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/127789
Round 4: Monza, Italy power. Coming out of the corner I was a bit too eager, and I got sp a t o ff th e bik e." Bontempi ran in to the cra shed bike. Fortunately, both rid er s esca ped injury. • Meanwhile, fast starter Fogarty had se ttled in first po sition for a lap, with Corser, Chili and Slight in hot pursuit. After five laps, this fourso me had gained some gro und over a lonely Colin Ed w ard s ru nning fifth, followed by a gro up with McCarthy, Whitham, Hodgson and Simon Crafar. For the next couple of laps no bo d y seemed to be able to run away from the company he was in, each rider having eno ugh trouble trying to ho ld his position and fighting to do so every inch of the wa y. By far the mo st active group was th e leading four - th ey switched positions several times on one lap, with no clear speed, handl ing or braking advantage for either of the Honda or Ducati rid ers . Pressure built as th e race wore on, and some three lap s before th e end things really got exiciting as the leaders' bikes began sliding more and more. These four-way antics slowed the leading pack and allowed Edwards to make By Johan Vandekerc kove Photos by Gold & Goose h e Italian ro u n d of th e World Superbike Championship reminded everyone why superbike racing is still gaining momentum in the popularity charts of motorcycle racing fans. Some 40,000 Italian spectators saw Carl Fogarty win the first race by a 0.650-second margin with the next four riders crossing the line within a second of each other. In the second race, the crowd really went wild when local boy Pier-Francesco Chili repeated his stunt of last year, taking victory with only seven-thousandths of a second to spare over Aaron Slight, with Fogarty just a few ticks behind to land third. The Kiwi was the rider that followed Fogarty in that first race by such a small margin, and by virtue of his two runnerup finishes took over the World Championship lead after John Kocinski had a terrible racing weekend that saw him score no po ints. The Arkansas nati ve s u ffe re d a crash in race one, a n d a mechanical failure forc ed him to pull out of race two. American Colin Edwards II finished a su rprise third in race one after makin g a mad charge in the fin al tw o laps to narrowl y take his second podium finish of the season. And d espite fin ish ing a solid fifth in the second race, Edw ards dropped one pl ace in the standings to sixth. Au st ra ili an Tro y Corse r scored a fourth an d fifth on the d ay and now sits second in po ints, trailin g Slight's 137 by T 18 (Right) Carl Fogarty (1) backed up his win at Hockenhelm with a win and a third at Monza. (Above) In one of many lead cha nges In t he two races , Troy Corser heads the pack. 23 points . Fogarty's w in and third moves him into third with 113, just one point adrift of Corser. Kocinski is fourth on the sam e 105 points he had a fte r Hockenheim, followed by Chili in fifth with 94. Though Fogarty has won his second race of the season and teammate Slight shot to the top of the point sta ndi ng s, nobody at Honda dares to say that the Ducati reign is over. "Let' s wait for the races at Brno and Laguna Seca, where we'll have to work overtime keep ing the bike o n its line in th e corners," sai d world champion Carl Fogarty after two exhilirating races in the municipal park of Milan . RACE ONE Th in g s s ta r te d to go w ron g for Kocinski even before the race had started. His bike refused to start and it was only after team manager Virgi nio Ferrari and a few mechan ics did some hectic wrenching to get the thing working again th at th e Du cati growled to life. They d id n ' t finish the work in ti me , however, to prevent Kocinski from having to sta rt from pit lane. It was the start of a very short ra ce for the man from Little Rock. Third from last into the first chicane, Kocinski was determined to get back to the front as quickly as possib le. On the second lap, though, it was already over. In th e heat of battle, Rob Phillis and Kocinski touched and both riders went down. "What can I say?" a very disappointed Kocinski said. "The bike didn't sta rt. And 'as if th at wasn't eno u gh, som eone ran ove r me." Ph illi s admitted he had been surprised by the racing lines of his unexpected rival. "I came in the corn er and John hit the brakes very early ," the Au stra lian veteran said. "I could not get on the ou tsi de because I was alr eady too much on the inside . Apparentl y he forgot that people in the back of the field do not have the same horsepower as he has, and that they have to ride accordingly." More or less at the same time, Anthony Gobe rt a nd Pier giorgi o Bontemp i also got caught in the sand trap. "I highsided mysel f," Gobert sai d . "I kn ew I rea lly ha d to turn the th rottle wide open in or de r to com pensate for th e lack of up ground and join the gro up in the fight for victory. At the beg inning of the final lap Corser led across the start/ finish line. Bu t in brakin g before the first chicane, Fogarty squeez ed his Honda in front and was followed a bit later by Slight. One straightfurther , Edwards got by Chili and then Corser as well and suddenly found himself third. For the last half of the lap, Fogarty seem ed to be able to escape, with Slight in second and the th ree other rid ers fini shing the last corners more often rid ing abreast than following one anothe r. Up front, Fogarty would not be head ed again, with Slight a "com for table" second , six -tenths of a second behind. Edw ards, Chili and Corser ran side by sid e in their final d ash to the line for a ph oto finish; there was a miniscule 13thousandths of a second between third placed m an Ed wards an d fifth-placed Corser. Fogarty was extreme ly happy with hi s second victory of the seaso n. "This w as one o f the ha rd est races in my career," the Castrol Honda ride r said. "I knew I had to hang on there. If you lose