Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Slight crossed the line less than a sec nd ahead of Corser. "I am just happy to go well at Misno," th e New Zea la nder sa id. "I rode a rder th a n th a t th ree yea rs ago here nd fi n is h ed 16th, so it s ho w s h ow uch improvement we have made to he mach in es and the tires since then. his is a really bogey track for me and if 'rn go ing to win the title, I need to win t places like this. I had a good start, but hen got passed by four or five bikes in he first comer. I made some aggressive moves to get back, including o n my own eammate. Bu t when I got in to the lead, verything went just as planned." Corser wasn't too unhappy about secnd place, though his hope had been to . his first race of the season on this track. "I could ha ve won if I hadn't gone straight at one moment," the Australian said. "I overshot a bit and Aaron could make a s m a ll g a p. The Ducati is s till s lo w e r at the back s trai gh t. I tried to make up the lost grou nd o n the brakes, but that didn't work out completely as I hoped. In the seco nd half of the race, the rea r grip started to go and that was abo ut it. I started to push Colin really hard on the back straig h t at th e end of the ra ce, and I am glad to hav e got past him." Th at Co rser s to le seco n d from Ed wa rds w a s a c red it to th e Ducati ride r' s race craft , as he had su rprised the Texa n - w ho sa id he had bee n struggling with drive on comer exit s late in the race - wit h a pass in a n u nsuspected spot. "Tro y tried to push me several times (Above) Texan Colin Edwards II (45) made it onto the rostrum in race one with a third-place finis h, and he finished fourt h in race two. Noriyukl Haga (41) crashed out 01 bot h races. (Right) Aaron Slight ta kes the checkered flag, something he did twice at Misa no. a t th e e nd of th e ba ck strai g h t, a nd I thought that was the only pla ce he cou ld pass me," Ed w ards said . " Bu t he surprised me in the closing sta ges w he n he came by go ing in to the chicane." Fo garty m is sed the rostrum o nce agai n, thou g h he survived a n ex citi ng battle wit h slow sta rter Yanagawa to finis h fourth. Whitham was ne xt , with Hodgson behind him . A fter an ea rly-race mis take, Ru ssell notched up an eigh th- place finish. "I got th e start I have been trying to get since the beg in n ing o f the season," the Georgian sai d . "I got a big draft coming d own the straight and I wanted to get past as many as I could so I could rid e with the lead grou p. But wi th a full tank and too mu ch draft, I could n' t sto p and I ran wid e o n th e co rner. I rej oined th e race in 26th position and I w as cu tting through them. I wanted to ge t Hod gson but I didn't ha ve eno ug h tim e." RACE TWO T he pa rtisan crow d of 32,000 sa w Fogarty bla s t off th e sta rt to head the field for the first tw o la ps. H e was fol- Corser's fourth T roy Corser may not be the world's most convinced ad vocate of the Superpole formula, but that didn't stop him from taking his fourth pole position last weekend after another ali-or-nothing blast around the bump y and slippery circuit of Misano. The Du cati 's d om ina tion wa sn 't reall y a surp rise, as Bologna - w here Du cati's head- quarters and factory are situated - is only 90 miles away, and the factory teams of ten come to the Adriatic coast to test th eir bikes. "We have d on e some testi ng here before," Corser said o n Satu rday evening. "We didn 't change anything on the bike since we last came here afte r the M on za race. But the grip is not so good .15 it was d uring that test - probably due to the high track temperatures. evertheless, I succeed ed in making the same lap times as then, which (makes us) hopeful for tomorrow's races. And it is about time that I win my first race of the year." Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight took second position. "We didn't change the bike at all since the last test we had here," the Kiwi said...It has gone pretty well, espe lly considering the fact that a cia few years ago, I struggled to get 16th spot. This is a track where you have to flow on, and the Honda is just not as torquey as the Ducatis . Apa rt from that, the sus pens ion L-; working well and irons mo st of the bumps quite efficiently. TI,ebiggest problem will be - as for everybody else - the tire for tomorrow. Until now, I have only found a tire which stays good enough for some six laps. And the race tomorrow is 25 laps.." Kawasaki's Akira Yanagawa was third on the grid , followed by anothe r factory Ducati finishing off the front row - Carl Fogarty's . Despite being on the front row, the former World Champ ion wasn't all that pleased with his qualifying result. "I did my best, as 1always do," Fogarty said . "But I'm still not 100 lo wed by fello w Ducati rider Corser in secon d pl a ce, a n d th en Slight, with Whitha m as a su rp ris ing fourth, though the Suzuki rid er w ould quickl y fade. It to ok just fi ve la ps fo r the lead grou p to form, but it w as n' t Fogarty at th e front a nymore. C orser had taken o ver, w hile Fo g g y dropped to third behind Slig ht. Edwards brought up th e tail end of the pack. Behind him, Russell was finally in a s traig h t duel with his te a mma te H