Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Ducati's Carl Foga rty wheelies his way to victory in the s econd race . an d took Neil Hod gson d own w ith him . Both esc a ped relatively unscathed , b ut the race was over for them . Crafar w as under so me pressure at the fro n t of the field, and lap 10 was the las t one he wo u ld le ad - halfwa y th ro ugh th e following lap, he retired fro m the race after a chu nk of the fro nt tire let go , tak ing the front fend er w ith it. Kocinski (3) H ond a boy s showed the way , wi th Fogarty hold ing o n to third . Behind them, Yana g a wa a nd H a ga co n ti n ued th eir solitary race, with Russell fighti ng back afte r a poor sta rt and aft er having shaken off Suzu ki rid e rs Mike Hale and James Whitham a s well as D u ca timounted John Reynold s. As the race wound d own, Slight took over command from his teammate with While Kocinski 's linis h sec ured th e man ufacturer' s champio nshi p - breaking Du ca ti' s six-yea r stra nglehold - it also robbed Slight of p recious points in his race wi th Foga rty for the runner-up spot in th e cham pionshi p. He was obvi o u sl y unhapp y abo u t this: The N ew Zealander left his bike in the pit box, cha nged clothes and wen t di rectly to have lunch - without going to the rostrum o r the post-race press co nference. A spokesman for the team stated that there had been no team o rders and that at no time in the race we re pit bo ards sho wn to Kocinski telling him to let his teammate by. Slig h t's o n ly co m me n t w as, "I thoug ht I h ad the ra ce co ve r ed an d d idn't ex pect to see Jo hn aga in un til a fter the checkered flag." Foga rty came hom e thi rd , keeping a teammate John From that m oment onw ard , the two fiv e laps to go, an d e veryo n e pretty mu ch ex pected the race to fini sh that wa y. Kocinski had other plans, however, and d ived in hard at the chica ne to take the lead - and the win. With this nin th victory of the season, the Arkansas na tive had come one step close r to his goal of 10 race wi ns for the seaso n, if so mewhat at the expense of his team mate's hopes for second in the championship. 'This is un be lievab le for me after the he alth problems I've had all weekend. " Kocins ki sa id. "I knew from early in the race that it was going to be tight for the win, I tried to make a break a cou ple of times during the race, including three laps fr om the e nd , b u t it just w asn't go ing to wo rk. I k now I wa s q ui cker th rou gh the final chicane so I mad e my m ove ther e a nd ju s t hoped it w as enough." an d Carl Fogarty (4) In (Right) Aaron Slight (2) tries to hold off his the first of the tw o heats. Kocinski takes his third H ond as have always performed quite well on th e flat, st op-a nd -go Sentul circu it. It was therefor e no surp rise when John Kocinski tumed up at the lop of the lead erboard after the second and final qualifying session o n Saturday after noon. Still, th e Amer ican had had his wo rk cut ou t for him after d octor s had dia gn osed hi m with food poison ing on Friday night. "I' m quite su rp rised to be in thi s position," he sai d afte r takin g his third pole po sition of the yea r. "l owe this all to the doctors o f the Cli nica Mobile, w ho have helped me since 4 o'clock this morning, after I had spent all nigh t vomiting and ha ving a fever. " On Saturday morning, the team had even issued a press release stating that Kocinski would miss the morning's free practice. The Honda rider finally showed up for that session, and even set fastest time, then returned a few hours later to do the same in the fmal session with a 1:26.839. "Ridi ng the bike th is morning didn' t make thi ngs any easier," the new World Su perbike Champion said. 