Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

rbikeR Race S oad eries Rou d2:Donin tonPark n g (Left) Muzzy Kawasa ki's Ant ho ny Gobert (4) and Simon Crafar (6) battled during bo th out ing s , Crafar finished second in the first race bu t d idn 't finish race two ; Gobert wa s third bo t h times ou t. m e . But it w a s g o o d fun . We e ve n touched a few times. Still, I didn't worry too m uch when he p assed me." Sligh t tried hard, but fin ally had to gi ve in to the Ducati. "I couldn't hold on to the lead until th e e nd," he sai d . "And after I almost lost th e rear going d own the hill , I d ecided it was lime to slow d own. It was a great ra ce, bu t still I ca m e in second a nd I had to battle hard for it. Even if I got on th e rostrum no w , I sti ll feel the same abou t th e advantage of th e Ducatis." Gobert finished on the last rostru m pla ce. "To be q uite hones t, I was a little b it su rprised about th is w eekend," sa id Gobert. " I d id n 't fee l as co m fo rta ble as I'd ex pected. A t th e s ta rt o f th e seco nd race, though, I p u t every t hi ng b ehind me. In the begin n in g of the race, I tri ed to get behi n d A aron; o n ly t ha t w a y I was go i ng to get t o Tro y . The ti r e s worked a ll rig ht; a p pare ntly th e s ituation is a b it reversed co mpa re d to la st year. Now it is th e M ich elin g uys who get away a t th e start, but th ey lose g rip as the race goes on." Edwa rds fini s hed fourth. " I a m ne ver entirely ha ppy u nl ess I win th e thi n g ," the 22-year-old said . " I rode as hard as I co u ld but the bike isn' t completely suited to the track. I'd s lipped back to 10 seconds b ehin d and th e re wasn't any poin t i n t a k i n g any risks so I just concentra ted on finish ing in my fourth Corser blazes verybody expected the four-cylinder brigad e to per form bett er in Doningt on tha n at the "Ducati-friend ly" trac k of Misano tw o wee ks ea rlier. Still, the fours fu lfilled the promise on ly during one pra ctice sess ion: on Friday morning Aar on Slight and Simo n Crafar were the fastes t. A couple of ho urs later, however, the Red Army struc k back. After the first offida l qua lifying session, three Ducatis were on top of the list. Su rprisi ngly, the best lap time was no t ma de by Troy Corser or by Joh n Kocinski, but by the latter's teammate eil Hodgson. Th e local boy's success wo uld , however, be sho rt-lived . On Satu rday morn ing he cras hed his bike exiting a comer too hastily, breaking the scaphoid in his left hand in the p rocess . This injury meant the end of the we ekend for the blonde Briton . Traditionally, things got quite hectic in the closi ng stages of the seco nd quali fying session. In the mo rning, Corser had already sho wn what he was u p to. After a string of low 1:345, the Australian Prom otor rid er dived into the I :335 a number of times, topping off pr ovisio nally at 1:33.23 - th ree-tenths of a second better than the ou tright lap record held by ... Kevin Schwantz on his 500cc Grand Prix Suzu ki (1:33.569, in 1991). In the afte rnoo n, d u ring the second qualifyi ng practice sess ion., Corser simply repeated his performan ce and fina lly took pole position with a time of 1:33.00. "I didn't know what the lap record wa s," he sa id af ter his effo rt. "We mad e a few changes in th e setu p, wh ich mad e the bik e wo bble a lot less a nd which made me feel more com forta ble on th e bike. In the aftern oon I wen t out on qu al if yin g tir es, bu t they sp u n too mu cl~; I ca me in for race tires a nd afte r that I d id my time on race tires, Simon Crafa r leapt over Aaro n Slig h t in the final min u tes a nd took secon d spot. "We spent the whole session tryi ng to find the best race setu p," the Kiwi said. "I also tried to get as many laps as possible on the race tires. The bike seems to suit my riding sty le; moreo- E position." M cC arth y took the only fac tory S uz uki (after teammate John Rey nolds h a d crashed in t h e second timed practice and injured his ba ck) to 14 th position. "I got a better sta rt than in the first race bu t I got held up a bit behind Chambon a nd it is tough to pass w hen you don' t know th e track so well. But when I did pass him I felt more comfortable. Mackenzie and Yoshikawa caught me b u t I followed the m pretty well. I'm riding hard, so I'd be happier to be fin ishing higher." H ale finished just outside the po in ts in 16th p o s iti on . "Abou t halfway th rough the race th e m otor-mount bolt broke off; it ca me o u t on th e left side of the b ike but s i nce it ' s ve ry lon g , it co u ld n' t come o u t com p le te ly . At th e chican e , I not i ced i t. the firs t ti m e, because it came out in front o