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,: ~ ~, '.- R A RACE" :'," ":: ',: :.. ", Round 4: Spain OD ,W ham orld,C pionshipS uperbikeRoad RaCe,SerieS ' It s all Foggy in Spain By Johan Vandekerckhove ALBACIITE, SPAIN, JUNE 19 ust when it seemed that Scott Russell was well on his way to turning the World Superbike Championship into a one-man show, bad luck struck the Muzzy Kawasaki rider at Albacete, allowing some suspense ,to creep back into the title battle. With Russell finishing both heats in the gravel pit, Ducati's Carl Fogarty took revenge for the cruel fate that had stricken the "Brigada Rossa" a week before by winning both races. Suddenly, the J 14 championship point standings are close again as Russell now leads Fogarty by only 24 points after four rounds, 112-88, Even before the teams rolled their machines out of their trucks in the Albacete paddock, the World Superbike hierarchy had undergone some spectacular transformgtions since the latest race at Misano, One week before the Spanish battle, Giancarlo Falappa - third in the championship - had suffered serious head injuries in a crash during a private practice session. "It happened about a quarter of an hour before the session was going to be finished," his team manager Virginio Ferrari recalled. "We still do not know what caused the crash, but we had just noticed blue smoke coming out of the bike, which might indicate an oil leak. We tried to stop Giancarlo, who apparently did not know that something was going wrong, but we never got the chance to make him slow down. Just when we were running to the trackside at the back of the paddock, a Honda crew member informed us that Giancar10 had gone down. When we arrived at the place (where the riders reach some 80 mph), two marshalls were already administering first aid to him. He was taken immediately to the hospital by ambulance. And it was only then that we noticed that he was still conscious: he reacted when we asked him to pinch our hand or to lift a leg. Later on, it also became clear that he suffered from a severe pneumonia. On Sunday evening, the pressure in his head rose to some 40, whereas it should normally be around 12. If they had performed a draining surgery then - which was planned - it would have caused his immediate death. Now he is put in an artificial coma until the end of the week. Only then will the doctors be able to tell if and how fast he will recover. His life is no longer in danger; in the best case he will be able to start living a somewhat normal life again within six months' time." . It is not certain who will replace Falappa, but Mauro Lucchiari seems to be a good candidate. He is now the official test rider for Ducati. A few days after Falappa's crash, series runner-up Aaron Slight saw his championship points shrink by 34 points - the total score he had obtained in the opening race at Donnington the beginning of the year. Much to the surprise of many involved, the FIM had stuck to their original decision, inflicting the worst possible punishment (loss of the points obtained in both British races as well as a fine of 1200 Swiss Francs) to Slight and Andreas Meklau for using illegal gasoline. "The FIM have just ruined a good championship," was the New Zealander's first reaction after being informed of the federation's decision. "Now we already know this year's champion." The Honda Castrol team has already filed an appeal to the decision of the FIM. According to team manager Neil Tuxworth, the decision can be invalidated because of some technicalities. As reported earlier, most of the superbike riders are using Elf fuel, and thus they had also ,used illegal fuel at Donington and Hockenheim. ' "When we went to Geneva (to the FlM), we believed that we stood a SO/50 chance of getting away with it," Tuxworth said. "The Japanese were very upset by the decision of the FlM, and actually the federation (should not have been) allowed to take Aaron's points away in the point standings. They should have waited until the appeal has been heard... the FlM has stuck to the rules, so that is what we will also do. Purely on some technical grounds - e.g. concerning the way the fuel sample was taken - we believe we have a case . In addition, the FlM was not (supposed) to take away points for the two heats. They took a sample just before the second heat. As far as we are concerned, we could have run on diesel in the first heat!" ' Still, things looked rather bad for the title ambitions of the Honda team. The point standings seemed to prove Slight right. Before the Spanish race, Russell was leading with 112 points over the heavily injured Giancarlo Falappa (76), Carl Fogarty and Doug Polen (both with 48) and Slight (45). Nevertheless, Fogarty proved at Albacete that the championship is still far from over. He reduced the points gap considerably and now looks set to at least do the same thing he did last year, only this time he is not the only one to hit the floor... (Abov e left) Carl Fogarty put hlmse" back Into content ion In the World Superblke Championship In Spain. (Left) Plerglorglo Bontempl (6) leads Jamie Whitham (69) and Aaron Slight (3) In their race for second.