Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.R A O DRACE R ound 1: San M arino World Championship S perbike RoadRace S u eries (Right) Mike Hale had a less than successful season debut. The young Texan struggled with setup problems and posted a 13-8 tally. (Below ) World Champion Carl Fogarty crashed on Saturday and could do no better than seventh and sixth In the two races on Sunday. antics, Gobert once again moved to th e fro n t and seemed d oomed to go in to the final stages of the race with two Ducati r id ers breathing d own hi s n eck and pa tiently w ai ti n g for their chances. But th o se o p po rt u n iti es n ever cam e a n d Gobert led to the finish line. G obert ' s vi ct ory was une xpected, even for th e talented Australi an himsel f. " I m ade a d ifferent tire choice than in choice," Edwa rds said. "T he rea r wen t off after about nin e laps." Things w e re even worse for M ike Hale, w ho finished 13th - a result nobody h a d rea lly expected from the you ng h o p e fu l. " I had a bad start, the tire was completely worn o ut af ter six or seven lap s and the poor suspension exaggerated things even m ore," the Promotor rid er explained after his firs t race of the season. "Changing th e rear shock for the second heat might make things a bit more comfortable for me." RACE TWO For just a m oment, the same Ducati trio see med set to repeat their performances of a few hours earlier. Kocinski got away w ell this time, and he ended the first lap with the lead . This time around, howe ver, Corser h ad d ecided not to let the American escape, and on th e seco nd lap the Australian took the lead with Chili and Gobert joining in after leaving the res t of the field behind. After some seven laps, the foursome ha d already opened a three-second gap o n th e o t her fa cto ry ri ders . After s ix lap s, Gobert started to put on a show as he took over fro m the Ducatis. The Australian,who had failed to ru n u p front after a bad ti re choice in the firs t-race, wa s definitel y on a charge, b ut not many expected h im to get away with it. After 15 la ps, th e Italian crowd .roared with jo y as Kocinski got past the green Mu z z y Kawasak i. But the A merican didn't escape eith er . As Chili lost more ground, the positions at the front stayed the same for five more laps. Thanks to his heroic Iate-bra.king Kocinski's im ressive debut W h a t man y ha d ex pecte d reall y happened on Saturd ay a fte rnoo n . Joh n Kocinski (right) mad e an impressi ve d ebu t in the Wo rld Su pe rb ike ar en a, taking pole position in his first-ever race on a Ducati 916. But maybe the Little Rock, Arka nsa s, na ti ve won' t hav e it all his way this year as his pole positio n came only mom ents before the end of the final session and his time wa s only a fraction of a second better than Troy Corser's. " To be qui te hon est, I'm a bit disappointed ," Kocinski said . "We didn't have much time to get the final settings. Fortunately, I got a clear lap so 1 was able to take pole in the final minutes." Kocins ki la pped in 1:33.750 - over a second better than the practice lap record of 1:34.934 (set by Carl Fogarty in 1995). Corser had been leading the charts for most of the time in the first ami second sessions, but finally had to make do with the second starting posi tion. "I would've liked to start the first race of the year on pole," the Australian said. "Just like 1 did last year . Unfortuna tely, I never got a clear track when I was on qualifying tires. We spent a lot of time finding the correct settings for the bike. The new suspe nsion and the modifications on the fram e didn't allow us to profit from the experience we had gained on this circuit last year." Third qualifier Neil Hodgson attributed his excellent result to the many testing sessions he and his team had done on the Misano track. With three Ducatis on the front row of the grid , Misano confirmed its reputation as a Ducati track w ith its numerous slow comers. In addi- tion, the result also showed that the new weight regulations (with identical limits for four- and two-cylinder motorcycles) might not have the impact some had hoped . th e first race," he said . "I'd already chosen that tire for the firs t race, but the Dunlop people to ld me not to use it. In general, eve ry t h in g I p lanned in m y head w orked, a nd [ feel very co n fiden t for the next ra ces. With this tire, I was able to go as hard as [ wanted to. I also knew that I h ad to s tay in front of the Dueatis by braking extra la te ," A few hours later the bad ne ws came, Colin Edwards II comple ted the first row on the factory Yamaha, after havin g found a good setup solution on the bike'Wth a new linkage, which gives more traction . "The overall package is better than last year," the yo u ng Tex an sa id. " No t onl y chassisw ise, but also enginewise, Mod ifications to carburetion and in some. other areas hav e broadened the usable powerband consid erably, and it now goes from 8000 to 13,500 revs." Edwards got into troubl e once during qualifying as he crashed in the second session . "I cut the first curb of the chicane a little bit too close," he said . "Dust on the track did the rest. 1lost the front and down 1 went." Team Muzzy Kawasaki took places five and six on the grid, with Simon Crafar leading Anthon y Gobert. Crafar also bit the dust on Friday afternoon, but came back very strong and logged the second best time in that session. Finally, he ended up fifth. "Not so bad," Crafar said, "as we haven't had enough time to figure the bike out completely. Most of all, we need more power . The Kawasas ki is definitely faster tha n last year's Honda - not en ginewi e, but it feels a lot easie r to ride .n Gobert was seven th. "Considering everything. I'm happ y," he said. " It would have been better to be on the first row, but compared to last year this is an excellent result." Gobert also complained about the lack . of power and was n' t too worried abou t bei ng behind his teamm ate. "Qualifying was never my thing." he said. Aaron Slight didn 't get any higher than ninth, after having spent most of his time trying to find a race-compou nd front Michelin tire. "Four Ducatis and four guys on qualifying tires in front of me, so [ feel pretty confident for the race,' the New Zealander said. "We did some testing here, but because of the rain we did n't learn a lot. Anyway, I'm happy that things have gone a lot better up to now than last year. One thing is for sure, it will be very hard to beat the Ducatis. They still have a big ad vantage . Now that Fogarty is on a Honda , you can definitely see tha t. It's not only the fact that the Honda must stiU be put to his liking." The World Cha mpion himself was only 11th, a fter he had been thrown off the bike during the first five minutes of the final practice session. "Maybe the tire was still cold ," Foggy said after hav ing been brought back to the paddock on a scooter. "I ran a little bit wider than normal and hit a du sty part of the track. lt must ha ve been too much for the right -hand side of the new tire. The right -hand side doe sn't get much use at Misano." The Brit suffered a mild concussion, cuts to his left elbow and hand and a chipped bone in his left wrist. He thought it wise not to take his bike out for the rest of the da y while he prepared himself for the race the next da y by lying down. Newcomer Kirk McCarth y was best Suzuki rider in 12th position, followed in 13th by his teamm ate John Reynold s. Mike Hale also had a tou gh time ge tting acquainted with the Misan o track. "We changed about everything: offset, wheelba se, up to the handl ebar angles: ' he said after selli ng the 16th-fastest time. But I'm still not happy about what we came up with. Especially the long left-handers are pretty difficult to take. If you've got the first come r wrong. you'll never get a good speed in the following ones. I tried to tag on to some ride rs, but apparently they didn't like that too much ."

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