Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

and a lap la ter Mer tens went down in the Curva Del Rio - the long left-hande r in the new section of the track . "I crashed here in p ractice earlier in the week and hurt my ribs," Mertens explained. "Just befor e the rac e I was doing some exercises and the ribs wen t cli ck again. I wa s in so m u ch p ain I could not hold on to the bike and eventually lost concen tration . This is why I crashed." Bontempi had op ted to run tw in carbon d isc br a kes, d esp it e only trying th em for a few lap s in qu alifying and went down whe n he was cau ght out by their stop ping power. Th e ga p b e tw ee n Luc chiari a n d Fala p pa was as high as al most three se con d s ' o n th e e ighth la p, but no w Fal ap pa was ch argin g a nd only took two lap s to get on the back wheel of the Grottini bike. Back in third place, Pirovano, Foga rty and Ru sse ll were swapp ing places - w ith th e Am er ican having to work h ard to keep on term s w it h his rivals. "M ybik e was slow," Russell said la te r . "It ju st w o u ld n't ac ce le rate. Pirovano would mess up that las t corner (before the s tar t/finish line ) ever y lap. He would go in tight and lose all his drive. I'd be squared off and on the gas and he still had two bike lengths on me at the end of the s traight." Falappa ev entually w or e Lucch iari d own and got some air between the two Ducatis. In the final lap s, Lucchia ri was abl e to close aga in and go t to within .719-of-a-second at th e finis h. Did it feel good for Falappa to win in front of his home crowd? "It feels goo d' any time to w in a World Championship race," he said. "Maybe this is a bit d ifferent (special). .' ''' 1 think th e special gea r shifter we ha ve helps me. I d on 't have so much movement in my left ankle and on this course, with so many left-hand comers, it would have been d ifficult withou t this (the button-mounted gea r chan ger)." Lucchiari said: "I ha d no p roblems. I planned to tr y a nd ge t the s ta rt and that's what ha ppened. I th in k I ju st lacked a little experience needed to beat Giancarlo." The third place tu ssle was sorted in Pi r ov a n o 's fa v o r. Ru ss ell simply couldn't get the drive off the fina l corner to outdrag the BYRD Yamaha to the finish line. "I got a bad sta rt and Russell and Fogarty were blocking me and slowing me down," Pirovano said. "I got faster as the race went on and I think with a faster start I could have caught the two leaders." Pogarty dropped off the pace in the las t five laps with some gear selection problems - no t for the first time this sea son. "The gearbox s tar ted changing gear when it wanted to," Fogar ty explained. "It jumped out of gea r in th e fast left (on the backst retch) and that's when I lost ground and the y both cam e by me . I switched the shifter off and changed manually but it was upsetting the stabili ty of th e bike and I was w obbling around a bit." Slight finishe d sixth, getting the best of Garriga's Ducati on the 17th lap , although the pa ir ha d circulat ed together for the last three-quarters of the race. "Three lap s and the rea r w asn ' t hooking up," sa id Sligh t. "But it' s not so bad with a Dunlop - at lea st it 's pred ictable. "The real problem wa s that we lost a day after m y cr ash . I've never been here before but I spen t the rest of Friday getting laps in on the bike trying to get my head together after the crash. We never really got the suspension sorted which meant I wasn't able to get off the slower turns fast enough." Rymer finished ninth - the first nonfact ory bike across th e lin e . "A few extra horsepower - th at's all we need now. I can't stay with th em out of the comers. The front is still ten d ing to tuck a little but that's a geomet ry p roblem w e hav