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/127730
.R A RACE·. OD .'World Championsh ipSuperbike Road Race Series Round 2:M isano,Italy .' uca l , l (Left) A trio of Ducatis led by reigning World Champ io n Carl Fogarty. Eventua l wi nner Mauro Lucc hiari foll ow s with Austra lian Tr oy Corser right behind. Fogarty fi nished seco nd; Corser was third. (Below) Lucchiari celeb rates in fr ont of his home-coun try crowd. The Itali an won bo th races . By Joh an Vandekerckhove Photos by Gold and Goose MlSANO,ITALY,MAY21 fficial Ducati rid er s took just about everything there was to t a k e in the seco n d W orld Superbike meeti ng of the year. At Misano , th e Italian twi ns rein for ced th eir stra nglehold on the Worl d Cha mpionship point standings, as rid ers on the Japanese four-cylinders st ruggled. But th at ' s nothing new: Misa no has long been in the epicenter of Ducati country. This time , the estimated 10,000 spectators' enthusiasm was further boosted by a surprise Italian winner at the end of the day. It was bound to happen soone r or later and the day at Misa no belonged to Mau ro Lucchiari. The qui et-spoken Italian had always done well on home soil, bu t this was to be his finest hour as he beat titl e candida tes Ca rl Fogarty a nd Troy Corser in a stra igh t fight. And as Ducatis too k (at the very least) the top four positions in both heats, the Japanese squads we re left to venture to the team truc ks on Sunday night, tryi ng to come up wit h a compromise offer to the FIM in order to cha nge th e technical regula tions used in World Su perb ike racing. "A fter Hocken heim, the discu ssions we had w ith the FIM representa tives rem in d e d m e o f th e si tu atio n in t he States a. year ago, " Mu z zy Ka w asak i tea m ma na ger Steve Johnson sa id . "I don ' t think this is a goo d thing for the spo rt. Maybe the Japanese manufacturers should come toget her and try to convince FIM and Flamm ini to wo rk out a O beller weight rul e. Last year, the AMA took a p retty drastic d eci sion in this respect. Per haps it' s time that FIM did th e sa me . Ac co rd ing to us, a ru le in which the bike 's and the ride r's weig ht are taken into conside ration, should be a fair solution." O pi nio ns at Yamaha and Ho nda were similar. Ho nda really took a bas hing in Misano, but a backup for their only rider Aaron Slight is scheduled to be a nnounced shortly for the British Grand Prix (t he home-event of team sponsor Castrol). Meanwhile, Lucchiari, Fogarty and Corser a re ruling the waves: they showed the way around the twisty (and slippery) Misano tr ack and they a lso lead in the World Championship poi nt sta ndings . RACE ONE In the firs t heat, Lucchiari gra bbed the lead right from the start. Initially, he was followed very closely by Foga rty, the su r p r isi ng ly fa st John Reyn o ld s, Corse r a n d P ier g io r g io Bon te m pi. Muzzy Kawasaki 's 1994 World Champion Scott Russell was nint h after one lap. And Slight was even worse off - he had 19 men in front of him as he crossed the starting line for the 'second time. It didn't take long for the lead men to hit cruising speed, and the three of them pulled away. Fogar ty took over from his teammate Lucchia ri on the sixth lap , but the World Champio n was unsu ccess ful in p ulli ng awa y fr om Lucchiari and Co rser. Th e th re e some w ould s ta y toget her until the very end, even thou gh Corser seemed to be struggling to keep pace. Behind them, Pier-Francesco Chili