Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES running on three cylinders in the first race so I switched to the spare bike for race two and it worked fine," Slight said. "But by the time r was through to second John was already too far aI1ead." Fogarty was third for the second time on the day his similar finish postion reflecting hiS attitude about the race. "Same sort of thing as a couple of hours ago," the former World Champion said. "But this time the vision was not so good, as there was some mist between the visor and the tear-off. The bike ran perfectly, which' was somewhat of a surprise in these conditions with the danger of water getting into the engine. That's why I thought that many riders would retire and that might have helped me somewhat to get even to the front. But as it turned out, only Frankie (Chili) retired. By the way, when I got the opportunity to follow Chili a bit. I was wondering where he got the drive out of the comers from. That's been one of the biggest problems we've been struggling with all year." Hodgson and Yanagawa came next, followed by Russell - riding his spare bike - who had spent most of the race struggling, and admitted that he was still a bit wary from his race-one crash. (Above) Yanagawa was fast in dry qualifying, but crashed out of the first wet race and finished fifth in the second. (Right) Scott Russell (22) ran up front with Chili (7) in the first race prior to crashing. In the second race he finished sixth on his backup bike. Vanagawa storms to pole T I he Kawasakis keep surprising everybody. After their great performance at Phillip Island in the opening round of the season and during the Flammini-organized tests here at Misano 10 days prior to this round, Akira Yanagawa (right) stormed to pole position in the last minutes of the second and final qUalifyUlg session, with Pier-Francesco Chili, Kawasaki teammate Simon Crafar and Carl Fogarty claiming the other starting positions on the first row. "I was surprised myself how easy it went," the japanese declared on Saturday evening. Despite his solid fourth position, Fogarty was still Struggli11g. "We have a traction problem in the middle of the corner," Fogarty explained. "And that is tough work for me, as one of my trump cards has always been a high corner speed. It is difficult to let the bike hold the line in a corner. The bumps dont make things any easier on us." ..... 1-0 0.. < 12 Aaron Slight was able to qualify fifth, in front of both john Kocinski and Scott Russell. "We are definitely going better on this circuit," Slight said. "Even today I went seven seconds faster than during the tests last week. The track is, however, very hard on rear tires. Much will depend on the weather tomorrow and the tire choice we make. We still have a problem on the twisty part of the circuit - there I lose more than a half a second compared to Yanagawa. But the bike is definitely working better. Due to the combination of new tires and new suspension parts the tires stay on the tarmac for a longer time than last year. That explains our progress, partly." Kocinski was also very happy about the progress the Castrol Honda team had made. "I have the ilnpression that we are getting close to getting a base setup from wlUch we can start at every circuit," Kocinski said. "I'm only half a second from pole position, so I don't tltink that we have to worry too much. I've always performed pretty well here at Misano." Russell qualified seventh after IUs exciting last couple of days (see Briefly...). "I am still a bit jet-lagged," Russell said. "I'm not fresh so I didn't want to push it way out like some of the other guys did. But we're ready and we'll be there: My fastest lap at the end came real easy for me, I wasn't worried." Russell's teammate Colin Edwards II qualified 10th, just in front of Mike Hale, who had stayed in front of IUs British teammate jamie Whitham. "I can't get it go any faster," Edwards said. "My race pace is right there but 1had a problem with the qualifiers today. On my last one 1had an excellent lap going, but on the last corner the bike spat me out of the seat and it shook its head. It was one of my bigger moments but I gave the lap away there." . Hale admitted that the testing the Suzuki team had done in Mugello a couple of days earlier had not helped as much as he had hoped. "We have to use different settings than in Mugello, but we are getting more control and getting a little bit of traction," Hale said. "Things are going in the right direction since PlUlIip Island, but I still want to get the bike through corners faster and in control. The speed on the other hand is very good. We're going quite well on the back straight. half of the race to an impressive 31 seconds at the finish. Meanwhile, only one lap after Kocinksi began his impressive ride to the win, Chili was forced to retire. The rest of the race was quite monotonous, with the top nine positions only changing as Russell lost ever more ground on his spare bike. Kocinski finally notched up his second victory of the season, in front of teammate Slight and Ducati Corse's Fogarty, despite ongOing, albeit niggling, problems with his bike. "This race actually went pretty much the same as the first one, with a long way to go after a poor start and the engine suffering from an occasional misfire," Kocinski said. "If I can try to start the bike better, life might get a little bit easier for me. Right now, I'm not thinking about the championship. [ just want to keep getting the bike set up right and keep winning races for Honda." Kocinski's Castrol Honda teammate Slight was equally happy with second, especially since he had been riding his spare machine. '1 had a few problems with the bike "The bike waSIl' t as good as the one I crashed," former World Superbike Champion Russell said. "When I wanted it to tum in it wanted to stand up and I couldn't get it to do the same things; it wasn't very fun. There was alI the difference in the world between those two bikes today and it was all my fault. r crashed the bike in the first race and I paid the price." While Russell was receiving medical treatment up until half and hour before the start of race two, his mechanics had been doing all they could to get his spare bike to the same specs as the bike he had crashed earlier, but apparently they had not completely succeeded. Russell only complained about SOme neck problems and one of his legs hurting after his high-speed crash. Russell's Yamal1a teammate Edwards finished eighth, after having started 10th and struggled even to get that high in the field. "The bike wasn't quite right," Edwards said. "We tried a slightly harder tire and it worked better but I couldn't get it to hook up as well as the other guys. I had Dunlop guys right in

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