Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

time. He was followed by Fogarty, Mertens, Slight, Pirovano, Falappa, Russell, and the rest of the gang. Even though the young rtalian seems to have developed into a more mature rider than he was last year, it was obvious that he would not be able to hold back the attacks from his colleagues. On the third lap, Fogarty dived past him and started to slowly pull away, with Mertens and Slight right on his tail. Despite his shaky physical condition, Mertens didn't seem happy with the situation and on lap seven he tried to outbrake the leader. Mertens would end up flat on his backside, fortunately not hurting himself even more. "I had, gone third into the first comer, and 1 was planning on doing a safe race," Mertens said. "But right from the start the front tire started to slide a little bit. On the seventh lap, I was unable to react fast enough, and I went down. I tried to restart the engine, but the Ducati just didn't go for it." Slight lost some two seconds in avoiding the crashed Belgian, and, for Fogarty, this was the opportunity to get away. After 10 laps, Foggy had a four-second lead over a lonesome Slight, while Falappa and Russell kept each other company after a bad start. Both favorites for the series title had steamrolled their way to the front positions, and were soon battling it out for third and fourth places. Pirovano, Bontempi and Garriga - all of them confronted with a wrong tire choice - had their sights on fifth place, while Merkel cruised around in 11th place. Honda-rider Nobles did pretty well with the oldest Superbike around, and he tried to make life hard on Christer Lindholm, in a fight for the last available World Championship point. Some laps later, most of the Frenchmen went out of the race: Dominique Sarron pulled in after his suspension had turned out to be too stiff and Adrien Morillas retired with some broken spark plugs. The next one to leave his bike standing against the hay bales was Nobles. The Honda rider went down the first time in the hairpin, picked his bike up again and charged back on. the track, in an attempt to make up the ground lost on Lindholm. But a few corners later he went down again: "It must have been the gravel on the tires," he said "Too bad, because I really enjoyed myself." Six laps before the end, however, the championship standings got a serious blow. For Russell, the time had come to try and get away from Falappa and secure third position. The Kawasaki rider got past his Italian colleague on the curbs, dashing over them in an attempt to hold back the Ducati. An extra-late braking maneuver, followed by an equally desperate passing move by Falappa, and they both ended up in the gravel trap at the end of the straight. And while the Muzzy and Roche crews hurriedly removed all the broken parts, the two riders walked back to the pits - dead calm and side by side. l Russell said, "What can 1 say? We bumped into each other, both of us not wanting to give in. It's nobody's fault. That's racing..." Falappa agreed. By the time Herve Moineau also went down (two laps before the end), most places 'had been secured: Fogarty won his first race of the season easily from Slight. "After 10 laps, I tried to keep my foursecond lead intact," Fogarty said. "The first two laps, 1 had gone rather slow, in order to let my tires warm up properly. 1 did not really worry when Mertens steamed by. The only thing which prevented me from getting bored was the clutch, which started to give me s'ome problems at the halfway point.." Slight was quite happy about his result, too: "1 burnt up my tires in the beginning. Later, 1 was held up by Mertens and Bontempi. But I didn't want to do any stupid things and just keep my place." In the final meters, Bontempi rode to one of the best results in his career, overtaking Pirovano in the last comer before the finish. Pirovano finished fourth, from Amatriain, Garriga, Rymer and Simon Crafar. Merkel, ninth, was much less talkative than normal: "This is a rather frustrating weekend. Physically, I feel as fit as ever, but that does not help you much when you move the throttle and you feel the wheel spinning - even on the straights. And I do not see why the second heat should be much better." Race 2 Falappa had taken his first DNF of the year like a man. But the Italian was going to be plagued by more misfortune even before the second race really got underway. He returned from the sighting lap with a terribly sick sounding Ducati. Roche and his technical crew changed the electronic management system in the nose of the bike on the starting grid, and Falappa was sent back on the track with very little hope of surviving another 28 laps. He got away in 10th position, but pretty soon realized that his race would soon be over. After six laps, that was it and Falappa could only watch his 'colleagues fighting it out over the now vacant first position in the point standings. The disappointed Italian knew, however, that anything could happen still in the championship. "Before the race at Misano, we have planned some private practice sessions at the circuit," Falappa said. "Before we came here, these were aimed mainly at cooling myself down a bit before that fourth round of the World Championship. The Italian race is very important for me, and if I had the opportunity to prepare the event in the best possible circumstances, 1 might be less nervous. But now it seems that we will have