Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GROAD RACE ~ By Johan Vand ekerc khove MONZA, ITALY, SEPT. 26 he good news for Kawasaki fans is simple: Scott Russell still holds his s li m lead in the World Championship point standings after the Italian round of the series, run in the rain on the legendary Monza circuit that ru ns th rou gh a city park in Milan. Th e bad news for Kawasaki fans : It could have been even better for Russell with a little help from his teammate Aaron Slight. Although the Muzzy Kawasaki team sco red its first 1-2 result of the season, team member s watched incred ulou sly as Slight passed his American teammate on the final lap of the first race, taking his first race w in of th e ye a r, ye t robb ing Russell of three valuable points in th e process. At days en d, a hard-eharging Russell and a s lightly-w allowing Carl Fogar ty kept the d amage d on e to a minimu m. Th e Georgia n left a rai n-swep t Monza with 28 more points in his pocket af ter his 2-5 tally, whe reas his British rival had to be conten t with 26 points after fin ishi ng fourth in both races. But the man of the day w a s Sli ght. The Ne w Zealander tallied 1-2 scores in Italy, after following Giancarlo Falappa hom e in the second leg, for one of his best resu lts in World Superbike racing. Sligh t's performa nce may have pl eased the horde of Japanese Kawasaki engineers who had come to see their ZXR Superbike in comba t; but then agai n, it just mig ht not have had tha t effect... "There we re n o team orders," a slig htly irrita ted Peter Doyle ad mit ted after what sh ould have been one of his finest days as a World Superb ike team manager. "But one can expect that so me co m mo n se nse is u sed a s th e se ason draws to an end." Aft e r a long discu ss ion w it h th ei r "disobedient" rid er, the Kawa saki team waited for a more logical result in the second heat. It was not to be. As Falappa went awa y in the distan ce, Slight sailed to secon d place, in front of Fab rizio Pirov an o, Fogarty and Russell, who was a d istant fifth, Un able to go flat out due to a wrong tire choice, Russell never go t in tou ch with the fearless threesome of Slight, Pirovano and Fogarty. The result of his teammate wasn't as critical this T 12 Su erbikeSeries: Round 11 Ita'lian Mauro Lucch iari (34) led the first leg of the Italian round of the World Superbik e Series, wi th Scott Russell and the rest of the pack gi vi ng chase, time; ins tead Slight's second place gave his emp loyer more p oint s towards the constructors championship. The New Zealander showed in Italy that the fighting spirit which seemed to hav e left him in the past few months is back . He proved th at h e is no t only a rid er who finishes hig hly at each race, but tha t he is also a fighter who can win races - an important fact at this point in th e season w he n team ma nagers sta rt thinking about next season. Slight wasn't the on ly one making headlines in Monza. Yamaha's Pirovano, usually dom inan t on his home track, had to be happy wi th two thir d places, whi ch did, h ow eve r, m o v e h im out of th e clutches of Fala p pa in the point sta ndings . "Mad man" Falappa gave a demonstra tion in Mon za that is so typical of his career - in one race he cras hed while d isputing the lead, and in the other one he cruised to victory in very wet and difficult condi tions. Falappa was not the only Ducat is ta letting th e (small) Italian crowd down in the first con fronta tion: Mauro Lucchiari and Stephane Mertens both cras hed in the same spot, all bla ming a nearly invisib le gasoline trail on the track as the cau se of their trouble. Qualifying When they rebuilt the pi t building at Monza a few years ago, the Italian archi tec ts w ere inspired by the for ms of a boat. As a matter of fact, the huge steel construction that lines th e legen da ry Ret tifilo (the front straight) of the circuit on ly lacks some lifeboa ts to mak e th e illusi on complete. Any day now we may rea d in th e "Ga z zetta d e ll o Spo r t" (Italy's lead ing sports daily) that the p it building has disappeared from its original spo t, ha vin g weighed anchor in the typi cal a u t u m n ra in s to rm s tha t h ad already scourged the n orth of Italy, the so u th of Fra nce and th e whole of Swit zerland. Now , we also kno w tha t this so urce of insp iration was not so accide ntal. For the third time, the World Superbike contend ers p itch ed u p th eir tents in th e Milan city park, and for the third time it was goi ng to rain ca ts and dogs fro m Thu rsd ay evening until Sunday evening - some two hours after the completion of the second Superbike heat. In the past, the high humid ity did not prevent loca l boy Pirovano from taking a double victory at each rac e. And this time, the diminutive Italian - who liv es ju s t h a lf a mile from the track - was one of the on ly riders sm ili ng w hen he d rove h is ca m per th rough the Monza fences to find a parking spot in the al ready d rowning paddoc k. Fo r Fala p pa thi ngs w e re also looki ng a b it brighter th a n in recent weeks. The Ducati rid er, who had scored only 20 p o ints in th e six hea ts precedin g the Italian round, has always been a force to be reckoned with. On the treacherous track - where different layers of tarmac make racing even a bit more ad ve n turo us in some of its comers - Fred Merkel was the first to go. His cras h occurin g during Friday's first untimed session. "I had just tipped the bike 'over, and suddenly I was hit by somethin g on