Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE W ORLDS UPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP Round 8: Laguna Seca Raceway VISA Ii. By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams 6 MONTEREY, CA, JULY12 here may have been no sing le race w ith grea te r effect o n tw o cha mpionshi ps th a n th e first of tw o Wo rl d Su per bike races h eld at Laguna Seca Raceway tod ay. Two h orrif ic crash es led to th e stop page and ultimate shor tening of the first ra ce, and those two cra shes may hav e a lasting im pact on what was a tight battle fo r th e Wo rl d Su perbike Championshi p . Th es e inci den ts may al so have a significan t im p act on the AMA Superbike Cha mpionship as well. It was a case of ju s t when y o u thought things cou ld n't get worse, they did . Much worse. And those incid en ts p artia lly overs hadowed th e stu nning pe rfo rma nces turn ed in b y Du cati ADVF's Troy Corser, Yamaha's Noriyuki H aga a nd America n Ho nd a ' s Ben Bostrom - in his World Su perbike debut. First the bad stu ff. The weekend sta rted wit h the news that Vance & Hines Du ca ti' s An thony Go bert was d en ied en try for the ra ce after failing an FIM drug that was given two weeks prior to the race (see "In The Wi nd"), p u tt in g Gob ert' s im med ia te racing fu tu re in question . When raci ng actua lly bega n without the Australian, things d idn't get any better. The first race was red -flagged after jus t 12 of th e scheduled 28 laps w hen Muzzy Kawa sa ki's Doug Ch an dl er a nd Kawa s aki Wo rld Superbike' s A kira Yanagawa were involved in an horri fic a ccid e n t in the Co rkscrew. To ma ke matters worse, the restart featured a sixrider chain-reactio n cras h right off the start line tha t left motionless bodies and m otorcycles s tre w n a ll over th e rac e track. It was bad eno ugh to ca use th e FIM to completely can cel the rest of the first leg, wi th the result s being based on the ru nning order after 12 laps and wi th half-points being awarded to the finis hers . Th ou gh some of the injuries were severe, it cou ld have been mu ch wo rse. The most serious ly injured were Yanagawa and Italian Pierg iorgio Bontempi. Yanagawa was transported by helico p te r to San Jose Medica l Ce nter, w here he was listed in critical but stable condition on Sunday night with possible spinal injuries . He was consciou s, however, and a CAT scan revealed no head injuries. Bon te m pi , m ea n whil e, was tr a nsported to Community Hospital of th e Mo n te rey Pen in sula with a moderat e co ncus sio n, p os s ib le internal h e a d injuries, bil ater al w rist fractu res and a b ru ised ba ck . Bo n tempi w a s unco nsciou s fo r a p proximately 10 mi nutes aft er his crash and was listed in stable cond itio n on Sunday night. Accord ing to track represent a tiv es, Bontempi has no head injuries but wa s sched uled to be moved to the intensiv e care u nit on Sunday nig ht to be o p e ra te d on for .bleed ing related to his back inju ry. Chand ler ended up wit h a lacerati on on his right knee and a possible hairline fr a ct u r e of h is ri g ht a n k le. H e w a s sched uled to see Dr. Arthur Ting in San Francisco on Monday morning for fur ther chec ks . It isn 't kn own what effect It d idn't take Troy Corser (11) long to motor' away f rom the field in the first of tw o World Superbike races' at Laguna Seca Raceway. The Ducati rider led from t he start and was never headed en ro u t~ to wi nning the inci dent-short ened race. Nor iyuki Haga (41) and Doug Chandler (hidden) give chase . the inju ries will have on Cha ndler when the AMA Superbike Series resumes this Friday with pra ctice 'for the Mid- O hio rou nd . Castrol Ho nda's Aaron Slight, w ho was involved in the six-rider crash on the restart, suffere d a deep cu t to his lower right leg, severe bruising on the bottom of bo th feet, and a bruised right arm . He d id n't make the start of the second leg and lost his