Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

"I am particularly happy to have beaten my countrymen," Takeda said. "Most of the race, I just fo owed the leaders. I did not think that I was going to win until the very end of the race." Kocinski finished fifth behind Corser and said he might have done better if he had chosen a better tire. Slight was sixth after having shaken off Fujiwara. "My start was good," Slight said, "until the first corner. I got back from the first lap in fifth position. The first few laps were crazy. The leaders got away from me because [ was being carved up on every corner. For the second race, we'll switch to a softer-compound rear tire and I will also be changing the brakes; they were a bit too harsh in the first race." Slight's teammate Fogarty finished eighth despite having much pain in his ribs, the result of a crash in the final qualifying session Saturday. Texan Mike Hale was 20th. "I had a really bad start," Hale said. "Then I had a problem getting around a few people. After that, I put my head down and really started going. My lap times should have put me between 10th and 15th place. I was not too happy about the rear tire - we will have to change that for the second race." RACE TWO Corser had to start the second race with his old engine after the new engine proved to have gearbox problems. It did not prevent him from taking the lead' once again as soon as the lights turned green. Unfortunately, his lead would be even more short-lived than in the first race. It was only the second lap when Kocinski got past the Australian, with· Corser' struggling more and more as the race went on. On the fifth lap, Fujiwara shot past Corser, brmging Takeda, Keiichi Kitagawa and the ~t of the pack in his wake. It would be the beginning of another race in the wrong direction for Corser. po$ition with no fewer than seven riders who had set their sights On the 13 points accompanying that position. Slight and Haga were doing most of the leading work in this group, but positions changed at almost every corner, with Fogarty, Fujiwara, Ryo, Shinya Takeishi and Yoshikawa each doing his best to hold on. Corser already was a long way back, simply hoping to get his Ducati across the line to salvage what points he could. Six laps before the end, the leader of the group battling for fourth was promoted a spot as second-place Takeda crashed while chasing Aoki. For a few Japs, it looked as though Kocinski might be preparing a final attack on Aoki, but in At the halfway mark, Kocinski was leading, but was under heavy fire h:om Aoki. Takeda looked secure in third, with Norihiko Fujiwara and Haga battling it out for fourth. A group consisting of Slight, Akira Ryo, Fogarty and Yoshikawa had, at that time, gobbled up Corser as well. On lap 13, Aoki shot past Kocinski on the long straight. Another three laps later and Takeda pulled the same trick on the American Ducati rider, proving that some factory Hondas can beat a Ducati accelerating out of the slow chicane and up the steep climb toward the finish line in Sugo. After that maneuver, a leading group of three was formed by the two Honda riders and Kocinski, while at the same time an impressive battle began for fourth Corser on p-=-..:ol-=-e_ he first day of qualifying was relatively no~al with the expected distribution of the top spots to World Superbike series regulars. Apart from the 21·year-old Kawasaki factory rider Akira Yana· gawa. the top six were all familiar names, with Troy Corser on top of the list. The day after, however, the Japanese had recovered from their national defeat and struck back· hard. As is so often the case, the final grid positions were onl)' distributed in the last half-hour. Corser was still leading the chart at that point. thanks to the lap time he had made the day before in better weather conditions. Twenty minutes before the end, Wataru Yoshikawa made the first_ big splash, conquering pole position with 1:30.974. Yasutomo Nagai's heir would. however, not stay long in that position. Just five minutes later, Corser lapped in 1:30. 93, immediately followed by his final best score (and pole position time) of 1:30.567. Nobody would do better than that. "1 had just been testing racing tires this afternoon," the Australian said. '1 didn't think the times would go down today as the track tem· peratures were lower than yesterday. After Yoshikawa went faster, I got out on softer tires and hoped for a clear lap. Fortunately, most of the riders moved out of the way when [ came storming past. So [ owe this result partially to them." Corser didn't use his new engine in his bid for pole position, as he wished to save it for the race. All th.e other positions on the front row were taken by Japanese riders. The fastest of them had been Yoshikawa. "I am really relieved," the Yamaha factory rider said. "This is my home round, so I really wanted to go well. At