Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

'~ .ROAD·RACE· ' · , ... , - .,: Round 10: Donington World Championship Superbike Road Race Series By Johan Vand ekerckhove DONINGIONCASTLE, GREAT BRITAIN, ocr. 2 ne week after extending h is series point lead to 18 over Aaron Slight, Ducati's Carl Fogarty en tered his homecoun tr y race at Donington w it h h igh hopes. The Brit expected to enjoy a pair of strong performances en rout e to his first World Superbike Championship ever, bu t unfortunately for Fogarty, it was not to be. Instead, the estimated 17,000 soaking-wet British fans saw how their local favo rite did not stand a chance against American Scott Russell and Australian Troy Corser. The two co lonia ls s ho wed the w a y around th e w et track of Doningto n, wh ereas Fogarty was struggling to salvage a set of 14-5 finishes. Foggy's lead is now reduced to a slim five points over Russ ell, and 17 over Slight. The Phillip Island series finale promises to be a real nail-biter. O Scott Russell was dom inant at Conlngton Park. The Georgian won both legs in horrible conditions to climb back Into the World Champlnship picture with one round remaining. RACE ONE -.:t< 0\ 0\ rl 0' rl l-< OJ .g ...... u o 10 The heavens opened on Sunday morning, and released a steady, miserable rain well into the evening. On top of that, extra trouble began on the startin g line wh en Belgian Stephane Mertens came back from the warm-up lap with an overheating engine. In the fuss before the start, he stalled his engine and made his mechanics push the bike back to life, much to the disliking of the other riders who were still on the starting line, knowing that their own bikes were heating up during the delay. In the meantime, some riders opted to change tires, as the sky seemed to clear up a bit. Fog arty, Pirovano andLucchiari were som e of the riders having second thoughts. For Fogarty, the choice would have disastrous consequences for his race result. Bontempi got away first as the lights went to green, but the Italian's lead would not last for very long. After one lap, Russell had gotten past him and he led Bontempi, Corser and Casoli. Fogarty was already struggling after a poor start, and crossed the line for the first time in sixth position. A few laps later, Corser got in front and tried to get away from Russell. But the American would not let go, and one lap later, it was the Georgian once again in the lead. . , He would not be passed again. Russell and Corser were going at a pace that seemed incredible on the wet; after a few laps, they alread y had a 1Q-second lead over the duo of Bontempi and Casoli, followed by a lonely and surprising Carter, then by New Zealanders Crafar and Slight. Fogarty , at that time, was trying to hold on to Doug Polen in 10th, desperately tryin g to fend off the attacks from Ducati riders Andreas Meklau and Matt Uewellyn. For the rest of the race, Corser stayed clos e enough in touch w ith Russell to keep the spec tators on their toes. Slight, the other rival of the British favorite, got into some sort of trouble around halfway when he missed his braking po int at the esses, dropp ing back from sixth to eighth, with a long wa y to go to catch up w ith seven th-placed Meklau . Bont empi also lost ground as the race went on, a clear victim of a poor tire choice. But most of the British eyes were concentrated on Fogarty, who lost even more ground, and at ' one point was threatened to be pushed out of the top 15 by Jochen Schmid, Valerio Destefanis and Polen. In the end, Russell wo n his eighth race of the year, in front of Corser and Casali, who had lost Bontemp i underway. A very disappointed Fogarty finished 14th. "Just tr ying to sta y on th e b ik e w a s hard enough," he said. "If I had not changed the tir e during that Mertens incide nt, I know I could have finished within the top four. I am disappointed about the team before the race the Italians 'had told me not to worry about the other Ducati riders..." Russell had sh runk Fog a rty 's lead mo re than he had eve r expected befo re the race. "At the beginning of the race, I waited for Troy to pass me. After all, he'd set the pace in the wet during practice. But after a few laps, I started thinking that he just couldn 't go any faster. From then on, I felt confident that I could win." For Corser, the delayed start was not such a p rob lem. "I had a feeling that it was going to rain again," he said . "So I did not mind that we lost some more time while the track was still a little drier. During the race, I gave myself a good chance to pass Scott on the last lap. If I got past him aft er the chicane, he would never catch up with me in the acceleration. But I guess I was a little bit too greed y, and the rear wh eel spun which mad e me lose a lot of ground." Casali finished third in front of Carter, Crafar and Bontemp i. Slight was eighth. "We struggled with traction problems at the rear," the New Zealand er commented . His teammate Polen came home even later, in 12th. "The rear tire turned out to be a wrong bet," the former world champion said . "Then a small brake problem mad e things even worse." The Castrol Honda rider had been battling with pri vateers Stringer, Morrison for an instant, but at the end, it was Carl Fogarty who took his Ducati to the best starting position ahead of Aaron Slight, Piergiorgio Bontempi, Polen and Russell . Foggy owed a lot to his local knowledge, as he pointed out: U just came in a quarter of I an hour before the end, and let the guys put slicks on. Five s could be expected, minutes later, as the track dried up, I got out and in the very rain determined the last lap, I got a clear track, and took pole." Corser, on the other pace that the superbike hand, was out on the track on the wrong tires at the wrong riders were going to set on a time, and fell back to 15th position. Slight was quite happy cold British track in October. with the result, especially as he had spent some time testing , AgainSt all oddS; and against new engine parts (differently-shaped pistons and cylinder the liking of most of the heads, different port shapes, all of which provided more British fans, Scott Russell power). started his psychological war , Russell denied he had started a psychological war on Friday: on Friday - setting best time "Lwas just trying to do the best 1 can on the track. That is the during free practice. A small only option left for me now that Carl has got a considerable off-road excursion during lead. 1 only got in trouble once, when the back stepp ed out and . one of his fast laps demonI got off the track- Fortunately,I didn't crash. On Saturday, 1 strated how eager the Amerilost a chance to get a better time because I ran out of gas. Havcan was to show h is teeth. ing sa id that, 1 feel quite comfortable on the dry, and 1 have On Saturday, the first official shown that 1can be consistently fast on the wet, too." . practice session wa s ru n Polen was fourth on the front row, despite having run into under heavy rain. It did not, however, stop Troy Corser (above) from clocking an incredible 1:46.72 in those atrocious cond itions som e un exp ected p roblems. "1 alm ost lost the bike in one of the first comers, wh en it ap peared that the tire warmers had not - almost three full secon ds clear of the rest of the field. "I almost foun d my lines by mistake, but they were very fas t wo rked. Fortunat ely, things went pretty well from tha t stage in the wet," the Aus tralian said afterwards. "And then during onward. The new engine delivers the goods as promised. I did the last few laps, the Michelin guys gave me some special tires my best time - like everybody else - in th e closing minutes. 1 Carl has been using for some time. They ma de a big difference, know I could have gone faster on a softer front tire, but you don't hear me complaining. A front-row s tarting position is but I had not expected tha t big a lead." Unfortunately, the skies cleared up in the afternoon, and the always'a p lus." Cra far notched u p the 10th fastes t prac tice time , d espite second session was run on a track with a racing line that go t. drier and d rier as tim e went on. Lap times went d own faster so me fue l-injection problems . Cas a li, once again, had been th an could be followed on the monitors, and th e pole time inv olved in a crash - this time he collided with Moroni d urin g changed several tim es during the last qua rter of an ho ur. Doug his fas test lap. The Yamaha rider stayed on board, bu t Moroni Polen, [ochen Schmid, Piergiorgio Bontempi, all held best time crashed an d injured his leg and arm. Wet and dr A

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