Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE . World Chalhpion$hip Superbike Road Race series Round 7: Laguna Seca Raceway (Above· from left to right) Miguel DuHamel, AntI!onY Gobert end Troy Coreer celebrate lifter the first leg. (Left) Pier-Francesco Chili had 8 day he'd rather forget; the italian crashed in both racea. The top three pulled a slight gap back to Edwards, who was starting to feel the heat from Hale. It wasn't until the 13th lap that Corser moved around DuHamel, sliding the Ducati around the outside of the Honda in tum two, the two coming together at the apex. '1 left him a little Dunlop rubber on his leg," DuHamel said later. By this point Hale, too, was in the hunt, creeping up ever so slowly on the rear wheel of his teammate. But his drive would take him no further, and he would eventualIy lose touch by the 18th lap of the 29-.\ap race. The Texan's race was a~aIJy lost off the start. '1 thought 1 knew the starting procedure," Hale said later. "I went to the meeting. After the red light went off, a green light was supposed to come on at some point. Anyway, the red light went off and they started to go." So much for a front-row start. A few laps later it was DuHamel's tum to lose touch. The French Canadian had a front-wheel slide in tum two, costing .him dearly as the two leaders streaked away. "My pace was just as fast as theirs," DuHamel said later. "The front end let go when I hit a bump and that's where they made the gap on me. I was slowly catch- (Right) Colin Edwards II slides his Yamaha sideways on the exit 01 tum 11; the Texan battled with handling problems all day, but stili managed an 8-9 tally. (Below) World Champion Carl Fogarty failed to f1n1ah In the top three for the tlrat tlma all season; ha ended up with a tlfth and a seventh. "I didn't expect him to try it there. I thought it would be later, maybe in 11. " "It took a long time to get past Miguel," Corser said. '1 knew I·could run with Anthony. But I knew if I passed him, he'd pass me again. I waited until the last lap. I went in a bit hot, went wide on the exit and left a gap for him to come back." For Gobert, it was his first taste of victory since the final round of the '94 series in Australia. "This is probably the most confident I've felt all year," the 2o-yearold said. 'The last four races we've been coming back, step by step. I figured the race would be between Troy and myself. Everything's really coming on. It's a bit late in the season, but it's better late than never. I couldn't make a break, so I settled into a comfortable pace to save the tires." Hale ended up a lonely fourth, some 13 seconds ahead of Fogarty, the latter fighting through from a poor start that saw him just inside the top 10 at the end of the first lap. "That's about all I can expect with the way things are going this week," Fogarty said. "I nearly crashed in every turn. I was just losing the front everywhere. 1 put more weight on the front this morning, but I'm still losing the front. 1 had a few near moments out there. Tum two is a problem and the downhill section is a problem. The funny thing is I've increased my lead in the championship." Fogarty said he would ride his spare bike in the second race after swapping settings from the bike he'd raced in race one. The spare had a newer engine, he said. Despite having a bad case of the flu, Kiwi Simon Crafar rode his Rumi Honda RC45 to sixth, three seconds ahead of Spencer who finally worked his way around Edwards after a not-so-stellar start. "I couldn't carry a lot of speed through the corners," Spencer said. "1 just lost too much ground to them in the beginning." "I got a good start, but I chunked a tire," Edwards said. "I didn't test the new tire because Na,gaj said he didn't like it. 1 used the hardest one they (Dunlop) had. I was just spinning it everywhere." Nagai, Smith, Kipp (who suffered with the starting procedure in the same manner as Hale), Piergiorgio Bontemp~ Mauro Lucchiari and Picotte filled the top 15. . Notable non-finishers in the first race were Pier-Francesco Chili, who crashed out of the race on the second lap in turn two. He was later joined there by his Gattlone Racing teammate Gianmaria Liverani ing up and 1 wanted to be close enough in case they made a mistake. With five laps to go, the fuel light came on. 1 didn't know what it meant, but I backed off. I wanted to finish the race. My bike seemed to be sliding around more than (Anthony) Gobert's, but we used the same tire." DuHamel would eventually finish some six seconds behind the lead duo, who fought to the bitter end. Goben led throughout, with the key moment of the race coming on the final lap. Corser had been sizing Gobert up on the entrance to tum three for the entire race. On the last lap, he finally tried to make a pass there. It worked - but only for a moment. When the pair exited tum two and headed to three, Corser straightened up, held it on longer and headed for the inside of turn three - a clean pass. But with the pass came too much comer speed, and the Ducati drifted wide, allowing Gobert to squirt past on the exit. '1t was a surprise," Gobert said later. RACE TWO After a break of some two hours, the second World Superbike race got underway at 3:30 p.m. Hale proved himself a quick learner and he was in front as the pack crested the hill and headed down towards tum two. "I made sure I was going when the light went off," Hale said later. Turn two also marked the end for Slight, who crashed with Brit John Reynolds. The Kiwi restarted his RC45, slowly riding back to the pits where he called it a day. Gobert, meanwhile, didn't.get a good start. But he went ballistic in quickly getting to the front. "I was a little bit worried after the start because I got a bad start," Gobert said. '1 sorta missed it totally and ended up about 10th going into tum one. I saw Troy and Mike up at the front and he (Hale) was sort of getting away a little bit. 1 got through the other guys pretty quick and got on the back of Mike."

• Cover