being as GP racing has become a major global sport. Because the teams must spend millions to operate, the business of attracting advertiser/sponsors has become extremely important. Television rights are a key matter: TV controls the payback to advertisers. If advertisers are happy, teams will be well-funded and successful. These new forces— the big teams, their advertiser/sponsors, and TV —naturally want to control their own business interests, and the FIM just as naturally resists any dilution of its powers. If the FIM plays the stern father, its children may leave home and set up on their own. If it bows to the new forces, it may be devoured from within.

To defuse the tension, an emergency meeting was called and the predictable result—a postponement of the four-stroke rule until 1994— was announced on August 1 8.

The fact is that sweeping change is not needed. GP racing is healthy with its two-strokes and World Superbike is healthy with its four-strokes. If GP grids need fattening, then require homologation as is done in so many other kinds of racing. Fell the makers, “To race in the GPs, you must make a prescribed quantity of the basic machine, for sale to qualified buyers, at a realistic price."

Yamaha has already built production 500s, and Honda. Suzuki and C'agiva can do it. too, if asked. What's needed are durable, productionized versions of the bikes that Schwantz, Rainey, Lawson and Doohan ride.

There will be headaches in writing rules to define this, but that’s the price of deviating from the original concept of grand prix racing: maximum freedom of design. 0