---

Bridgestone: Tyre failures a total surprise

Bridgestone have pledged to quickly find the source of Shinya Nakano's
catastrophic rear tyre failure during yesterday's Italian Grand Prix,
which saw the Kawasaki star thrown from his machine at 190mph along
the Mugello main straight.

The cause of the accident - in which Nakano miraculously escaped
serious injury - was later revealed as a 'chunk out' problem, and
would also end the hopes of fellow Bridgestone rider Makoto Tamada
just one lap later.

The Camel Honda star had repeatedly taken the lead from world champion
Valentino Rossi and looked set for a strong podium finish - or even
victory - when a chunk of his rear tyre tread came off at the end of
the same ultra-fast main straight. Fortunately, Tamada was able to
bring his machine to a halt safely.

"Today's problems were a bitter experience for all of us, and we are
very sorry for Shinya, who suffered a terrible crash at the fastest
point of the track, and Makoto, who missed out on a podium finish,"
began Hiroshi Yamada, motorcycle racing manager for Bridgestone
Motorsport. "Our main consolation is that neither of them got hurt.

"Chunk out problems like that are extremely rare, and we were
convinced we had this demanding highspeed track well under control
when all our riders enjoyed promising and trouble-free practice
sessions.

"Our tyres seemed to work especially well with track and air
temperatures that were quite similar to the race conditions today. To
see Makoto take the race lead and resist the attacks of Valentino
Rossi seemed to confirm the good performance of our tyres.

"What happened then caught us completely by surprise. We are now going
to analyse the occurrences very carefully. We will find the weak point
in the construction, and solve the problem as quickly as possible,"
concluded Yamada.

Bridgestone now have just five days to find solutions, and calm rider
fears, before first qualifying for the Catalan Grand Prix takes place
this Friday.


--
-Michael
No. 74 riding shotgun...

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MKS - 74 <mks74temp@tiscali.dk> writes:

> "What happened then caught us completely by surprise. We are now going
> to analyse the occurrences very carefully. We will find the weak point
> in the construction, and solve the problem as quickly as possible,"
> concluded Yamada.

Heh, ja Bridgestone kørerne glæder sig garanteret allerede til næste
weekend...

--
Mikkel | Died. Woke up in Hell. Punched in PIN, logged on.
motortosse.dk | Just another day.
| - David Gerard

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On 08 Jun 2004 09:26:32 +0200, Mikkel Christensen <mic@rrnord.invalid>
wrote:

>Heh, ja Bridgestone kørerne glæder sig garanteret allerede til næste
>weekend...

Asking KRJR about riding next Friday, whose engine failed so didn't
give the tyre the same hammering that Tamada did, the 2000 Champion
said, "I can't say I won't ride but it isn't a f**king difficult
question is it?"

Roberts has been in hospital already this year because of a tyre blow
out at pre-season testing at Sepang. It is also becoming apparent that
Tamada had a similar blow out at the Sepang tests too.

The Kawasaki team were obviously wary after the Nakano tyre blow up
and opted to tell Alex Hofmann to slow down... rather than come into
the pits...

Pictures of Nakano wrestling with his Kawasaki before he actually hit
the deck were frightening to see. Word from trackside says that he
actually had the tyre blow way before the line, only to fall off at
the end of the pit wall some 200 metres later. The seat had already
been shattered at that point.

En lille video for dem der ikke så det :

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dan.vitale/video/shinya-makoto.mpg

--
-Michael
No. 74 riding shotgun...

---

MKS - 74 <mks74temp@tiscali.dk> writes:

> Asking KRJR about riding next Friday, whose engine failed so didn't
> give the tyre the same hammering that Tamada did, the 2000 Champion
> said, "I can't say I won't ride but it isn't a f**king difficult
> question is it?"

*LOL* Champ er stadig sur. Men når hverken dæk eller cykel virker skal
der jo virkelig evner til at få det til at blive til noget. Så det...

> Pictures of Nakano wrestling with his Kawasaki before he actually hit
> the deck were frightening to see. Word from trackside says that he
> actually had the tyre blow way before the line, only to fall off at
> the end of the pit wall some 200 metres later. The seat had already
> been shattered at that point.

Pyha...

--
Mikkel | Died. Woke up in Hell. Punched in PIN, logged on.
motortosse.dk | Just another day.
| - David Gerard