Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

* ROAD RACE . : ' . Round 1: Hockenheim, Germ y an "'i, . World ChampionshipSuperbike Road Race series By Johan Vandekerckhove Photos by Gold & Goose HOCKENHEIM, GERMANY, MAY 7 esp ite the arrival of several new factory teams, the official Ducatis still seem to be in charge of World Superbike racing. Carl Fogarty wo n both hea ts at the opening round in Hockenheim, and some semi-official Ducatisti were impressive as well . Still, the Honda and Yamaha factory riders will surely have their say shortly. The Muzzy Kawasaki team, on the other hand , struggled as the ZXR750R is beginning to show its age and Scoll Russell and Anthony Gobert were off the pace on the ultra-fast circuit near Mannheim. Experiments with a new double exhaust did not deliver the necessary power increase on top, and that led to so me disappointing results for the former World Champion and his young Australian teammate. In fact, it was up to another Kawasaki rider to make things look good for them in the constructors' point standings: Local hero [ochen Schmid finished on the rostrum twice - in part because of his Kawasaki's very high top speed on the long Hockenheim straights. By day's end , the 30,000 en thusiastic German Superbike fans cheered th e forme r 250cc rider to second p lace in the point standings behin d Fogarty. In a word, the first race of the season offered its share of surprises. Apart from the unexpected results from some of the known quantities in Wor ld Superbike racing, the entry of Yamaha wa s one of the main points of interest at D 6 Hockenheim. The red-and-white squad raised the standards of professionalism a bit more, exceeding the Honda Castrol effort from last year in more than one respect. Not only did Yamaha bring a huge truck and a big technical team into the Superbike paddock, but they also introduced some Grand Prix habits into the four-stroke world, with professional-looking p ress releases and press presen tations. But they also showed good where it really mattered - on the race track. Team manager Christian Sarron stated before the first meeting that the YZFs would be competitive enough to start winning in the second half of the season. The results obtained in Hockenheim might prove this prediction to be too humble. Yasutomo Nagai and Colin Edwards II made an impressive debut in Germany, proving that they will be more than just outsiders in th eir first complete season. With Fogarty already on cruising speed, Aaron Slight quick ly getting into the groove and Team Muzzy Kawa saki extra-motivated to forget about the Ger man weekend, the 1995 season might be one of the most interesting Superbike seasons ever. But the other newcomers in the series found the going pretty tough: Birnota's Terry Rymer missed qualification by a few hundredths of a second, and Suzuki's Bruno Cirafici finished 24th in one race, after having retired in the other one. RACE ONE On ultra-fast circuits such a s the Hockenheimring and Oesterreichring, a good start is essential. Anyone who rnistirnes the lights will have his work cut out if he wa nts to make up for the ground lost in the first couple of miles. But if you react a t the rig h t mo ment, you .can stay w ith th e lea ders wit ho u t too many problems - sli pstreaming is the name of the game in Germany. This old racing law was shattered by Fogarty in Hockenheim. The re ig n in g Wo rld Champion got the holeshot in the firs t heat, followed only b y Fabrizio Pirovano - for merly renowned for hi s rocket starts. Most of the other top ru nners were left behind after a few laps. For Fogarty, things went pretty well. When - around midrace - Pirovano's tires sta rted to lose grip, the Briton walked away carelessly. Seven laps from the end, the number-one Ducati had an unassailable advantage over a lon ely Pirovano. There was, however, much m ore happening in the race for third. No less than 10 riders were in the battle that would go to the bitter end. Most of the fron t riding was done by Schmid, but Chili, Edwards and Mauro Lucchiari were never far away. Only Russell seemed to struggle to stay in the slips tream of his companions, desperately making up lo s t ground in the tw istier Stadium section of the circuit. Of these, Pao lo Casoli wo uld not reach the finish as he reti red a few laps from the finish with electrical problems. Lucchiari was another victim in this group as he stopped with suspected tire problems that were later diagnosed as a broken rear wheel hub. The battle for third was finally won by Schmid. He secured the final rostrum position behind Fogarty and Pirovano. "To be quite honest, I had expected World Champion Carl Foga rty (1) sta rted the defense of his title with a bang , winning both legs of the opening round. Fabrizio Pirovano (9) and Scott Russell (2) give chase early in the first leg. mo re competition," Fogarty said . "When I saw my pit board af ter a few laps, I knew that I could get away and that I di dn't need to worry too much about the minor chatter problems. After my practice crash here last year, this is a nice revenge on fate." The same goes for Pirovano, who had a terrible season last year. "After practice we decided to go for a different gearing," the diminutive Ita lian exp lained. "That is w hy I could stay in Carl's slipstream at the beginning of the race. But as soon as my tires went, I lost ground . Fortunately, our lead was comfortable enough to secure second." Schmid was naturally very happy with his res ult. "In the firs t few laps, I made a few mistakes because I was so nervous. I was 15th going into the third lap . But afterward everything went fine and I could pass at least one rider every lap . Besides I was very happy with my (Dunlop) tires that stayed good for the whole dis tance. Otherwise I wou ld not have been ab le to finish that high." Sligh t fi n ished six th, ju st behin d Nagai and Keiichi Kitagawa. "I could have do ne better," the Honda rider said. "B ut th ere was no way to get past Schmid . His bike was definitely the fastest of the pack, but he held us up in the chicanes." Edwards was seventh and surprised to see the checkered flag go out. "I

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