Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

To make a lopg story short, Corser dropped from first to third in only two laps and he had no reply. As the final lap began, Slight seemed in contiol, with Fogarty having problems shifting gears; later, the Brit admitted that his quickshift system was jumping out of second gear. At the finish, Slight just managed to stay ahead of the reigning World Champion. "1 played the waiting game," the Kiwi explained. "1 conserved my tires for about 20 laps; then 1 just tried to keep up the pace and n,ge my lines as smooth as ·possible and to j;ecure my lead." Anthony Gobert finished seventh on the Muzzy Kawasaki, after a race-long fight with Fabrizio Pirovano. "1 decided to put on a hard compound tire, but 1 didn't really know when it would start working," said the Kawasaki man. "But it was only at the end of the race that 1 benefited from that choice. For the seeond race I'll just have to push a little harder on the same tires." (Above) Fogerty now enjoys e whopping 95-polnt Ielld over Alaron Slight In the World Superblke ClNlmplonahlp. (left) PlerFrancesco Chili continues to tum inlmp....lve perfomlllnces on his DuClltl; the ItlJllen ended the dey with e 4-2 taliy end INI sits third In the point standings. Simon Crafar, who has never felt much at ease at Albacete, got stuck in a battle with John Reynolds and Paolo Casoli for 11th. They finished just behind a very disappointed Edwards, who was 10th. RACE TWO In the second race, Fogarty was up to his old tricks. As the lights turned green, the red bike with the number-one plate made a dash to the front and was never headed. Behind him, Pirovano, Bontempi, Corser and Slight had a go at the remaining rostrum positions. At around the halfway stage, they were joined by Chili, who was recovering again from a poor start. "It has happened to me every time this year," the Italian said afterwards. "And to be quite honest, 1 do not know what I do wrong." Edwards was in eighth for most of the first half of the race, trying to fend off the attacks of Andreas Meklau. Up front, things stayed pretty close until five laps before the end. At that time, Bontempi retired with a broken engine, and Chili had passed most of the front men at the end of the straight (Corser on the 21st lap, Pirovano on the 22nd, Bontempi on the 23rd; Slight was passed the next lap, but a few corners farther Corser on p_ol_e_ M any riders had predicted that the new weight limits for two-cylinders would prove their worth only at twisty tracks like Albacete. At Monza - the first race under the new rules - the four cylinders had been able to stay near the twins because of their good top speed and the fad that acceleration is not a big factor on this kind of track. Things might be a little bit different at the stop-and-go circuit of Albacete, they reasoned. The results of the fust free practice session seemed to confirm lhat the four cylinders were getting closer to the Ducatis: Aaron Slight set fastest time in front of Carl Fogarty, Troy Corser, Yasutomo Nagai and three more four cylinders. In timed practice, however, the Ducati brigade struck back; Corser logged his second pole position of the year, in front of Fogarty. It was nice revenge for the Australian, who had crashed twice at the Monza meeting one week earlier, and another time during free practice on Saturday morning. "It's important to start from the first line here," Corser said. ~e's only a few places to pass and the track is pretty sandy when you get off the racing line. It'D be hard enough to get a good result without having to worry about pllSlDng other riders." Fogarty wasn't too pleasedJVith his second-place qualifying effort. He claimed he would have been able to go round faster with last year's bike. "The different swingarm that we are using now doesn't allow me to turn the bike in the corners faster. Apart from that, we've got a grip problem; rm losing the rear a little bit too. often." The next two places orI the front row were, however, 0ccupied by two riders who are not normally that high up. Piergior- along). With one lap to go, Chili had even pulled a lead on his colleagues. Fogarty notched his sixth vidory of the season, in front of Chili and Slight, who moved ahead of Pirovano in the last few laps. "In the first heat, I wasn't able to follow my own racing lines because of all the traffic up front," Fogarty said. "That's why I wanted to get away as soon as possible in this race. I changed my front tire and stiffened the rear suspension, which did the trick. 1 had to· push a lot in the first half of the race, and it was only with eight laps to go that 1 could afford to slow down a bit." Slight was quite happy with third: "I used the same tires as in the first race, even though I'd had some problems with them. I had a bad start, which made me use up my tires even more to get to the front. Then 1 lost even more time when (Mauro) Lucchiari bumped into me three times on the first lap. After the first hectic laps, I could finally try to ride a tactical race. Only Pirovano was still a big problem to get past." gio Bontempi took third position and John Reynolds fourth. "My swollen knee - a souvenir from my crash in Monza - does not bother me too much," the Italian said. "At the end of the session, we got the bike well set up and we found some good Dunlop tires." BontemAi has been promoted to being one of the highest priority clients with Dunlop now that Scott Russell has moved to Grands Prix. Aaron Slight was sixth fastest, behind Andreas Meklau. 'Tm pretty happy with this result," the New Zealander said. "With Carl (Fogarty), I was one of the only riders not using qualifying tires. Last night, the mechanics changed some fork settings, but that didn't solve all of our problems. Especially tires continue to be a problem. But that's inevitable in Albacete. You know that you will be sliding around for 28 laps during the race." Anthony Gobert parked his Muzzy Kawasaki next to the Castrol Honda. '1 felt quite comfortable orI the bike right from the first practice session," Gobert said. "So we didn't r change a lot on the setup. On Saturday morning we concentrated on tire endurance." Simon Crafar had to be happy with 15th, due to a front-end. push. "We've had this problem on every circuit, but never as bad as here," he said. "My mechanics will change the geometry of the bike tonight to get it handling better." The New Zealander was not the only hot shot who was lowel' than normal. 1'1erFrancesco Chili (11th) and Mauro Lucchiari (14th) had also struggled to come to grips with the Spanish cirI:uit. Colin Edwards II, meanwhile, was only ninth quickest. "We spent most of our time testing tires," the Texan said. "Only the last 20 minutes I could go out again to try and better my previous fastest time. Unfortunately, the conditions weren't too good then because it started to sprinkle - that was it."

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