Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Stephane Mertens (7) and Piergiorgio Bontempi (10) do battIe aroun d the Bmo circui t; Mertens fared well in Czechoslovakia with a season best third place in the second leg. Tripp Nobles rode the Team Rumi Honda to 23rd position. "Like all the guys, 1 struggled in the comers," Nobles said . "Now I get the RC30 into the corners very well, but when it's time to accelerate, it's frustra ting to see how the other guys just rocket out of sight. Still, we're happy with the resul t, especially as 1 always seem to go faster during the race than during practice. " Forty-six riders tr ied to qualify on Saturday, a record number for the World Superbike Series this year. Another (notso-fine) record was also broken at the Czech circuit - on race day, only some 7500 spectators showed up. Not so long ago, 200,000 race-crazy fans would line the public roads between Brno and its suburbs to see the likes of Ke n n y Roberts and Freddie Spencer fight for honor in the Czechoslovakian Grand Prix. Race One After one lap, Russell stood tall as the leader of the first group, which had already opened a gap to the rest of the pack. This lead was a result of not only his fast pace, but also because of three riders crashing in fron t of their colleagues. Mark had gone down first, injuring his leg. After having waited for the ambulance, the German soon found out that he would not be able to participate in the second race as he could barely bend his leg . Frenchman Jean-Ma rc Tranois also crashed, breaking a me tal pin in his shou lder which had been put the re onl y three weeks before. Finally, Arpad Harmati was the biggest culprit in tearing the field apart - after a very good start, th e Hunga rian HB-rider d ived in to the first corners in around eighth place, but he soon highsided his Yamaha. "I m ust have been too greedy; the tires were still cold an d when I accelerated out of a left comer, 1was laun ched off the bike," he later admitted. The yellow Yamaha flicked over at a height of about six feet, just missing Stephane Mertens when it came down. The Belgian Ducati rider almost went off the track in an attempt to avoid bike and rider, and just barely stayed on two wheels. After five laps, Russell had tom away comp letely from the rest of the riders, having only Fogarty at the back wheel of his Kawasaki. Slight was a lonely third while fast starter Piergiorgio Bontempi was losing more ground as the race went on . Meanwhile, Falappa had reco vered from a bad start and had now found the company of Pirovano and Lucchiari, who were fighting over fifth place. Merkel was in trouble already. The Californian would eventually retire after having headed to the pits twice. "It was something electrical," Merkel said. "Apparently, we chose the w rong chip. The engine started to run on only one cylinder." At half distance, Fogarty had crept into the slipstream of Russell and pretty soon the Briton took command. And while everybod y expected a t leas t a counter-attack from the Geo rgian, it never came. Just tactics or was there something wrong? Even though the distance between the two men never got bigger than a few seconds, Russell didn't get back to the leader. "Actually, 1 lost some ground when 1 suddenly noticed that the bike started sliding a lo t in a corner: ' Russell explained. "I didn't know if it was oil corning from my bike, or if there was oil on the track. After I-had realized that it was oil left behind by a crashed bike, I couldn't get into Carl's slipstream." For Fogarty, his third victory of the season brought him back into the title picture after he had lost two opportunities to do we ll before his home crowd at the first race of the year: "I got away first at the start, but by the first comer Scott got passed me on the outside. 1 had a ha rd rear tire on, and 1 wanted to wait a little bit, letting it heat up and having a look at Scott's lines aroun d the track. I Carl Fogarty gave Scott Russell a run in both races and won the fi rst leg. 15

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