'The fever wen t up aga in. This is po ssibly the worst event no t to be in to p cond ition . Even w hen yo u feel o ka y, the weather co nd itio ns are very hard o n you . But I had to p ut my illn ess ou t o f my mind an d go fo r pole position. I've really enjoyed rid in g arou nd the Sentul circu it probably w ith the p re ssure o f the Wo rld tiUe o ff my shou lders - and wa s hoping I could en d a good two d ays of qualifyin g w ith pole position , and it all wo rked ou t. I'll see how I feel with this illness tomorrow ." Illn ess w asn' t the o nly potential problem s ta ndi ng betw een Kocinski and po le position. There were all the o ther pole sitters, eac h taking his tum in the fina l quali- fying session tha t had offered some serious reshuffling of the cards in the last quarter of an hour. Kawasaki' s Sim on Crafar, w ho had led the lead er board for most of the tim e, too k ba ck his pole position with 15 mi n u tes to go , knocking Ca stro l Honda's Aaron Slight off the top o f the hea p . Th ree minu tes lat er, Ducati Corse's Ca rl Fogarty moved up to seco nd positi on, and ano ther five minutes later Pier-Francesco Chili wa s on top. The Italian wo ul d no t stay there, however, for after him, Slight once aga in took over, fina lly to be p ush ed d own to seco nd by Kocin ski and the n to third by Foga rty in the closing minu tes . Fogarty was pleased wi th his time of 1:26.919, good enoug h for seco nd on th e grid. "1 a m qui te happy about thi s result," Fogarty said . "T he bike is handling quite well and I must be on e of the q uickest g uy s in the chi ca ne. But o n the straights, I' m s till so me 5 kp h down on Chili' s bi ke. As for the race tomorrow, I have no special strategy. Finishing second or third doesn't make anv d ifference to me ~ it's the title tha t co unts." J Ch ili came nex t with the th ird -fastest time of 1:26.942, and to his righ t wa s Sligh t, whose efforts had und ergone a steady improvement over the w eek end, endi ng w ith a time o f 1:27.04 I. "In the beginning of the weekend, I (was) struggling with the fron t end chatte ring a lot. Th is aftern oo n, th ings wen t better aga in, and I even got on provisional pol e for a little while. I tried and tried to be tt er mv time after ho lding pul e po sition earlier in th e sessio'; , b ut it jus t wasn' t to be . I p u t a fresh tire on th e rear wi th two mor e fas t laps to go, but other rid ers go t in the way. But I'm on the fro n t row and I have to be ha ppy with th at if I'm to ge t seco nd place in the champio nship behind john." Simo n Crafar d ro pped bac k to fifth in the frenzy o f the final mo ments of th e session alter havin g held provisional po le position for a good porti on of the time, ultimately ca rd ing a time of 1:27.108. "We've been working hard to find a good race setup," the KiM exp lained, "It is very important he re to have a bik e that allows you to brake hard and at th e same time absorbs the bumps well eno ugh. We had it all figured out q uite we ll a t the end of the seco nd free p ractice. The engi ne and the tires are pe rform ing very we ll - unlike last year. 1 wa s pa rticu larly pleased by the fact that the lap times I di d on racing tires were only 0.25 seconds off m y best lap times on qu alifiers, wh ereas the dif ferenc e is bigger on mo st circuits." Yama ha' s Nori yuki H aga qua lified sixth, with the second Kawasaki rider, Akira Yanagawa , next to him . Forme r World Superbike Cha mpion Scott Russell qualified eigh th . "I wen t with a hard er fro nt tire tod ay , but I d idn't like it a nd will be going back to the softe r one tomo rrow," the American exp lained. "I've got a good rear tire so rted already an d we are right o n the race pace, so it wil l be all righ t for the races." Ducati' s Neil Hodgso n led the thi rd ro w, with Suzuki-mou n ted Jam es Wh itham a nd John Reyn olds along side. Mike H a le q ua lif ied 12th. "T he tr ack cond i tions cha nged after Frid ay, so today the bike didn't wan t to turn as well as yesterday. The instability on the brak es remained a big problem - as it has bee n all year, real ly," he sa id. 'This afternoo n I lost some tim es try ing to get a good setu p on bo th bikes , and we wi ll proba bly cha nge some mo re things for tom orrow moming's wa rmup. We have.to get the bike s teering better m id corner and we ha ve to find a so lu tion for th at lackin g stability on the brak es." Twenty rid er s q u a li fied. wit h tw o Indonesia n Kawas aki r id ers lapping at eig h t fu ll seco nds slower than pole-man Kocinski. Two oth er local rid ers d id n't make it for being more-than 20 seconds slow er than the top nine riders. who all qua lified w ithin the sa me second . r-, 0\ 0\ ..... N' N ....

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