Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eR~D~E~iliQ~~~~_~_~_e_se_~_S:_b_OO_d_2 drive out they should be able to with the e ~~~" Fogarty's Ducati finished the race smeared with oil - something which had worried the British rider in the closing stages. "In the last couple of laps I could feel the oil on my boot and·there were a few slides - but nothing too serious. It just made me a bit worried. If I had plenty of points hom Brands, I would have stude my neck out and maybe have pulled it off - but I thought it would be better to score a few points instead." Fourth was Slight with his rear Dunlop losing grip late in the race. He was ahead of fellow Kawasaki riders Morillas and Russell - with Morillas beating Russell despite his engine pulling 1000 rpm less than it had done in qualifying the previous day. (From left ID right) JUMl Garriga. Scott R-n and Giancarlo Falappa on the victory podium; Falappa leads the title chase over Russell Race one winner and championship leader Giancarlo Falappa. . fast enough to slipstream but not fast enough to pass. 1 don't like this trade anyway - no corners. Too much straight," he moaned, eyes closed, yawning, right hand indicating full throttle. His comments were confirmed by the speed trap times - 172 mph, some 6.8 mph down on Fogarty's best. Racet In the morning warm-up Russell's 10 _ team switched his qualifying engine to one that theoretically gave even more horsepower, and sure enough he was fastest in the brief session, clocking a 2:04.33. Rymer had problems on the warmup lap when his crs earth wire broke, meaning he would have to do even more work with the injured right wrist (the crs allows the throttle to be kept wide open during upward gear changes). Slight took the lead going into the Ostkurve on the first lap and led into the stadium for the first time with one big freight train behind the Muzzy Kawasaki. Pirovano held second from Fogarty,. Falappa, Rymer, Garriga, Mertens, Monti, Bontempi, Russell, Hoffmann and Morillas. Merkel having just dabbed his front brake as he crept forward under the red was caught out when the lights changed to green and was 21st at the end of the lap. Garriga's charge lasted only three laps when his clutch failed. The Grottini team were running a new sprag-type clutch (similar to the Kawasaki's) to stop rear wheel chatter going into the turns, but it failed. Garriga's sudden departure nearly spelled disaster for Fogarty. "I nearly hit him when his clutch went," Fogarty said. "I was accelerating hard out of the second chicane and he just stopped. I'll never know how we all missed him." . The same lap, Rymer was late, having gone straight at one of the chicanes. '1 could have made it but 1 was in too hot and maybe if 1 had tried 1 would not have had the strength to have held it if something would have gone wrong." Merkel crashed out in tum one at the start of the fifth lap. He was unhurt and said: "Carburetion again. It keeps missing then hits suddenly. This time when it hit, it hit hard and spat me over the bars." Merkel took a trip into the tire protected guard rail face first which left an imprint of his helmet on his forehead and chin. Up front, though, the battIe was raging with seven bikes going at it - with three manufacturers - Ducati, Kawasaki and Yamaha - represented. Russell had been up to second behind Fogarty on the fifth lap, but was fading back through the pack. But that was no surprise, all eight of the leading pack were chopping and changing so much. What people didn't know was that Russell wasn't playing a watching brief. He was in fact struggling to keep pace with the bunch. "I didn't have enough power," he later revealed. "I couldn't hold those guys off the comers." Monti toured into the pits to reKre with an electrical problem and we were left with seven up front. Pirovano took up the running on the sixth lap and, apart from a brief run by Fogarty for a lap, held the position until the 12th lap when Falappa took over. Fogarty, with no real speed advantage, was making his time up in the turns. "I was losing out a bit on the brakes," he said later. "I don't really know why. But it was my cornering speed where 1 really made up time, espedally in the fast comer (Ostkurve) out the bade. One time, 1 rode around the outside of Falappa and Slight. 1 was also having a bit of a problem getting the power down out of the first chicane over the bumps. I was short-shifting there." By now Mertens was out, his engine dying as he came out of the Sachskurve to add to the high attrition rate. His bike wasn't running well in the morning warm-up after the previous day's crash. The crew thought it was electrics and figured they had licked the problem, but it was later discovered that the fuel pump had also been damaged. Less than a second covered the leaders, and on the final lap Fogarty made a big play for the win, taking the lead out of the second chicane. But Pirovano and Falappa came through on the brakes into the stadium for the last time - with Falappa being the bravest into the righthander. Surprisingly, there were none of the last lap dramas at the Sachskurve on the last lap that have marred previous superbike finishes, so Falappa took the win from Pirovano with Fogarty third a 1-2-3 for Michelin. "I enjoyed this race," Falappa said. "I like to race close quarters. We had some small problems with the front forks, the rebound damping was not working so well but my bike was very quick. Rolando (Simonetti) has done. a lot of work on our bikes since Brands Hatch." Pirovano was confident he could have won, but admitted the Ducatis always had an advantage on the brakes. "The Ducatis can brake that much deeper," he said. "My Yamaha is the fastest bike in the group and is about the same on acceleration. But the Ducati riders all seem to go in too deep in the corners and screw up their exits speed - they are too fast into the comers and can't get the Race 2 Between races, Russell's team switched his qualifying engine into his first race chassis while Kawasaki France had discovered a small crack in the crankcase of Morillas' bike and he was forced to run his bade-up bike. Hoffmann was lucky to avoid getting mowed over at the start when he stalled his Kawasaki on the second row of the grid. Russell, though, gOt a great start this time and led the first lap with almost a second lead on the field as he entered the stadium for the first time. Rymer was an early retirement, touring bade to the pits with fuel starvation, later found to be caused by a pinched fuel line. Russell charged early on and quiclcIy built a cushion. Behind him the race was as hectic as the first. Slight held second for a while from Falappa and Monti then a small gap to Mertens, Pirovano, Fogarty and Garriga. A little further bade came Weibel, Merkel, and Morillas. Russell's lead extended lap after lap until he had 4.7 seconds in hand on lap seven - bu t then it began to dwindle away. Initially it was Garriga, Falappa and Pirovano making the effort, but the Yamaha rider dropped off the pace and it was down to the two Ducatis to close the gap. Pirovano could explain why he lost the draft: "I had no problems with the bike. I lapped faster than the first race, but it wasn't fast enough," he said. "With two laps to run the gap from Russell to the two Ducatis was down to two seconds;but Russell just had enough of a cushion to hang on to win his first World Championship Superbike race. "I aimed to get a good start," he said. "I didn't want to get messed up in the pack again. I got clear, but I guess 1 worked my tires too hard and cooked them. 1 looked back and saw two Ducatis coming and thought, 'Uh-oh.' 1 tell you, ( was worried there - and we picked up a vibration after about 10 laps, maybe it was my imagination. The engine we used in this race feels like it revs slower, but it proved better even though I thought the other engine was faster - tells you how much 1 know, huh?" Garriga took second, but only after Falappa tried a wild outbraking shot at the Sachskurve and ran wide allowing the Spaniard to dude back underneath. Garriga was running the stock Ducati clutch in the second leg: "It took time to get used to the chattering into the corners again," he said. Garriga had used his wise GP head to ensure he nailed down second. "I was expecting Falappa to come inside at Sachs so 1 gave him plenty of room and went under him as he went wide." Falappa had charged hard and said. "Two more laps and maybe 1could have done it (win the race). My first lap was a little slow, but Scott was very fast." Slight took fourth, again disappointed not to have finished higher. His rear

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