Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight (2) . scored two podium finishes in England, beating Carl Fogarty (4) to the line in his race-one victory. (Above) Fogarty leads race-one crasher Pier-Francesco Chili and Slight. Fogarty won race two and took the lead In the championship. (Right) Neil Hodgson (9) finished fourth and ninth. Just as Slight's fortunes took a turn for the better, Chili's could hardly have gotten worse as the always quick Italian took an off-track excursion in one of the faster corners at the back of the circuit. . He would not finish. Crafar left Edwards and Russell behind and made up a lot of ground in the closing stages of the race to ~inally catch Hodgson, stealing the last rostrum position from the British rider one lap from the end. At the finish, Slight took the win in one of the hardest-fought races of the season thus far. "Braking was· everything in this race," the New Zealander said. 'While] was fourth, ] knew] could pass the Ducatis but] hadn't decided when to make'the first move. Simon Crafar made my mind up. When he started catching me and w·as within three seconds] decided to head for the front." Fogarty rnigh t ha ve been bea ten in the closing stages of the race in front of his home crowd, but he was at least the man with the beslstory. "Actually, due to some misunderstanding] got out on the slower spare bike for this race," the former World Champion explained. "It was only when ] was out on the track that the bike felt so Hodgson gets his first·· ualifying once again offered its fair share of surprises, not the least of which was Neil Hodgson taking the first World Superbike pole of his career. It was also a fine result for· Ducati, with .the two Ferrari-run bikes having shown good promise after two somewhat disappointing turnouts at Phillip lsland and Misano, not tp mention .Carl Fogarty havil.1g shown the way around the circuit on 5.1turday morning durillg the second free practice session and during most of the second (and final) qualifying session. "Donington has always been one of my all-time favorite circuits," said Hodgson, who charged to the front with only 20 minutes to go. '1 enjoyed raciJlg here on a 125, later on bigger Grand Prix bikes and now is my chance to show here what I am capable of aboard a Ducati. It is also a nice revenge on fate, aiter [ let everybody down last year when I crashed and broke my wrist during practice he.re, sidelining myself for the rest of the weekend." Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight recorded the second-fastest tin.1e, after a long battle with his former teammate Fogarty and after both men had joiJltly held pole position with identical lap times before Hodgson got ill front of them in the closing stages. "I'm pretty happy about this resu\t," the Kiwi said. '1 feel confident after our testing here last week. I was pleased to equal my best time of iliat session today, and we had also been running in the rain, so I know what to expect when the forecast comes out tomorrow and the rain pours down again." rn the final minutes Fogarty was pushed down to third, with Pier-Francesco Chili filling tile first row:The.four fastest riders were only .126 of a second apart, with another six riders behind them finishing in the same St\Cond as pole-sitter Hodgson. Despite ilie excellent performances, nobody got close to ilie 1:33.000 set by Troy Corser last year, which was a historical pole poSition as it was better than the 500cc lap record set by Kevin Schwantz. Corser's performance is now still Unbeaten at th.e British circuit. No man on two wheels has gone faster ilian ilie Australian World Champion up to now. Sin.1on Craiar ahd Akita Yanagawa had not in.1pressed as much as during the qualifying ses- . sions as they had at oilier circuits this year, and even got into some trouble at the end of the second qualifying practice, with Crafar's Kawasaki grinding to a halt at ilie back of the circuit with. only 15 minutes to go, while his teammate Akita Yanagawa cra~hed heavily at almost the same time. The Japanese rider lay on ilie tarmac unconscious for a couple of minutes and was then taken to the hospital (see Briefly...). Still, Craiae's performance netted him fifth on the grid. Yanagawa ended up in eighth position on the provisional slartillg list, preceded by the Yamaha-mounted puo of Scott Russeil and Colin Edwards II. Russeil had stormed to provisional pole on Friday evening in the last minute of ilie ftrst qualifying session, but was unable to keep that position the day after. "My Yamaha doesn't like change - it seems to know where it's happy," Russell said. "1 go off one way and it may not be right so I've got a lot to learn about how it works." Edwards in.1proved his Friday time by more than a second. "Oh well, same place as last year," Edwards said. "But that was the most mucked up qualifying session I have ever been in. The last lire we put on was completely un.scheduled and we only put it on because I was feeling good and feltl could go quicker. On my fastest lap I had it sideways going into the hairpin and then sideways again going into the next one, but then when I came out