Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE World 'Championship Superbike Road Race Series Round 5: Brno, Czech Republic By Johan Vandekerckhovel Photos by Gold & Goose BRNO, CZEQi REPUBLIC, JUNE 30 ,omotor Ducati's Troy Corser is definitely back on track for a run at the World Superbike title. After jumping out to an early championship lead, the young Australian faced . a disastrous German round, where he crashed twice, and then followed that up with somewhat disappointing results at Monza, with a pair of off-the-rostrum finishes. Corser put all that - and his competition - well behind him at the Automotodrom Bmo where he stormed to a pair of resounding wins unpressured and with comfortable margins each time, setting the fastest race laps in the process. His main competition for title lead at the moment is the consistent Aaron Slight, who, despite Corser's double win, stiI1leads the championship, albeit by a slim nine points. Both Slight and his Ca trol Honda teammate Carl Fogarty performed much better than expected under the peculiar conditions that Bmo presents, conditions that were thought to be highly unfavorable to the RC45. If the conditions were unfavorable, it hardly showed as Fogarty qualified second and the Honda riders shared the rostrum with Corser, trading the runner-up spot in the two races. P RACE ONE With most of the Czech sporting fans preparing for the European football final vs. Germany on Sunday night, only 10,000 showed up for the World Superbike race. The European racers would not, however, be in position to mix it up with the top brass at Bmo. As he had predicted, Corser got the holeshot and dived into the first slow corners in the lead. Both Honda riders Fogarty and Slight - were in hot pursuit, followed by the rest of the gang. A few laps later and Corser was already some three seconds ahead of the competition. The Australian was never headed, and he would continue his heated pace until he had a 10-second lead. By that time, the Promotor team was already preparing for its third celebration of the sea-. son. The Honda duo, meanwhile, was left to battle it out for second. Slight held the spot for three laps, but Fogarty took over for the rest of the race. John Kocinski ended the first lap in fourth, and it was a position he would hold to the finish. The only thing that changed for the American were the numbers on his pit board. At the end of the race, he had a 16-second cushion between himself and Slight on the one hand, and a similar margin to fifth-placed John Reynolds on the other. Reynolds had been the surprise winner of a spirited battle for fifth. With five laps to go, Reynolds was still fendjng off the attacks of Colin Edwards II, Mike Hale, Pier-Francesco Chili and Wataru Yoshikawa, who had come back from an 11th-place start. Muzzy Kawasaski's Anthony Gobert and Shawn Giles had crashed in two separate accidents on the first lap. "1 was hit from behind:' Giles said at the end of the day. "The back of my leg is still hurting. More importantly, my team wasn't able to clean up the bike in time for the second heat. The ride through the gravel pit resulted in some dust and rocks getting into the engine. This couldn't have come at a worse moment. After this race, the team and Pirelli will decide if 1 will be entered in other World Superbike races this year." For Gobert, his bad luck continued. "I had a very good start," the Kawasaki rider said after almost having torpedoed Neil Hodgson. '''But 1 soon realized I was going uphill and losing a lot of ground that 1 would have to do everything in my power to get a good result. With the bike being as underpowered as it is, I have to ride it overaggressive1y. And what can I say? 1 just wanted to win the race on the first lap." Corser, of course, had a different story to tell after his first win of the day: "After testing and quaJjfying, I knew that 1 had a good setup. 1 had to take a bit of a gamble though on the tires, because the track is different from yesterday. Because of the tire selection, I didn't really know if 1 would be able to get a big gap right away, as I'd intended." Fogarty continued his rise to the top with a fine second place. . "I went into third right from the start," the double World Champion said. "But I passed Aaron in the chicane. I tried to get away, but unfortunately 1 struggled a little with the grip." Slight completed the rostrum after having chosen a harder tire than his teammate: "1 got away very good. In the end though, 1 did get some tire problems in the rear. 1 knew that if I had to take Fogarty, it would have to be in the last two laps. But because of the tire condition, this didn't work out." Kocinski finished a lonely fourth after a steady outing. Edwards ended up sixth, with less than two-tenths of a second advantage over Hale. "We've Aaron Slight (3) gets the jump on the field at the start of the World Superblke round In Brno. John Kocinski (11). Troy Corser (2) and Carl Fogarty (1) flank the KiwI. been trying some things with the tires this weekend," Edwards said. "We put the hardest possible tire on, but still it was shredded so I couldn't get the bike to tum. It was a very hard race, especially with three guys breathing down my neck. I hope that for the second one I'll get a good start and be a little bit more onmyown." Hale was pretty pleased with his seventh place as his season is beginning to turn around. "From the start onward, my clutch didn't work. So backshifting was a big problem and it didn't really give me a lot of confidence. What's more, 1 felt 1 was a potential danger to the other riders on the track." The second Muzzy Kawasaki rider, Simon Crafar, finished 11th. "We finally opted for a different setup in order to let the tire last a bit longer. But 1 struggled around from the beginning of the race. And 1 wasn't riding my usual self. My injuries, coupled with the power problem, means that we had too much llgainst us. Tenth place is not too bad in these conditions." Kirk McCarthy was 14th on the factory Suzuki and Rob Phillis took the last World Superbike point. "The only thing 1 can say is that we chose the wrong tire," the McCarthy said. "It would either have been awesome, or a complete disaster. Actually, it worked great for two laps, and then there was just nothing."

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