MotoGP Rd1: Rossi takes dramatic last gasp win
from Motorcycles (336 articles)
The Jerez Moto GP was be the first race for the V4 engine and Team Roberts used the opportunity to develop the motorcycle under race conditions. Before the race the new motorcycle had only been able to make four winter test sessions and the team gained valuable track time in Spain. The bike experienced technical difficulties and was retired mid-race. The 2005 engines are expected to be ready to debut at the French GP in Le Mans on May 15.
The Blata WCM machine is still Yamaha R1-nbased at this time and the new team engine supplier Blata now plan for the Blata V6 engine to make its debut at the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic at Brno in August.
Following the unveiling of the V6 project and partnership between Blata and the WCM MotoGP team at last year's Grand Prix in Brno , Blata have achieved a great deal. They have not simply been building the new machine that would be enough of a challenge in itself, but have been building a MotoGP race department from zero.
“It is our intention to have a great deal of the engineering capability within our company,” explains Pavel Blata. “Of course we have partners who are being a great help but it makes no sense for us just to outsource everything. We do not do that with our production machines and we do not intend to do that in the racing department.”
An engine dyno and a rolling road dyno are just a couple of the more obvious facilities now in place, there is also specialist rapid prototyping, casting and machining facilities that have taken time to set up but will pay huge dividends even in the short term.
“We have made a long term commitment to race in MotoGP with WCM. They understand that we have to do things the right way and know it will pay off for all of us. We will support their continued use of the current four cylinder machine until the six is ready.”
WCM backs the path taken by Blata. “It makes absolute sense,” says Peter Clifford, Director of Racing. “Setting up the race department and building the bike is a huge task. The progress has been incredible. There is simply no point in forcing the bike onto the track just so we can use it at this end of the season. We are much more interested in the quality of machine we will be using at the other end of the season.”
Valentino Rossi, Gauloises Yamaha, winner of last four MotoGP championships, first place: "That was an amazing race, an incredible victory and really difficult, especially after the fall I had this morning in the warm-up. Luckily I wasn’t hurt and the team did a great job to fix the problem and set up my other bike for the race. Gibernau set a fast pace from the start but I just tried to stay with him and then attacked at the end. I got in front but I made a mistake on the last lap on the braking and Gibernau got past. We passed each other again in the fast rights but I got a better exit and there was enough space for me to pass him in the final corner, it was the only place where I could pass. We touched, but motorbike races are sometimes like this. I know Sete is not happy but there are going to be 16 more races this year and there will be many more hard battles. The level of this race was really high.”
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