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Italian Davide Tardozzi and his Bimota survived a race one r~n-in w ith Fred Merkel ·to claim the overall victory and maintain his series points lead. World Championship Superbike Series: Round 4 Tardozzi tops in Austria By Kel Edge ZELTWEG, ApSTRIA, JULY 3 O n the fas t, undulating Osterreichring circuit set in the beautiful Austrian Alps, Davide Tardozzi an d his Italian rival Marco Lucchinelli dominated the four th rou n d of the.World Superbike Series by winning a race apiece. Tardozzi showed the supremacy of the Bimotas by winning one 20 leg and finishing fifth in the other ' afte r a first-lap incident put him at the ba ck of th e field. Lucchinelli won th e other leg to give th e Bimo ta and Ducati factories cause to break out th e cha mp agne yet agairi. After the first extremely wet practice session th e two Aussies, Malcolm Campbell and Rob Phillis, headed th e field and asked, "Why is everyo ne ou t there riding li ke wi mps? " T he next dry ' practice saw Ca mpbell on pole followed by Lucchinelli, Tardozzi , Roger Burnett and Christopher Bo uheben. Tardozzi's Bimo ta teammate, Stephane Mertens, was alread y out, having crashed spectacularly in unofficial practice. H e tore knee ligaments a nd was l ucky to escape wi th m inor b urns after h is b ike comp letely burn t out. Race 1 As the clouds started to drift away to reveal the rolling hills above the circuit, Lucchinelli blasted his Duca ti off the line ahead of the rest of the pack. First into the ch icane, he led from Bouheben, Fabrizio Pirovano and Phillis. Lap one also saw th e race 's biggest drama. Tardo zzi crashed into th e back of Fred Merkel's bike, sending the Californian off the track and out of the race. Tardozzi managed to stay on but dropped back to nearly last place. A very bruisedand battered Merkel said afterwards, "Tardozzi must have left hi s brain in the pits; there were 20 laps to go!" Meanwhi le , the Austrian hills were alive with the sound of the Ducati V-twin as " L ucky" raced unchallenged to th e checkered flag. Behind was a terrific scra p for second betw een Bouheben , Pirovano, Alex Viera, Bu rn ett, Campbell a n d Fre nch man Adrien Mor ill as. As the race progressed, Tardozzi joined th e battle, having fought his way up the field int o the top 10. In doing so, he set a new lap record, with a time of one minute, 54.07 seconds, nearly seven seconds faster than the previous best time set by a Honda 500cc two-stroke triple. Burnett had been holding second after Bouheben crashed at the chicane. On the last la p , though, Burnett lost the front end at the very fast Tiroch Curve, hitting the armco hard and having to be arn bu lanced off. Fortunately, nothing was broken , but he was too badly concussed to race in the second leg . At th e checkered flag, then, it was Lucchinelli ahead of the " Italian Tiger," Pirovano, with Campbell in third. Campbell really enjoyed himself, saying that it was one of the toughest races of his life, more like a 250 Grand Prix. ' Race 2 The storm clouds hung menac- . ingly over the starting line as, once again , Lucchinelli got the drop on all the others. He was chased up the hill by Bouheben, Tardozzi and Pirovano, but soon fell to third with spark plug troubles. On lap three, Tardozzi overtook Bouheben and maintained his advantage to the flag. Bouheben challenged hard in the first half of the race , but was slowed after hard cornering had destroyed his left footrest. Once again there was a tremendous scrap for third between Viera, Pirovano, Morillas, Edwin Weibel, Campbell, Merkel and Ernst Gschwender. These seven continually swa pped posit ions until lap 17, wh en Merkel made his move. H e forcedhis wa y up to third a nd th en got ahead of Bouheben in second. No sooner had he overtaken the French endurance racer when his fuel started to run out. As a result of his crash with Tardozzi in the first race, Merkel had to use a spare fuel tank. This one only held 18 liters instead of the normal 24, and this was not enough. Poor Mer kel had to slow down and cruise back to the flag whilst watching the six people he had just overtaken re-pass him. After . a tough race, ridden in great pain after his earlier crash, Merkel came in eighth. Bouheben held off his Honda France teammate ' Viera to finish second. . So, on th e last of the superfast circuits, Tardozzi demonstrated the power and speed of the Bimo tas and now heads the championship by nine-and-a-half points from Lucchinelli and the un-fancied Pirovano. Merkel has dropped back to fourth, despite having a new engine from Honda R &D in j apan . (The new engine was actually slower than the old one!) j oey Dunlop, who missed this round to concentrate on the F l race at Villa: Real in Port ugal, now lies fifth . T he next round takes th e teams to Sugo, japan, where the Superbikes began. It remains to be seen if the Italians will pu t one over on the factories who probably created the series in the first p lace. • Results 0 / A: 1. Davide Tardozzi (Bim ); 2. Alex Viera (Hon); 3 . Fabrizio Pirovano (Yam); 4. Malcolm Campbell (Hon); 5. Edwi n We ibel (Hon); 6. Ma rco Lucchinelli (Due); 7. Ad rien Morillas (Kaw); 8. Chr istop her Bouh eben (Hon); 9. Ernst Gschwender (Suz); 10 . And ers Ande rsson (Suz). POINT STANDINGS : 1. Davide Tardozzi (51.5); 2. (TIEl Marco Lucchine ll i/Fabrizio Pirovano (41); 4 . Fred Merkel (36 .5); 5. Jo ey Dun lop (30); 6. Alex Viera (29); 7. Adrien M or illa s (26.5); 8. Stephane Mertens (261; 9. Roger Burnen (22 .5); 1D. Edwi n Weibel (1B). .