Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127849
O ther than the to p two m en in the cha mp ionship, Yamaha', Russell gained the most out of the sixth round of the championship. The Georgian finis hed sixth and fourth in the two races, respectively, while the majority of the o ther World Superbike regulars floundered somewhat. The result bumps hi m to fifth in the series with 119 points, just seven behind Crafar's 126. If the World Su perb ike C ha mpionship wasn 't a two-man race going into Laguna Seca, it definitely is as the series head' to the next round at Brands Hatch. Kocinski's Castro! Ho nda teammate Aaron Slight had a disastrous weekend at Laguna, qualifying 13th and then finishing seventh and 10th in the two races. He now has 170 points - 47 points behind Fogarty. Texan Mike Ha le also ha d a horrible homecomi ng . The factory Suzuki Wo rld Superbike rider was slowed by a lack of brakes in the first race - he ended up 14th - and then the complete opposite knocked him out of race two: The front brak es w ere locking, ca usi ng h im to almost crash on several occasions before h e ca lled i t a day afte r th ree laps . Believe it or not, Hale has o nly 27 championship point> in his debut season with the GSXR750 - that's five less than what DuHam el was able to score in just o ne day. Fortunately for the race organizers, the re we re enough quality Amer ica n riders to help fill the grid for the two races. With o nly 14 Wo rl d Su perbike regulars taking part, it was up to th e AMA superbi ke m en to fill the g rid. And they did more tha n just that. In all it was a good day for the AMA, ":ith DuHa mel's .efforts obviously to ppmg the list. Muzzy Kawasaki' s Do ug Chandler originally appea red to be the AMA race r most likely to visit the rostrum as he qualified on the front row . He suffered from an ill-running motorcycle to finish fifth in the first race and was running behind Kocinski and Fogarty when the bike gave up the chase completely in the second race. Yama ha's Tom Kipp ended the day with quality finishes of 12th and eighth; Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates finished 11t h in the second leg , but was knocked out of the first race with a broken clip-on; his tea mmate Pascal Picotte finis hed 13th in race one but was forced o ut of the second wit h brake tro ub les; Smo kin' Joe's Steve Crevier finished 11th in the first race, but cras hed i.il the second ; Fast By Ferrucci's Mat Mladin pulled out of the first race after a poor tire choice left him grip less and a faulty fuel pump knocked him out of the second when he was battling Neil Hodgson for seventh; Dave Sadowski suffered a blown engine in the first race and didn't start the second; and privateer Mike Krynock rode steadily to finish 16th in the first race and 14th in the second. RACE ONE With his poor qualifying position (11 th), it would have been easy to dismiss Carl Fogarty's chances of ru nning at the fro nt come race time. Certainly, he'd be in the top 10 - but he didn't stand much of a chance of running with the top group. Wrong . When the ligh ts cha nged to g reen (actually, accord ing to most of the riders, the lights never did cha nge), Kocinski shot to the front, trailed closely by Ducati's Ne il Hod gson, and (surprise) DuHamel, Cha nd ler and pole sit ter PierFran ces co Ch ili. DuH amel was in a hurry, chargi ng past Hodgson and into s ec o nd place as the pack roared int o tum three. They ended th e opening lap with Kocinski in fro nt of DuHamel, Hodgson, Chandler, Chili and Fogarty - then a gap to a gagg le led by Picotte's Suzuki and ca boo sed by Russell, who was naturally upset about the starting procedure. "The g ree n ligh t neve r went on," Russell said la ter . " I d on't know what everyone el se saw. That's why I sat th ere , T he light never changed, but when everybo dy got goi ng, I thou gh t I'd better go ." Yanagawa was caught eve n mo re offgua rd than Russell, the Japanese rider circula ting o u tside the top - despite sta rti ng the race from the front row. He wou ld never rea lly recover, eventually finishing 10th in his first-ever race at Laguna Seca. Chili didn't waste much time in disposi ng of Chandler, the latter frustrated with a motorcycle that wasn't nearly as good as the one he'd ridden in practice o nly ho urs earlier. "T he jetting m u s t have been off, I guess," Chandler said. "We pu t a new motor in last night, but it didn't run as good a> it did this morning. In the warmu p, it was ru nn ing good - I ran wit h Chili no problem. Everything else (Above) Both races tumed int o John Kocinski (3), Miguel DuHamel (5) and Carl Fogarty (4) battles. And both races had the same results in the top three. (Right) DuHamel celebrates his pair of thirds with. post -race whee lie through the Corkscrew. wasn't so bad." Pole sitter Ch ili picked off Chandler and Hod g so n on suc~essive lap s to Nell Hodgson (9) didn't have a good weekend. The Brit crashed out of the fi rst race while leading DuHamel (5) and Simon Crafar (6), 7