Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Austrian said. "After the first lap, I was seventh. It did not take me too long to get to third, but then I no ticed that I could not pull awa y from Polen . I decided to wait un til the last laps before going over to the offensive." Polen came home third, but the luckiest man on the rostrum was Fogarty, who was now only six poin ts behind Russell in the championship . "I only had two p roblems," the Blackbu rn, England, residen t said. " In the first chicane I almost ran into the back of Pirovano, who almost stood still ther e. But in th e next comer I go t passed him. Once that problem had been solved, I started to struggle once aga in with some front-end problems. I almost crashed once beca use of that, so I was quite happy to be able to slow down a little bit in the last couple of laps." Russell only finished 14th, with a bike that seemed to have lost all the sp eed and acceleration it had been so generous with until 'this rac e. Simon Crafar finished sixth after a fairly uneventful race. Phillis appeared set to get ninth, until the Italian Panichi lived up to his name, making a desperate move on the brakes on the last lap. RACE TWO Belgian Mertens, who now has replaced engine tuner Nepotti with former Roche mechanic Roland Simonetti, continued his excellent performance in the second heat by grabbing the lead as soon as the lights turned green. Unfortunately, in the very first chicane, things w en t terribly wrong behind his back when Peter Haug, Aldeo Presciutti and Slight got tangled up somewhere in the m iddle of the field. The three men crashed, with only Haug suffering injury with a broken leg . Baldheaded Aldeo Presciutti called it quits for the da y, but Slight picked up his bike, push started it and set off in pursuit of the pack ...only to crash again in the next comer. Fortunately for Slight, the race was red-flagged and restarted some 30 minutes later. "I hadn't noticed that my front tire had punctured in the crash," the Kiwi confessed later, after escaping from his third tumble of the weekend unhurt. Again, there was no stopping Fogarty. The "Ducatista" pulled away right from the' start, never to be seen again by his collea gues. Meklau, Polen, Slight and Mertens - his main rivals of the first heat - now had th e company of Jamie Whitha m and Valerio Destefanis. A coup le o f laps later, Meklau, Po len and Whit ha m b roke away from the other th re e, looking determined to decide amongst themselves how the rostrum positions wo uld be dis tribu ted. Unfortuna tely, Wh itham wa s the first to take leave of the group. After eight laps, he parked his 916 with a mechanical problem. The incident also seemed to give a decisive edge to Polen.. By half distance, the Texan had built a small lead over Meklau, bu t as the race drew to an end the Austrian, once aga in, p ut his head down and started to charge. Under the chee rs of his numerous fans, he got by Polen.. It wouldn't last, though, and the former two-time World Champion took his revenge a few kilometers later, only to be passed again, having to be content with his second third-place finish of the day. Meklau had used his spare bike for the second race after noticing th at his ,best bike lost power under acceleration at the completion of the first race. Between the races, the mecha nics discovered that the Ducati wouldn't have las ted much longer. "The bike is still a little bit down on top speed," Polen said. "But what saved _II!e here was the lines I rod e. I run into World Champion Scott Russell (1) found himself racing with the likes of Jochen Sc hmid (52) and his teammate Terry Rymer (8) In the middle of the pack In Austria. It was by far the Geo rgian's worst perfo rmance to date In Wor ld Superblke racing as the Kawasa ki was well off the pace In both races. the comers tight, but I go wide on the exit, putting the bike straight sooner on the exit which gives me a good run down on the straights." For Russell, his promotion from 14th to 12th was only a small reward for a tough race; he spent the whole time at the back of a group consisting of Schmid, Serafino Foti, Bontempi and Rymer. In the first few laps, Phillis had also been part of this group, but after going straight in the chicane, he fell back to finish 13th. "Everything was a problem today," a very disappointed Russell said. "The bike was slow, it felt like the Supersport-bike I rode two years ago. Running around in 12th position is not good. Perhaps I may as well quit racing altogether.:" For Fogarty, things could not have gone better. After a crash at the second race of the year, everything seemed to be pointing to a terrible season. Now, two races after having fully recovered, he is the new championship leader. "When you are lying there with your arm in parts, you think that nothing is go ing to change. But sometimes, the other guys also get into trouble. There is still a long way to go, and that's why I will try to look at one race at a time. It is fa r too early to start counting points already." Fogarty's the man I n' view of the crucial role of this fifth round