f m y foot. Every time I w anted to cha nge g ea r, I had to tr y to kick it back in. Apart fro m th at, I put on a ha rd er tire, w h ich was not really a good id ea , either." Two o ther m en were even unhappi er, Kocinski had lo st his World Champio n s h i p l e ad i n D on i n gt o n . " We d id wha t we coul d d o ," he said . " It was, m atter o f trying to find a good comb ina tio n of tires a nd suspension. I didn't fee co m fo rtable on the bike, but I preferrec to ta ke as ma ny poin ts ba c k home a: possible. I like to ride fas t b ut safe, bu t his wasn ' t possible t his weekend. don't like to fall off. On the other hand, don' t worry too much. There a re still 21 ver, I did not have any trouble getting us ed to the Dunlop tires. But we still need a bit more speed." Sligh t was third on the front row . "I've been happy right from day one ," he sai d. "We tried the race setup yesterday alrea dy , and I even went fas ter today. We' ve ma d e a lo t of p rogress com pared to the practice results we had last yea r. And we have foun d a good tire as well . Normally it ta kes a lot mor e hassle to find the good tire." An tho ny Gobert ende d up fourth. " I felt be tter than yeste rday ," th e Muzzy rider sa id . "Maybe I was st ill tired fro m d riv ing the motorhome down from Ital y," he sai d. "Toda y, I felt a lot more comfortable an d relaxed . I didn't pu sh the bike to the limit, so I was surpr ised to find myself on the 'fro nt row . [ did my best time with 10 minutes to go, bu t I never got a clear lap . At mom ents like these, th ings ge t always a little bit hect ic. Especia lly with me, as Dunl op only has thr ee qu alif ying (rear) tires a vailable for each rider, and as I only seem to be abl e to pull one fast lap out of a qu alifying tire." Row two was filled by the injured Ne il Hod gson, Pier-Fran cesco Ch ili, Co lin Ed wa rds II and Ca rl Foga rty . The toba cco-ch ewing Edwa rds was quite happy with his performance. " I thou ght we went pretty fast, but unfortunately the ot hers kep t go ing faster . But I don 't worry too mu ch; d oing a few fast lap s is di fferen t fro m d oin g a wh ole race. Thi s morning, we a lready found a goo d race tire, so we didn't hav e to worry too mu ch abou t that this afte rnoon ei ther. The tires had a lot to d o with it working. This time around I'v e d on e consis ten t I :355 whe reas last year we we re doing 1:375." World Cha mpion Foga rty is still getting used to the par ticular corner in g beha vior of th e RC45 and was a bit di sappointed af ter his pr actice session. "I' ve go t th e impres sio n that we a re running in circles," the Brit said . "I'm still try ing to get confide nce in the bike. This is a com plete ly d iffer ent ball gam e fro m th e Ducati , wh er e I could pr ofit from my rid ing sty le which allows me to carry a high comer speed. But it just doesn 't work like that on the Honda. I thought Doning ton was goi ng to be a lot better for us than Misan o, bu t here the bike doesn 't see m to like the man y off-camber comers down the hill. Tom orrow mornin g we 'll tr y to se t th e s uspension softer fron t an d rear an d hop e that it' ll work better." John Kocinski was ninth, but d idn't look too worried. "This is my first time on a Ducati here, and we've noticed that it was very hard to work from last yea r's settings . Carl Foga rty just has a very different riding style than me, so we had to start from zero. " Kocinski mad e one of his few mistakes d uring the seco nd qua lifying session, w he n he we nt d own in the in famo us Melbou rn e hairp in . "A firs t-gea r cras h," he explained. "It mus t be a bo u t the fifth time I' ve go ne d ow n in th at corne r. But I know w hat hap pened and why "it hap pened , so I d on ' t wo rry too mu ch abo u t it. I was out on a new tire, and som etimes you only ge t to kn ow the limit of a tire w hen you go a bit too fast . Tha t's what happened there." Apa rt from dirty racing lea thers, Kocins ki survived the minor cras h withou t a scratch. He eve n climb ed over the fen ce and a motorhome in order to get back to his pitb ox as quickly as possible ... In an effort to get his bike ha nd ling better, Ko cinski tri ed a n Ohlins r ea r s hock o n Sun day m orning , ins tead of the oil-air da mping un it he had been using since Misan o. Mike Hale was 19th , still tryin g to find a goo d se tu p which wou ld suit his racing style. "We've made a lot of cha nges 0""," the last two days," he explained. "And we will still cha nge the fron t fork and the rear shock for tom orrow morning's warmup. I'm pretty hap py to get into the 1.355, bu t I still have to wo rk on my race pace."

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