Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·ROAD RACE·. Road Race Series Round 11: Albacete, Spain World thampiOnshlp SupertliQ \"'!!o.~g,.a-"--/ self into second place, but at the same time Crafar moved into fourth with seven laps to go after having caught Hodgson, Reynolds and Fogarty by surprise. Things started to settle down in the final four laps, with Corser finally easing the pace after his lead had grown to as big as eight seconds. Edwards and Kocinski were a lonely second and third, with Kocinski getting closer but not enough to worry the Texan. "I had a reasonable start, which is what I was hoping for," Corser said. "I got into the inside of John (Kocinski) and then put my head down. I knew that this riding style would place a heavy burden on the tires, and in the second half of the race the rear tire really started to go off. But, fortunately, I got to the end." With this win, Corser took over the lead in the World Championship point standings. Edwards was pleased with his second place. "After Chili pulled a few bike lengths, I felt my rostrum position slipping away," Edwards admitted. "But as the race wore on, I could make up ground on John (Kocinski). It took me a while before I got past him, but when I did I felt comfortable enough that my tires 'would allow me to stay there until the very end." Kocinski held on to third, despite having stretched some muscles in his arm while trying to save a crash from a big slide. "I made a wrong choice for the rear tire," Kocinski said. "It was my mistake, but the changing weather conditions didn't make things easier." Crafar was fairly pleased with his late-race charge that netted him fourth place. "Very good," was his untypical response. "This race was really great. Normally, I always have two problems a lack of power and tires. This time, I only ended up with the power problem because the tires worked great. It might also have to do with the new surface. 1£ the difference in weather between yesterday and today mattered in any way, then it was even better during the race." Slight finished a disappointing ninth. "Getting the flu on Friday really didn't help things," he said. "And the temperature dropping the way it did today made it even worse. We really had not expected' that and we made a completely bad tire choice. It must be 'one of the worst rear tires I have used, but what is worse is that C;:arl (Fogarty) said the same about his tire and he was using a totally different compound." Hale ended the race in 10th. "The first five laps went really well, but afterward my rear tire started giving me problems," he said- "Aaron (Slight) was also holding me up a lot. His bike is a lot faster than mine and the only way I could get him was by outbraking him. Unfortunately, next to my tire problems, I also ran into some minor brake problems, so I was condemned to stay behind Aaron for the whole race." \0 0\ 0\ ..... \() ..... '"' Q) ~ o 26 RACE TWO The second race started with a bang literally, when one of the local riders bumped into Neil Hodgson on the starting grid, causing the start to be delayed and the riders having two extra warm·up laps after ·everybody (including Hodgson) had recovered. After that initial incident, the second race went pretty much according to plan for Corser. After letting Fogarty lead the pack into the first corner, the Australian toward the end. Everything went according to plan. I was lucky to get Carl (Fogarty) on the brakes from turn one and from then on I could pull away. . I didn't want to take any risks, so I tried to ride a consistent race. I'm now pretty confident for Phillip Island. We went testing in December there and then I was already two seconds faster than last year." Kocinski was second. "I finished, so I should be happy," he said. "We didn't change tires after the first race, we just put some gas in it and that was it." . Edwards was third after a successful weekend of racing following his return from injury. "We found the right setup last week," he said. "Today we took the weather difference into account and put. a medium. tire on for the first race and a harder one for the second. Even then, it felt worse for the secQnd race, and I was all over the place. I think for once we had a big advantage over the Michelin riders. Dunlop came up this weekend with some new stuff. From Misano onward, we have been using Japanese tires, because the British ones didn't meet our expectations. But this weekend I really have to thank them, because we really couldn't do these times on the Japanese rubbers." Crafar notched up another fourth place. "I can only say that I am really happy about this weekend," he said. "For this race, we had everything exactly the same as the first one, and just put. in a little less gas, because I thought that was going to be enough to get around. This weekend things finally worked out and the main reason they did is definitely the tires." Troy Corser dominated In Spain, winning both races to take over the lead In the World Championship point standings. r dived inside of the World Champion to take the lead and he was never headed again. Fogarty came back in second after the first lap, a position he would hold lor some seven laps. But then Kocinski retaliated and settled into second in front of Edwards, who also had moved around Fogarty. By this time, Chili was already taking a shower as his Oncati stalled with electrical problems. With Corser firmly in command and Kocinski and Edwards out of reach of each other and the rest of the pack, nothing would change in the top three for the remainder of the race. Behind their backs, however, positions continued to shuffle. Fogarty got caught by Crafar and Slight, and later lost another spot to Yoshikawa. Hale, meanwhile, had crashed on the eighth lap. "My start was promising," he said. "And my lap times were pretty good. I was closing in on the group in front of me, and I finally caught up with them. But on the brakes into the left-hander, I lost the front and went down." Five laps before the end, the top 10 was £IDal when Yoshikawa worked his way past Fogarty to take over fifth. Corser had carded his second win on the day. "We had put a slightly harder tire for this race," he explained. "Davide (Tardozzi) and the Michelin.guys actually only decided on that a few minutes belore the start. The tire went better Corser cranks one out E ven before the superbike brotherilOod arrived in the Albacete paddock. nobody doubted that the pace was going to be extremely hot in this penultimate round of the World Superbike Ownpionship. Some II! days before the event, six ridm; had undercut the existing lap record, with John Kocinski going one and a half seconds faster than Carl Fogarty's fastest time on the recently resurfaced circuit. And the tap times dropped even more Friday and Saturday during qualifying. Troy Corser ended up earning his fifth pole position of the year Friday. "Yesterday, the track was in a better condition." the Australian explained after turning his best times the day before. "The tire se1ection is very critical here. Several comers seem to be deteriorating with every session. Fortunately, this track suits the Ducati pretty weD; we can carry corner speed pretty welL And the bike is steering a lot better than last year, which makes it easier for us to make cxmstant fast times. I think that I can go at a fast pace tomorrow too, as I did a string of low 1.315 on race ti%es today." Kocinski qualified second, despite having gone down in the closing stages of the second qualifying session. The fact that it happened in the first left-hand comer on the first lap after he pitted might also have helped. "I'm not worried about the fact that 1 crashed," he said. "It was again a very harmless aash and I only have a 1ittIe scratch on my 1ittIe finger. 1 slid off in a hairpin. going in first gear; actually that's the way 1 usually crash." Colin Edwards n made a strong comeback, logging the third-quickest time. "The collarbone is okay," the Texan said after two very busy pnctice sessions. "I lOde arow>d a lot just to get as much practice as poss.ibIe after my absence. The surface is a lot better than last year, even if it becomes tricky in the afternoon because of the heat. It then tends to come off." Fogarty comp1tted row one, complaining about a lack of acceleration on the very twisty track. But he agreed that the new surface offered more grip than in the pest. Pier-Francesco Chi1i qualified fifth after having spent a lot of time getting the sea:md bike right. Simon Crafar and his Muzzy Kawasaki qualified seventh: ·Just fiddJing around with some minor things," he said after bettering his Friday time. "Because coming out of a corner fast is impossible for us we have tried to find some setup to solve that problem." Mike Hale qualified 10th. "The times got better and better,· he explained. "Unfortunately, we were working on the race setup so much that we didn't have any time left to put on some qualifiers and do a reaDy fast lap." Ownpionship leader Aaron Slight managed only the 11th-best time, mainly because he was suffering &om the flu. A dejected Slight left the circuit immediately after the final qualifying session and returned to his hotel to try to sleep off the illness. "I am losing the championship because of a common ooId or whatever it is I've ~" he said.

• Cover