Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

As ex p ec te d , the " ca u ti ous " guys went very well in the beginning of the race. As the lights turned green, Slight stormed up the hill towards the dreaded Hella Licht S chicane in front of the field , while Pirovano and Russell got aw ay very poo rly, s ta rti ng th eir race 15th or th ereabou ts . Sli ght wouldn't stay up front for very long. On the first lap he go t p ass ed b y Fa lappa, who looked like he was in for another wa lkaway victo ry. But then something very strange started to ha ppen. The sun was now at full power and the track was liter ally steami ng w ith th e vapo rizing ra in water. Aft er only a few la ps, it became very clear that the riders on rain tires were in for a tough ra ce. At that time Karl Tru chse ss a n d Mauro Lucchiari had already left the battl efield . The next victim was goin g to be Pirovano. On the third lap , the Italian felt his Yamaha quit on hi m (electri cal probl em). Behind leader Falappa, however, th ings we re getting pretty hectic. Russell was fighti ng his way back to the front, losing some time when he went straight in the chicane. After six laps of 18 laps , Falappa had a small lead over the surprisingly fast Merkel and Slight. Mertens was fourth, while, local boy Andreas Meklau started to claw back his way to the front. Jeffry De Vries and Arpad Harmati were two other surprises in the top 10, with Rymer and Fogarty fighting over eighth position. Rymer's race was soon to be over, though. "There was just not enough water on the track; 1 retired because 1 knew that in those conditions therewas no way that 1 was going to score points. It's my own fault; if I had listened to my mech an ic a few minu tes before th e start, 1 wo uld have started the race on intermediates." Ju st bef o re ha lf w a y, Me klau had passed Mertens, Merkel an d Slight and had n ow se t his sigh ts o n Falapp a . Und er a big cheer from the crowd, the Austrian passed the Italian on the ou tside of the chicane, and immediate ly got a way clean, w hile most riders were strugg ling to find enough tr action on the track, which had dried up alm ost completely now. For Merkel (on rain tires), this was also the end of his hopes for a rostrum place. Merkel started to lose ground on Slight, and would eventually finish 11 tho"My mistake," Merkel said, " I ju s t got greedy and tried to bu ild up a lead on my ra in tires. 1 got away pretty goo d, and my s trategy worked for about six laps. Then, 1 had to let Slight go, and later on I was passed by Russell, Fogarty, Bontempi and the rest of the bunch. "Meanwhile, Falappa a lso s ta r ted to s uffer from the same problem, and the Italian also lost his second position, to finish only sixth in the end. Meklau stayed up front, winning h is first-e ver Wo rld Champ ionship Superbike race with a lead of abou t half a minute over Slight, Russell, Fogarty and Bontempi. For the young Austrian p riva teer this was the happiest day of his life: "Everything worked out perfectly for me today. I got the ideal tires, the id eal bik e and I could p rofit from my knowledge o f th e track. My Dunlop intermediates started to slide a bit at the front, but 1 had noticed that Scott Russell and Aaron Slight had exactly the same problem. The rear tire, on the other hand, worked pretty well. From the eighth lap, 1 got Falappa in sight, and from then on, I started to realize that a victory was possible." With his second place, Slight is gaining a reputation of being very fast and clever in difficult conditions. He proved it last year in Albacete, when the opening round of the championship was run in similar , conditions, and he proved it again in Zeltweg: "This morning 1 tested a bad wet tire during the warmup; that is why I didn't opt for a full wet combination, even though I had hesitated at the start. I was the last one who changed tires on the grid. But the wet front tire and the in termed iate rear turned out to be the best compromise for me . 1 got a good s ta rt, and held on to second spot th e whole time. When Meklau got by me, I tried to follow him, bu t I kep t losing the front end. From then on, 1 kept my eyes on the pit board, to see if any body got clo ser. "Russell had also opted for an effi cient tire comb inat ion and that resulted in a slim lead in the p oint stand ings after the first heat " I saw on the starting grid tha t it was going to d ry up, but 1 was very surprised that it did that fast. The fi rs t two l a ps, 1 w en t around very cautiou sly. A bi t later, 1 even lost three or four positions when 1 went straight at the chicane. When 1 got past Falappa in the seco nd half of the race (who was visibly struggling on his full wet tires), I d id not start to calcula te for th e cha mpions hip s ta ndi ngs; only la ter did I realize th a t 1 had earned a one-point lead over the Italian. "Nobles finishe d 17th, just outside the points, after having had a difficult time: "I experienced just the opposite problem of yesterday. Today, I ate my adversaries up on the brakes, but 1 couldn't get away on acceleration. I saw Merkel and Deletang up front, but I couldn't get past th~" , Race two In the first leg, victory and defeat had been decided on the starting grid. Those who had gambled on the right tires, were up front at the end; those who had not, struggled (desperately) to hold their positions. In the second heat at least, the positions were goi ng to be distributed on the track. Rain had started po uri ng d own again and nob od y expected the s ky to clear up. Everybody star ted on rain tires, a nd all we re s u re tha t the ma in challenge would be to stay up right rather than to care for their positions , as even more da rk clo uds gathered and lightning bolts mad e th eir way to th e mountain circuit. Slight, once again, got the holeshot and this time he had to let Meklau go past h im on th e fir s t lap. Behind them, the first collisions took place: in the chicane, third placed Lucchiari almost lost it all, keeping upright only because he crashed in to Rymer's Yamaha. Both riders st ayed aboard, and resumed thei r race at the back of the field. A few kilometers fur ther, the Eng lishman would go down wi thout anybody's help: "The bik e got sideways, I recovered partially, bu t then got on the grass. And that was the end for me. The bike went d own, and I went with it" After three laps, Falappa got into the lead and looked confi d ent enoug h on h is rain tires. At the beginning of the fourth lap, Hungarian privateer Arpad Harmati went down in th e chican e. Mertens was the next to go. The Belgian had taken third place and went a bit too fast into one of the trickiest comers on the track. At that time, Falappa had stretched his lead in front of a lonely Meklau, a lonely Pirovano, a lo nely Merkel and a.lonely Fogarty. A few minutes later, Sli ght crashed h is Kawasaki: "The front went first, and then the rear went sid eways also . This is one of the mo st horrible races I ha ve ever ridden." And as Merkel started to walk away from Meklau, Pirovano crashed out of second position. One lap later, the race w as stopped as th e rain had become even worse. Unfortunately, the 12 laps run did not suffice to offer full points to the survivors. It did not stop Falappa from becoming jubilant after his sixth victory of the yea r and Merkel to celebrate his first rostrum place in two Andreas Meklau won the first leg and was second in the second race. Giancarlo Falappa won the second race and leads Scott Russell by 3.5 po ints. yea rs. "This was a very difficult race," Merkel explained. "The track conditions changed every lap, and we had to alter our sty le, lines an d bra king po ints continuously. But 1 learned als o th at this bike wo rks superbly in the rain. On the o ther hand , I realize that I still ha ve to learn a lot. When I raced dirt track, the main ca rbu retor jet was changed only once a seaso n. No w I work with injection, which means that you have a thousa nd choices in any part of the range. A wrong chip can easily cost you 10 horsepower. It is pretty easy to get 80% out of this bike, but it is those last 20% th at reall y coun t. 1 can on ly hope that thi s race is just the first step towards a new upward trend in my results. " Meklau climb ed on the rostrum for the second time of the da y, while Fogarty, Lucchiari and Erns t Gschwender filled the top six places. Fogarty ha d, jus t like in Misano and in the first Ze1tweg race, some p roblems with th e 'semi-automatic' gear change system. This time, he switched the thing off after the sigh ting lap, and was happy to finish fourth, even though he was clearly getting closer to Meklau as the race drew on . Russell lost his (provisional) firs t place in the cha m pi o ns h ip s tandi ngs ag ain and was understandably a bit d isappointed . "I had no grip," Russell said. "At the start, I blew it already because the tire sp un and I got left behind. 1 am happy that they stopped it because this wasn't fun anymore." The Kawasaki rid er finished se ve n th . Nobles fin ished ju s t be hind his fellow American: "Mertens, Merkel and Falappa were the only peopl e who passed me. 1 had Scott the whole time in front of me, but when 1 lost him 1 put the Honda on cruise control. Because 1 knew that 1 was eighth." The sidecar race, which was sched uled to start after the second superbike heat, never got underway because of the poor conditions. 01 Results Q UAUFYlNG: 1. Scott Russe U (1:51.105/117.581 mph); 2.Giancarlo Falappa (1:51.337); 3. Aaron Slight (1:51.509); 4. Carl Fogarty (1:51.577); 5. Fabrizio Furta n (1:52.174) ; 6. Fabrizio Pirovano (1:.52..314); 7. Andreas Meld.au (1:52.335); 8. Terry Rymer (1:52.428); 9. Mauro Lucehiari (1:52.462); 10. Piergiorgio Bon_pi (1:52.846); 11. Fred Merkel (1.52.880); 12. Jeffry De Vries (1:52.957); 13. Stephane Mertens (153.002); 14. Ems! Cschwender (153.084); IS. Karl T ruchsess (153.123); 16. Baldassare Mo nti (1.53.499); 17. Arpa d Harmali (1.53. 648); 18. Olris"" Lindholm (1.53.699); 19. Udo Mark (153.836); 20. Marcel Ernst (153.868); 21. Robert Milter (1:54.130); 22. Tri p p N obles (1:54.581); 23. Jea n- Marc Del et ang (1:54 .809); 24. Herve Moin eau (1:55 .061); 25. Aldeo Presciu tti (1:55.390); 26. Fr anz Pfdferkom (1:55.898); 27.Thierry R ogi e~ (t.56.41 4~; ~. jee n- Locts Tr~!,ois (1:56.869); 29. Chnsty R.:bu_. (1:56.977); 30. Philippe Thomas (1:57.306); 31. Peter Kla mp fer (1:57.595); 32. Pe ter Beghrer (1:57.70 1); 33. Hare ld Ober fran k (1:57.999); 34. An _ 8erghammer (1:58.048); 35. Roberto BiagioH(1.58.951); 36. An ion Lang (1:59.680). RACE 1: 1. Andreas Meld.au (Due); 2. Aaron Sligh' (!

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