my knee," Merkel said. "What 'a sha me this just happens here. I was looking forward to performing rea lly good here, in front of the Italian Ducati fans ." Tha t some thi n g was the b ik e o f a local rider, who apparently felt the ur ge to go for the pol e position in the early minutes of an untimed session . Anyway, Merkel crashed and injured h is kn ee ba dl y enough to make him a specta tor for the weekend. Nevertheless, he spen t his time well, talking to se ve ral team managers abou t next year. Flyin' Fred, by the way, has already bee n contacted by tw o Hond a teams rega rd in g ne xt yea r's cam pa ign . Apparently, he is on e o f the "lucky" guys on a lis t th at was d ra w n u p a fe w days earli e r b y th e Japanese, one of the very few being consid ered eligible for one of th e factory RC45s tha t w ill be entered by H on d a next year. Merkel's fo r m e r te amm ate a n d replacement in the Yamaha BYRD team, Bald assare Monti, was next to crash. The Italian, who had inherited Merkel's exfactory Yamaha YZF for this one race, fell from his rent-a-bike after 13 lap s in the first qu alifying practice, hurting his elbow (w hich was sewn together w ith three stitches), but poss ibly hurting his caree r eve n more. Reportedly, Monti will defend the BYRD colors at Donin gton Park and at Estoril, but he will be forced to stay home when his teammates go to . Mexico, nev er to return to BYRDagain. Quite s u rp ris in g ly, both factory Kawasaki riders gave a demonstration of .things to come by earning the first and second spo ts on the starting grid in qu alifying. It rea lly all came down to 15 minut es. A quarter of an hour in to the second and final practice session, the ra in finall y s topped and 15 minutes lat er a narrow d ry s tri p of pavement forme d around mos t of the ra ce trac k. Fifteen mintues later, that was gone as the clou ds unl oaded another rain storm . Russell took pole position and, for the firs t time in weeks, the Georgian wasn' t talking abo ut a possible switch to Ducati. " I had th e right tires at th e right momen t," Russell said . "I did my best lap on two intermediates. Th ere was a narrow d ry line, but tw o of the fas test right comers were still we t as hell. But I can't afford to fin is h second to Ca rl (Fogarty) anymore. This is the time of the season that 1 must win, and I thought I'd bett er start showing my teeth in practice. I'm happy with the he lp we have here from Kawasaki. Some of the engineers from the racing department have come over, and th ey ' ve brough t their own semi-au tomatic shif ting sys te m with th em. Pl u s w e've also used the engine we'd brou g ht to Asse n, b u t didn't have time to p ut in. Now we've b een able to use it in p ract ice, an d it w orks pretty well. If I h av e the sa me feed back fro m Kaw asaki next yea r, I'm sure I'll stay wi th them." Rob Mu zzy also con firmed that negotiations with Russell are going well and that a con tract may be signed within the next couple of weeks. Slig h t clocked the second-qu ickes t time, after having held provisional pole until 15 minutes from the en d of the final sessio n - just when it sta rted raining again. "I couldn't believe tha t Scott (Russell) had go ne faster," Slight ad mitted. "The track was getting rapidly we t again, and I thought I'd made it on my last lap with that new Jap anese engine. But still, I'm quite happy abo ut this result." Over in the Ducati pits , on the othe r hand, development seems t o have slowed down a bit in the last couple of weeks, and Fogarty and Falappa had to be content with the th ird and fourth positions on the starting grid. Fifth went to Pi rovano, and the seco n d row wa s completed by Fabrizio Furlan, Mauro Lucchiari, Jose Saga rdogui and Mertens. Tripp Nobles had p u t his ancient Honda RC30 in a su rprisi ngly h igh 11th position, and it wasn't th e last su rprise to come from the "Georgia n Bulldog." "I s till have some problem s gettin g off comers; I try to compensate by keeping my cornering s peed off," Nobles sai d . "This time, ho wev er, I did have an ex tra incentive: during the last session, when the trac k s tarted to dry up a little bit, Aaron and then Scotty came by and they were jus t able to inch away. I went as fast as I cou ld , tryin g to hold those Kawasakis within stri king distance. That was fun!" That wasn't th e ca s e for Jam ie Wh itham, who did n' t succeed in finding a correct bike se tup and missed the presence of his team manager Rob McEInea. Onl y a week earlier, the young Brit had cra shed into McElnea during a British national race ; McEln ea emerged with a broken thigh, a broken sh ou ld e r and some broken fingers. Whitham ended up qualifying 14th. Fellow Brit Terry Rymer was in even bigger troubl e . Th e lanky Londoner, who had his B-kit bikes confiscated after the Assen race because of some non-paid in voices by hi s Portuguese spons ors, tried to qualify on his teammate Pedro Baptista's standard bike. Even though the Yamaha proved to be fast enou gh on the straights, a problem with the rear suspension turned ou t to be fatal. The Englishman d id not qualify. Race O ne The Italian World 5uperbike round has alwa ys be en an oc cas ion for the young Italian rid ers to grab racing glory. This time, Lucchiari, the 24-year -old pr otege of David e Tardozzi, felt called upon to ta k e th e Ita li an flag to the top in Monza. The Ducati rider got away first and headed in to th e first chicane (the

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