Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

I ROAD RACE WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES Winners both: Aaron Slight took the win in race one, while Pier-Francesco Chili won race two. Slight was trying to reel Chili in during the second race but high-sided. He remounted to finish fourth. As the race wore on, Slight looked to be making up a bit of real estate on . leader Chili, but the Kiwi crashed in the final corner before start/ finish with just six laps to go, high-siding his way into the gravel trap. Slight managed to get the Honda back on the track alive - if somewhat the worse for weal; - and resumed battle in fourth; just in front of Yanagawa. At about the same time, Gregorio Lav.illa, who had recovered well from a poor start, displaced Yanagawa, moving the Japanese rider to seventh. As for Chili, the rest of his race was uneventful after the Slight crash, and the Italian took the win with an 11-secand margin over Edwards. "We had the bike set up better than in the first race," the Italian explained, "but it still isn't perfect. I also enjoyed this race better than the first one, which didn't seem to end (very quickly). Obviously, I'm very happy with this result; th.is is the first time this year that I got on the rostrum two times." Edwards was glad simply that the race was over.· "There was so much water on the Corser's Superp_ol_e__ E 10 veryone had expe.cted Aaron Slight to run away with pole position on Saturday after the 32-year-old New Zealander had dominated the test on Wednesday, as well as free practice on Friday and both qualifying sessions. But things didn't work out that way. The Kiwi crashed. his best bike heavily during final qualiiyi.ng and had to have a go at Superpole on his spare machine. "Things had gone very smoothly the whole week already," he said. "Maybe a bit too smoothly. I thought it was going to be a walk in the park. And that's when I crasbed. the bike I was most COmfortable on. I got on the spare bike, which I badn't used a lot over thl' weekend, and that explains my disappointing Superpole time." Slight had to settle for sixth and a second-row start. Still, h~ wasn't womed. '1 had found a good race setup and I knew what tires to use before I crashed," Slight said. "l will have the number-one machine for Sunday morning warmup and hopetully that will be the bike I race, but I'm not bothered if I have to ride the other machine." track, and water on my screen, that I couldn't see anytbing from the first laps onward," the Texan said. "There was no way I was staying with Chili in the early stages. Once' I saw Aaron crash, I took it as easy as I could but then got under pressure from Troy. He caught me a little bit, after which I got a bit nervous and got a bit out of control, until the (time) difference stabilized." Corser was happy that he could maintain his lead in the championship, and even exlend it, after a pretty dramatic first race. The Australian tried to run Edwards down in race two, but thought better of risking what he already had in hand. Pole finally went to Troy Corser, who had a near-perfect Superpole-lap. . ''It turned out to be pretty difficult to set the bike up well for this track," he said after all was said and done. "We had some problems with getting the bike to hold a line when I open the throttle in some of the turns, but a lot of that is down to the gearing, 1 think. We haven't got the right gears for all the corners, and that is a bit of a problem for us. 1f we alter first gear, it alters the rest of the gearbox, so we have to try and get the best possible compromise. On the first day, I got a pretty decent time right away, but on the second day, we struggled to progress as much as the other guys. I also lost a lot of time trying tires for Michelin." It didn't stop the Aussie from showing everybody the way, albeit only a {raction ahead of a quick Calin Edwards II, wbo was behind by just 0.056 of a second to spoil the front-row Ducati party. The Texan, who had also set second time in the qualifying sessions, said he had hoped to get pole position. HI tried my hardest, but it was not to be," he sa,id. "And Aaron was out after me and I was sure he would blitz Corser's fastest time." GregoriO Lavilla was surprising once again, taking his private Ducati (now on DunlQps) to the third starting position. The last slot on the front row was for Pier-Francesco Chili. Carl Fogarty posted his bike on row two, where he was joined by Slight, Akira Yanagawa and former championship leader Noriyuki Haga. The Japanese rider was not disappointed with his time, "I was happy that the setup was better than a couple of hours ago," the third-place finisher said. "We had softened the bike up in the first race compared to yesterday, but that was not enough. In the second race, the suspension was just right." Slight was, of course, the man with the biggest story, but in the end it was just a simple mistake. "I was trying hard to keep the pressure on Chili and just lost it," he said referring to his high-side. "There was nothing I could do about the crash, and I'm just lucky that the bike was okay." Haga, who never really looked com,fortable in the tricky conditions, finished seventh with a comfortable gap over Goddard, who had an equally comfortable cushion over Piergiorgio Bontempi in ninth. Australian Suzuki rider Goddard had made a conscious effort to ride hard from the green light but big slides on the although all weekend he had looked likely to be in contention for a front-row berth. His teammate Scott Russell, however, had to settle for 10th after he had been quite optimistic about his chances to mix it with the front-runners after the first qualifying day. "I am really finding my way with the tires now," he explained on Friday. "The, test on Wednesday showed my tires are going to hold up well and the times I am putting in are right up there. The bike is turning in real good." Unfortunately, 011 Saturday the former World Champion was less happy. "I hate Superpole," he said. "You work hard all weekend and get some good stuff put together and then one lap and blalJl, you're on tHe third or fourth row. The starts to these races are rea] important and if you let the front group out of your sight, you ain't going to catch them." Peter Goddard qualified 12th, blaming a lack of confidence in the bike. "The bike almost threw me off on the final qualiiyi.ng session," Goddard said. "Since falling during Superpole in Monza, I'm lacking a bit of confidence in the front end and that affected my performance today. I was concentrating too hard on getting around without crashing." Several or the top-] 0 riders did just that on Friday and Saturday on what is an unfamiliar track for them. Fogarty and Chili were among the most notable crashers. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt. In all, 30 riders showed up for the two races on Sunday.

• Cover