ag a for th e fir st ti me th is ye ar, though Yana ga wa go t by both of them a round the h a lfw a y s tage aft er recoverin g fro m a poor start. Up fro n t, the leading gro u p had split into a pai r of pai rs, with Co rse r lead ing the race in fro nt o f Slig ht , w hile Fogarty w as u nder fire fro m Edwards . Things d idn't stay this way for lo ng, th ough. Wit h the race m o v in g in to the latte r stages, Co rse r was ge tti ng in to rea l trou ble try ing to stay ahead of Slig h t, which se e m ed to slo w them both down and allow Fog art y to close in sligh tly, while Edwards began to drop back. It w as on th e 18 th lap th a t Corse r fi na lly m ad e o ne to o m any m istakes , percent confiden t in the bike in a comer . It's still difficult to have it hold the line. Fortunately, we picked up the pace a bit durin g the warmup session before Superpole, And finally, this is one of my least favorite circuits of the whole year. I will be glad when it is all said and done on Sunday evening." Colin Edwards IIultimately qualifie fifth, leading off the second row. d "At least I found ~ tire I am happ y with for nine laps." the Texan joked. "I strugg led a bit yesterday, but then we got the bike a bit more on the nose, which made it tum a bit better. Like Aaron, I'm just thinking hard about rear-tire selection for tomorrow. One thing is for sure: It will be two tough races: ' Yamaha's I oriyuki Haga and Suzuki's Jamie Whitham and Peter Goddard joined Edwards on the second row. Australian Godda rd was delighted to be on the second row for the first time since the opening round of the year at Phillip Island. "We now have the bike working much better and I have confidence in the front end - that adds up to a prt·tty good package," Goddard said. Scott Russell had to settle for 11th. "I'm starting from the third row, which before wouldn' t have worti ed me because I could sta rt we ll, but so far this seaso n the starts have been bad, so I have got to get them right tomorrow," Russell said. "The track is also very slippery and I know our bike is not as qui ck as it C be an a t th e moment. The race track is jus t not as goo d as it was before and it seems to have affected our bike more than the others. I have stuck with my setup from the test s we have had here but it's not working for m e." The third factory Ducati - the one ridden by Pier-Francesco Chili - was down in 16th. After some promising lap times durin g qualification, "Frankie," celebrating his 34 birthday, had crashed heavily in the s~'C ond qualifying session, striking his head and cutting himself with his helmet's strap. The local hero was all right, and having already bitten the dust the day before - bruising his left elbow - preferred not to take any chances and stayed in the pit for Superpole. running a bit wide in a corn er, a nd he lost the lead to Slight, who dived up the insid e a nd into th e lead . Fo ga r ty had full y joined th e party by this time a nd the lead tri o w as ru nning in a tight formation. Five la p s before the end, any o ne of the three lea d ing men still had a chance to win th is race. Fou r th-pl aced Edwards' hopes fo r a ro strum fini sh a ppeared to be go ne as he continued to d ro p off the pace of the lea d ers, and his at ten tio n would soo n be fo cused on keeping the spot he had , as Yanaga w a had hoo ked up with him . The Ya m a ha fig h t fo r six th e nded with jus t two la ps to go w he n Haga, who had ju s t taken o ve r s ixt h pla ce fro m his teammat e Ru ssell, w en t d own in one of the chica nes. Ru ssell was p romoted back up to sixth place, w ith La villa finally ge tting th e best of Hodgson a nd A nd reas Me klau af te r a race-lo ng fig h t w ith both of them. Tile order up front would not change in th e fina l la ps and Slig ht won his seco nd ra ce of the d ay ahead o f Co rser a nd Fogarty. " I can't belie ve that I hav e won tw o in a day," Slight said . "It has finally happe ned - And I a m especially su rp rised as , it happened here, on a track that ha s al ways b een so bad for m e . W e ' v e always st ruggled he re with fron t g rip, but today I had the. impression that I was the o nly one o u t there having the bi ke goi ng exactly w here I wanted it to go . Tires p layed a crucial pa rt today. Every rid er out there knew they would be sliding about in the hea t, so it was just a case of who hand led it best. " Second place was one place down on what Corser had hoped for before the beginning of the race. "I g o t a good start and went hard rig h t fro m the early stages, but Aaron was b rea thing dow n my neck o n the st ra ig hts a nd I k new he wo u ld get away if he passed m e," Corser sai d. " In fact, I was braking too har d and goi ng too dee p into the co rners when he too k the lead . On ce he go t pas t, I didn ' t sta nd any chance because of the Duca ti bein g d own on top speed . I still tried a few tim es, bu t I had to push the fron t too ha rd . I soon se ttled for thi rd . Especia lly o n the back st ra ight, th e Honda eac h time took so me five bike lengths . I had to do so me c razy t h ings I h ad ne ve r d one before - b ra king (too) la te to be good for you - but at th e en d , I had to let go." 23

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