Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127693
'~:ROAD RACE ....:-: '..,:' .,~. W Cham orld pionship Superbike Road R~ce series Round 11: Phillip Island • Carl Fogarty (2) won the World Superblka Champion ship with an Impressive performance In Australia. Anthony Gobert (96) and Scott Russe ll (1) give chase to the Brit In th e first of two legs at Philli p Island. By Johan Vandekerckhove PHILUP ISLAND, AUSfRAUA, OCT. 30 arl Fogarty finally won his World Superbike Champ ionship in Ph illip Island . After having finished second in last year's campaign, the Ducati Corse rider put together two solid performances in Australia while his rivals s tr ugg led . At da y's end the Brit was well clear of ri vals Scot t Russell and Aaron Sligh t. Sligh t fell out of the championship in the first leg. The New Zealander finished fourth while Fogarty took home victory. Russell, with extra assistance from young Australian wonderbo y ~ Anthony Gobert - who switched from Q'\ Ho nda to Kaw asa ki only a few days ,..-( before the series finale - saw his title -.r) sli p away in the las t of the two races ,..-( wh en serious tire problems forced him l-< out of the race. Cl) After th e lu ckless reig nin g World Champion had pitted in the final stages Cl) to p ut a new rear tire on, Gobert went :> on to notch up the first World Superbike o victory of his career. e Z 6 RACE ONE When Fogarty opened the curtains of his hotel room on Sunday morning, the carefully laid out strategy for the two last races of the seas on looked to be superfluous, as rain was pouring down only a few hours before the race, The sk y cleared up durin g the m orning warm-up, but right when the bikes came out of the paddock for their sighting lap, the heavens opened up again. The usual hysteria on the starting grid followed , exce p t for Doug Polen. The fo r m e r World Champion ju st sa t on his bike and waited, while the others were fran tically juggling rain tires, intermediates and slicks. Finally - and as the sun came o ut fr o m behind th e clouds ag ai n almost everybody opted for slicks front and rear. Only Andrea s Mekl au and Valerio Destefanis d ecided to put an intermed iate on the front. Nev ertheless, I tires would playa very important role in this race. I' . Somehow, Fogarty managed to keep 1 his cool throughout the tire hassle and I he to o k the ho lesh ot as the li ght s turned to green. The Brit was followed by Russell, Gobert and Slight. On the fourth lap, Russell got past Fogarty und er br ak in g for th e Ho nda co rner, and the Kawasaki rider took command for two laps. After that, Fogarty retaliated and was soon able to build a sma ll lea d over Ru ssell, Gob ert a nd Slight, who was d ropp in g ba ck as th e-ra ce progressed. At the ha lfwa y stage, Foga rty had pulled clear of the two Kawasaki riders, w ith Russell visibly struggling with a bad tire. Behind fourth -placed -man Slight, Honda 's Kirk McCarthy and I Troy Corser were battling it out for fifth pla ce. As the race drew to an end, the tension mounted in the Kawa saki and Ducati pit box: the Italians wondered if their rider and his bike would handle the pressure, wh ereas images from last year started to worry the Muzzy crew, who had seen Slight take away precious points from his teammate Russell in Monza. But in the end all was okay - the Ducati went the distance, and Gobert let Russell pass. "During the interval before the real start we had 10 minutes' time to worry about our tires, " Fogarty said. "But after a few laps , I kne w I made the right decision. When Scott passed me in the first few laps, I wanted to follow him first and wait for th e last laps to pass him again. But then I noticed he was struggling, and that allowed me to get a fairly safe lead . For the second race I will be happy if I can finish fourth . I desperately wanted to win the fir s t heat, to be able to relax a bit after that. " Russell was second and was suddenly feeling his title chances slip through his fingers: "I tried to pass Carl several times, but he always go t by me on the straight. I had some tire problems, but that doesn't mean that Carl didn't ride a good race. He deserved to win, but he' will have his work cu t ou t for him in the second heat." Gobert was a surprising third: "At the start of the race, I just wanted to do my race and see how it went. For a while I stayed behind Scott, until he showed me that I could pass him, and try to give him a tow to Foggy. But maybe I tried a little bit too hard after that, and I had a few big slides which almost threw me off the bike a few times . On the last lap, I allowed Scott to get past me again - he needed the points far more than I did. " Fourth at the fini sh , Slight lost all hopes for the title. "The front tire shredded itself after onl y six or se ven laps," he explained. "But I wanted to finish; the other guys co uld ha ve gotten in trouble too." McCarthy lost out in his duel with Corser for fifth after a big slide on the second to last lap . Fabrizio Pirovano lost a place in the top 10 with a broken spark