Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

1993 after Don ington, an d Davide Tar d ozzi also w ithdrew the en tries of his two riders. Stepha ne Mertens was still re cover in g fro m his injuries after his Donin gton cra sh (displaced ve rtebrae) and Mau ro Lucchiari was also reported not to be at the bes t of his condition after his three Donington crashes . Moreover, Tardozzi had inspected th e Portugu ese circuit for himself so me we eks before, and had be en one of the mos t ardent ad versaries of the Sup erbi ke ride rs g oin g there. A nd fin a lly, the prospects of thi s official Duca ti team look very grim indeed with the pr obable withdraw al of team spo nsor Grottini a t the end of the season. In all , Tard ozzi ha d plenty of reasons to stay a t home. The Italian former racer d id, however, promise to be in Mexico. Baldassare Monti was a lso absent, wh ich seems to confirm that his contract with BYRD has com e to an u ntim el y en d. Officially, it was also injuries tha t had kept the Italia n hard man a way from the tr ack. And fi nall y, H er ve Moinea u a nd Adri en Mo rillas spen t the ir weekends a t the hospital , af ter hav ing unde rgo ne su rgery to "repair" th eir s ho uld er inj uries. Moi neau was repla ced b y Mich el Gra zia no in the Suzuki team, b ut no man would assist new com er Denis Bonoris at Kawasak i France . As a r es ult, Bono r is neve r to uc hed his bike a nd rod e it w ith the . sa me s e tti ngs a s in D o n in gt on . H e wou ld not like it very much on race day, how ever. Things went far better for Sligh t. The New Zealander, who still has not signed a con tract an d is d ealing wi th H onda UK and even w ith Ducati , confirmed the strong im pressio n he had made d ur ing the last co uple o f races and p u t down fas test time. "Actually, I was a bit surprised to have po le," said the Kiw i. "I m ad e m y bes t tim e so me th r ee la ps be fo re th e en d, when my tires were alrea dy m ostly gone. There was no time to put on new rubbers . Du ring both sessions, I was bu sy eno ugh trying to find a safe line everywhere an d making up my mind about the tires to choose tom orrow. " Fogarty had en co un'tere d the sam e problems (both psychological and physical), sliding his wa y th rou gh the tigh t hairpins and the d ifferen t sorts of tar mac. Apa rt from so me grip problem s, the Briton also struggled with not -sogoo d suspe nsion. He only hop ed tha t the race wou ld be run in d ry conditions, having just scarcely surv ived some big slides on the soaking we t track on Friday afte rn oon. Terry Ry mer had been su rp risingly fast on his sec ond "home track," pu tting down third-fastest time. The Londoner, who is sponsored by the Portug uese Pep si importer an d Galp Oil Compan y, had had a private test session one week before. "But we only ran for so me tw enty minu tes be fo r e lu nch break, and afte rwards it st arted pouring," the Yama ha rid er explained. Moreover, Rymer ha d his best engine go ban g during qualifying. Russell had the fou rth-fas tes t time, after not having time to make a last go at pol e position in th e fina l minutes. "We've been testing tires," the Georgian sa id. "A nd tha t' s w h y we ran ou t o f time to use a good qualifying tire. To be honest, I st ill d on 't kno w w hat tire to use; we 'll try some more in tomorrow's w arm-up ." The Ka wasa ki ri d e r wa s s till not comp letely healed after Don ington; his injuries prev ented him fro m mov ing around qu ickly on his bike, but most of all Russe ll felt very u n hap p y abou t being th ere. "I wouldn't have come in the firs t place," he said. Russell is now very cl ose to signin g a n ew contract with Kawasa ki. H e w ill find Fog arty ... C1") H Q) S Q) >o Z With two munds left in the Worl d Cha mp ions hip Superbik e Series, Russell (left) enjoys a 29-point advantage over Fogarty (right). back on a Ducati in 1994; the Briton had signed a letter of intent a couple of da ys before the Estoril race. About his plans, the title can didate said, "We w ill tes t the new b ik e proba bl y in Jan uary, even tho u gh I d o n ot expec t i t to h a ve changed a lot. We will have a two-man team, a nd I wi ll a lso be d oing' some races in the States." Brian Mor rison took up the final slot on the front grid, on his pr ivate Kawasaki. Merke l had pu t down sixth-fas tes t time on his Red Devils Ducati . With this .p ractice result, the Californ ian made a return on form after having been taken ou t during p ractice in Monza. "I' m g lad th at I waited so lon g for my leg injury to heal," the Ducati rider sa id . "The bike was w orking pe rfect right from the sta rt, and tha t helped a lot." Merkel foun d Bontempi, Simon Crafar (on one of th e Roche Duc a tis) and Pirovano a long sid e. Falappa ha d only ma de 10th-fas test time, after he crashed once