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/127666
Round 1: Donington Park BACK FOR MORE By Henny Ray Abrams ~ DONINGTON PARK, ENGLAND, MAY 1 co tt Russell began the defense of his World Superbike title by splitting the first two races at Donington Park with Ducati's Carl Fogarty, but Russell's second-leg win aboard the Muzzy Kawasaki was 11 seconds faster than Fogarty's and served notice tha t he's as hungry for a second crown as he w as for the first. Russell had mad e a number of major changes to his Kawasa ki late in the wee kend, an d they paid off. "It was a roll of the dice, but it came out the right way," Russell said. Finishing a somewh at.surprising second in both rounds was Castrol Honda's eS -::Ii 0\ ~ 00 """" ~ :::E 10 Aaron Slight, the new Honda RC-45 performing better than expected after a frantic and turbulent development schedule. Doug Polen, Slight's teammate, d idn't fare so well. Engine and brake troubles slowed him to a ninth in the first leg . He thought that he'd d isco vered the cause of the engine troubles between races, but soon found out that he hadn't, so he had to settle for eighth in the second leg. As im p ressive as the Honda was, Troy Corser's World Superbike d ebut was even more so. The AMA Sup erbike cha mp ions hi p- leadi ng Australian led the first leg befor e he tip ped over after running into the back of Sligh t while in third with two laps to go. He backed it up with a fourth-place finish in the sec- ond leg after choosing a rear tire that was too soft an d making a set up mistake. The 22-y ear-old Australian had qualified th ird on a track he'd never seen, and a bike that he'd never ridden two , actually. In practice Corser crashed the Ducati 916 prototype that he'd been lent for the race, forcing him to switch to the spare 916 of Tardozzi Ducati's Fabrizio Pirovano. Fogarty finished third to Russell in the second leg, his two-race total giving h im the World Superb ike Championship lead after tw o of 24 races, but just barely. His score of 35 po ints is one better than the 34 points Slight earned for his pair of seconds, an d two be tte r than Russell, who earned 33 for his second-le g w in and h is fi rs t-leg fourthplace finish. Though he finished just 2.52 seconds behind the winner, Russell was never able to lead the first leg d ue to a suspension problem which made it hard for him to steer into and drive out of the comers. But the crew made changes to the ride height and rear suspension between races and Russell was subseq uently able to set a new Superb ike lap record at Donington Park, br eaking the old one held by Fogarty. On his way ,to winning the 25-lap , 62.5 mile race, the 28-yearold Georgian clocked a 1:35.02 on the 22nd lap. He averaged 93.533 mph and won by 3.72 seconds. Fogarty avera ged 93.104 in winning the first leg, an extremely popular result for the 25,000 who turned out on a brillia n tl y s u n ny day in th e Brit ish East Midlands. Slight came across 1.33 sec- •