Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

;WID~E~d~~~_~_h_~_'~_:R_~_d_12 ~ slower, whi le Goddard' s teammate Rene Bo n gers was th ird fastest and the last man in the 1:40 brac ket after a weekend of solid im provement. He' d set his fastest time a fter follow ing Goddard for several la ps: " I los t him in traffic a nd then it was up to ~ me. " Frenchman Raymond Roche wrapped up the World Superbike Championship in Australia , posting 10-5 finishes. Aussies win, Roche crowned' .at Phillip Island By Bruce Newton PHILUP ISLAND, AUSTRALIA, NOV, II aymo n d Roch e wrapped u p th e World , Superbike Ch ampi on sh ip with two conserva ti ve rid es a t Phillip Island. T he 33-year-o ld Fren chman took fif th and eig h th pl aces in th e two 32lap race s, a fter severe fron t sus pe n sion problems in practice had seen h iin qualify o n ly 10th. " It' s good to win ," he said after wa rds , " I am happy for Du cati, I am hap py for everyone. It was impossib le for me to win today because I think of the cham pions h ip." Bu t for th e 10,000 wi ndswep t fans Roche's co nserva tive rides were very much a sidesho w, with local Grand Prix prospect Pet er Godd a rd a nd Aus tra lia's World Cha m p io n sh i p regu lar Rob Ph ill is sp litting th e wi ns - th e latter scoring h is first ever in a thrilling seco nd race whi ch saw he, G oddard a n d Malco lm Cam pbe ll separat ed by just 0.06s at th e chec kered flag. The Europeans fared poo rl y at th is meetin g , bei ng h am pered thro ug h p rac tice a n d q ua li fyi ng by poor. weather which did n' t hel p th em set up fo r th e fast 2.759-mile ci rcu it. Ste p ha ne Merten s cras hed after being involved in a contro versia l co llision with Fabrizio Pi rovano whil e th ey were battling for second on th e last lap of th e first ra ce,and Piro va no ' co u ld manage o n ly fifth in race two. Merten s was lat er ramm ed by local rider Ren e Bongers on th e last lap of th e seco nd race, but man aged to mak e i t to the line in ninth. Bongers fell o ff and nearl y took Roch e with hi m. Both R ob McElnea a n d T erry R 10 R ym er had meet ing s th ey would prefer to forget, th e former giving up hi s bri ef hold o n fourth pl ace in the ch amp io nsh ip to Philli p s. Q u alifyi n g , The meag er international represen ta tio n wa s boosted by o ne with th e arriva l of Scotsm an Brian Mo rrisson and th e Drarnbui e H onda wh ile the a lrea dy strong local conti ngent was strengthe ne d by H onda Racin g Aus tralia 's you n g sensatio n Daryl Beat ti e a n d R othm an s H ond a' s Sco tt (bro ther o f Mi ck ) Doohan . G oddard emerged o n top a fte r q ual ifying o n hi s facto ry Marlbo ro Yam a ha Deal er T eam OWOI. With Warr en Willing i n a ttenda nce, Godda rd had worked har d to get th e bike set up after a disa ppointing sho wing in Malaysia. Ne w constructio n Dun lo p tires a lso hel ped. " We' ve cha n ged th e fron t fork sp ri ngs a nd th at 's mad e it , a lot better ," he exp lai ned. "The new tires have better power grip and th ey've go t th e side gri p u p a bit too. " After Friday's d ry but windy sessio ns God dard was o n top by .8-ofa-second over Phillis' Team Sh in Et su Kawa saki In tern ational ZXR750, th e .H - year-ol d figh ti n g back well after high-siding a t South ern Loop on co ld ti res in th e first sessio n, and Campbell 's H onda Racing Austr alia R C 30. As to b e ex pec ted, th e Australi an s ruled th e roosts as th e interna tio na ls lea rn ed the ir wa y aro u nd , o n ly Roch e a nd th e Loctite Yamaha du o of McElnea and previous visito r Rymer ma king th e to p 10. Most of th e for eign ers were su rp rise d a t th e ro ug h ness of th e circ u i t: " It' s bu mpy in th e dod gey p laces," explained McElnea. " It's so important to ge t th e ri ght lines here because it's so fast. T he d ifferen ce is six in ch es between a good and ba d line." Fas tes t times were in the o ne m inute, fo n y-second bracket a nd th e expecta tio n was th at th e fast men would dip below Phillis' 1:39.45 lap record o n qualifying da y. But it wa s not to be, th e island 's fick le weather putting an en d to th at. The first sessi on sta rted wet , after a downpour, with most on full wets , but the sun soon broke through and as the track dried out riders were heading into th e pits to cha nge first to intermediate a nd th en to sli cks. Some didn 't make th e transiti on o r