RACER TEST
(Below) A season to
remember: Both Muzzy and
Gobert left World Superbike
competition at the end of the
season.
(Right) Because 01 Gobert's
radical, slide-botlHlnds riding
style, the bike's setup is
suitably odd also. Still, its a
big improvement over last
year's setup, Ulanks to help
Irom Ohllns technician Jon
Cornwell.
JrJ
By Alan Cathcart
Photos by Emilio Jimenez
26
obody who had the privilege of
watching Awesome Anthony's flying farewell to the World Superbike scene will ever forget it.
Aboard the Muzzy Kawasaki green
screamie, the Gobert Go-Show turned
the £ina} round of the 1996 World Superbike series on his home track at Phillip
Island into a breathtaking display of
MX-derived alternative race riding, twowheel drifting around faster turns, sideways sliding hard on the brakes to
square off slower ones - all in a successful pursuit of a pair of race wins to mark
both his return to the saddle after a
three-round absence caused by a broken
collarbone, and his last appearance on
the superbike stage before transferring
to the 500cc ·class next season. Unforgettable? You betcha.
First the Comeback Kid hunted
down pole-sitter Colin Edwards II's
Yamaha to snatch victory in race one,
before getting the better of a thrilling
raceJong battle with Aaron Slight's
much-faster works Honda to double up
in race two.
Then, to underline the fact he was
changing jobs - as well as to prove what
the well-dressed road racer really wears
beneath his leathers (answer: charcoal
CK briefs and, er - thassit!) - the exSupercross star with the bright orange
(this week) hair stripped off his nowexpendable green Kawasaki leathers on
the rostrum and disposed of them by
chucking them to the throng below.
End of an era - curtain time in fourstroke racing for the go-go Go-Show.
The Grand Prix world has no idea
what's coming to it in '97 - those pokerfaced potentates in IRTA and Dorna are
about to have their lives lightened up a
little.
However, behind the spectacle
lurked some interesting issues, not the
least of which is that Kawasaki ended
the World Superbike season as it began,
on a high note. This augurs well for
1997.
In fact, the Japanese company has
enjoyed a surprisingly unsung successful debut season for its all-new motorcycle, the short-stroke ZX-7RR, winning
the U.S. Superbike title courtesy of
Doug Chandler and the Muzzy team,
placing close runners-up in the Australian series, thanks to Martin Craggill,
finishing second in the crucial Suzuka 8-