in the championship, many riders had .prepared for this race in a far more assiduous manner than any other event. The Honda Castrol team had spent two private practice days on the hilly and partially bumpy track. And the Austrian National race, run ju s t one week before the World round, had seen an incredible line-up with Andreas Meklau, Fabrizio Pirovano and Piergiorgio Bontempi, to name but a few of the protagonists. That National race had been won by Meklau, but Bontempi had notched up the fastest lap time (1:50.615), with Pirovano finishing third. The knowledge gained through the extra track time would only serve them partially when the championship contenders went out to qualify on Saturday. Meklau, who is building a new home barely 500 meters from the circ uit, looked set to keep everybody behind him w ith a fastest lap of 1:50.208. But, in the very last minute of the final session, Carl Fogarty went even faster, grabbing pole position with 1:50.189. . "I had hoped for a 1:49 lap," the Briton said later . "But my better steering bike was not the fastest . When my best bike started to lose oil, 1 had to make do with the other one. After working on the front suspension, we finally got it handlirig alright. Toobad 1 was hindered by an intervention car.on the race line in the last couple of laps, just after Aaron (Slight)ahd (Paolo) Casoli had gone down," .~ , As usual on the Oesterreichring, most riders struggled with handling problems at the front end of the bike. A problem related partially to the track being used by cars, who tear the asphalt in ripples at some places, and partially to the fact that the front tires and front suspension are very much put to the test on the downhill sections. The Hondas looked better than they have all Maybe so , Mr. Fogarty, but in the meantime, you leads the point standings. Fogarty has 128 w ith Russell at 118 . Slight is third with lOS and Polen holds down fourth with 'fl. C\' OestemlIchring ZeItweg, Austria Results: July 17, 1994 QUAUFYINC: 1. CuI ~ (1:50,189); 2. Andreas Mek1au (1:50.208); 3. Doug Polen (1:50 .645) ; 4. Aaron Sligh t (1 :5 0. 742); 5 . Ja me . Whitha m (1 :5\.244); 6. Pie rg ior g io Bontemp! (1:51.378); 7. Terry Rymer (1:51549); 8. Paol o Casali (1:51. 847) ; 9. Simon Cralar (1:51.701); 10. Rob Phillis (1:51.821); 11. Fabrizio Pirovano (1:51.831); 12. Ch ris ter U ndholm (1:51.9 47) ; 13. Scott RuseeU (1:51.965) ; 14. Stepha n< Mertens (1:51.97 1); 15. Serafino Foti (1:52.057); 16. RogerKellenberger (1:52.174); 17. CamiUo MariottinJ (1:52.271); 18. Valerio Destefanis season, with Doug Polen (left) qualifying third with his teammate, Slight, fourth. . The Texan was very pleased with his best practice effort of the season : "We've done some testing here, and tha t helped quite a lot. We got the typical understeering problem sorted out, and then I could concentrate on putting down some consistent fast times:' Two years ag len had given one of his most cautious performances of at the fast (and sometimes dangerous) Zeltweg track - he backed off in the last couple of comers, when it got a little bit too hectic in the group that was battling it out for victory. "Yeah, I remember that," the Honda rider said. "But now I have the bike set up to go well on the places where it needs to be. Now I should be able to geHn front of everybody in the Bosch Kurve and then lead the remaining two kilometers to the finish:' His New Zealand teammate Slight was fourth; and he may have gone faster if he hadn't been knocked off by Paolo Casoli, when both men tried to avoid a slower Ducati rider. For Slight, who injured his hand and his elbow slightly, it would not be the last time that he would chafe his leathers. Jam ie Whitham completed row one with Simon Crafar and Rob Phillis, representing the "Down Under Crew" in fine fashion, turning in the ninth and 10th fastest times, respectively. But the biggest news came from Scott Russell . who qualified a lowly 13th - his worst-ever World Superbike. performance. Apparently, the team had lost precious time trying to get a revised chassis to work. The bike had worked to perfection during private practice sessions in Jerez, Spain, but it d id exactly the opposite in Zeltweg. The stiffened frame of the ZXR (swingarm and upper frame section), proved to multiply the negative effects of the track's characteristics. Once Russell realized that something needed to change, his second bike .' came out - but that one suffered from a chronic carburetion problem. "All weekend, w e have been going backwards," Russell said . "This might be put down to.the fact that we've been a little own on testing time in Europe. And in the last practice session I lost about 15 minutes in the pits when my rear brake pedal broke. And the other bike had an engine in it that hadn't worked well the whole weekend:' , . In addition, Russell had riotonlycrashed twice at the last round in Albacete, Spain, but another time in Jerez and a fourth time at Suzuka during testing for the upcoming 8-Hour - all of which did nothing to boost his confidence.

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