Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

my race." The Geo rgian's bad luck got w o r s e co ns ide r ing the wa y th in g s worked ou t o n th e ra ce track. Fogarty led th e fir s t la p , fo ll o wed cl osely b y C o rser , Whitham , Re yn ol ds , Chili, Pirovano and Slight. . A t half-distance, Corser still held on to Fogarty, and the race promised to end in a b rea thtaking finale . Meanwhil e, Chili and Pirova no wer e battling it ou t for third . Th ings got eve n more interes ting w he n Slight man aged to drag Bontempi alo ng wi th him as the pair moved i n to t h e sl ips trea m o f C h ili a n d Pirovano. (Above) Fogarty held his fast start into the first corner. chased by Whitham (69). Russell (2) and Aaron Slight (3). • (Left) The first leg turned into a Fogarty vs. Corser battle; Fogarty was left to a lonely victory when Corser's Ducati failed late in the race. 30 . Aldeo Presci u tt i 0 :38.89); 31. Aiex Buc ki ng ha m (1 :38.95); 32. Ste phane Mert en s (1 :39.46); 33. Ro berto . Panichi 0:39.72). RACE ONE: 1. C arl Fogarty [Due): 2. Troy Corser (Due); 3. James Whitham (Pue); 4. Aaro n Slight (He n): 5. Piergiorgio Bontempi (Kaw); 6. Scott Russell (Kaw): 7. John Reyn old s (Ka w ): 8. Simon Cra far (Ho n); 9. Mauro Lucchiari (Due) ; 10. Anthony Gobert (Kaw); 11. Fabrizio Pirovano (Due) ; 12. Adrien Morillas (Du c); 13. Joch en Schmid (Kaw ): 14. Yasutom o Nag ai (Yam ); 15. Pao lo Fogarty flies to.P--,------oI--=---e_ P Five laps be fore t he e n d , C ors e r seemed ready to start his final attack on Fogarty. But it all en d ed for the Aus trali an two laps lat er w he n the Promotor-Ducati started to produce d isturbing sounds. Corser initially lo st a lot of ground , and then it ended a lap later. "We both kn ew that th ings would be decided on the last lap since neither of us could get away," Corser said. "I real -' ized that Carl (Foga rty) went fast er in the downhill section , but that I could ha ve g otten him in the last h airpins be fore sta rt and fin ish. It w ould have been a very close fin ish , but we didn't w ant to sta rt th e fun too early, in order to save ou r tir es. But the n the (bra nd n e w ) r ear s p ro cket t o ta ll y disintegrated ." Corser joined his cou ntryman Gobert o n the s ide li nes, w i t h th e M uzz y Kawa saki rid er pulling in after six laps . 'W ith th e Japanese engine lost in practice, I had to m ake do with a fairly slow engine ," Gobert said . "And th e engine got slower and slower as the race wore o n. I tried to compensate by brakin g late and taking risks. At one time I even go t off the track. I wanted first to go on, but when th e engi ne kept o n' losing po wer and cu tting ou t (as three other engines had d one before tha t), I just decided to p ull in ." Wit h tw o of their best engines lost and four othe r engines cutting out, team o w ner Rob Mu zzy decid ed to cancel the private test session the team had scheduled for Albacet e in Sp ai n . The tea m d oesn 't hav e an y tim e to repair th e bikes for the te st a n d Ru ssell ' s foo t in ju ry needs su fficient tim e to heal. With Corser o u t, Fogarty won hi s seco nd race of th e d ay, easily beatin g Chili, who stay ed in front of Slight and Bontem pi. For Slight, th is result was his first of the year near the top of the heap. "The hard-eompound tire made me struggle a lot with a lack of tracti o n," Sli ght said. "Th e handling was o kay, tho ugh, and my bike is back at the stage where it wa s last year or ma ybe eve n a little bit better. I'm hopeful for the next race at Monza, but I kn ow that there is litt le ho pe to beat the Du cat is - a t any tr ack. So th er e is nothing else I ca n d o than to wait for the weaknesses of the others." C rafa r fin ish ed si xth a n d is n o w clearly coming to gri ps wi th the factory Ho nda, and H RC wi ll make a decision on Ju ne 5 as to whether or not he'll be able to use th e b ike for th e rest of the sea son. Ed wards scored his first po ints of the last fou r races, finishing 12th. "We'd cha nged the front tire, w hich was a little bit better," he sa id . "But still I wonder where the Dunlop guys have left the excellent tires we tested at Monza a couple of weeks ago. We desperately need some more testing. This week, we leave for Suzuka to prepare for the eight-hour race , but I d on't think tha t exp erience will help us a lo t in the followi ng World Su perbike ra ces. I' m no t very ha p p y about th e wa y th e season is goin g right now - I'd come to Europ e to win races this year. Battling for just a top-10 posifX tion is not wha t I'd expe cted ." Donington Park Donington. England Results: May28, 1995. Q UALI FYING : 1. Carl Fogarty 0 :34.85); 2. Troy Co rser (l :35.00 ; 3. John Rey nolds (l :35.40); 4. PierFrancesco