Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Oppos ite page) John Kocinsk i holds the Inside line o ver his championship rival, carl Fogarty. In the first leg of the Span ish round of the World Superblke Champio nship In Albaeete. (Right) Kocinski (3) leads Jam ie Whitha m (12). Fogarty (4), Nell Hodgson (9) and the rest of the pack in the second leg. (Lell) Akira Yanagawa (8) leads Whitham (12) and Aaron Slight (2). It was a battle won by Slight, who finish ed 2-3 on the day. Kocinski - two in a row T neck - a nd Kocinski and Slight were now in tow. In the pursuing grou p, thin gs started to go wrong when Russell - anxious to move forwa rd after a poor st art ran int o mo re trouble when he was hit by Wh itham. Both riders went down an d had to watch the rest of the action from behi nd the barrier. " I wa s to ta lly besid e h im , but he turned in sharp on me and that was it," Russell sai d . "We've go t a good cha nce to run with the lead ers in the next race, as long as I can get off the line well. The bike seems to be working be tter than it did yes terday." Meanwhile, Kocinski and Slight were with the two leaders, with Kocinski storming to the front at the midway point in the race. A few laps later, the American had even managed to open a gap while Fogarty seemed to be settling for a safe second . But Slig ht had other plans. With 10 laps to go, the New Zealander started his charge on his former teammate in the st ruggle for second p la ce. Th en it was over as Fogarty threw seco nd place - and maybe his title chance - away. "I was on the limit already," Fe garty ad mitted afterw ards, "bu t then I hit a bu mp a nd th at was it. Down I w en t." From tha t moment on, all the excitemen t melted aw ay un der the blistering sun . Kocinski won wit h a qu ite comfortable margi n ov er Slight and an equally solitary Crafar. In the last 10 laps, Yanagawa had moved in front'of Chili after a lon g ba ttle. Behi nd them, a n eq ually thrilling stru gg le was being foug ht out be tween Hale, Bon tem p i a nd Lavilla . Ha le led for most of th e race, but the Tex a n was p as sed by both the Ital ian and the Spa niard in the final laps. > " My s trategy w a s to ge t a good s ta r t." Ko cinski said a fter t he fi n is h. "U n for tu n a te ly, that did n' t ha p p e n. Still, I wasn't too w orried a bout som e guy s trying to get away up front. I go t them back, as I've don e so many times this year." . Hi s tea mmate Slight w as also fairly . pleased wi th his ru nner-up finish. "I had a pretty good start, but then the tw o Suzu kis ca rne from nowhere," Slig ht sai d . "La ter on, Ca rl (Fogar ty) managed to ge t a b reak. Wh en John (Kocinski) a nd I finally go t past (Mike) Hale and (ja mie) Whitha m a nd go t to chase Ca rl and Simo n (Cra far), I made a mis take on the bac k straight , and Joh n got past. I thought the best thing wa s to tuck in be hi nd him. It took me so me tim e to ge t past Simo n but, when tha t was done, I started to put the pr essure on Carl - and mavbe that's whv he made a mistake." ~ Hale ended up eighth after losing the battle to Lavi lle a nd Bontemp!. Th e Texa n stayed in fro nt of the Latin d uo for most of the ra ce, bu t lost grou nd w it h 10 laps to go after a n encou n te r wi th a backmarker . But even befor e tha t time , things hadn' t go ne smooth ly for th e Suz u ki rid e r, than ks mai n ly to a sliding rear tire. Later he su ffered from brake pr oblem s. "Ever y ti m e an yo ne passed me, i t was on the br akes," said Hale. "I lost ground , too, wh en a slower rider moved ove r on me and I had to cho p the throttle, allowing Bon tem p i a nd La v ill a through." RACE TW O Afte r Kocinski gra bbed the holeshot in the second race, Crafa r proved that the h~ 26 candidates for a spot on the starting gr id for the 10th round of the World Superbike Championship too k some time to ge t into th e groove and eve n close to the lap times set mo rt" tha n ,1. year before. Resu lts after the firs t timed practice showed good promi se, wi th nine rid ers qualifyi ng wit hin the same seco nd. On that opening da y, Honda rid er!