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/127741
ROAD RACE World Championship Superbike Road Race Series Round 8: Brands Hatch Yamahas had much better acceleration. That, in combination with our traditional handling problems, didn't make life any easier for me. On the last lap, the Yamahas steamrolled past us exiting the comers." Corser finished sixth: "In the first heat, front-end patter had slowed me down in a few comers," he explained. "So my mechanics put a harder spring for the second race, to resolve that problem. But it turned out to be worse. What's more, at the end of the first race, the engine started to slow down and I had to push it very hard in the last few laps. For the second heat, we opted for the second engine, which we often do and which has never given us any problems. Unfortunately, this engine has done more mileage than average and started to lose power. It all didn't help me very much during the race - exiting the comers, the chatter problems made it hard to accelerate. In short, I lost some precious points here. I'll have to concentrate on keeping my second position in the championship for the last couple of races." Slight finished eighth. "The bike was better in this race," he said. "But, (Left) Y88Utomo Nagai Joined Fogarty and EdwlIrds on a victory I8p lifter the second race. TlNt .....n... rider was later dockfld a spot for pualng under a waving yellow flag, moVing John Reynolds up to third. (Below) Flying In tight formation: EdwlIrds dives under Corser In the second race. "M rebounds y poor results at Laguna Seca had made me start wondering if I was still able to go fast on a 916," Carl Fogarty (right) said prior to qualifying at Brands Hatch. "And Brands Hatch has never been very good to me. I've always struggled liere. Fortunately, a private test session at Mugello a couple of days ago reassured me that I could take my revenge here." And revenge he got. Fogarty set the pace right from the get-go and he stayed there, smashing the official lap record in the process. During the second qualifying session, Fogarty had to make do with his second bike, due to the fact that his best bike was misfiring. The second-quickest time went· very surprisingly • to IocaI boy John ReY.nolds, who undercut the second-best lap time of Yasutomo agai in the final two minutes of the last qua1ifying session. Troy Corser set the fourth-fastest time on a race tire, after the Michelin qualifying tires didn't produ<:E the lap tiDIes the Australian was looking for. The seCond row was formed by Steve Hislop, Anthony Gobert, Fabrizio Pirovano and Colin Edwards n. Both Gobert and Edwards had rough times on Friday and Saturday, with the Australian Kawasaki rider high-sidiJlg heavily on Friday, leaving him with a severely bnJised left ankle. "I hadn't expected this qualifying time," Gobert said. "Shifting is especially a problem. I will surely need some pain-killing injections before I get to the starting grid toakJuow." Edwards was fairly happy with his qaaIiIying polIitioa, considering the circumstances. "At the end of the last qaaIiIying llell5ion, fd come in the pit to put qualifying tires on and try to go around ewn faster. But the tire guys told me that the last one of my qualifying tires (the Yamaha riders use two tEVery race weekend) had been found damaged in the back of the Dunlop truck. That was pretty disappointing. but still I shouldn't oomp\aiII about the way things turned out." Aaton Slight, who was ridiDg with a hairline fracture in his left wrist after his practice crash at Sazub, stnigped with the traditioNl problems with the front end of the CastroI Honda RC45 on a bumpy track, and had to be happy with 12th. "At a given moment I was !le'Yefttb. whidl was pretty much OK. But the!:\ tEVerybody staJted to put qualification tires on. and I cbopped back to 12th in the last half hour," the ICi1ri IIIid. . Simoil Crafar, on the seamd official Honda, was a tittle bit better off (10th), appanmt1y having found SOllIe sort of • solation for the typiad RC45 problem. "I'm pretty happy with the bike; the fnmt-ead pasltiDg problem bas been solved, but Dow t'm OIl the iwM row, wbich is DOt the best place to IIlart. Aaron's engine would help here. What I need bBdly is lI«'eIerldioo." 0DIy 32 ddeD had a go at ctd'7iilg lor the eighth I'OWMi of the World Super- bikeD' ,,*·eI .. quite a few hairy moments in the race. Gobert kept the thing on two wheels somehow! On the second last lap into the paddock, I braked early and Gobert outbraked me and then Nagai went past us both an~ pushed Gobert wide. Luckily, I had better exit speed and I went inside of them both. With one more lap to go, I felt confident that I could stay in front of both of them." His confidence showed on the monitor. The Texan had clocked the fastest lap of the race. Things went a little sour for his teammate, however,as Reynolds filed a protest against Nagai for passing under a yellow flag. The Yamaha attack forced Gobert back to fifth, just behind Reynolds. "My foot was hurting really bad," Gobert explained. "And I really had to convince myself to go all the way. The unfortunately, I had a bad start. (PierFrancesco) Chili and me were coming back to the front guys, but burned our rubber doing so. Chili crashed because of that, which made me decide to back off a little and stay on board for the last laps." Crafar enjoyed the second race, having a scrap with Slight and Steve Hislop. "At the end of the race, my engine lost power," Crafar said. The results only became official some four hours after the finish, and Nagai was given a one-second penalty - a decision which dropped him from third to fourth, in favor of Reynolds. The Japanese rider accepted the international jury's decision. Yamaha team coordinator Davide Brivio, however, was not too happy with the result. "It's a decision that does not make