to use that practice session also to try and stay in front of the Kawasakis." At that moment, Fogarty had again quite a comfortable lead over the rest of the field. Russell was a lone second, and Slight, Mertens and Garriga could nor come to terms over third place. The three riders never swapped positions during the race, but they stayed close enough to make the final result difficult to predict. Bontempi w.as sixth for most of the race, whereas Mauro Lucchiari dropped back from seventh to 10th after Pirovano, Crafar and Rymer passed him in the last half of the race. Fogarty had only one problem. "By mid-race, my three-second lead shrunk to one second," he said. "I had lost concentration and made some mistakes, which gave Scott (Russell) the possibility to come back. But then I managed to get my act together again, and I finished again with a three-second lead over the rest of the field." Russell was fairly pleased with his race, especially since his second place allowed him to inherit the lead in the point standings: "Apart from some frontend chatter, I had a pretty uneventful race. The tires were sliding, but it all ha~ pened pretty consistently. In the last couple of laps, there were only some lapped riders who got into the way." Merkel finished 12th after a long dice with Adrien Morillas, Rob McElnea and Jeffry De Vries. "I have nothing to say about this round," the very disappointed former World Champion said later. Nobles finished 24th, after a very cautious race: "I had to"Use the B-bike for the second heat, which was not as good as the one I had crashed earlier. I was still a little sore after the crash, and I didn't get up to my lap times from the first heat. But GiancarIo Falappa (9) and Scott Russell (11) battled in the first leg before crashing. Dani Amatriain (8), Scott Russell (11), Juan Garriga (16) and Terry Rymer (hidden) fight for position. Amatriain finished fifth in the first leg; Russell was second in leg two. , Aaron Slight posted a 2-3 tally and moved into second in the point standings. 1still went faster than (Baldassarre) Monti (on the same bike) did last year." m Results SB QUALIFYING: \. Aaron Slight (1.32.994); 2. Scott RusseU (1.33.500); 3. earl Fogarty (1.33.931); 4, Piergio.-gio Bontempi (1.34.284); 5. Terry Rymer (1.34.402); 6. Giancarlo Falappa (1.34.478); 7. Mauro Lucchiari (1.34.634): 8. Daniel Amatriain (1.34.654); 9. St~phane Mertem (1.34.683); 10. juan Ganiga (1.34.731); ll. Simon Crafar (\.35.018); 12. Fred Merkel (1.35,053); 13, Rob MeElnea (1.35,454); 14. Fabrizio Pirovano (1.35.461); 15. Adrien Morillas (\.35.521); 16. Fabrizio Furlan (1.35.857); 17. Jeffry De Vries (1.35.869); 18. Aldeo Presciutti (1.35,989); 19. Tripp Nobles (1.36.\13); 20. james Whitham (1.36.131); 21. Dominique"Sarron (1.36,718); 22. Christer Lindholm (1.36.719); 23, Herv~ Moineau (1.36.754); 24, Valerio Destefanis (1.36.766); 25. Matt Llewellyn (1.37.092); 26. VH'orio Scatola (1.37.107); 27. jo.~ M. Sagardogui (137.626); 28, Christophe Guyot (137.635); 29, Fernando Cristobal (1.37.983); 30. Michel Amalric (1.38.021); 31. jean-Louis Tranoi. (1.38.346); 32. Babic Karim (1.38.557); 33, Alex Buckingham (1.38.985); 34. Mauro MaslTelli (139.067); 35. Pedro Baptista (139372); 36. jorge VileUa (139,930); 37. j~ C. Morillas (1.40.225), RACE I, 1. earl. Fogarty (Due); 2. Aaron Slight (Kaw); 3. Piergiorgio Bontempi (Kaw); 4. Fabrizo Pirovano (Yam): 5, Daniel Amatriain (Due); 6. juan Garriga (Due); 7. Terry Rymer (Yam); 8. Simon Crafar (Due); 9. Fred Merkel (Yam); 10. Rob McElnea (Yam); 11. James Whitham (Yam); 12. Mauro Lucehiari (Due); 13. Christer Lindholm (Yam); 14. Fabrizio Furlan (Kaw); 15. Aldeo Presciutti (Due); 16, jeffry De Vries (Yam); 17. Jose M, Sagardogui (Yam); 18. Matt L1eweUyn (Kaw); 19, Valerio Destefanis (Yam); 20. Vittorio Scatola (Yam); 21. JeanLouis Tranois (Yam); 22. Fernando CristobaJ (Yam); 23. jorge Viella (Yam); 25, Mauro Mastre1li (Yam); 25, Michel Amalrie (Yam), Time: 44 min., 28310 sec. Distance:rir;la, 61.25 miles. Avet~e 8 • 83.55 mph. Margin 0 victory: 3.79 sec. F...... lop' Aaron SUght, 1.34.334/ 84,41 mph RACE '" \. Carl ~rty (Due); 2. Scott RusseU (Kaw); 3. Aaron Slight (Kaw); 4, Stephane Mertens (Due); 5, juan Garriga (Due); 6, Piergiorgio Bontempi (Kaw); 7, Fabrizio Pirovano (yam); 8, simon Crafar (Due); 9. Terry Rymer (Yam); 10. Mauro Lucchiari (Due): n. James Whitham (Yam); 12 Fred Merkel (Yam); 13. Adrien Morillas (Kaw); 14. Rob MeElnea (Yam); 15, jeffry De Vries (Yam); 16. Dominique Sarron (Yam); 17, A1deo Presciutti (Due); 18. Christer Undholm (Yam); 19. Valerio Destefanis (Yam); 20. j~ M Sagardogui (Yam); 21. Matt L1eweUyn (Kaw); 22. Herv~ Moineau (Suz); 23, Alex Buckingham (Yam); 24, Tripp Nobles (Honda); 25. Jean-loWs TranoUi (Yam); 26, , Mauro MaslTelli (Yam); Zl, Fernando Cristobal (Yam), Time: 44 min., 15.278 sec. Di>lan~1:~' 61.25 miles. • 83.96 mph. Average MalKin 0 victory: 2.90 sec. F...... Lop' Carl Fogarty. 1.34.094/ 84.62 mph SUPERBIKE WORLD COSHIP POINT srANDlNGS (After 3 of 14 rounds): 1. Scott Russell (81); 2. Aaron Slighf (79); 3. Giancarlo Falappa (75); 4. Fabrizio Pirovano (65); 5, earl Fogarty (64); 6. juan Ganiga (51); 7. Stephane Mertens (46); 8, Adrien Morilla. (40); 9, Teny Rymer (35); 10. Fred Merkel (33); 1l.Piergiorgio Bontempi (32); 12, Simon Crafar (22); 13. Mauro Lucchiari (17); 14. Brian Morrison (15); ]5. (TIE) Daniel Amatriainl Christer Undholm (13). 19

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