Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE W RLDSUPERBIKE O C HAMPIONS IP H Laguna Seca Raceway Step hane Chambon (4) leads Paolo Casoll (1). Pere Riba. Jason Pridmore (bo th partially hidden) and the rest of t he Supersport World Series f ield. The race was red-flagged and restarted. Corona E Supersport W xtra orldSeries Round 7: LagunaSeca R ceway a A strong first • • Impression By Mark Hoyer Photos by Henn y Ray Abr ams MONTEREY, CA, JULY 12 n wha t was the firs t-ever visit to the Un ited Sta tes fo r t h e Su pe rs p o r t World Series , it's safe to say we mad e an impression. For w hile the record will show that reigni ng cha m pion Paolo Casoli won the red-flagged race on aggregate tim e d esp i te b e in g p a ssed b y S te p hane Cha mbo n on th e fina l lap , it will also show th a t Team H yperCycl e' s Ja son Pridmor e ran right with the world's bes t su perspo rt riders the wh ole way. It was a rem ar kabl e performa nce that b egan in qua li fy in g a n d ended w it h th ird pl ace on a world -level p od ium; After Prid mor e took his World Su pe rspo rt-spec GSX-R600 Suzu ki to third on the starting grid, he knew he had the lap t im es to run a t th e fro n t, but was un aw are how the un tested bike would p erf orm h ead to head w it h th e full y de veloped ma chines of the series regulars. In the race, the power deficit wo u ld b ecome obvio us , but so wo u ld Prid more's de termination . I 12 Casoli ha d the clear advanta ge in both "legs," runn ing with a 1.5-second lead when the red flag was shown d ur ing the eighth lap (Claud e Alain Jaggi cras hed in tum five), and he was quickly back up to that margin after get ting the hol es hot on the restar t. The wildhaired Italian held a com fortabl e lead fo r th e better p a rt o f th e now-18-lap race, but as the laps ticked off he came under attack . It was Pridmore. The Ventura, Ca liforn ia , re sid ent spen t th e better part of the rac e in a heat ed excha nge with Team Alstare Corona's C harnbon, and had fina lly muscled pa st the Frenchman on the 12th lap to begin his cha llenge for the lead . He p a sse d Casoli ever so b riefly be tween turns 10 an d 11, bu t Casoli turned in agg ressive ly from the outside, killing Pri d mo re's speed through tu rn 11 and th us h is s p eed on th e cru cia l front straight. It was, in fact, bad eno ugh th at Chambon, w ho had fin all y d is p osed of Team Ga rella Racing' s Pere Riba (he cras hed), motor ed his Su zuki right by Pr idmore as we ll. In th e end Pridmore finis hed roughly two-ten ths beh ind Caso li on the track , who was in turn 1.162 seconds behi nd Cha m bo n. Caso l i, h ow e ve r, h a d establis hed enoug h of a lead when the red flag had come out that he was credited with the ra ce win on aggrega te tim e, lea ving a noneth eless elated Chambon in second. Fou rth at the finish was Yamaha Belgarda 's Vittoriano Guareschi, more than a second behin d Pridmore on aggregate time. Gu ar eschi had been caught in an ea rly- race ba t tle w it h h is teamm ate Massim o Meregalli and finally drafted past him on the fron t straigh t o n th e seventh la p. Althou gh he was only in s ixt h a t that point, th e two riders in fro nt of him - Spaniard Riba and Cristiano Migliorati - both ra n in to trouble as the race wore on . Riba spen t mos t of his race in four th, finall y catching up to third-p laced Chambon in the final laps. It was all for naught, however, w hen he crash ed after p assing the Frenchman, losing the front end in turn five. Migliorati, meanwhile, had destroyed his rear tire and finished fifth, unable to charge at the lead ing group. Migliorati wa s und er no threat from sixth -place finisher Mauro Lucchiari on the De Cecco Racing Duca ti, The fact that Lucchiari really only had to make one pa ss - on even tual seventh-place finisher Wileo Zeelenberg - to get u p to where he finished after starting the race in 10 th,as th e cras hes by Rib a a n d Meregalli (as well as the one.by first-lap crasher Nicky Hayde n) gave him easy prom otion throug h the field . Tho ug h it had been plann ed from the very beginning for Team Hyp erCycle's Hayden to pa rticipate in the World-level eve n t, there was some question on race day as to whe ther or not he would eve n rid e the fu ll race d istan ce. Rid in g his AMA-s pec b ike - u sing th e re q u ire d u n lea d ed fuel - a fte r h is World -spec machine blew up on the first lap of the seco nd qu alifyi ng sessio n, h e h a d scratc hed his way up to 10th place w hen the red flag wa s shown . On the restart, Hayd en was in seven th at the end of lap one, bu t then cras hed - un hurt - coming down th e hill th rough Ra in ey Co rn er running it what ap pea red to be sixth. Se bring Yamaha Austria 's Robert Ulm, Kaw asaki Belgiu m's Werner Daemen and Sacchi Corse's Giova nni Bussei rounded ou t the top 10. American priva- teers Erik Schnackenberg and John Jacobi finis hed 14th and 15th, respectively. Po ints lea d e r Fa b r iz io P iro v a no , d espite n ot ma king th e res ta rt 'a fter crashi ng an d fractu ri ng his foo t, still ho ld s the cha mp ions hip lead with the sa me 101 po ints he had af te r the last roun d , at Kyalami in South A fri ca. Chambo n is second wit h 92 points, just ah ead of Gua reshi (88), Casoli (81) and the tied Riba and Meregalli, who bo th have 67. · It is of interest to note that there w ere 12 nonfinishers, 10 of those the resul t of cras hes. When the lights flashed green for the first time at around 2:20 p.m. on a sunny Sunday o n th e Monterey Peninsu la, it was Riba, Cha mbon and Gua reshi leading the way over the cres t of turn one, b ut by th e en d of the firs t lap of the sched u led 25, Casoli had already clearly es ta blis he d h im self at th e fron t. Pr idmore, meanwhil e, hadn't got ten off the li ne as well as he' d hoped to, bu t he used his extensive experience at Laguna Seca to quickly jump in to fourth place. "I didn 't get a great start, but 1 think my knowledge rea lly helped me going down int o tu rn two," Pridmore said . "1 went by like five guys." Casoli was steady a t th e fro nt a nd turning lap times in the 1:31.5 range and was abou t 1.7 seconds ahead of secondplaced Chambo n, w ho had bot h Riba and Prid more ho t on his heels. But as the leaders carne d own the hill to complete the eigh th lap - what would be the last before the red flag - Chambon mad e a mistake in tum 10, allowing Riba and then Prid more by. Pridmo re was on ly past the Frenc hman briefly, as Chambon p assed the Hype rCycle r id e r on th e front straig ht, bu t Riba was established in second . Then th e red flag ca me out when Ja gg i crashed, the Swiss rid er slow in getting up from the mid dle of turn five's runoff area . Riba wa s disappointed . "H av ing a res tart was very bad for me and 1 had to pas s many riders," Riba said. "I was 1.5 seconds behind Casoli in second when the race was red-flagged ." Pridmore, too, was unhappy , as he had h igh h op es for how his race ha d evo lved up to tha t point a nd even got bac k past Cha mbon with an agg ress ive inside move in tum three . "I was rea lly se tting a p ace," Pridmore said . "I was really comfortable and 1 th ou gh t to myself th a t Casoli really was n' t getting away and if I keep pacing my self, h op efu lly we' ll ge t close u p tog et h er agai n. I was r ea lly ho p e fu l becau se my tir es w ere working really well, but then they red-flagged it - 1 was really bummed abou t that." Pr id m ore' s tea m ma te H ayden h ad w ork ed up to 10th from his 15t h-place start - despite being nearl y punted off the track in turn two right off the start w hen Mario Innamorati rear-e nd ed him - and the team decid ed to fix Hayde n's tail section and send him back ou t. It tu rn ed ou t n ot to have been th e best cou rse of action. The rest art w as mu ch th e sa me for those who had figured at the front in the first race, with Casoli quickly in the lead an d with Riba, Cha mbon and Migliorati jus t behind as the pack flew over tu rn one. Th e drill was the sa me for Pr id -

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