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Round 8: Sentul and forcing the Australian to pick up his bike and run straight into the gravel pit. Corser managed to keep his Ducati upright and rejoined the battle from eighth position, but his race for the lead was over. The Australian clawed his way back to fifth place, and with a few laps left, it even looked as though he was gaining on fourth-place Edwards, though he would never challenge the Texan for the spot. Up front, Kocinski was comfortably leading, with Slight and Fogarty not giving an inch to each other in their struggle for second place. Chili, meanwhile, was picking himself up after having run into a gravel trap at high speed. "Probably some stones on the track that were sucked into the engine and which left the throttle wide open," said Chili, who fortunately was unhurt in the incident. "But 1 was not feeling too comfortable on the bike. We uS'ed the same bike as in the first heat, but we also changed tires. We should not have done that." The battle for second seemed to be decided some seven laps befor!! the end, when Fogarty suddenly went wide in a comer, then looked down to his engine. Slight didn't stop to ask questions and flew by his teammate to hold second place to the end. Despite throttle-sticking problems, Fogarty held on to the final rostrum spot. Edwards crossed the line fourth, in front of Corser, who preceded the battling duo of Reynolds and Yoshikawa. Corser and Kocinski were quite sportsmanlike after their near-collision that cost Corser so many places. "We didn't touch," Corser said. "But if 1 had not picked the bike up, he would have pushed me off the track. 1 had to get the bike out of the way. If 1 had been in his boots, 1 would have made some room. For this race, 1 used the same bike and engine 1 had used in the second race at Brands, which 1won. 1 passed some people.pretty easily after having gotten' off the track, but when 1 got Colin Edwards in my firing line, 1 couldn't make up any ground anymore. As for the championship, things are still looking pretty good. Last year 1 won a race at Sugo, and 1 hope to do at least as good this time around. Maybe Ducati can send me a new engine (as they did in 1995), which must allow me to get better up the hill and gain good ground there." Kocinski wrote the "Corser incident" off as a mere fact of racing. "We got close, but we didn't touch," Kocinski said. '1t happened in one of those turns where you run really wide when you get in a little bit too hot. This kind of thing happened to me a lot of times this year. We happened to be on the same racing line and one of us had to give in. That's racing." Slight got home in the runner-up spot, taking the lead in the championship on the same occasion. The tough Kiwi had some local pain-killing injections in his foot, for the first time since his crash in Suzuka, just before he went to the grid for the second race. "It worked well and I was going good for about half the race before 1 felt any pain from my broken toes," Slight. said. "I could have made a better start, then, to make things worse, 1 got held up while Corser and Kocinski pulled away. Chili was at the front of our group battling for third place. He was holding up Colin Edwards, who was holding up Carl, and he was nolding me up. Toward the end, 1 managed to get past Carl and pull a little bit of a gap with six laps to go." Slight felt confident he would have finished second even if his teammate had not run into trouble. "While 1 was behind Carl, 1 could relax a while. We rode different lines, and 1 knew where 1 could pass him and where 1 had to be careful that he would not pass me again. But his throttle problems did make things a bit easier for me." Fogarty, was of course, convinced that he would have stayed in front of his teammate if it had not been for his problems. "1 could have made a better start to the race," Fogarty said. "1 got away but Chili flicked across me and then Edwards got by as well. 1 was not aggressive enough. 1 had a good battle with Aaron and it was always going to be dose - he is one of the best riders in the world. But then my throttle started sticking open for some reason and it nearly pitched me off a couple of times. 1 had seen Chili going off for the same reason a couple of laps before, so 1 was extra careful for some laps. When 1 got back some of my confidence, 1 did not know whether to try and pass Aaron or concentrate on hanging on to the finish." Edwards did one better than in race one and got home fourth. "The front tire offered more grip this time," he explained. "It was the same one as in the first race, but the track temperature was a bit cooler. With eight to 10 laps to go, the front took a dive. 1 was pushing too hard and locking the front several times. We changed the exhaust in between the races, which allowed me to keep up with the Hondas on top speed, but on the other hand, acceleration was now a problem." Hale finished ninth. "I ran 29s for a lot of the race," the Promotor rider said. "It took me some laps to get into the Aaron Slight leads Pler·Francesco Chili, Colin Edwards II and C8rI Fogarty In their race-one battle. groove, but the combination we chose was not good enough to beat Yoshikawa, who sat on my tail for several laps. He finally got past and took Neil Hodgson with him." McCarthy took the factory Suzuki to lOth place. "The bike is heaps better from when we started here," McCarthy said. "I am learning how to set the bike up all the time and my lap times in that race were much better than my best in the qualifying sessions." Crafar got home 11th, after having led McCarthy for most of the race. "1 am happy about the way 1 was riding," said Crafar. "I did the best with what 1 have. This was better than Brands, where 1 did not ride as well as 1 could have." Phillis finished 13th, with Steve Martin taking the last championship point. eN Sentul Sentul, Indonesia Results: August 18, 1996 (Round 8 of 12) QUALIFYING, I. Colin Edw",ds U (U8.326); 2. Pier-Fnncesco Chili (1:28.638); 3. John .Kocinski (1:28.648); 4. Troy COrseT (1:28.695); 5. Carl Fogarty (l,zs.8S4); 6. Aaron Slight (1,zs.9S6); 7. Anthony Gobert (1~.0S6); 8. Simon Crof", (1~.1119~ 9. John Reynolds (1:29.497); 10. Neil Hodgson'(1:29.688); 11. Wataru Yoshikawa (1:29.933); 12. Piergiorglo Bontempi (1:30.037); 13. Martin Craggill (1:30.336); 14. Paolo Casoli (1:30.393); 15. Mike Hale (1:30.608); 16. SIeve MaTt;n (1,30.954); 17. Kirk McCarthy (1:31.196); 18. Michael Paquay (1:31.316); 19. De.n Thomas (1:31.324); 20. Rob Phillis (1:31.579); 21. David Emmerson (1:31.834); 22. Igor Jerman (1:32.181); 23. John Souslas (1:32.614); 24. T. Kusuma (1:35.366). RACE ONE, 1. John Kocinski (Due); 2. Carl Fogarty (Hon); 3. Aaron Slight (Hon); 4. Pier-Francesco Chili (Due); 5. Colin Edwards U (yaIn); 6. Troy COrseT (Due); i. Wataru Yoshikawa (Yam); 8. Paolo Casali (Due); 9. John Reynolds (Suz); 10. Milee Hale (Due); 11. Piergiorgio Bontempi (Kaw); 12. Simon ermr (Kaw); 13. Kirk McCarthy (Suz); 14. Dean Thomas (Han); 15. Rob Phillis {Kaw)j 16. Igor Jerman (Kaw); 17. David _ (Kaw~ 18. T. Kusuma (Kaw) Time: 37 min., 1.852 sec.