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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127752
Round 11: Sentul, Indonesia The order would remain the same until the end. "The bike was sliding a bit toward the end," Fogarty said. "But the biggest problem was the heat; the heat was turned on even more during the last couple of laps, when the brakes started fading. But [ succeeded in getting the bike in one piece to the finish." Corser was happy to have opened up the gap with Slight by finishing second. "I had a bad start and when I finally got into Aaron's slipstream, I couldn"t do anything about Carl getting away," Corser said. "After a few laps I could see that Aaron started having grip problems, and that slowed us up a little bit. I got passed him at the end of the long straight, and after that it was just a matter of keeping the pace high enough. I only got worried a little bit when the sensor for the water temperature stopped working with a few more laps to go." By Johan Vandekerckhove 'Photos by Gold & Goose Lt) SENTUL, INDONESIA, OCT. 15 aron Slight and Troy Corser will have to go all the way to the final round in Australia to know who will be the man to carry the number-two plate in next year's World Superbike Championship. And that's the only suspense that remains in this year's title chase. Slight and his Castro I Honda came away from the SentuJ race track in Indonesia with a win and a third-place finish to gain a point on Corser. With one round (two races) remaining in the series, the pair are separated by just eight points, making the finale at Philllip Island all the more interesting. With the Yamaha team having decided not to attend the last two races of the season au t of respect for its deceased rider Yasutomo agai, some extra travel budget was suddenly available and that meant the addition of two new riders to the series - Freddie Spencer and Mike Hale. Both mad their "foreign" debuts in the eries, with Spencer on a factory Ducati and Hale making his debut for the Promotor Ducati team. Hale ended up faring the best of the two visitors on the track near the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, putting together sixth- and seventh-place finishes in his first ride on a Ducati 916. Spencer, meanwhile, ended the day with a 14th and a non-finish. 0\ 0\ RACE ONE ,...; It was Carl Fogarty all the way in the u) first race. In his traditional style, the N ... .g Cl) ti o 6 World Champion grabbed the lead right from the first corner and was never headed. Fortunately, the crowd of 30,000 had a battle for second place to cheer about. Slight and Corser took tho e two spots right from the start, b th desperate to take as marty points as possible "down under." After a few laps, they were joined by Pier-Francesco Chili, who was recovering from his traditional poor start. The Italian was really charging and at times he looked ready to overtake his two adversaries. The first of the front runners to reti.re was Simon Crafar, who lost a top-eight position when the gearbox of his factory Honda broke. "On the sixth lap, I had no more gear," Crafar said. "My mechanics are still looking for a possible cause, but I'll have to use the second bike for the next race - which is not really a problem, since both bikes are identical." Six laps later, Mat Mladin joined the ew Zealander on the sidelines, his Reve Kawasaki losing power for some unknown reason. "The bike hasn't been going well all weekend," the Australian said. "We've already changed the electrical system and some other stuff, but nothing seems to help." . The team figured some 30 bhp were lost somewhere along the way. At the midway stage, Fogarty was leading comfortably from the battling trio of Slight, Corser and Chili. Muzzy Kawasaki's Anthony Gobert was fifth, keeping Fabrizio Pirovano a safe distance behind. Hale, too, was on the move, but unable to challenge the two men in front of him. Peter Goddard, looking for a top-10 finish, was nearing his objective as he moved forward, while Spencer, on the other hand, was struggling. The three-time World Champion was busy fighting off the attacks of Thunderbike rider Yves Briguet in their battle for the last championship point. Up front, things started to heat up a couple of laps before the end. First of all, Corser got past Slight and started to pull away quite easily. Almost at the same time, Chili pulled out with a broken fuel pump. Two laps before the end, the topthree positions looked settled, with Fogarty leading from Corser and SUght. Gobert held fourth with Pirovano fifth. (Above) Worlc:l Champion Cart Fogarty (1) leads the way In the first race In IndoMSia; the Brit would go on to victory, his 13th win of the season. (Below) Aaron Slight won his second race of the year In the second leg at 5entul, closing the gap between himself and Troy Corser In the battle for second In the championship.