Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

co n tact o n thi s circuit, you ca n forget it. I d id not have a clue where I was o r how many laps there were stiIlleft. At a given m oment, I was ab le to get aw ay and I d ecided to ride a r e all y crazy lap in ord e r to get som e ai r between me and th e o th er guys. Ju st when I crosse d the fini sh line in the beginnin g of that lap, I had noticed a ' 1' on m y pit board , but I coul d not m a ke up whe ther m y crew w an ted to tell me that I w as in first position or that there was onIy one more lap to go. Fortunately, I could take the blackan d-w hi te flag at the end of that lap ." (Left) James Whitham (69) fought off the advances of Nell Hodgson (9) and Keith McCarthy (36) to finish s ixth In the first le g_ (Be low) Colin Edwa rds II mounted an Impres s ive charge In race one to steal the last spot on the podium ; Edwards finished fifth In race two • Chili on pole • · a aln A fter "a five-week break, the Superbike brotherhood showed up in the city park of Milan for the fourth roun d of the World Cham pionship. Most of the top team s had spent some days on the ultra -fast track some 10 days before. On ly the Muzzy team had preferred to go to Japan in order to prepare the Suzuka Eiglit Hou rs race. John Kocinski had signed an imp ressive 1.47.00 on June 5, underbidding the official track record of Carl Fogarty, despite the fact that some modifications had mad, the circuit slower . The priva te practice sessions paid off for the top runners. Right from the first official practice day in Monza, Honda and Ducati were sharing the top positions. After the first qualifying session. Kocinski (1.47.389) led the way in front of Fogarty, Hod gson, Slight and Corser. As usual, things really heated up on Saturday afternoon for the second qualifying session . Aaro n Slight was fastest most of the time, but it was only with one-quarter of an hour to go that the Friday times were bettered. Eight minutes before the end, Carl Fogarty bumped his teamm ate from the first position on tha t da y's rankings, setting 1.47.548, just on his way to another - even faster - lap of 1.47.192. With Jess than five minutes to go, Carl thought the pole was his and already started to wave enthusiastically to his fans along the track - he can read his qualifying time from a small monitor on his bike. Only a few moments later, Anthon y Gobert crossed the finish line in the slipstream of Aaron Slight, claiming himself the pole position (1.47.119). And just when the black and white flag wen t ou t and everyone started to pack his thin gs in the' pit lane, the speaker announ ced that Pier-Francesco Chili had gone even faster than Gobert. A big surp rise for everyone, as the Bologna rider had broken his right hand in a crash in a race at Vallelunga one week before. "One-quarter of an hou r before the end of the session, I already had made an excellent time," the forme r Grand Prix racer said. "And I knew that I could go even faster. I decided to go back to the pit and to let cool the engine down before having a last go at the pole during the closing stages." Anth ony Gobert had to make do with second starting position. "We still lack horsepower, but I am glad that I could stay in Aaron's slipstream for a lap . We had finally solved some wobbling problems that had bothered us since the beginning of the weekend ." Ant hony had missed most of the first qualifying session due to electrical problem s that made the bike grind to a halt at the back of the circuit'in the first minu tes of that session. Carl Fogarty was not surprised about his practice result . "I knew before we came here that the Honda would perform well. The smooth surface suits the bike well." Aaron Slight qualified fourth fastest, with Kocinski having d ropped back to fifth after having led the way during the first practise day . Desp ite having been overtaken by three of his colleagues, Aaron was qu ite happy with the final resu lt. "I went a lot better than during the private practice session here last week," the Hond a rider said. "I was still suffering from jet lag that week. Besides that, we concentrated on testing different tires over the whole race distance; we were afraid that the Michelin would not last the who le distance if it was going to be hot." Aaron crashed on Friday before the race on a cold race tire. The,story was completely different for John Kocinski. The man from Little Rock had performed very well d uring the private practice sessions and on the first qualifying day, but then dro pped back on the starting grid on day two. "We had found a good setup during the tests last week," team man ager Virginio Ferrari explained . "Which explains why we were not able to better our times as considerably as some of the other teams." As they already had found a good setup, the team want ed John to try a different chassis geometry on Saturda y, but that did not really give the results they had hoped for. For the race day, they returned to what they had used during the pri vate tests. John Kocinski himself did not worry too much about it: "We ha ve learned a lot tod ay and I feel confident for the race tomorrow," he said on Saturday evening. Colin Edwards was seven th, behind Neil Hodgson. "The setup is basically the same as what we used last year." Colin explained . "We have concentrated on testing tires. We can do good I.48s no problem. As far as the race goes I know where I am on the pace. The comers where some of the others can pull time on me I mu st just make sure that I do not mess up . I just want to go smooth and consistent tomorrow and then see where I am at the end of the race." Troy Corser took eighth after a disastrous second practice day. During the free mornin g session, he went down in the second chicane, and when the grid positions were determined