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/127936
ROAD RACE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROAD RACE SERIES By Johan Vandeckerhove Photos by Gold & Goose PHILUP ISLAND, AUSTRALIA, MAR. 22 f one thing became certain in the opening round of the World Superbike Championship, it was that last year's two leading manufacturers in the series might have more company at the top in 1998. Surprisingly, that challenge to Honda and Ducati looks like it'll J1 Round 1: Phillip Island corne from the dated Yamaha YZF750 in what will likely be its final season of racing. Perhaps even more shocking is the fact that Yamaha's revival seems more likely to come from young Japanese recruit Noriyuki Haga than from former World Champion Scott Russell. Last year, Haga's excellent results were attributed to the fact that he didn't have anything to lose. This season, he has everything to prove and everything to (Above) The first World Superbike race of the 1998 season gets under way at Phillip Island with Carl Fogarty (2), PierFrancesco Chili (7), Colin Edwards II (45), Aaron Slight (111), Scott Russelt (44), Akira Yanagawa (4) and Troy Corser (11) leaving the line in a hUrry. (left) Carl Fogarty surprised even himself by winning one race and finishing third in the other In the season opener. lose - but it didn't show in his results, at least not in the season opener at Phillip Island. Despite having never raced on the fast and bumpy course near Melbourne, the Yamaha ace finished third and first in the two races and left Australia with the lead in the championship point standings - a position he shares with a man who ha been there before, Ducati's Carl Fogarty. The Brit, who won the first race but had to settle for third in the second, also had to be pleased with his Australian effort, as he mirrored Haga's results. Beyond those two, the other top World Superbike stars likely left Australia somewhat disappointed. In his return to World Superbike racing after a trying half-season of Grand Prix racing, Troy Corser finished second in the first leg behind Fogarty and sixth in the second leg after a bad tire choice. But he still managed to leave his home country third in the point standings, 11 points behind Fogarty and Haga. And Corser will go down in history as the winner of the first-ever Superpole, the new qualifying method used by the World Superbike Championship (see qualifying sid~ bar). Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight deserved much better than his ninthand second-place finishes after posting impressive lap times throughout winter testing and qualifying. In the first race, the New Zealander was in the hunt for a rostrum finish when a lapped rider took him out in the closing stages. Fortunately, Slight was able to remount and still pick up points from a ninthplace finish. In the second race, Slight was the only one capable of running with Haga, and those two battled to the very end, with Haga coming out on top - barely. The man who leaves Australia fourth in the championship point standings is Kawasaki's Akira Yanagawa. The Japanese rider finished a quiet and consistent fifth in both races. And what of the Americans? Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards II fared the best of the remaining two Americans in the series. In his debut ride on the Honda RC45, Edwards wa's steady - riding to seventh-place finishes in both legs and improving his lap times as the day wore on. Russell, meanwhile, ended the day with 10th- and eighth-place finishes at a race track he admits to not liking very much. RACE ONE Completely different weather conditions awaited the competitors on Sunday morning, with a strong wind threatening to blow the riders off their bikes in some places. In front of a crowd of some 25,000 spectators, Fogarty got the holeshot from Chili, Haga and the rest of the field, but after a few corners it was Chili in front. The Italian stayed there for two laps before handing the lead back to Fogarty - w 0 was there for good this time. Chili stayed in his slipstream while a group formed behind them, led by Suzuki's Peter Goddard, Haga, and then Corser. After one-third of the race distance, things started to heat up. Fogarty had built a small but fairly comfortable lead; Goddard and Haga were catching Chili; and Corser was slowly but surely moving closer to the lead group. Sligh t was also on the move after a poor start, while Russell didn't appear to be going anywhere. The Georgian was running 10th, in a battle with Neil Hodgson on the factory Kawasaki. At around midrace, Chili started going backward. First Haga moved around him, then Goddard and finally Slight. Then Goddard crashed.