Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

i st race after a clutch problem caused to botch the start. Later in the race, len he was running in fiith, he develed a misfire whid, he thought would ~ terminal, but it cleared up and he auld only lose a spot. "Really, I was too far back at the start a go for the win," lie said. One race after his first WSB wins at onza, Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards ad a day to forget. In the first leg - his 'rst wet race on the Honda RC45 with ichelin tires - he rode conservatively d finished fifth. "Maybe I was just too worried about eeping on two wheels," he said. [n the second rac;e he was caught up n a four-rider, first-turn pileup. Neither dwards nor Gregorio Lavilla could ontinue, but Suzuki's Jamie Whitham nd Kawasaki's Neil.Hodgson rejoined e race, finishing 10th and 14th, respec- ·vely. "(Akira) Yanagawa pinched up in here and took (Gregorio) Lavilla out," dwards said. "Lavilla'took (Neil) . odgson, and Uamie) Whitham stood it p." Edwards said he stood his machine Ip, then "pitched it back in and sawed he back end off Whitham." The front 're of Edwards' Honda hit Wl,itham's wingarm, with both going down, dwards more seriously. He suffered nly a minor cut to his right arm. The first race was much slower than he econd, Chili completing the 20-lap, 4-mile race in 34 minutes, 32.554 secmds at an average speed of 76.397 mph. . is margin of victory was 1.316 secnds. Fogarty won the second leg in 31 inute , 9.535 seconds at an average peed of 84.694 mph. He beat Slight, the nly non-Ducati in the top three of ,ther race, by 6.032 seconds. RACE ONE With large pO(lls of water standing on .ost strategic parts of the circuit, orga'zers decided to delay Sunday mornng's warmup by an hour and shorten he race length to 20 laps. In these condi~ 'ons, one man showed a big smile. After 's double victory at Monza two weeks efore, Edwards had looked to be on a all, lapping almost three full seconds aster than his rivals during Sui, day orning's warmup in the wet, with orser, Russell, Chili and Slight fiJling P the next spots, and with Fogarty traitionally struggling in the rain (10th astest during warmup). As the riders lined up for the start, it as only raining slightly, with the darkst clouds floating away. Pole man Haga at the holeshot, followed by Hodgson, lessandro Gramigni, Edwards, Lav.illa, light and the rest of the pack. The Japanese rider would not stay on op for long; aiter a small mistake, he opped back to seventh, with Hodgson aking over command. Three laps later, dwards got in front, and everybody xpected him to get away. But the Texan ost the lead in the same lap he took it. First Hodgson got past, then La villa. few nuns later, LaviUa dived inside of odgson to take over the lead in front f some 10,000 of his countrymen. The paniard even managed to get a bit of a ushion between him and the rest of the even-man-strong leading group, with dwards in second place, looking as hough he was holding everybody up. Chili, meanwhile, was the man with l;!e best race pace. One lap prior to halfistance, "Frankie" got past the num-' er-45 Honda at the end of the front !raight. In no time, the Italian started to arrow the gap between him and Lavila. After 12 laps, the factory Ducati rider (Above) Scott Russell leads Colin Edwards II. Russell struggled for sixth in race one, a spot behind where Edwards would finish. (Right) Pier-Francesco Chili won race one after taking over on the 1.2th lap. got'in the slipstream of the private Ducati, showed his front tire a few times and then outbraked him at the end of the start/ finish straight. And that was it. Chili built up a small lead, with Lavilla happy to be in second. But Lavilla's happiness would not last; a few laps later, Corser caught up with the Spaniard, and then got in front of him going into the last lap. Lavilla, who remembered an incident with Fogarty last year that. ended badly, thought it wise not to push his luck too far with this factory Ducati rider, and he did not even attempt to fight back. Third place was, in any case, much better than he had expected. At that time, Slight and Edwards had been fighting over fourth place for the second part of the race, with Russell comiIig back fast aiter a slowe.r first half. The American was clearly on a charge, but he was stopped when he almost lost his Yamaha a few laps before the end. lt seemed a miracle that the Georgian stayed upright, and he finally decided to stay behind the two Hondas until the end. As for the winner, Chili's result had definitely exceeded his expectations. "1 didn't believe I would win here," Ouli said after the race, "especially after having seen Colin's fast lap during this morning's warmup. During practice, we spent a Jot of tin1e trying several differ. ent things, and after the first warmingup lap (out of three) I got back into the pit because of a misfire. I got out again on the spare bike just in time to start the last warming-up lap before the race. My start was not so bad considering my position on the starting grid. Everydung went well from then. I was happy that Gregorio moved away a little bit when I took over command, because I had seen that he started struggling with his tires. 1 did not want to get into trouble in these conditions." Corser, meanwhile, took the championship lead with Ius second-place finish. "It was difficult starting from the third row," the Australian said. "During the first laps, I got held up quite a bit, but I noticed that 1 was a bit quicker on the straights. But in these conditions, it is very hard to pass someone; due to the water spray, you don't see a lot when you are really close to another rider. As soon as I got Colin Edwards in front of me, I started to follow his lines - as { had done during this morning's warmup - to avoid the big pools of wa ter on the track. After I had got past him, 1 started to catch up half a second a'lap on Lavillao { had planlled to overtake him in. turn one, the only place where I was faster than him. And that plan worked out all right." For LaviUa, third was more than he could have hoped for, and might even have been better had his tire not started to lose traction as the race wore on. "This was a difficult race for me because I have never raced here in the wet," Lavilla said. "Pe.ople had warned me about it; that is why I was very careful during warmup. But as the race wore on, I got more confidence and before I knew what was going on, 1 was leading d,e pa ck. .A t tha t paint, it wa.s difficul t to keep concentrated. Tj1ere was, however, nothing I could do when Pier-Francesco came back. When the tire started sliding after that, 1 only hoped to stay in the top three." Slight fitushed fourth after the late. race battle with his teammate. ''I'm pleased with my result," the . New Zealander said. "{ struggled in the wet conditions last year, so to get fourth is okay. The wet weather is always good for the Ducatis due to d,e way d,ey put the power down out of the comers - we were having to deal with wheelspin. I am pleased to be the first four-cylinder machine home. 1 ran the softest wetweather Michelin available and it felt good. I 10sJ the front end a couple .of tin1es but held on for some points on a weekend that I feel like I am just battling through." Despite his excellent performance during the morning's warmup, Edwards was not too,disappointed with fiith. "'1 th.ought it was a good race for me," Edwards said. "That was my first tin1e in the wet on the Castrol Honda and on Michelins, so I have to be reasonably happy. Maybe T was just too worried about keeping on two wheels." The other American, Russell, came home sixth. "When I woke up this morning I was happy to see it was raining," the Georgian said. "But I got too much clutch at the start and rode (it) for too long. I think the first gear might be too tall as well. I could been been gone but I got caught up behind too many riders' and it took me an age to get with them. Then the engine misfired once - probably due to the water. 1 had just got past Colin, and 1 thought that my race was over. Then after the two Hondas got past me again it started to clear, but 1 could only get sixth back; then it was too late." Fogarty finished ninth, blaming a bad setup for his poor result. "We opted for a steep steering angle, to get the bike steering well into the

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