in the afternoon , he crashed twi ce (in the same corner) in about half an hour time. "The first time, I hit an oil patch," he said . "And the second time, ther e was a lot of dirt on the racing line, which had been put there by Fogarty who had gone straight. I had not seen it." Reynolds and McCarthy qualified the Suzukis in ninth and l Oth position respectively. "We have made a lot of progress here, both in qua lifying and testing last week." said team coordinator Simon Buckmaster . "The testing pro gram concentrated on chassis refinements, and we have made many improve ments in the Kayaba sus pensio n setup." Kirk McCarthy att ributed his excellent time to the priv ate tests: "The work the team has put in here at Monza is paying off for me. We are now already a lot closer to the pole, even though it is still frustrating to be on the second row." Simon Crafar quali fied 14th. stru ggling with a lack of horsepower. "The bike is too slow." the Kiwi said . "The best proo f is the time of Anthon y. Dur ing the whole practice session he is no more than two-tenths of a second faster than me, until he gets a tow from Aaron. We will , still try out some minor chan ges tomorrow morning in the warmup, in order to get here and there some tenths of a second, but I do not expect any major improvement on today's times." Newcomer Shawn Giles took the Alstare-Ducati to 21th starting position after two tense days. The Friday sessions were used to get to know the bike better - a mission that w as not mad e any easier d ue to problems with the front fork. On Saturday, Shawn was all set to try and get a good time. "The free practice session was almost completely lost due to fuel and throttle problems," he said . "In the second qualifying session, the chain came loose twice. I only got some five laps in which I could try and make a good time ." Rob Phillis qualified 23rd and was unhappy with that result. "I just need to go faster in the comers. The problem is that I have not had enough practice in the last couple of years." Fogarty's teammate Sligh t spent the waning m oments of th e race focused o n keepi ng Corser b ehind him. "I h ad a real bad s tart," sai d Sli ght . " I k new everyt hing wou ld come d o wn to the end. My m a in co ncern o n the last lap was to stop Troy from ge tti ng th e second p lace. During the race I h ad noticed tha t our b ikes were a b it be tt e r o n th e braking, so th a t is w here I tried to w in some ground on hi m ." Third posi t io n for Edw a rd s w a s a s u rprise fo r some, as the Texan h a d made u p a lot of ground (and p laces) in only the last two la ps. "This was to ugh," said Edwards. "I did n ' t h ave any d ra ft so th e on ly thi ng to d o w as to p ut m y head d o w n and charge a s h ard as I could. This was a fairy tal e co me true; I had co me back fro m th e b ack. A ll of a sudden I was battling it out with -the lea d ing group and a cou p le of minutes la ter I got on the rostrum. I had d eliberately chosen a hard ti re , w hich I knew would cost me some ground in the beginning of the race. As I had no d ra ft I was a litt le worried that I woul d use u p my tires too m u ch ." Having led the race several times, it was a surprise to find Co rser fad in g fast d uring the closing stages. Ul timately he finished fifth af ter b acking o ff sligh tly, the victim of a spent rear tire. "Th e rear tire had blisters," said th e Austra lian. "I had a few big slides, so I knew I w o ul d have to tak e it easy in th e closing s tages. Especially the fir st righ t- han der w a s a constant p ro blem." Kirk McC arthy notched up an excelle nt eigh th p lace. " I had a reall y good s tart," M cC arthy said . "U n fo rtunate ly from th e second lap on w ard, I had so me gear p roblems . When I was in third, fourth an d fifth the thing was a lways d isengaging and engaging again, so I h ad to d o sh ort gearchanges. I knew 1 h ad to watch o ut, but I wanted to see how far I co u ld go because I n eeded the p oi nts. To ward the end it go t w orse, but I took th e chance not to go in an d I went a ll the w ay. For the secon d race I' ll take the second bi ke." M cCarthy's teammate John Reyn ol d s just m an aged to get th e final point after h a vi n g gone down in the chica ne o n th e seco nd lap and s to r mi ng b a ck through the field. Australian superbike r ider Shawn Giles ma de a n excellen t European W o rld Su perbike debu t, ta king 13 th p la ce a fter a pretty lo nesome race . RACE TWO The same five gentlemen provid ed th e sa me th rilling b a ttl e fo r v ictory in race two, except th at Ed w ards was no w ' with the m rig h t from t he s tar t. T he Texan had chosen exactly th e sa me ti re as in t he coo ler first race, a nd th at seemed to d o th e trick. ' Unfortunately, history m o re or less re peate d itse lf also for Koci nski. On th e second lap, he came in to th e pi t because the e ngine s tarted to m ake d is turbin g n oise s. "A fter the first race Jo hn insisted o n taki n g the same bike for the second race, as he felt comfortable o n it, ", Virginio Ferrari explained. "Unfortuna tely, so mething m ight have been drawn in to th e engine af ter we cleaned th e bike or af ter we p ush ed the bike back to the p it. After one lap th e engine started to m ake strange n oi se s a nd John thought it was too d an gerous to continue in those circu msta n ces ." After an other set b a ck, Koci nski co ul d o nly say: "O f cou rse I'm disap pointed abou t this weeken d , but I s ure ain' t giving u p yet. You h ave to stay pos itive, even if th ings do no t work out as they sh ould." U p front, the D uca ti pair, the two H onda riders and the lo ne Yamaha rep.resentative just co n tinued where they had le ft off a co uple o f hours earlier, and R ," l8 a ~ 19

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