Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Stephane Mertens (4) and Fred Merkel ,11) resumed their battle for the Superbike championship in World Championship Superbike Road .Race Series: Round 10 . Aussies dominate as Merkel falters in Oz By Ken Wooton SYD NE Y, AUST RALI A, NOV. 12 Australian Rob P h illis brought Kawasaki its first World Superbike Ch am pion sh ip victory in the Australian round of the series at the tigh t aQd challengin g O ran P ark. Th e . Kaw asaki Au stralia rid er put in a dazzling di splay k d I 69'1 . h . 0!1 t. e rall: ~~oa e u , . -:-mI e circ u n to Iinish second In leg ~me. a nd backed that perf~rm an ce ~p leg t~ o. wI.th a heady ri de to th!rd pl ace, finishing th e da y as overall winner with 32 points. Phillis recovered from a slow start in leg one to overhaul th e early leader , Marlboro Yamaha Deal er T eam's Michael Dowson, and open up a ' 20"second break before th e dr ying tra ck began to pl ay havoc with hi s wet weather tir es. As he eased th e pa ce, a sto rm ing Peter Goddard, Dowson 's teammate a nd one of the two to start on slick rubber , ca me through the pack lik e a man possessed to take th e checkered fla g first. Others were left to slip a nd slide on deter iorating wet weather tir es, or alternately flounder in the pits wh ile unsch eduled tir e changes took place. In leg two it was Dow son wh o led from start to finish in a controlled di splay of aggr essive riding that left hi s rival s far beh ind a nd fall in g by th e wa yside. Dowson was the surprise recipient of a factory OWOI, the same bike that he had ridden to first -place overa ll at the Japanese round of the World Superb ik e Ch ampionship a t Sugo. "T he main difference is th at it's got a titanium exha ust and a few other lightweight bits. It doesn 't make a real lo t of difference, sort of like cutting your little finger off ," he said. Nevertheless, it was interesting to note at the weigh-in tha t Marlboro Yamaha Dealer Team guest rider R en e Bonger's sta ndard OWO I scaled 382.8 Ibs. while the factorybacked Pirovano item just sneaked past th e 363 lb. minimum. Ra ymond Roche, in a late cha rge, brought the booming works Ducati home second, while Phillis watched 111 18 first Goddard. th en T eam Honda !'-ustralia 's M ~lcolm C~~pb.ell, ItalIan Yam aha rid er Fabrizio Pirovan o , and T eam Loctite's T erry Rymer a ll fall victim to the unfor giving O ran Pa rk la yout. . While Phillis won th e day, Roch e won th e hearts of the crowd with 30 points and second place on the blood red Ducati. Dowson was third overall with 29 points. Sadl y for ' the two fastest men in each leg , they were not to feature in the final ou tcome. After a change to slicks mid-race in leg one, Campbell had the honor of _ fast est lap, but his 18th place was of little us e. In leg tw o it was Pirovano who stopped th e clocks soo nest, but a tangle with Campbell on lap 25 put both men o u t. A disappointing cro wd of ap proxim ately 8000 spectators attended th e meeting, th e smallest of th e champi onship so far. Mo st o bse rve rs cons idered the estimate to be ra ther o p t i m is t ic , and th e in cl em ent weather no doubt pl ayed its part in keeping th e turnst il es revolving slower th an anticipated. Those wh o stayed aw ay missed some excellent racing, with th e overseas contingent giving little away to th e fav ored local brigade. Circuit knowl ed g e was nullified by the ho rsepow er adva n tage of so me rather 'rap id internationa l machinery, least not " the fastest air co m p ressor in th e world," to quote the words o f T eam Kawa saki Australia's manager, .Peter Doyle, He was, of course, referring to th e bike thai went through th e speed trap part way down the front straight a good five-plus mph faster tha n anything else - ·the·booming Bologna twi n. Scrutineering, as always it seems , had its fair share of dramas. " Flyin " Fred Merkel can race a ll over th e world and proudly di spl ay hi s number one plate, yet wh en he comes to Australia his "knobs" hav e to be Australia. trimmed to mak e it mor e legible. Wh atever happen ed to, co m mo n sens e? Another litt le giggle associa ted with ma chine cligibilityconcerned the surprised look on Marco Lucchinel li's face as he wh eeled the works Du ca ti 851 onto th e scales to be told it was underweight. " Bu t it' s a twin ," he sa id, remindin g th e scrutineers th at twins have a low er weigh t limit tha n their fourcylinder cou nterpa rts . Qualifying " He re, tak e it back before I tear it up and do so me thing I'll regret." Those were the words proferred by T eam H onda Au stralia 's Malcolm Campbell as he pe rused the phot oco py o f grid positio ns aft er Saturday morning's qualifyin g sessio n . H e was back in 29th position .