Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Slight's second p--=--ol--=--e_ A (Left) Mike Hale had his debut ride wtth the Promoter Ducatl team In Indonesia, taking sixth- and seventhplace finishes in his first outing on a Ducat1916. (Below) Freddie Spencer had a forgettable . weekend in what was his first-ever World Superbike race outside of the United States. The three-time World Champion had a 14th in the first leg and mechanical problems forced him out of race two. Slight got home third and admitted that the tires had been his biggest problem. Gobert was the first Dunlop rider in fourth. "Traction was the only real problem here this weekend," he said. "The four first laps went quite comfortably. I could stay with Troy and Aaron. But then the grip dropped quite a bit initially - probably because of the heat. I went sideways in most of the corners. I quite enjoyed myself, actually; too bad I might have missed some points because of that. For the second race, I'll have to stick with the same specification of tires, because we haven't found anything better during practice. But we'll try to compensate with some different suspension settings and hope for the best." Hale finished his first foreign World Superbike race in sixth place. "Afte'r my engine (transmission) broke this mo ing, we had to use the second engine for the races, which was actually the one I had done two days practice on," the young Texan said. "My' start was poor, and the traffic made it difficult to make passes." Goddard finished 12th and Spencer was 14th. "I tried to hang on to the pack in front of me, but unfortunately the tire went off and I lost a lot of ground," said Goddard. "After that, I rode a pretty lonely race." Spencer was not too unhappy with 14th. "Everything went pretty much okay except for my braking problems, which made me lose a lot of time," he said. RACE TWO After the traditional result of the first race, the riders had more surprises up their sleeves for the second race a few hours later. First of all, it was Gobert who led the pack after the first lap. The Kawasaki-mounted Australian would stay there for three more laps, before giving way to Slight. After some six laps, the Honda rider was pulling away while Fogarty led the group giving chase after getting away poorly. He was followed very closely by Gobert, Corser, Chili, Crafar and Piergiorgio Bontempi. John Reynolds and Pirovano were the next train, with Hale battling his way back. Spence~ had once again found the company of Briguet, and both were just continuing where they had left off in the first heat - in their fight for the last championship points. Two laps later, Spencer retired, "During the sighting lap, the cap of the fuel pump - inside the tank - blew off due to too much pressure," Spencer explained. "We put the cap back on, but the pressure kept building up during the race and I had to retire." part from a few exceptions, the superbike legion returned to the Sentul circuit without much enthusiasm. The hotel the teams had stayed in last year had been a disaster, the bus drivers providing the shuttle transport between the (new) hotel and the circuit hadn't sharpened their driving skills in past year, and the dangerous places on the circuit were still as dangerous as in 1994 - despite the fact that the track will host a Grand Prix next year. And finally, the decision to move the Indonesian World Championship round from August to October turned out not to be a very good on,:, due to the typical weather conditions of the country's wet season. The weather proved to be a problem during practice. On Friday, everything seemed to go according to schedule: The established stars showed during free practice that they weren't about to let newcomers such as Mike Hale, Freddie Spencer, Peter Goddard or Mat Mladin interfere with the battle for the front-row positions. Hale was busy learning how to ride a Ducati (fast), Spencer spent all of the practice session in the pit lane due to a broken crankcase in his only available motor, Goddard lost precious time showing his Indonesian protege around the circuit, and Mladin struggled with carburetion problems and power loss. And these gentlemen were not going to shake the established orde-r during the first official practice on Friday afternoon. Aaron Slight proved to be the fastest around the circuit that very nearly had brought him his first victory on Honda a year before. He set fastest time in front of Carl Fogarty, Troy Corser, Simon Crafar and Pier-Francesco Chili. On Saturday morning, several riders went around a whole lot faster than the day before. Gobert cut a second off his lap times; Hale did almost as well and Spencer came a\(Vay with a near-top-15 position. ~ One hour before the start of the second - and final - qualifying session, however, the know-how of the local medicine man was put in doubt. The man who had assured the locals that practice and races