Round 2: Hockenheim, Germany
~ ere's simp no sloppin
(Above ) Fabrizio Pirovano (4) gets the Jump on the field du ring the f irst lap of the World Superblke race in Germany; he's chased by Aaron
Slight (3) and Scott Russell. (Below) The race was led by Glancarlo Falappa (5) until the italian collided with Plrovano and crashed.
By Johan Vandekerckhove
HOCKENHEIM, GERMANY, MAY 8
~~I f I got through last year, I can
ge t through everything," a
happy Scott Russell said while
h is crew wa s rolling the Muzzy
Kawasakis in to the truck after the second round of the World Championship
Superbike Series. The Georgian had
every reason to be happy - he had just
won his third race in less than a week,
and he was leading the championship
point standings by a handsome 22
points over Aaron Slight and 32 points
over Doug Po len - all th is after the
World Champion's most dominant outing of his two-year World Superbike
career. But the season is still young, and
Ducati and Honda are desperate to get
their brand- new bikes in front of the
"aging" ZXRs prepared by Rob Muzzy.
So far, though, it has been less than a
stellar year for the "Brigada Rossa" from
Bologna, Italy. Once the favorite to take
Russell's title, the four-bike Italian
attack was limited to just two bikes by
th e start of the German round. With
Jamie Whitham hurling h imself on
home soil at the opener in Donington
Park, Carl Fogarty joined him on the
injured list after breaking his left wrist
du ring practice at Hockenhei m. To
make things even worse , Giancarl o
Falappa and Fabrizio Pirova no did all
they co uld to ge t -In each other's way
during the race.
However, it wou ld be unjust to say
that the lanky Russell owed his double
victory - an d the ens ui ng lea d in the
points table - to the unrestrained ambitions of his Ducati opponents. The Team
Mu zz y ri de r never got the chance to
make a clean break 'on the high-speed
track n ea r the German city of
Mannheim, a strategy which had earned