- not a ' plea sant po sition fo r th e ea r lypracti ce pacesetter to be in. The sto ry o f pra cti ce was the weather. .And with th e cha ngeable weather came cha ngea ble co nd itions for the competitors, and not o nly track co nd itio ns - scru tineering, interpretation of the rules, a nd the fin e line betw een a perfectly set up superbike and a misfiring one. . The format for pract ice was su ch tha t Friday was us ed fo r timed sessions, those bein g to determine the field for the ac tua l race. The number of starters was limited to 36, but as it turned o ut th ere were only 36 riders who took to the track. Therefore the timed sessions were not required to eliminate some of th e field, but purely to provide much needed setting-up time. A number of teams mistakenly assumed that th eir tim es would count towards grid positions - a mistake that nearly cost one favored runner a start in th e event. . With the late withdrawal of Roger Burnett, Paul Iddon, Davide Tardozzi a nd a hos t of others, the entry list was trimmed to a level that meant o nly one or two qualifiers would be lik ely to mi ss. And wh en Ita lian Adriano Nardu cci crashed his Honda RC30 on Thursday , putting himself out of contention, it opened up the field for some of the lesserkn own locals who may have had a battle on their hands otherwise. Narducci 's wasn 't the only tumb le, a nd others to inspect the Oran Park surface at clos e q uarters included Aaron Slight, Goddard and Bongers, who had a particul arl y nasty one when the OWO I hig h-sided him at Castrol Corner and followed h im into the wall. Thankfully, a severe winding was the only damage. Qualifying took place in two sessions, and it was the morning session that caused the dramas -dramas that is for the competitors who didn 't get on the track in the firs t five laps, as it then started to ram. Fastest was Mi chael Do w so n , who'd gone out on new slicks a nd " p ulled the pin," with his teammate Goddard in second. Then ca me Merkel and Roche. In fact, th e la tter had set the fast est time of a ll the timed practi ce sessions (I:13.158), and this was not to be beat en in the two offi cial qualifiers. Ca m pbe ll was in trouble, and with threatening skies hi s I:23.482 wa s bar ely within the 115%cu to ff. As the track cond itio ns improved in the afternoon he kep t plugging away , and in a su per-h u ma n effort hoisted himself to seco nd place on the grid with a I:13.596. Mert en s sim ilarly leap-fro gged from ninth to th ird, with Roche a nd Goddard claiming th e rem aining front row positions. Merten s, desperat e to close the two-point gap to Merkel in the series sta nd ings , had 'so me reservations abo u t thevenue, " T h is is not a World Champion. sh ip tra ck," he said. " It is too short, . and it's al so very bumpy. In som e 'places it's a little dangerous. I also didn 't kn ow th a t Friday practice would not co u nt." Mert ens wa s wearing a "gird le" outside hi s. leathers through out practi ce: " It helps with the injury I got earlier in th e season . My pelvis separates, and corneri ng o n a tight circuit with m y legs o u t is a problem ," said th e a m iable Belgian. The rid er 's representative and 13th quali fier , Anders Andersson, was somewha t mo re o utspoken : " We' re di sappointed w i th th e safe ty cha nges. T hey said the track wo uld be impro ved but very little has happened. They knew we wer e com ing a nd co uld have done something.] asked th em for 1000hay bal es last n ight (Friday ) but they said nothing could be done. We'll ride, bu t th ey'v e go ne ba ck o n th ei r p rom ises." Pirovano had qualified in a lowl y 12th; but wasn 't too co ncerned , ' having used practice to dial things in for race da y. He echoed Andersson's comments: " T hey promised last year, but only did it in one corner." Race one The field gathered on the grid for th e schedu led start, with .slick tires the order of the day. However, 'with threatening skies the s tart was delayed by 15 minutes, and soon the first spots of rain made their presence felt on the riders' visors. That was the signa l for a flurry of a ctivity, with wet tires and spanners being wielded with abandon. That is, except in the Peter Goddard ca m p, where Warren Wil ling, freshly returned from the Lucky Strike Yamaha Team, was on hand to guide the you ng man he personally manages. A slick rear and handcut front were th e order of the day for the Marlboro Yamaha OWOl. As the light turned green it was Goddard who led th e charge on th e rain- soaked tra ck, with Dowson clamped to his tail. Treadless tires were not the right combination at this stage, and as Goddard used discretion, his teammate disappeared into the distance. At the completion of the Iirsrlap it was Dowson who led from Terry Rymer, then P irovano .Rob Scolyer, Andy McGlad dery and .Ph ill is. As Dowson stretched his lead , Phill is was the mover in the pack, and a t the start of lap seven he was only .19 second behind Rymer, a nd .62 second clear of his Kiwi teammate in fo u rt h . ' Then came P irovano , Andersson, Scolyer, Suho nen, Campbell, Mertens, Roche, Goddard, Sohwa and Robert Holden on the Bob Brown Ducati.

• Cover