Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·R AD·R E:.··. .. .. . Round 8: Holland : O AC :World ChimpiOnshipSupedlike R Race $erieS •. oad own (Left) Carl Fogarty was dominant In the Worl d Superb ite 5e rles round in Asse n, Holland. The Brit wo n both legs to move Into secon d In the champ ionship point standings. (Below) Paolo Casoli (15) leads Terry Rymer and Jamie Whitham. Casoll fin ished second and fourth. By Johan Vandekerckhove ASSEN, HOLLAND, SEPT. 11 h e ve ry unpredictable World Superbike Championship became even more so after the Dutch round . Only a few weeks after confidently stamping his authority on the rest of the World Superbike class in Japan, Scott Russell showed up at Assen and s tr uggled with an ill-ha n dling Kawas aki - barely taking 17 po ints back home. Carl Fogarty, on the other hand, had his return to form, scoring his third double victory of the season as the two continued their leapfrog gam e for second place in the championship. The on ly thing you can count on these days is the consistency of the Kiwi Aaron Slight. The Castrol Honda rider showed once again that he remains the man to beat for the title as he walked away from Holland with third- and second-place finishes in the two legs. With eigh t rounds and 16 races complete d, Slig ht now le ads Foga rt y by eight points, 224-216 . Russell sli ps .to third with 203 points. T RACE ONE 18 The warm-up session on Sunday morning turned out to be - traditionally - the final test for many teams after their mechanics had done so me r ad ical changes to the bikes on Saturda y evening. The Kawasakis of Terry Rymer and Russell turned out the best lap times on the now completely dry tarmac, albeit some eight seconds down on the best qualifying times. "We still don't know if the changes will allow me to get back on top ," Russell said, two hours before the st art of the first race. "And, anyway, having to s:art fr~,m fifth row is not really a plus . either ... A few minutes after 12:00 p .m., Fogarty led the pack down the straight after the ligh ts had turned green. The action sta rted quickl y w ith Ma uro Lucch iari raising his hand at the first comer when his 916 suddenly stopped with a broken chain. Slight, Andreas Meklau, Stephane Mertens, Russell, Doug Polen and most of the others were all more or less involved in the inciden t, though all stayed u pright. Meanwhile, Fogarty was oblivious to what had happened behind him, and by the end of the first lap he'd a lready opened up a handsome lead over th e pack tha t was led by Paolo Casoli, Terry Rymer, Jamie Whitham and Simon Crafar . Fogarty put his head down and really sta rte d ch arging for some 10 laps, extending his lead until he had a comfo r ta ble cus h ion of rou gh ly nine se c- onds. In the meantime, second place was high on the priority list of three riders: Casoli, Rymer and Whitham. The three had sha ken off Crafar, after he had nearly collided with Whitham, and seemed set to battle it out among themselves. At the halfway mark, however, Slight had come back from his hectic first lap to get into the slipstream of the threesome. Russell was sixth at tha t time, but he was to ge t company from Crafar, w ho had valiantly fought back after his off-roa d ex cu rsion follo w ing the Whitha m incident. With five more laps to go, Caso li had succeed ed in running away, putting enough d istance between him and the three others to cruise to second place. The battle for third was decided on the last lap, when Slight got the best of Rymer and Wh itham. Russell finished sixth , in front of C ra fa r , Schmid, Meklau, Mertens and Polen. For Fogarty, the lonesome race had only been disturbed a little bit d ur ing the last couple of laps when he thought he heard some strange noises coming ou t of the engine, and he looked down ominously each time he passed in front of the pits. "Jus t a qu estion of keep ing the pit crew on th eir toes," he s miled afterwa rd s. "The only problem that really bothered me was my front brake lever,

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