Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left)World Superbike rac ing gets under way at the revamped A1 Ring In Austria w ith Joh n Kocinski (3) leading Akira Yanagawa (8), Carl Fogarty (4), Scott Russell (behind Kocklnski), Pier-France sco Chili (7) and the rest. (Below) Though Kocinski (3) didn't win a race, the Arkansas native left Austria with a few more po ints added to his slim championship lead. Koc inski finished fifth and third, By Johan Vandekerckhove Photos by Gold & Goose ZELTWEG, AUS!RIA, AUG. 17 he World Su per bi ke C h a m pio ns hi p rou nd a t th e A l Rin g offered two breathtaking races on the hill y Steiermark circu it, but at the end of the da y, nothin g much cha nged for the two men ba ttling it ou t for the title. Carl Fogarty looked set to take command of the series after his race-one victory. a race that saw his main rival in the series, John Kocinski, finish fifth. But in race two, as the pair batt led for the lead , Fog ar ty mad e con tac t with Kocinski w hile trying to pass under brak es an d we nt crashing to the gro und . Kocinski manag ed to remain o n hi s bike and rejoined the race to finish third, but Fogarty w as ou t of it. Co up led wi th his race -o ne fifth, Kocinski stretched h is lead in the World Cha m pio ns hip a bit further - eve n if the ga p be tween him an d Fogarty is still only six poi nts, 273267, with eig ht more races to go until th e fina l checkered flag of the season falls, The sensation of the meeting, however, was Kawasaki's Japanese ace Akira Yanaga wa . After the Kocinski /Fogarty incide nt in race two , the strong-running Yanaga wa inhe rite d the lead and the w in, thu s becoming the first Japanese rider to take a World Superbike victory outside his home cou ntry. Coupled with his race-o ne seco nd place, Yanagawa was the mo st successful rider of the weekend . Second only to Yanagawa in consistency was Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight. The New Zealander appeared bac k in form after a couple of bad rounds, visit ing the podium in both races and solidi- fying his so mew ha t dista n t third (44 points behind Fogarty) in the championship after finishin g second and third in the two races. RACE ONE Pole-qualifier Pier-Fran cesco Chi li jum ped into the lead on the firsl lap, followed in his shadow by Yanagawa. The Japa nese rider , ho w e ver, didn't take long to move into the lead and show the way to the rest of the field. After a few laps, a leadin g freight train of six riders formed, in which Yanagawa, Chili an d Foga rty d id most of the work rig ht at the front, bu t followed at a not -50-safe distance by Slight, Kocinski an d Simo n Cra far. Neil Hod gso n, who had been part of the leading grou p in the first couple of laps, soon lost gro u nd a nd was un d er heavy fire from Scott Russe ll before the race reached the halfway point. Up fro n t, the positio ns cha nged on nearly every lap, but no one was able to stretch any kind of a cush ion . As expected, it wou ld a ll boil down to the last laps . While Yanagawa had done most of the leadi ng, hi s position had come under serious pressure from Fogarty in the dosing stages. And while Yanagawa started the final lap in the lead, he was not going to have it all his way , as Fogarty passed him in the hairpin. Tha t was it, and Fogarty crossed the line wi th the victory, taki ng comma nd in th e cha m p io ns hip point sta nd ings because his rival Kocinski had to settle for fifth. "I was a bi t su rprised that Akl ra came past me on the last lap bu t one, but finally he provided me with a good draft," Fogarty said . "We had been battling all race long, and I knew that I was a little bit better on the brak es, but that I lo s t grou nd o n accelera tio n and top speed. I wanted to be in front of him in the last co rne r befor e th e chicane, because I knew that fro m tha t point onward it wo uld have been very hard for me to take the lead aga in. The plan wo rked out all right. I passed him in the hairpin, and I d idn 't look back anymore. I was happy to have bee n able to stay in

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