Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.



Two-strokes Take Top Two Times

Red Bull Yamaha’s Gary McCoy put in another excellent performance Sunday, February 17 in the last day of testing at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, Spain, in cold conditions. McCoy topped all riders with a best lap of 1:34.070 on his Dunlop-tired Yamaha YZR500, the fastest of the three-day test. McCoy’s time was 0.4-second quicker than Max Biaggi’s 2001 pole time of 1:34.496.

Also under Biaggi’s time, second-fastest rider on the final day was Gauloises Tech 3 Yamaha YZR500 rider Shinya Nakano with a time of 1:34.360.

Marlboro Yamaha’s Max Biaggi suffered his second crash of the test Sunday with his YZR-M1 and procured test rider John Kocinski’s M1 four-stroke for the remainder of the day. Biaggi went faster on his first flying lap with Kocinski’s set-up–which includes a different frame and engine mounting position–than on his own bike.

Nevertheless, Biaggi’s teammate, Carlos Checa, was the third-fastest rider, and fastest four-stroke rider, of the test with a 1:34.654 on his YZR-M1.

American John Hopkins was 14th fastest as his crew continued to work him through a test program designed to familiarize Hopkins with the YZR500 and how it reacts to various set-up changes.

The next IRTA test for MotoGP and 250cc riders begins Wednesday, February 20, at Estoril in Portugal.

MotoGP
Garry McCoy, Yamaha YZR500, 1:34.070
Shinya Nakano, Yamaha YZR500, 1:34.360
Carlos Checa, Yamaha YZR-M1, 1:34.654
Daijiro Katoh, Honda NSR500, 1:34.722
Max Biaggi, Yamaha YZR-M1, 1:34.820
John Kocinski, Yamaha YZR-M1, 1:34.828
Alex Barros, Honda NSR500, 1:35.213
Norick Abe, Yamaha YZR500, 1:35.226
Loris Capirossi, Honda NSR500, 1:35.353
Jurgen V.d. Goorbergh, Honda NSR500, 1:35.566
Olivier Jacque, Yamaha YZR500, 1:35.738
Jeremy McWilliams, Proton KR3, 1:35.862
Sylvain Guintoli, Yamaha YZR500, 1:36.495
John Hopkins, Yamaha YZR500, 1:36.501
Regis Laconi, Aprilia RS3, 1:36.744
Shinichi Itoh, Honda NSR500, 1:36.501
Nobu Aoki, Proton KR3, 1:36.951
Tetsuya Harada, Honda NSR500, 1:37.768

250cc
Alfonso Nieto, Aprilia, 1:35.680
Randy De Puniet, Aprilia, 1:36.998
Casey Stoner, Aprilia, 1:37.046
Alex Debon, Aprilia, 1:37.325
Franco Battaini, Aprilia, 1:37.344

Of Hopkins’ testing, team manager Peter Clifford said, We just told John to take it easy. He did a really good three days. And he’s put a huge amount of effort into his physical training since he tested in Malaysia.”

People who have seen Hopkins lately cannot believe his transformation into an obviously very fit athelete, and the change in his muscle definition.