Chili (1 :35.43); 5. Sco tt Russell (1 :35.55); 6. Aaro n Slight (1:35.59); 7. Piergiorgio Bontem pi 0:35.72); 8. Fa b rizio Pir o va n o 0:35.75); 9. Ja m es Wh it h am 0:35.75); 10. Sim on C rafa r (1:35.84); 11. Paolo Casali 0 :35 .94) ; 12. Ioc hen Sc h m id 0:36.23) ; 13. Mau ro Lucc hiari 0 :36.23); 14. Coli n Ed wa rds (1:36.37); 15 . Yasutomo Nagai 0:36.44); 16. Anthony Gobert (1:36.4B) ; 17. An d reas Meklau (1:36 .50) ; 18. Ad rie n MorHl as 0:36.62); 19. Matt Llew ellyn 0 :36.62); 20. Steve Hislop 0:36.79); 21. Gianmaria Livera ni 0:37.07); 22. Massimo Mereg alli 0 :37.27); 23. Ray Stri nger 0 :37.47); 24. Nia ll Mackenz ie (1:37.52); 2S.J ean-Yves Mounier (1:37.59); 26. . Nick Hopkins 0:37.60): '17 David Jefferies (1:37.77); 28. Brian Morriso n (1:38.10); 29. An drea Perselli (1:38.73); r? moter Du~ti' s Tr?y Corser is.alway s a s;-tre bet to set a fast time during the first qualifying session. And thmgs weren t any different at Donington Park, Corser was the fastest in the first qualifying session on Friday afternoon, lead. 109 John Reynolds, Pier-Francesco Chili and Carl Fogarty. The following day, the same foursome would dominate, but the order was different. A half-hour before the end, Fogarty took pole position. "Making the fastest lap times during practice is not what I am interested in," Fogarty said. "I just want the bike to be set up perfectly. After free practice on Saturday morning we changed the gearing in order to gain some more corner speed. That was enough to set fastest time." Fogarty did h~ good lap on the his spare bike, as the bike with the best engine had stopped dunng the second session. Walking back to the pit lane, Fogarty came across ~ friend wh~ had bo~wed his scooter to watch between Redgate and Hollyw~. I was back 10 the PItS before my crew even knew I'd gone missing," Fogarty _d . Corser, meanwhile, dropped back from first to second. "I might have gone faster, " the Australian said. "But I almost got off my bike on one of the last laps. I lost some tenths of a second in the near-crash, but nevertheless I succeeded in setting a 1.35.01." . Reyn?lds ~a~ a surprisin!? third on his Kawasaki, but he still wasn 't happy with hIS lap hme: l.Just know tlus track too well, " he complained. "It's only in the last qualifying session that I started looking for different race lines. I might have gone faste r yet." By the way, Reynolds went faster than he'd ever done in the pa st on his Yamaha YZRSOO Grand Prix bike. CI:ili held .on t~ fo~rth, with Muzzy Kawasaki's Scott Russell fifth. The Georgian was riding With mjunes after breaking two toes in a mountain bike crash a few da ys before the race - during a vis it to ex-teammate Terry Rymer's home. "I've started here in worse condition already," the former champion Said in reference to his 1993 I:?onington w~. when he ~ame back after a horrendous crash in the final practice sessron . But the InjUry wasn t the Kawasaki rider's only drawback during practice. st "My be ?i k: - with a ~rand-new Japanese engine - dropped a valve during the second 'pra~ce, h~ said, 50 I had to make do with m y second bike. Fortunately, the engIne In that bike turned ou t to be not too bad. I lost some m ore tim e when the mechanics go t the front end of the bike set up properly. I went out with 20 minutes to go. I could have been third easil y, but I lost some time going wide in McLeans on my fastest lap." Aaron Slight. Piergiorgio Bontempi and Fabrizio Pirovano comp leted row two. For Slight, things were starting to look good again . "We just lost too much time in Misano trying the WTong things," he explained. "In Donington we had some practice before the season got under way, and that h.elred a lot. " Simon Crafar ~t the 10th-fastest time, despite having lost one full session on t~e Casn:ol RC45 while the .Honda people were negotiating during the first free pr actice session whether or not to have the Castrol fairing on th e bike. kept strug. Ya m~ha . riders C.olin ~dwards II (l4th) and Yasutomo Nagai glIng WIth ill-behaving bikes, a problem they blamed mostly on their Dunlop tires . gra.dually learning the track:" the Texan said . "Only from the second free practice session onward I started feeling comfortable enough to set some decent times. I was on a flyer with Fogarty following me just before the end of the session when I got held up by traffic and that was it . Still, the main problem was the tires. The soft race tire I used here just can't match real qualifying tires." . Anthony Gobert ended up 16th on the second Muzzy Kawasaki after going off the track at a speed of some 140 mph. On top of that, his best engine (also flown in from Japan) was destroyed after only 15 laps of practice. nsuo B B ~ 'Tm 13

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