were not going to be hampered by rain had to witness a severe thunderstorm as most riders were preparing to have a final go at their own best times. Slight, Fogarty, Corser, Crafar and some eight other riders made a few cautious laps on the soaking-wet asphalt during the first 15 minutes of the final session. But when a new wave of storm clouds came £loating over the SentuI circuit and the first raindrops started to fall again, everybody knew that the final starting grid had already been established. In other words; Slight bagged his second pole position of the season. ... "Yesterday, we still struggled with the traditional front-end problem," Slight explained. "But this morning we found a better setting. Unfortunately, the official time that was published was more than half a second slower than the time we registered on the on-board computer. I felt confident for this afternoon, but when it started raining I only went out to test some tires." Fogarty had to be happy with the second-quickest time. "Everything went okay yesterday," he said. "But to be quite honest, it doesn't really matter anymore as the title is already won. This afternoon I went out to see what it was like out on the track. As it felt okay, I pulled in after only a few laps. Only my mechanic 'Slick' was not too happy about that: He had been preparing the bike for several hours and he was rewarded with a wet and d~cati." Corser was third: "I had to learn the track a little. In order to save the new engine for the race, I only used the engine that had already been used in Assen and race tires. I was looking forward to the second qualifying practice, because I was going to use my new engine. But unfortunately it rained. I did go out during the heavy rain, and I was pleased to see that I went two seconds faster than anybody else under the same circumstances." Simon Crafar completed row one. "The front didn't feel quite right during first practice," said the Rurni rider. "We had to find a compromise between a soft-enough setting to ride over the bumps, but hard enough not to bottom in some places. We might still try something new during warmup, but basically I think we have a good chance to perform well tomorrow." Pier-Francesco Chili, John Reynolds, Piergiorgio Bontempi and Fabrizio Pirovano were on row two, with Anthony Gobert having to be happy with ninth.. after having had to learn the track and getting used to riding a Kawasaki superbike fast again after a five-week layoff. "I did it a little conservative during the first practice sessions, but I knew that I could improve. On Saturday morning I dropped one and a half seconds. In the afternoon, I went out the whole hour, just trying out tires." Hale set the 11th fastest time. "I'm busy learning the track, the bike and the tires," he said. "But I'm feeling more confident every time I go out on the track. I only did one lap during the wet practice, so I don't really know what to expect when it rains tomorrow. Until now, I've only ridden one race in the rain in my entire career - and that was on Dunlops. It might be an interesting experience tomorrow." Goddard set the i5th-fastest time after a problem-fraught week. "A couple of days ago, I was ready to return to Australia," the Suzuki rider explained. "This trip has cost me two blown engines in order to get an Indonesian rider qualified. I also lost some time giving him a tow. On Saturday morning-I finally found some time to get things sorted on my bike. Adjusting the trail and the ride height made the bike wobble a bit less and steer a little better. Finally, we stiU struggle with the traditional Suzuki problem of chain pull But I don't worry too much about tomorrow: I think a top-10 placing is possible in this field." Mladin - in a one-off deal with the British Team Reve Racing - took the ex-Jefferies Kawasaki (with a factory engine) to 16th place. "The bike is just not fast enough," Mladin explained. "On the speed trap, it showed a top speed of 253 km/h (156 mph) - the best bikes get 270 km/h (167 mph) there. Carburetion problems in the beginning of the weekend were followed by an as-yet-unexplained loss of power. Tonight the mechanics will build in the best engine in the chassis that suits my style best. Lit's hope that does the trick." Spencer got home 20th after a disastrous first World Superbike outing outside of the United States. "Yesterday, during first free practice, I only did one lap before the crankcase broke. A couple of hours later I had braking problems, and this morning we had a water leak. I was really looking forward to the second session, but unfortunately it was wet." . Spencer was one of 13 riders not bothering to take his bike out of the pits in the rain on Saturday afternoon. Twenty three riders qualified for this penultimate round in the World Superbike championship. l!) 0\ 0\ ,...-< • ..n C'l l-c Q) .. .g u o 7

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