last I have a good chance to stay with the top six, which is where I have wanted to be all season. We also have found a good race setup. I must now make sure that I have a good start tomorrow." • His teammate, Colin Edwards II, was not so lucky, however. He crashed at the entry to the first chicane, breaking his left collarbone in the process. "1 was three-quarters of the way through the comer when I highsided," Edwards said. "When I came off, it was a feeling of deja vu - I thought, 'I have done this before.' The doctor says it will be 20 days before I am back, but seeing as I've broken it previously, I reckon four weeks." Corser and Yoshikawa were joined on the front row by Honda- T (Above) Carl Fogarty (1) leads his teammate Aaron Slight (3) in the first race. Slight finished 6-3 with Fogarty going 8-4 on the day_ (Right) Takuml Aokl celebrates his second leg victory. mounted Yuuichi Takeda and Yamaha rider Norihiko Fujiwara. Next up was John Kocinski, not too happy with his final time that saw him leading the second row. "I could have gone at least ooe second faster," Kocinski said after the black and white flag had gone out to close the session. "[ made my best time on my last lap, and then 1saw the fire on the track. I went straight through the £lar.,es, but got held up immediately afterward, when some riders had slowed down and stopped to help put the fire out. I'm happy about the setup now. ]'11 even use the tires I had on during that last flier. The only thing we will have to do before the race tomorrow is put fuel in the tank. It is a shame, though, that J:will have to start from the second row; especially as J know that I could nave gone faster." The fire Kocinski referred to was the burning Ducati of Pier· Francesco Chili, who managed to crash twice in that final session without getting hurt. The Italian finally qualified in 10th position, being only the fourth series regular on the starting grid. He was preceded not only by Corser and Kocinski, but also by Cratar in eighth position. "It took me a while to put some decent times down," the Kiwi said, "But things are looking good now. This was my first time on Sugo on this bike. Fortunately, we got a good feedback from the Japanese on a basic setup. We finally came up with two different settings, which resulted more or less in the same lap times. I am very happy, especially because my best lap time., on race tires are very close to what [ did on a softer tire." Crafar had only one scary moment, when Rob Phillis high-Sided in front of him, breaking a bone in his right hand when he came down. . Phillis should be racing again at Assen. Aaron Slight qualified 13th, just in front of teammate Carl Fogarty, who also had crashed during that last qualifying session. Slight's 13th place (the last one within the same second as pole-sitter Corser) came after the gritty New Zealander battled to get a clear run at a good lap time. His best qualifying time was the one he recorded in Friday's session. '1 can't seem to put that one mad lap together," Slight said. "1 tried and tried, but could not get a lap vJithouf running into slower traffic. Moreover, it is still hard to turn the bike in, and I am ·not willing to stick my neck out to get that fast lap time on the clocks. Anyway, times are very close here." Fogarty struggled with the same handling problems, and cooled down a lot after he had crashed his bike in the Saturday afternoon session, The World Champion bruised his ribs, which made him struggle to breathe·toward the end of the session. . the two last laps, the American lost contact with the Japanese in the decisive storm up th.e hill after the chicane. TjN"enty-two-year-old Aoki finally took the checkered £lag in front of Kocinski and Haga, who had gotten the best of Slight in the last miles. Or at least so it seemed. Later on, Haga was disqualified for illegal modifications to his carburetors. There also was a protest against the second place of Kocinski, but that was not accepted. "We had experimented with the setup of the bike this morning." explained winner Aoki. "But I did not feel comfortable on the bike with that. So in between the two races we changed the setup back to what we use in the Open Japan Championship, and that did the trick." Kocinski was happy to finish second. "Michelin gave me a better tire," he said at the post-race press conference. "These guys ride very weIl, but I think their Hondas are not the same as the ones we fight in Europe. I would also like to race against them in Laguna Seca, and see then how dose they stay with me. Those Hondas have so mud, drive off the corner. I could never gain on them, but I kept the pressure on. I have raced in Japan before, so I know that they might make a mistake. And, at the end of the race I noticed that Aoki was running wide in a few comers; he definitely had 21

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