Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127592
e R~D AAa ~ili Q~_i_~~S~U~ff_bi_b_Se_ries:_~ omW _ _u_nd_8 _ e Giancarlo Falappa (9) led in each leg but crashed in both. Carl Fogarty (4) won bo th races, Step han e Me rtens (7) was fifth in both, and Scott Russell (11) finished second tw ice. o ar • • Ia o In aa S By Johan Vandekerckhove PASIR GUDANG; MALAYSIA, AUG. 22 h ere w as d efinitel y n o st op p ing Carl Fogar ty in his cha rge to what might become his first "rea l" World Champion ship tit le . The 27-yea r- old British rider, who earned gold medals in TT Fo r m ula 1 (1988 a nd '89) .a n d Enduran ce ('92) scored his seven th victory of the World Su pe rbike season in front of a sma ll crowd in tropical condi tion s a t the Johor Circuit to take another step towa rd possibly becomin g a -w orthy suc cesso r to Doug Polen. Mu zzy Kaw asaki' s Scott Russell , who is st ill leading th e Victors World Superbike po int stan dings but now by only five points ove r Fogarty, was second in both legs in Malaysia. Fabriz io Pirova no ro de the Bel garda Yamaha Rac ing Div ision (BYRD) Yamaha to a p air of th ird place fini shes . Giancarlo Fa la ppa , u n til recen tly the main tit le chaser, underm ined his own chances by crashing his Ducati twice. Russell leads Foga rty 231.5 to 226.5, and Falappa is third w ith 178. . Statistics might give a w rong imp ression of the Mal aysian meet in g. Even thou gh Fogarty registered his third po le position in a row, won both races and narrowed the point gap, the Ducati rider had to run for his money as he admi tted after the second leg. "This is one of the T 26 hardest races I have ever run," Fogarty said . "Up until now, I have been a ble to play it really cool, ridin g very ha rd dur ing the first few laps and then settling down as soon as my advantage reached .five or six seco nds. Bu t this afterno on Scott really put me under p ressure. But this was a fine lesson: now I realize that I can also w iths tand some hefty resistance in d ifficult condition s." And di ffi cul t it wa s in deed, w it h temperatures of up to 100 degrees and a ra ther bu mp y track, the riders we re in for a wild ride around the Johor Circuit which is located some 45 miles fro m Singapore. Russell might have been beaten again by his British rival, but somehow he did not worry as much as he has in the past. Unli ke the Swedish round, which followed a turbulen t per sonal wee k in the Sta tes , the lanky Georgian was more relaxed a t Joh or . Had h e p e rh aps resigned h imself to the fact that he does not sta nd a cha nce against the lighter and faster acce lera ting Ducatis, or di d he have some surprise in store for everyone in subseque nt rounds? "Kawasa ki has something in sto re for us at Sugo," Russell said. "We still d on't know wh a t this new engine will be, but it is good to know that the guys in Japan have been wo rking on the bike. I realize that the Ducatis are still very ha rd to beat, but you can be su re I'll keep trying to do just tha t un til the very las t race in Mexico." A lthough he might be awaiting a ne w engi ne, a re laxed - confident? Russell broke the Johor lap record d uring th e second race, top ping the mark set by Fogarty in the opening leg . Th e ove rseas rounds of the series resemble econo my runs. Because of the exp ensive air freight ra tes, most team s th ink tw ice abo u t wha t they will ta ke wi th th e m to s u ch ra ces and wha t sho uld be left at home . This wa s eve n mo re ap pa re n t th is year in Ma laysia, with the factory Duca ti teams tran spo rting only ab ou t half of what they took wi th them last yea r. Some p rivateers we re ho p ing to get through the Malaysian race and the follow ing weekend's round in Japan with one complete bike and a spa re engi ne . Twenty-three team s sh o wed u p for practice, 16 of them regu lar competitors in the series. Th e to p 15 in the point s tandings rec ei ved fina ncia l suppor t from the Flam mini G roup (the air freig hting of 1540 pounds of equipmen t a nd four round trip plane tickets for each rider) . Fogar ty was the fast qua lifier, in fact he was the fastes t in both morning and afterno on session s o n Satu rday . He turned in his pole position la p - one min ute, 29.83 second s - in the da y's las t sessio n with th e same en gine he had used in Sweden. He a lso tried a fresh (big) engine installed in a ch assis that d id not work as well as the old er bike he set fast time on. Fogar ty, who still refuses to use the 16.5-inch fron t tires from Michelin (like Gro ttini Duca ti's Stephane Mertens and Pirovanvo but unlike Falappa), was confident of being ab le to d o consistent 1:31 laps on race day aboa rd his Team Roche Ducati. Russell was second fas tes t qua lifier, some five- tenths of a second d ow n . "I get used to it," sai d Ru ssell abo ut Foga rty being faster. " I just hope tha t the bike is ru nning a bit better than at Anderstorp. In Sweden we no ticed that we had lost our edge over the Ducatis in top speed . Fortunate ly , that isn ' t so imp ortant on this twisty circuit." Falapp a was third fa s test, threetenths down on Russell, a fter a quite even tful p rac tice day. Th e Ita lian had suffe red from suspension problems, and then w ith some electrica l a nd valv e trouble. For Aaron Slight, things were even worse. During the first practice session, the Kiwi lost a lot of time, first due to an oil lea k, and then due to a leak in the Kawasaki's wa ter radiator. He still managed to qualify fo ur th fastes t with a 1:30 .99 time. Kawasaki-mo u nted Piergiorgio Bon tempi complet ed the fron t row, earning the starting slot with a 1:31.27 lap . Row two was occupied by Mertens , Pirova no, Mau ro Lucc h iari a nd Rob Phillis. Aussie Phillis was making a onesho t appeara nce in World Su perbike.