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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127943
(Left) The fight for third in the first race was fought out between Troy Corser (11), Neil Hodgson (5), Carl Fogarty (2) and Pier-Francesco Chili (7). (Below) Edwards (45) leads Corser (11), Fogarty (2) and Slight (111) in the second race. Edwards heid on to win both races. The Monza round of the series, however, was marred by the death of Edwards' Castrol Honda Supersport teammate, Michael Paquay. The 26-yearold Belgian was killed. on Saturday in a multibike crash and Edwards .dedicated his two victories to his fallen teammate and also to his own father, who is suffering from hepa titis after a recent kidney transplant. In addition to Edwards finally breaking the ice with his first victory, things also got a bit more interesting in Italy as far as the World Superbike Championship point standing's are concerned. After a heavy crash on Saturday morning, the star thus far of this young season, Noriyuki Haga, was happy just to finish the two races - but he left with just a handful of championship points and sa w his lead in the series d wind.le , from 21 to just five points. The man who is now right behind him is Ducati's Troy Corser, the Australian having turned in 3-4 finishes in the two races. And that fourth could very easily have been a second in race two if not for an off-track excursion on the final lap that allowed both Carl Fogarty and Pier-Francesco Chili to slip past. . Both of Edwards' wins came after thrilling race-long battles. In the first race, the Texan only just held off his teammate Aaron Slight, winning by .083 of a second. The second race looked to be much of the same, with Slight right on Ed wards' tail throughout. On the final lap, however, Slight's RC45 failed, dropping him out of the race. That left Edwards with 2.6 seconds to spare over Fogarty, who had finished sixth in the first race. Slight's nonfinish also put a dent in hi champion hip aspirations as he falls to fifth in the standings, 31 points behind Haga. Edwards, meanwhile, now sits fourth in the standings, 17 points behind Haga and nine points behind Fogarty, who is third with 96 poin ts - just three fewer than Corser. As if Haga's crash arid consequential poor results wereJi't bad enough, Yamaha's fortunes were further dashed with Scott Russell's nonfinishes in both races. The Georgian had a chatter problem that forced him out of the first race, and he jumped the start in the second leg. Rather than undergo the stop-and-go penalty, Russell opted to pull out of the race and call it a day. RACE ONE With Hockenheirn now off the World Superbike calendar, Monza is the only high-speed track on which the superbike racers will battle in 1998. Monza is all about slipstreaming, and this year that meant staying as close to the factory Honda RC45s as possible. Fogarty did even more than that at the start of the first race, diving into the first chicane in front of the pack. As expected, his lead was short-lived. Slight got by on the first lap, followed shortly thereafter by Edwards. On the fourth lap, Japan's Akira Yanagawa got off his bike at the Ascari chicane, with the factory Kawasaki bursting into flames. Fortunately, nobody else was involved in the mishap and Yanagawa also escaped without injury. A few'laps later, a leading group formed with the two Honda riders, Slight and Edwards, Fogarty, Chili, Kawasaki's Neil Hodgson and Corser. Chili, especially, seemed to be a man on a mission in front of his home-country fans. Fired up by the cheers of some 15,000 partisan fans, he started his charge after five laps. First he moved past Corser, then he nabbed Fogarty and for a short moment he got between the two Hondas. But again, this Ducati threat wouldn't last. A few laps later, the Honda pair really turned up the heat and started to escape, with Edwards doing most of the leading. Gradually, the two Castro! Hondas pulled away, with the rest of the group battling it out for the place. Things did stay exciting up front, though, with Edwards and Slight each doing their best to beat the other. But Slight couldn't keep his teammate from winning the first World Superbike race of his career - in his fourth season on the circuit. ~ The battle for third was decided at the end of the penultimate lap, when everybody started to get into each ather's way. It was Corser who benefited the most from the chaos. At the finish, it was Edwards in front of Slight and Corser. "About halfway, 1 saw on the pit board tha t I had the pace and tha t the bike and the tires were feeling good," Edwards said. "But it was only with five laps. to go that I knew I would win this race. I'm sure Aaron (Slight) agrees with me to dedicate thi Honda 1-2 finish to Michael Paquay. And I had another reason to beat everybody. My dad (Colin Sr.) isn't in good shape after a kidney transplant, and I wanted him to see me win a World Superbike race." All things considered, Slight was happy with second place. "Maybe I was a bit too tactical for my own good," the New Zealander sald. '1n the beginning of the race, I tried to pull a break, and 1 almost got off. Even though 1 knew we had a speed advantage, 1 didn't want the other guys to stay with us until the end. 1 broke the Ducatis with a 1:48 lap, then put in a couple of 1:46s to catch Colin. 1 did everything 1 planned, but then made a mess of the last lap." Corser joined the two Honda riders on the rostrum. "I knew that we stood little chance against the Hondas," Corser said. "1 tried to hang on with eiJ Hodgson's Kawasaki, anc;i later 1 got a tow from Pier-Francesco (Chili) when he was on a charge. Then, at one moment, the oil flag was out, but 1 saw it too late. Actually, that worked out fine, because 1 could make up some ground on the Hondas. A few laps before the end, I got a slight front-brake problem, which was enough for Aaron and Colin to get away. By the end of the penultimate lap, 1 was able to outbrake everybody. 1 put my head down for the last lap, and that turned out well for me." Hodgson, Chili and Carl Fogarty crossed the finish line in that order, giving Hodgson his best finish of the year in his debut season on the factory Kawasaki. After having spent most of the race in each other's company, Peter Goddard proved to be the fastest-Suzuki rider, finishing just in front of Jamie Whitham. '1t was a bit of a lonely race:' Goddard sald. "James was behind me, but I had no one to follow. I put in some good