again I did not manage a better time because of Yanagawa's fall." JOM Kocinski qualified ninth but was not a bit worried. . "It may not look good on paper, but 9n the track I am only seven-tenths of a second behiJld Hodgson," Kocinski said. "I was on a fast lap when Yanagawa crashed, and once those yellow flags go out my concentration goes:' The Suzukis were once again struggling, despite their private tests one week before tile race. James Whitham took 12ili starling position and Mike Hale got no higher than 19th. "The bike is definitely better but I could never seem to get a clear lap," Hale said. "Yanagawa crashed while I was trying for one hot lap, then it began to rain when I tried again." Only 29 riders qualified. Q slow. Aaron storming past me with five· more laps to go didn't really help either. But] finally seem to have adapted to the Ducati. Telemetry had shown that I ride the b.ike still a bit too much like 11 Honda, revving a lot and braking hard for the comers and then slowly easing the bike through the corner. With a Ducati, however, cornering speed and profiting from 'the available torque is essential. Funny how you can forget such a good habit." Crafar fini hed third after what had . a-ppeared to be a: very strong late-race charge but it was simply a reflection of his consistency, despite nOl having come completely to terms with his machine. "Actually, I haven't felt comfortable on the bike during the whole weekend," Crafar said. "Actually, we· had. only two Dunlop tires to choose from for the r",ce: a soft·one and a hard one. Everybody chose the hard one, well aware that things were not going to be very easy in the first race half. Things went exactly as expected, and 1 was able to catch up with the top guys who started to struggle more and more with their tires, whereas my lap times stayed pretty stable." Yamaha teammates Edwards and Russell, fifth and sixth, respec~vely, both struggled with the same tire problems, though Edwards thought he may have had a better result if it hadn't been for the backmarkers that allowed Crafar to pass him and get away. "1 was coming into the chicane with a couple of backmarkers in front of me around lap 14," Edwards said. "] couldn't barge my way through so] had to tuck in behind them and as 1 was slowmg going in, Crafar got me coming out. Then] was on my own again, but we'll get them next race, no problem." Teammate Russell was disappointed with his sixth-place finish. "] had to run around on my own, and that is frustrating because us top eight were all doing the same times," Russell said. "1 tried to stay smooth. When] win, it'll be fun but not URtil then. We're getting there but sixth place ain't no way near good enough." . Kocinski finally had to. settle for a disappointing 10th place after having struggled for rear-wheel traction from the fourtti lap onward. "] do have a problem with getting some feel from the rear tire," Kocinski said. ".I just hope we can make some improvements for race two today." Mike Hale took the final point, finishing 15th. RACE TWO KociJlski's choice to use the same tires that his teammate had used to win the first race appeared to payoff right from the start as the Castrol Honda rider grabbed holeshot and led the pack, albeit for only a short time. In the esses, Chili got past him and started to pull away . slightly, with Fogarty soon past as well and in hot pursuit of tlle flying Italian. On the fourth lap Fogarty dived inside Chili to steal the lead and though the former World Champion looked as though he was in charge, he couldn't shake Chili, who even managed to get back m fronton lap 10. Slight was following at a "safe" distance behind in third. Kocinski was running fourth, with Crafar once again starting to get into the groove and slowly getting closer to the Castrol Honda rider after having shaken off both Edwards and Russell, the Texan once again clearly m front of his teamrna te Russell. Hodgson had started dropping back and was soon coming under fire from. Niall Mackenzie on the Yamaha. For the next five laps nothing much changed at the front as Fogarty and Chili continued to fight it out for the lead. Crafar, however, caught Kocinski and began exerting a grea t deal of pressure on the Honda rider. Foggy finally stole the lead back on lap 16, with Chili fading somewhat and soon coming under fire from Slight, who seemed bent on pulling the same trick he had a couple of hours earlier. At the same time, Crafar pushed Kocinski back a place. With Fogarty now having created some breathing space between him and his two rivals, the Briton continued on to ultimately take the 40th World Superbike victory of his career. "T thought this victory was never going to come," Fogarty said. "] had a very good start and moved from fourth to first in two laps' time. After 1 got m front] pushed really hard, bl.\t I coulein't get away. When Aaron closed down on US in the last couple of laps, ] put my head down and finally managed to get a srria.l.l lead which was enough to secure victory." The battle for second was decided on the very last lap, when Chili got back

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