Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

improve on that result in race two." Crafar was Jess than jovial about getting ninth. ''I'll be happy to leave here," he said. "I have no idea of what to do. 1will not change anything on the bike for the second race because I wouldn't know what to change." Mike Hale took the Promotor Ducati to 12th position. "1 was riding the best 1 could," he said. "We did make some progress on the bike, but the progress came too slow. The last three quarters of the race, the tires went bad after I'd already run into some brake trouble. 1 did some faster laps towards the end of the race, but the bike went worse." , RACE TWO In the second race, Corser ~anted revenge. He took the lead right from the start, and was never headed. Early in the race, Chili claimed second while Edwards settled into third after shaking off the advances of Gobert, Fogarty and Hodgson. Kocinski was the first of the front runners to have trouble, the Little Rock, Arkansas, native tossing the Ducati down the road on the third lap. On lap six, Crafar went down in the hairpin "1 was held up by Oul (Fogarty)," Edwards said after nabbing fourth. "But maybe 1 should be a little bi t more aggressive in the first laps. 1 don't think 1 will change anything on the bike, as we've seen that 1 can do pretty fast times with this setup." Fogarty finished fifth, just behind the Texan with .?Iight sixth. "1 knew 1 was going to be in pain in the race, but I also could have lived without running over my foot on the fourth lap," Slight said. "It was on the run up to Dingle Dell and the rear went sideways. I thought 1 was off. A lapped. rider got in his (John Reynolds) way and after he passed him, John seemed to slow a little bit so 1 grabbed the opportunity. The bike worked well at the start of the race when the tires were new and at the end of the race when the fuel was low, so we can make a few changes and maybe (Allove) Troy Corser made up for a disappointing nonfinish In the first race by easily winning the second. (Right) Colin Edwards II had a good weekend, finishing fourth in the first race and third In the second. Corser, without a doubt T roy Corser didn't leave a shadow of a doubt over his intentions to grab as many points as possible in the seventh round of the World Superbike Championship. Fastest in Friday's free practice, in the first qualifying session and in Saturday's free practice, the Australian Ducati rider topped it off with pole position on Saturday afternooll. His excuse for lapping so quickly on Friday was the weather. "You never know what the weather will be like tomorrow in Britain," he said. On Saturday, he was on top of the starting list almost from the word go, and in the final minutes he bettered his time, even though nobody had really come close. "When Pier-Francesco (Chili) took second place in the closing stages of the session, I went out on qualifiers and I was ready for a low 1:27. A small .riding mistake, however, made me end up with 1:27.5,55. We spent a lot of time finding a good setup and good tires for the race, but this afternoon we found a good solution overall. As things are now, rm still wondering if I will use a 16.5- or a 17-inch wheel. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. I will make a decision tomorrow morning after warmup." and a lap later Hodgson crashed in the next corner. Then Jamie Whitham followed his example a few laps later. The crash list was completed on lap 16, when Fogarty crashed out of fourth place. "I lost the front when 1 tried to get in front," Kocinski said. "There was nothing wrong with the bike. Looking at it from the bright side, it's from these situations that you learn a lot. 1 think that it's better not to take any points this way than due to a mechanical problem." Crafar was a bit less philosophical about his retirement. "1' ve been riding pretty average this weekend, and I'm not afraid to admit it," he said. "1 don't know why 1crashed, I just lost it." Fogarty at least knew what had happened. "1 was going pretty well on my own in my fourth spot," he said. "There was no reason whatsoever to try and take risks. The tires were getting a bit off at the end of the race, but things really went bad in the left-hand corner after the Dingle Dell chicane. I was changing from second to first gear and hit a neutral. 1lost the front end. It was a siJIy little crash, as I was trying to preserve the tires for the full race distance." ~ Pier-Francesco Chili took second position on the grid even though he didn't feel very comfortable on the bike during practice. Neil Hodgson was top Brit when he took his Ducati to a time of 1.27.84 with just three !;Ilinutes of qualifying remaining. Chili and Hodgson push~d Colin Edwards II and John Reynolds, who had been impressive on the bumpy track, down the charts. Edwards finally had to make do with fourth position. "I could've gone faster," the Texan said. "But 1 finished the bike I liked the best in a crash." Anthony Gobert was fifth on the Muzzy Kawasaki, and not overly happy about it. "We finally solved the front-end problems we'd been suffering from the last couple of days," the Australian said. "And I also ran into some brake problems." Gobert also crashed his bike in his bid for a better time on Friday. John Kocinski took his Ducati to si~th position. "This track takes a lot of time to learn," the' former Grand Prix rider said. 'lt's impossible to know everything in only four hours time. Everybody in front of me has been on this track before. But I don't worry too much; one-tenth of a second faster would have put me in second position. I spent most of the practice sessions trying to find a good chassis setup." Carl Fogarty was in ninth, and best of the Hondas. The World Champion was fourth-fastest at One point during the li;antic final session but dropped to an eventual nin tho "I put the wrong tire on at the wrong time," he said. "I did eight laps on a race tire and it felt brilliant and that is when I put in my fastest lap. When I put on a soft tire l'd already run out of time but the rear was sliding all over the place." Stability and front and rear grip seemed to be the biggest problems with the Castrol Honda RC45s. For Aaron Slight, things were even more complicated, as could be judged from his meager 13th-fastest time. The Kiwi also was suffering from his foot injuries incurred at Suzuka (three broken toes and badly damaged ankle ligaments), and was just trying to hold on. "I'm in too much pain to ride really," Slight said. "Right now I don't care what happens in the races:The pain is so bad that I have no choice but to give it some in the two races and see what I get. I don't really like this place and 1would prefer not to come here ever again. I didn't have any injections today because I can't get any sense out of the doctors. One wants to put a cast on, the other just wants to give me injections, so I have ignored them both and I'm doing my own thing. But the bike doesn't seem to get along with the track either. I especially can't carry any corner speed. The bike being a four-cylinder, it's more agressive and the back is moving a lot." On Sunday morning. the Honda squad changed the fork settings on Slight's bike, which made it behave a little better. Simon Crafar qualified 11th. "I'm trying to make friends with this circuit," he said. "But [ do not really like the bumps and the lack of runoff areas. .[ just go better on fast-flowing circuits. Here, I ~so seem to be trying too hard in the wrong places, as we could deduct from the partial timing results from the on~board computer." Mike Hale was a dismal 19th on the Promotor Ducati. "We changed a lot on the bike during the four practice sessions," he explained. "But we never got a solution that made me get to the comers well enough. I just want to try and find a setup which allows me to carry more corner speed. Now I'm just running too wide in the corners." Shawn Giles made a welcome return to World Superbike racing and qualified his De Cecco Ducati in 24th position. "Learning this track is more difficult than I thought," he admitted on Sunday ·morning. "And I high-sided the bike this morning. NeverthelJ'ss, I feel better on this bike than on the Alstare bike I used in Monza and Brno. And I now have two bikes at my disposal. It's not such a big disaster when you crash one. And the engine is also working really good. Too bad my racing program has been limited to an average of one race a month. That makes me feel it bit rusty each time I get into the saddle."

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