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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127255
Squadra Corse Ducati's Raymond Roch e (27) defeated Stephane Mertens (4) and Fred Merkel (I) to win the opening round of the World Cham p ionship Superbike Series. Roche perfectin Jerez opener By Bruce Newton JEREZ, SPAIN, MAR 18 aymond Roche .and the factory Ducati team ha ve signalled that the y are read y to become World Superbike Champions following a dominating performance at J erez in Spa in. Roche suffered poor starts in both 22-lap races but still came pounding back through the field to take clear wins in both legs, hi s clo sest cha lle nge coming from new teammate G iancarl o Falappa in the second race. Defendin g World Superbike Champi on Fred Merkel let it be kn own that he won't make it easy for Roch e, collecting second and th ird placings o n the Rumi Team H onda RC 30, desp ite twice colliding with arch rival Stephan e Mertens' T otal Honda. The biggest surprise of the meeting was the performa nce of Rob Phillis on the T eam Shin Etsu Kawasaki In ternational ZXR750. The Austral ian ran wit h the leaders all week and h is fourt h and fifth placings were j ust rewa rd. Su rprisingly disappointing was the performance of the Loctite Yamahas of Eng lishmen Terry Rymer and Rob R McElnea, the ir Dunlop tires hurting their attempts to run with the lead ers. Indeed, it wasn 't a great weekend for the Yamaha teams at all. Seaso ned front- ru nners such as Ital ian Fabrizio Piro van o and Swede Anders Andersson pu t in decidedly patchy performan ces. For Marco Lu cchinell i's Du ca ti team th ough - and Roche in part icu lar - J erez was a triumph. Qualifying This was the first visit to the modem 2.61-mile J erez circ ui t for the World Su pe rbi ke Cha m pionship and th at meant everyo ne was o n somethi ng of ' a learnin g curve. Most of th e serio us compe titors had arriv ed a week befor e the race on ly to si t aro und Monday and T uesday whi le the Dunlop-sponsor ed men whis tled aro und du ring excl usive tests. Wha t was esta blished by Thursday evening, after the Michelin , Pirelli and the few Metzeler run ners (tha t's four tir es brands having a serious go ) had been on the circ ui t for a couple of da ys, was th at the factory Ducatis, Merkel, th e Loctite team and Phillis were looking good, with the best of them getti ng into th e one- mi n ute, 52-second bracket . T he firs t released tim es came during Friday's single short un offi cial sessio n wi th Rym er to p pi ng th e sheet at I:53. 13 from teammate McElnea at 53.67s. They led a Yam aha domination wi th rela tive unknown Dutchman J effrey de Vries and Ger man Su perb ike Cham pi on Udo Mark lead in g the rest, Times were slow and no t indicative of what was to foll o w in Saturday's ' two officia l q ua lifying sessio ns. Du cat i didn 't even practice. One th in g was for sure, the fast time wo uld almost certai nly come in th e ' first sessio n, befor e the wi nd sta rted to blow. And so it proved. Three rid ers Roch e, Merkel and Rymer - riding wit h the bit between their teeth and crac ked th e 1:51 brac ket for with A I, .13 and .64, respectively. , Roche used a Michelin 1900A rear slick - a ti re avai lab le o n ly to th e very lucky few, wh ile Merkel used a soft Pirelli : " Worth six to eigh t laps ," said Pirelli 's Peter Ing ley. Rymer? " Race tir es." Score one to Dunlop appare nt ly. " I saw a clear spot and just went for it, " he sa id of his hot lap. " It wasn't on th e limi t at all, it felt really comfortable." He did admit th at he wouldn't wa nt to run the whole race at that pace though . . . McElnea was fourth, albeit 1.49 seco nds slower, then an uhappy Phil lis, delayed by niggling carburation and suspen sion problem s, but still , second fastest Michelin man. Falappa, Mert ens, working overtime to develop a bike wh ich had arrived from J apan o n ly the previous week. Local jaun Lopez-Mella (Honda), Scot Brian Morrison (Honda) - despite just eig ht laps - and th e ragged DeVries rounded o ut the top 10. Notables mi ssin g from the top 10 included Piro vano (" no problems just sort ing" ), T ardozzi (suspension ), Ander sson (a lon g list of sorti ng probl ems), R oger Burnett o n th e Durex Suzuki (develop ing a brand new bike wh ich was still awaiting mor e development parts from J apan), Finn . Jari Su ho nen (lac k of track ti me after blowing an engi ne in hi s OWOI ) H onda Britain 's Carl Fogarty and hi s teammate J amie Whitham were suffering with atrocious handling (part icul arl y the front-en d) and had a lack of time to sort out the probl em after their RC30s on ly arrived from Dayton a on Friday. As predictab le as a Spa nis h su permarket closin g a t 2 p. m., the wind sprung up in th e afternoo n leavin g the to p three tim es u ntested. Merkel was q uickest a t I :5 1.97 a n d cla im ed mechanic Norris Farrow , wou ld have crac ked th e 1:5 1 barri er but for a m iscalcula tion: " We thou ght we had on e more lap befor e th e end, but th e laps are so lo ng here the nag came ou t