again. "The iron brake d isc broke," the Italian explained . "I have bee n using a combination of a car bo n fibe r and an iro n di sc ri ght th ro ug h the sea so n . But m a ybe I w ill ha ve to ch a ng e this, because th e iron bra ke really ha s a rough time when its carbo n fiber part is used to the full." Race one With the wa rm-u p being run u nd er hea vy rainfall , nob od y really learn ed a n y thing on Su nd a y m orn in g, an d moreo ver, the track had no t dried u p completely w hen the bikes were rolled out of the pit boxes to start the sigh ting la p of th e firs t hea t. Traditionall y in these cond itions, tire choice wou ld be a vital factor. It was surely going to be d ry at the end of the race, as could be conclud ed from the clear blue sky. The only qu estion was how lon g it wou ld tak e before the slicks wo uld be at their best. Ironically, the dangerou s track and the u n cer tain ta rm ac co nd it io ns d id not temper the en th us ias m of the rider s w hen they got away for their first race in front of a cro wd of some 20,000 spectat ors. The first cas ualties fell early, in th e first lap . Ita lian p rivat eer Fabr izio Furlan went wild in the first (very tight) , hairpin and cooke d it. H e braked too late, hit Christer Lind ho lm and both riders wen t d own, se n di n g so me of th e other top rid ers to the grass. Bontempi an d Slight had bu t little notice of th e chaos be hind , and they wer e charging during the first two laps. On the third lap, Sligh t took ov er co mm a nd fro m Bo n tem p i, a n d th e Ne w Zeala n d er looked se t for a remake of his Doning to n d emons tr a tion, waiting p e rhaps until his teammate Russell would come by. Unfortunately, at that time, the race was already over for Russe ll. "I just b urned the clu tch at the start," he said afterward s. "This is the first time this year that it happened to me. I felt on the first lap tha t this was going to be a very short race for me. Too bad, because I had p u t a han d-cut slick on my fron t wheel an d a plain slick on the rear. That turned out to be one of the best choices on the other bikes." Russell di d not ha ve much tim e to cry over spilled ' milk; at the same time that he re tired, he heard th at Fogarty had cras hed , mis sing an e xcellent op po r tu n ity to do awa y w it h part of Russell's 32-point lead . "I had fall en from fo urth to eig hth posit ion aft er th e incident a t the hairpin," said Foga r ty, ve ry d isappo inted aft er his crash. "A nd I suppose I tried too ha rd afterwards . I pushed the intermed iate fron t tire really hard in the corners, an d I went d own on a wet pa tch." With the tw o cha mpionship lead ers go ne, th e ot her to p r iders had th ei r chance to p ut a victory un d er their belts , and it showed . Slight, Falappa, Bontempi a n d P ir o vano m ade a s uccessf ul attemp t to get out of th e cl u tches of Rymer and the rest of th e fie ld , and from halfway through, it was clear that the winner would be one of these four . ' They swapped posit ions several times , while Ryme r' s positio n w as co mi ng und er heav y threat by Sim on Crafar , who for the firs t time rod e a 926cc factory engine, after tea m manager Roch e had called the Castiglion e brother s on Sat u rd ay eve ni ng to ask them for permission to give a big engi ne to his New Zealand protege. Merkel was 11th after a poor s ta rt. He would not climb any hi gher. " W ro ng tires," he grumbled after the finish , Some seven lap s before the end, the leading g ro up was fa lling apart. Th e first to go was Falap pa. The Italian had been strugg ling wit h his shoulder injury after hi s practice crash, and 22 lap s on the tortu ring circui t tu rned out to be just a bit too much for him. Hi s lap ti mes we nt up in the last quarter of the race, bu t fortuna tely he would finis h fourth. Th ird place wen t to Slight, after he had bee n losing so me gro u n d d ue to a wrong tire choice. A few lap s before the end, it looked as if the Kawasaki rid er was closin g the gap again on the fiercely battling Bontempi and Pirovano, but finally, victory went to the BYRD rider, notching up the first Yamaha victory of the season. Piro van o, wh o had started o n slicks, wa s o f cou rse very happy abo u t thi s result: "The bike just went perfect. Only at the end , my tires started to slide a bit. But that was perfectly normal on this track, wh ere the new tarmac provide d a lot of grip." Bontem p i scor ed o ne o f hi s be st resu lts in his still-young career: "Every thing we nt extremely well; I tried everyth in g to w in my fi rs t World Champions hip ra ce, but Fabrizio was just too fas t for me today." Race Two The se co nd race d id not o ffer th e same amount of d rama as the first one. Fogarty had fou nd so me new enthusiasm to sta rt th e race, even though he 11

• Cover