lead in the World Superbike Champ ionship poi nt standings to Co rser. H e will also likely be forced ou t of the Suzuka 8 Ho urs in tw o weeks, an d he is hop ing to be fit for the next round of the Worl d Su pe rb ike Series in England in three weeks. Others involved in th e sta r t-li n e melee were Ja mes Ra nd ol ph, Igor Jer man, Rich Oliver and Frederic Prota t. Of those, all escaped wi thout muchinjury except for Rand ol ph , w ho e nd ed u p wi th a fractu red left index finge r and a fractured righ t fifth finger. The actual raci ng was good, thou gh no on e cou ld mat ch Co rser in the first race. The Aus tralian led from po le position right off the start and stead ily drew away from his p u rsuers. By the 12th a nd u ltima tel y final - la p o f the firs t ra ce , Corse r w a s so me 7.5 sec o n ds ah ead of the battle for second betw een Yanagawa and Cha ndler, a there was no wa y he wa s going to be caug ht. Wit h Yan agawa and Chandler heading into the Cor kscre w on the 13th lap, the ri g h t h and lebar o n C han d le r 's Kawasaki br oke off in hi s han d and wi thout th e benefit o f a front-br ake lever - he was for ced to lock th e re ar w hee l in a vai n attem pt to ge t the bike stop pe d . What followed was horri fic as Chand ler's bike went sideways and ou t of co n trol, with both he a nd th e b ike plowing into th e back of a n ob livio us Yanagawa as th e Japa nese ri d er was tu rn in g into th e Co rkscrew. Th en Bostrom and Ducati's Ca rl Fogarty cam e into the Corkscrew sid e by sid e, somehow making it th rou g h the dirt and d ebr is unsca thed. Ducati 's Pier-Francesc o Ch ili a nd Ka wa saki' s Neil Hodgson w eren't so for tu nat e, how ever, a n d thev b oth crashed wi thout injury in the mess left behind by the incid ent. Th e race was quickly stopped a nd restarted after a lengthy d elay w hile Yanagawa was a tten d ed to and t he debris was cleaned up. Then the race was restarted , and the awful sta rt-li ne crash follo wed al most immediately. The incid ent started with a chai n - re actio n cras h th a t gained momentum when Slight and Yoshimura Su zuki' s Aa ro n Ya tes ca me together, wit h Slight goi ng d own. The rest went d own as theytried to avoid the fall en Sligh t, and along ca me Rand olp h, h is view of Sligh t's slid ing RC45 blocked as he shot up the front straight. The Ca lifornian went straig ht over the top of the crashed Hond a and he and everybod y else eve n tually ca me to a stop on th e .fron t straightaway. At th at point th e race was s top ped fo r goo d and scori ng reverted to th e positions at the end of the 12th lap. Thus Corser took his firs t World Su perbike victory of the season. Second place we nt to th e in ju re d Yanagawa, with Chan d ler, Bostrom and Fogarty rounding ou t the top five finishers. Suz uk i' s Ja mie W hit ha m , Ch ili , Sligh t, Hod gson a nd Yamaha's Jamie H a ck ing were credi ted wi t h six th throu gh 10th. "It ' s so rt of a win; bu t it ' s n o t the way I wa nted to win the race," Cor ser said . "I still wou ld have won the ra ce anyway." With the crowd sti ll partially stunned over the proceedings from the first race, the seco nd race went a long way toward making things right again. Co rser and Haga battl ed for the en tire 28 laps, wi th the Japanese pheno m ultimately taking the wi n after ru nning into Corser,on the penultimate lap on the run up the hill to the Corkscrew . Corser didn't cras h, bu t his clu tch lever was bent to the point of being useless an d his cha nces of retaliation on the Yama ha rid er were da shed. Th us, Haga scored his fourth win of the seaso n, leav ing Corse r to finish second . Beh in d those tw o came a th rilling three-way batt le that lasted the full distance . Th e wa r ult im a tel y w en t to Bostrom, who top ped series ve tera ns Chil i and Whit ham in an im pressive display for the virtual su perbike roo kie.

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