not in tim e. Championship co ntenders Roche (19th) , Merten s (13th) an d Pi rovano (n inth ) all fell into this ca tego ry. Beatti e was even furth er back , but h is problems had been much more serious th an po or tire sel ection. His race mo tor dropped a va lve o n Friday and th e less grunty spare went in , o n ly for th e team to di scover a hairline roc ker-co ver fracture when i t was fire d up Saturda y morn in g. More track time waslost as a resul t. U p fro nt , Phill is ' tea m ma te Michael Dow son was o n to p from Goddard a nd Phill is wi th a 1:41.18, th e Weste rn Aus tra lian cha ngi ng hi s tires ea rly enoug h to ge t so me use o u t o f them . After hi s di sm al sho wi ng in Malaysi a , th e 30-year-o ld wa s i n much better form here: " T ime o n th e bike, is a ll th ere is to it, " he sm iled. So it came down to th e afte r no o n sessi o n which was dry but in credibly windy, with gusts co m ing through at up to an estima ted 50 knots. Considering th e co ndi tio n s, Goddard's 1:40.35 time was high ly commendabl e: "That wi nd was diabo lica l," he excl aimed afterwards. " It was unpredi catab le, one lap I was nearl y in th e dirt on th e o u tside of turn o ne , th e next I wa s nearly off o n th e inside." Dowson co nt i n ue d his revival , p osting second fast est time so me .35 P irovano and Mertens filled out the front row, an excellent effort consideri n g th e poor conditions which made setup for n ewcomers ver y difficult. McElnea, Doohan , R ymer and Phillis were o n row tw o , th e latter ver y di sappointed after his preferred bike lost pow er halfway through th e sessio n and wa s unable to mat ch his fir st session time on th e spare which was running a front en d setup he didn't like. Roche was 10th and struggling to get the Ducati working in the con ditions, the front-end cha ttering through th e lo n g, fas t first and third turns: " We chan ged ' a ll the settings back and forth but it is impossible to set , we hav e no time," he said dispiritedl y. Winn ing seem ed ou t of th e question alread y, survival for the sa ke of th e World Championship occ u p ied Roch e's mind co m pletely . Campbell was wor se off. He cou ld manage o n ly 15th a fter a crash ca used by a front -end loss a t Lukey Heights whil e Beattie lanqui sh ed in 17th. Overall , th e Europeans had reason to be sa tisfied with th eir efforts, all o f th em bar the un interested And ers Andersson qual ifying in th e front h alf of th e grid . ,R a ce one Ph ill is' problem s co u ld n ot be traced o vern ig h t, th e en gine goin g back togeth er with a new set of rings and the fired -up local promptly went o u t and set a 1:39.71 in th e warmup, 0.71 s faster th an Goddard. Smiles were reappearing in th e Kawasaki pit after a strained Saturday. The' weather seemed much bette r Sunday, less wind and a li ttle warmer, bu t th e rain insi sted on returning yet again, a lthough fo rt u n atel y it was, only a bri ef shower and the riders were sent away on th eir warm-up lap. on time. (u From th e green lig h t it was Dowson into th e lead , but by th e time they. hit th e brakes a t the right-h and hairpin H onda Corner Phillis was in cha rge, with Goddard o u t-braking Pirovan o to take third ahead of R yme r, Mertens, McElnea, Doohan and Roche. Phillis had pu lled nearly a second. o n Goddard as they completed the lap. but he messed it up at Honda Corner: " I wanted a good drive out so I went back to fir st , but I did it too early, .locked up a nd went fishtailing off into 't h e g rass ." . H e got it turned arou nd and headed back toward th e ci rc u it o n ly to give it too mu ch gas and dump hiinself on the gr as s, sna p p ing off a handl ebar wh ile th e engine revved itself to death. Phillis sat th ere for awhile a nd th en co m me nced th e long walk back to th e p it s. Goddard now had a lead he was not to lose, a ltho ug h Pirovano who set fastest ra ce time on lap three - and Mertens were both after him having got by Dowson, who wa s s liding around on a hard rear Michelin that refused to warm up. Behi nd th em came the Locrite Yarna ha s, which both quickl y faded ba ck th roug h th e fie ld with what both riders later described as suspension probl ems . Although the on ly change th ey made between ra ces was rear . Dunlops, Rymer would eventually finish ninth and McElnea 12th .

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