Clipboard
Clipboard
RACE WATCH
MotoGP: Speed to spare?
Look at the tremendous top speeds recorded at the pre-season MotoGP test at Catalunya, Spain-almost 216 mph for Loris Capirossi’s 2004 Ducati, not much less for the Hondas. Reigning series champ Valentino Rossi, having switched from Honda to Yamaha, was radared at 211 mph. Last year, the Yamaha could only manage speeds in the mid-190s. Now, even the Proton goes 204 mph. Where is all this speed coming from?
Remember the fuss when Shinichi Itoh’s two-stroke Honda NSR500 went 200 mph at Hockenheim a decade ago? If we take that as baseline and postulate 195 horsepower for that bike, then what should we expect? The new MotoGP four-strokes are surely little if any wider than their two-stroke predecessors, so drag should be similar. The big difference is the horsepower claims for MotoGP, last year floating near 240 bhp. The power to overcome drag increases as the cube of speed, so the power increase from 195 to 240 bhp (26 percent) should increase top speed by about 8 percent. Sure enough, 1.08 times 200 mph is 216 mph.
Where was this speed last year, when the 240-bhp claim was first heard? One part of the explanation is that this year at Catalunya, a considerable tailwind was
blowing. The second part might be the slightly wild-eyed way the Honda and Ducati teams are regarding each other this year. Ducati broke up Honda’s “podium parties” several times last year, and its ’04 engines are rumored to be 20-bhp stronger. How much more speed would 20 bhp more buy? If last year’s Ducati made 250 bhp, then with enough straightaway we could expect another 5-6 mph on top. That, plus the tailwind, plus the Honda/Ducati rivalry shifting power up the rpm scale, could explain the speed jump.
Interesting Question Number One: If Honda and Ducati engage in a horsepower race, how much will that hurt power delivery? Currently, the Ducati’s power hits very hard, so the bike has to be nearly upright or the rear tire will spin. The Honda spins its rear tire as well, but the bike doesn’t snap sideways. Clearly, the new emphasis on power has eaten into the user-friendliness of these bikes.
Interesting Question Number Two: If a Honda/Ducati arm-wrestle trades away smoothness to gain power, might Rossi and Yamaha glide past both of them? Yamaha engineers told me in Japan last year they had been able to cut lap times by trading away peak power to raise average power across the band. Rossi’s Yamaha was 12th-fastest in the Catalunya radar derby, but he had the quickest lap time. Hmmm...
Max Biaggi and Colin Edwards are on “second-string” Hondas. Does that mean they may benefit from having last year’s more user-friendly engines? Honda claims not, that all teams have identical equipment. Edwards-always highly analytical—is going fast, while Biaggi has so far struggled to find the setup he wants.
What good is top speed? Honda’s new CBR1000RR was radared at 194 mph in pre-Daytona testing, yet didn’t win. Top speed happens for a second at the end of the longest straight, but acceleration and speed off corners win most races. Acceleration improves as averaged horsepower rises across the rpm range actually used-not from peak power. Speed off the corners benefits from smooth throttle connection and suffers from the abrupt kind of power Ducati-and, to an extent, Honda-showed in the recent tests. Honda was the throttle-connection champion in ’03, but Yamaha has shown it is learning this lesson.
The award for greatest improvement goes to Kenny Roberts Jr. and his Suzuki. At one of the tests, he was second-quickest. This is a huge jump from the dreary finishes of the past two seasons. It’s good to see this capable man, the 2000 500cc World Champion, back in the running. And it’s good to see Erv Kanemoto-present at recent Suzuki tests-back in GP action.
Doing well in tests is a matter of putting together a combination for a few good laps. It will take more to translate such potential into top race finishes. Yet that is just what this series needs: real competition, with podium finishes by more than 1.2 brands. It will be fascinating to see the technological tactics deployed as Ducati, Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha square off.
Kevin Cameron
MX Exodus
As the 2004 AMA Supercross Series began to wind down, not all eyes were on the chairr pion-to-be, Yamaha’s Chad Reed. Even though the 22-yearold Australian was winning three out of every four races as he pulled away from Honda’s Kevin Windham and the rest of the pack, the biggest story in the sport was happening far away from the stadiums. Down in Tallahassee, Florida, Ricky Carmichael was working his way back into shape after a knee injury last November sidelined him for the entire indoor series. The injury prevented Carmichael from going after a fourth straight title (the first of which he won on a Kawasaki in 2001 before bolting to Honda). RC’s target date for getting back on the bike in preparation for this summer’s outdoor national motocross tour was April 1. But less than 24 hours after he started riding again, Carmichael shocked the entire sport when he announced he had signed a twoyear deal with Team Suzuki beginning in 2005. It was the supercross equivalent of Alex Rodriguez signing with the Yankees-then leaving them for the Red Sox!
“I had to do what was right for me,” said Carmichael, 23, of his second major move in the last three years. “I’m bummed because I wanted to be with Honda. I did well for them. I went out and won them four championships in two years and had always given them 100 percent. We had given Honda the first right of refusal-an option to step it up-and they opted not to do so.”
Carmichael followed up on a conversation he had with Suzuki Team Manager Roger DeCoster last fall and cut the deal, rumored to be worth over $4 million for the next two seasons. That set off a flurry of speculation as to where the sport’s other two major stars are headed. Reed’s contract with Yamaha also ends this season, as does teenager James “Bubba” Stewart’s Kawasaki contract. Both had been linked to Suzuki before Carmichael’s deal was announced. Now everyone’s guessing that Honda will try to sign at least one of them to fill the giant void left by the departure of 10-time AMA Champion Carmichael at the end of this season.
“I had a feeling he was going to go in that direction,” said Reed of his rival’s new deal. “In his situation staying with Honda, he was asking for stuff and obviously not getting it. The sport is at a new level now, and we need to work together with the manufacturers.”
For his part, Reed is stuck in negotiations with Yamaha.
“I want to be happy with my deal, and for that to happen, I need to get what I want out of it,” he says. “When we started talking about 2005, Yamaha went in a different direction than I thought they would. They caught me off-guard. They were not flexible on a lot of things. So far, we have not been able to get it where we want it.”
According to inside sources, part of the problem for Reed is Yamaha’s strict demand that their team riders only wear blue-and-white riding gear. He feels that his image and his chances to get more magazine covers-and the bonus dollars that come with them-are hampered by his colors. If Reed wants to wear/ride something different, the opportunity is certainly there.
“All the teams have shown interest, and we’ve talked to everyone,” he said. “It’s a great position to be in.”
As for Stewart, he was still digesting the move of his fellow Floridian Carmichael as rumors swirled around him.
“Just to hear him sign with somebody else kind of blew my mind,” said Stewart, who will move up to the 250cc class in ’05 after three years of dominating the 125s. “It was weird when RC went from Kawasaki to Honda, and I think it will be just as weird to see him on a Suzuki. It’s going to be a little different, though, because I’ll be racing him, so I’m looking forward to it. I’m just excited to race against him. It doesn’t matter if he’s on a tricycle!”
Stewart is as evasive on the question of his own future as he’s been effective on the track-he won every 125cc SX he entered this season on his way to the 125cc Eastern Region crown. “It’s up in the air right now, and that’s about it. I love being with Kawasaki, and I love my team,” says the 18-year-old. “I’m just kind of waiting for everything to settle down, and I’ll just go from there. Whatever we all ride-and I don’t care what we ride-I think it will still be that same threeor four-way battle all year. It’s going to be on!”
Davey Coombs