> John Kocins ki an d Aa ron Slight were first and third, with Piergiorgio Bonte rnpi a surpr ising second. Th ings changed the next da y, with Kocinski a nd Sligh t still fighting it out on top of the leaderboa rd , with Kocinski fina lly grabbing his secon d consecutive pole pos ition of the year . ~ Unable to better his Friday time , Italian vetera n Bcntempi d ropped to seve nth. This time , eight riders qualified within the sam e seco nd . with the tra ditional last half of the gri d notably ~ slower tha n the top 15. Kocinski had It'd mos t of the w ay o n Saturday afternoon, and was pu shed back to second position for a few minu tes only in the dosing stages. The American took the lead beck with six minutes to go . "'I pu t in my fastest la p with a few minutes in the session rema ining. so it was an anx ious time in the ga rage wa tching the tim ing monitor and ho ping I wa sn't going to be bea ten ," Kocinski said. "To take two pole pos itio ns in a row sums up the season. reall y. I'm more comforta ble than e ver on the bike. I just hope we can transform this pole pos itio n into bett er starts afte r the- trouble I ha d in Asse n . Tomorrow i, going to be tou gh - 26la~ is a long way, especiallv in this heat ." Ducati 's Ca rl Fogarty jumped from fifth to seco nd when the man with the ch eckered nag was alread y busy on the front straight. "1 had the same problems I have been struggling wit h a ll year." tilt' Brit said. "It's di fficu lt to hold the line, and choos ing the right gea ring is also a bit of a problem." Kawasaki's Simon Crafa r qu alified third . " I just wa nted to be on the front row ," the Kiwi said. "Th is is a tra ck w here it is difficu lt to pa ss. I know that I can do cons iste- lap times, as the Dunlop race tires are qu ite good hen ' nt co ntrary to Asscn. for instance. I only hope that the other guys can' t go too deep into the 1.32s tomorro w. I like this circu it qui te well: You are busy all the time braking, accelerating, comering, etc." Slight took the I, t fron t-row spo t after putting in his fastest time with a final burst in the H dosing min utes. "I went back out at the en d an d bettered my time , but qualifying has beco me so drama tic now; it can be a lottery d :!'> to wh ere you end up on the gri d." said Slight . "I always knew 1 w ould have to dig deep to ge t a fast time, bu t I'm pleased to be on the front row. Albace te has always be good to me in the past, 50 I will be chasing wins tomorrow." en Just like Kocinski. Fogarty an d Pier-Fran cesco Chili , Slight had been using the new If-inch Miche lin fronts, bu t most of the rid ers returned to the more familiar 16.5- and 17-inch tires on race da y - for a mul titud e o f reasons . "The new tires are too hard " (Kocinski); "ThE'Y don' t work as we ll here as during testin g at Ca rtagena" (Foga rty) ; an d "It changes the geo me try of the bike so mu ch tha t you Jose any advantage of the sm aller dia meter" (Chili). Kawasaki's Akira Yanega wa led the second row from Ne il Hodgson, Piergio rgio Bontempl and Pier-Fran cesco Chili {de pite a cra sh with half an hou r to go). Scott Russell had to settl e for s 10th, not hav ing been able to bett er his Friday' s time a nd being too bu sy tryi ng many different set up-n od -tire combina tions throughout the see-ion . "I cou ld n't get it dialed in like I want it," Rus sell exp lained. "1 know we can go a whole lot faster, but we jus t canno t find the grip to do it at the moment. We've mad e q uite a few changes a nd I'm confident (tha t) in amongst all that data. we ca n find the answer for tomorrow. It's a case of sitting down a nd wor king through it a ll, a nd I know we can ge t ther e for the race. I' m going to make a kil ler of a sta rt to try to ru n with the lead ing pa ck." Mike Hale was l l th-qu ickest, just in front of his teammate james Whitham . The Texan had been battling with pain afte r crashing in the first sess ion on Friday af ternoon. "I had a n injection of an ti-inflamatories and tha t eased the problem overnight," Hale said . "Then I had a ses sion of treatment just before l we nt ou t this afternoon. I'm very so re and my neck muscles kn otted up before the end of the hour, so thi ngs weren't easy for me." , ...... ... Q) .n o ~ u o 7

• Cover