e to sort . The su s p e nsi on, th ough, is good. I reck on my bike was working as good as Monti 's." Race Two Lucchiari go t the holeshot again in the sec o nd le g, this ti m e ch ased b y Foga rty, Bontempi and Mertens - w ith Russell rid ing all the way around the Belgian's Ducati in the first comer. Russell this time went with a w ider rear rim, but wi th the same compound Dunlo p, trying to m a ximize ca mber grip - and ultimately get a better drive off the corners. Fogarty took over up front for a cou ple of laps bu t Russell was there this time and went ahea d on the third lap tak in g Fogarty, Falappa and Lucchiari clear of the pack. Bontempi was with them for the first three laps but fell back to the clutches of Garriga - then came Rym er, Monti an d Slight. Pirovan o had been righ t up wit h Slight at the sta rt, b ut ou tbraked himself a t th e Tramon to wh en he tried to pass the Kiwi. Merkel was an ea rl y retiremen t wh en his Ducati lost power in the opening laps. FaIappa too k the lea d on the ni nt h lap on the ba ck stre tch to wa rds Tramonto and took just one lap to ge t th e break he wa s look ing for . In three lap s he was over a second clear while Russell towed Fogarty along in a game of chase. Beh ind th em Garriga was pressing Lucch iari and Bontemp i was be ing chased by Slight, wh o had managed to ed ge ah ead of Monti and Rym er. In the fina l lap s, Foga rty hit gearbox trouble aga in and th en in the las t two lap s his motor sta rted vib ra ting bad ly. "I was with Scott (Russell), holding him no problem then the gearbox starte d playing up and in the las t five laps the engine sta rt ed vibra tin g .a nd lo sing power." With two laps to run, Falap pa still had a comfortable three-second cushio n but his pace was obviously relaxing and in the final lap Russell's late charge put him within .843-of-a-seco nd of the winner. But the reality of the race was that Falappa and Ducati wer e too strong for the Kawasak i in Ducati Country . "Second race I used the sa me tire," Falappa said. "We set the sus pension a little hard but the weather was a little hotter this time and the tires were sliding around a bit at the .end. But really I had no problems at all. "My feet didn't give me any trouble I didn't think about it in the race - but they are very sore now." Russell was a lo t happier af te r the second leg: "We ran a narrower rim in the first leg to try and get it to handle a bit better , but that hurt me in certain pa rts of the tra ck as far as grip was concern ed. This time with the wider rim it was a lot better . I rode better too and I'm real happy to be second. "It's a long seaso n ah ead and it's my first (full) year in the championship. I'm going to have to be consisten t an d I'm looking forwa rd now to getting to th e other tracks a n d h op efully the Kawasaki w ill get us'on the podium." Lucchiari finished a lone fourth after Garriga slowed towards the end wi th a small oil leak which kep t getting on to the back tire every so often . Despite the worrying moments and a noticeabl e engine vibration toward th e end, the Spaniard soldiered on. Lucchiari said, "Ten 'Iap s then my engine lost power. It was no t so sh arp Th e sensation of the race was Mauro Lucchiari. The young Italian posted a 2-4 tally. Fabrizio Pirovano, Jeffy DeVries and Stephane Mertens give chase; Pirovano, ano ther Italian racing at home, was third in the first leg, but dropped to 11th in th e second race. as it had been in the first race . Then in the last five laps I ran out of brakes." Slight was again .sixth and Bonternpi se ven th, ahead of Monti. "I've got no excuses," Slight sa id. "We s tarted the weekend badly and it stayed that w ay. I was lucky to get some points. I th ink th e secret is to be there (in the points) every weekend. I'm