Even though he’s a Euro-millionaire many times over, Loris Capirossi must have been thrilled to win a BMW 330 Cd at the Circuit de Catalunya last month, when he set up the fastest lap in a special one-hour timed session, ahead of the best riders in the world on the finest grand prix motorcycles yet built.
An Italian rider on an Italian machine, Capirossi so pleased his Ducati paymasters that they later presented him with the first Ducati Monster S4R to roll off the production line, to park alongside his new car.
But I suspect that his achievement in holding off second-placed Alex Barros on the works M1 Yamaha and outriding Honda mounted world champion Valentino Rossi by half a second on a brand-new machine means more to him than would an entire fleet of cars and bikes.
Capirossi and Ducati showed that they mean business in this, the Italian superbike manufacturer’s debut year in the 1 000cc MotoGP championship. Two weeks later things didn’t go quite so well for Ducati at the final pre-season testing session, held at Suzuka, venue for this weekend’s season-opening Japanese Grand Prix.
Capirossi was just 0,7 seconds behind fastest man Valentino Rossi, but there were another six riders between them on lap times.
Honda showed that they intend fighting to stay top dog when the real racing starts by placing five of their riders in the top six, with Rossi leading the way. But the Japanese manufacturer also knows that it’s not going to be easy. Barros was fourth quickest on a Yamaha, and World Superbike champion Colin Edwards proved that he’s taking well to the Aprilia GP machine by managing seventh quickest on the day.
But testing is testing. What happens on race day depends upon many things, and Rossi has a number of serious street fighters after his scalp. He and Max Biaggi enjoy a less cordial relationship than do George W Bush and Saddam Hussein, and now that Biaggi’s moved to a Honda he will be desperate to prove that he can beat his countryman on relatively even terms. This would also back up his claims that the Yamaha he rode last year was not good enough to win regularly.
Two-times Superbike champion Edwards is used to winning even against the odds, and he’s sure to put up a monster fight on the three-cylinder Aprilia.
The fact that he was poorly treated by Honda after winning the Superbike title for them last year is also likely to have given him a personal interest in proving his point.
Then there are all the other riders who have beaten Rossi fairly and squarely in the past, but would like to do so more regularly. Yamaha’s Carlos Checa and Honda mounted Tohru Ukawa will both be set to confirm that they have what it takes to be champions.
Then come the rest. Sete Gibernau may lack the sheer aggressiveness of the very top riders, but he was fifth quickest on his new Honda during the Suzuka testing, less than half a second behind Rossi, and 2001 World Superbike champion Troy Bayliss is a hard rider who’s sure to settle in on his Ducati as he gets used to the different world of grand prix racing.
Garry McCoy’s another very competitive racer, but he and his Kawasaki team-mate Andrew Pitt seem to be having problems getting their new machines competitive.
So who’s going to go home with a broad grin and a large trophy on Sunday?
The sheer numbers of their superb five-cylinder machines on the grid — seven — with riders of the calibre of Rossi, Biaggi, Ukawa and Daijiro Kato on board gives Honda a head start, but Barros and Checa on the improved Yamaha M1s can’t be ignored.
Ducati? They’ve dominated World Superbike for most of a decade now, and with production-based twin cylinder machines were achieving lap times almost on a par with the older 500cc two-stroke grand prix bikes.
Now, with four cylinders, less weight and Capirossi and Bayliss in the saddles, they have to be contenders for the podium in the MotoGP class — and Capirossi’s the man who could do it for them.
Barring incidents, I feel that we’ll see any three of Rossi, Capirossi, Biaggi, Barros or Ukawa on the podium, with Ukawa in with a good chance for a surprise win, thanks to his home-ground advantage. Unless of course it rains, which is predicted — then anybody could win at Suzuka, an almost 6km long, very technical track that’s difficult enough to get around in the dry —
Wet or dry, the real dark horse of MotoGP will still be locked in the stable on Sunday. Kenny Roberts senior’s new 990cc five-cylinder Proton KR is not yet race-ready, so
Jeremy McWilliams and Nobuatsu Aoki will be soldiering on with the old three-cylinder 500cc two-stroke in Japan.
Still, retired three-times world champion Roberts has announced that he hopes to have the new machine race-ready for the second leg of the championship, to be held at our own Phakisa Freeway in Welkom over the weekend of April 25-27.
And if, as is predicted, it rains in Japan on Sunday we might get to see the other new bikes really getting down to business for the first time this year there as well.