just looking forward to Austria and a track I know." Rymer was ninth, a ga in the first p rivateer. " I ran out of brakes," he said . "I 'm getting all the Yamaha factor y parts in th e next couple of weeks - m ayb e I need some carbon brakes, too . I had a' five-second lead on Aaron (Sligh t) and Monti at one s tage but ran on at the corner at th e end of the back s tre tch and that d ropped me out o f it." CN Results QUA LIFYING: I. Gia nca rlo Fala p p a (1:35.467 / 94.922 mph); 2. Ma u ro Lucchiari (1:35.850); 3. Sco tt Russell (1:36 .050); 4 . C arl Foga r ty (1:36 .05 1); 5 . Pie rg iorgio Bo n te m p i (1 :3 6.109); 6. Aaron Sli gh t (1:36 .399); 7. Step h a ne Me rtens (1:36 .509); 8 . Baldassarre Mon ti (1:36.520); 9. Ju an Ga rriga (1:36.588); 10 . Fa brizi o Pirov an o (1:36 .621); 11. Fred Merkel (1:36 .756); 12. Te r ry Ry me r (1:37. 169) ; 13. Da n ie l Ama triai n (1:37.640); 14. Fab rizio Furlan (1:37.766); 15. Herve Moineau (1:37.856); 16. Jeffry DeVries (1:38.257); 17. Ai ded Pr esciu tt i (1:38. 265) ; 18. Arpad Hermati (1:38.550); 19. Ud o Ma rk (1:38.831); 20. Tri pp Nobles (1:39 .125); 21. Ben ! Me tgeger (1:39.171) ; 22. Mau ro Mastrelli (1:39.226); 23. Jean-Marc Deletan g (1:39.409); 24. C hri s Li nd holm (1:39.504 ); 25 . Vlct orlo Sca to la (1:39.926); 26. Rene Balbi (1:40.521); 27. Massamilianc Colomba ri (1:40.978); 25. Mass imo Broccoli (1:41.542); 29. Ro be r to Biagi oli (1:42.486); 30. Ge ra rdo Blo isi (1:43.235); 3 1. An ton Bergh ammer (1:44.154); 32 . B. Andrault (1:46.063); 33. Adrien Na rd ucci (1:46.731). RACE 1: 1. Giancarlo Falappa (Due): 2. Mauro Lueeh iari (Du c): 3. Fabri zio Pirovano (Yam) ; 4. Scott Russell (Kaw) ; 5. Ca rl Fogar ty (Due) ; 6. Aaron Slight (Kaw ); 7. Juan Ga r riga (Due); 8. Baldassarre Mon ti (Yam); 9. Ter ry Ryme r (Ya m); 10. Fred Me rkel (Due); 11. Jeffry Devries (Ya m); 12. Aided Presci ut ti (Due); 13. Arpad l-la rmaf (Yam); 14. jean-Ma rc Dele tang (Yam); 15. Tripp No bles (Hon): 16. Udo Mar k (Yam); 17. Herve Moin eau (Suz); 18. Ma uro Mastrelli (Ya m ); 19. Chris Lin dh olm (Yam) ; -20. Mas s im o Broccoli (Yam); 21. Rober to Biagioli (Kaw); 22. Ger ar d o Bloisi (Du e); 23. Ant on Berham me r (Yam). T im e: 40 min., 18.919 sec. Di stance: 25 la ps, 62.93 m iles. Average Speed: 93.656 mph. Mugin of Victory: 0.719 sec. F~ 5test up: Gia ncar lo Falap pe, 1:35.828/94.564 mph . RACE 2: 1. G ia n ca rlo Fala p pa (Du e) : 2. Scott Ru ss ell (Kaw) : 3. Ca r l Fo gart y (D u e) ; 4 . Mauro Lucchiari (Due); 5. Juan Garriga (Due ); 6. Aa ron Slight (Kaw ); 7. Pier gi or gio Bontempi (Kaw ); 8. Balda ssarre Monti (Ya m ); 9. Terry Ry me r (Ya m ); 10. Stephane Me rtens (Du e); 11. Fab rizio Plro ve no (Yam); 12. Je((ry DeVries (Ya m); 13. Dan iel Am at riain (D ue); 14. Udo Ma rk (Yam); 15. Jean-M arc Deletang (Yam); 16. Arp ad Henna ti (Yam ); 17. Aided Presc iu tti (Due); 18. Tri p p No bles (Hon); 19. Herve Moinea u (Suz) ; 20. Mauro Mastr e ll i (Ya m); 21. Mas s im o Brocco li (Ya m) ; 22 . Massimili ano Colombari (Duc); 23. Anton Berg bammer (Yam); 24. Roberto Biagioli (Kaw). Tim e: 40 min., 11.459 sec. Di stance: 25 laps, 62.93 m iles. Average Sp eed : 93.946 mp h. Mugin of Victo ry: 0.843 sec. Fastest up: Gianca rlo Falapp a 1:35.572/ 94.817 mph. SUPERBIKE WORLD.C'5HIP POINT STANDINGS (Afte r 4 of 14 round s): 1. Gianca rlo Falap pa (115 /5 wins); 2. Scott Russell (111/1); 3. Aa ron Slight (99); 6. Ca rl Foga rty (90/ 2); 7. Fab rizio Pirova no (85); 8. Jua n Ga rriga (71); 9. Step ha ne Mert ens (52); 10. Terry Rym er (49); 11. Mau ro Lucchiari (47); 12. Piergiorgi o Bontemp i (41); 13. Adrien Morillas (40): 14. Fred Merkel (39); 15. Simon C r af a r (22) ; 16. Ba ld as sarre Mo nti (19 ); 17. Dani el Ama triain (16). 21

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