Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

"It is so cool," Bostrom said . "Every week when it' s on, I watch it on Speedvisio n and I wa s reall y looking forward to this round . In the first race I was rea lly bummed because I thou ght we had a good sho t at getting second. Foggy and I we re s low ly ca tchi ng up to Dou g ie (C ha n d le r) a n d Yan a g a wa and I tho ug ht, 'This is going to be a scra p for secon d pla ce: But it was just real unfortu nate to ha ve them fall. And then they canceled the second start and I was really bummed. I thought wi th just 15 laps I was just goi ng to d irt track the thin g all the way around and hammer the tire. I kn ew it'd go 15 lap s wid e open. Thi s is a d ream come tru e right here. I'm really excited." Hod gson ended up sixth, with Hacking an impressive seventh. The sev enth went wi th Hacki ng 's first-race 10th, giving the you ngster two stro ng finishes in his World Superbike d ebut. "I had a ball; that w a s a wesom e," Hacking said at the end of the day. "We learned a lot. It w as really fun. In th e second race, it was Haga and Scott (Russell) out fron t and me in th ird - three Yama has up th er e. I had a big 01' g rin on my face. Then I moved up to second when Scott crashed and I'm like, 'This is u nbelieva ble. Thi s is coo l: It's a d ifferent pace. These guys go at it:' Suz uki World Superbike's Peter Goddard, Gattolone Racing' s Alessa ndro Gramign i and Castrol Ho nda ' s Colin Edwa rds II rou n ded o u t the to p 10. Edwards had a toug h weekend, wrecking his number -on e b ike in a turn-four cras h on Satu rd ay morning, then cras hing his backup bike during Superpole on Saturday afternoon. Corser gai ned th e most on the day via his 1-2 tall y a nd he now leads th e c ha m pio nshi p b y 2i .5 poin ts over Slight, w ho d idn't start the second leg, 24 1.5-214. C h ili ju m ps to third in the series stand ings with 211.5 - three points bet ter than Fog a rty , w ho d idn 't finish the second race du e to a fuel-line problem on his Ducati. After a miserable day at Laguna Seca, Edwards sits fifth in the poi nt stand ings with 195.5 po int s. "I 'm happy to be back on top," Corser sa id of hi s ch a m p io ns h ip lead . " It's unfortunat e for Aa ro n (Sligh t). It's not good to see any of the top rid ers go ou t with an injury, particularly w hen th e cha mp ionsh ip has been so close and it's so much fun ou t ther e racing. But we' ll go to the nex t race and hopefully have a .g ood race the re. I like Brands Hatch , and the Ducati works good there and so d o the Miche lins." Among the notables w ho d idn' t fare well at Laguna Seca were Yoshimura Su zuki 's Mat Mladin an d Yamaha 's Scott Russell. Mladin was running near th e fron t w hen his e ngi ne blew u p on the second lap of the first leg, and then he pulled off af ter runni ng straight in the Cor kscrew in the second leg . Ru s s ell , m ean whil e , e n de d up a lowly 15th in the firs t leg. The Georgian the n jumped the star t to lead the seco nd leg , was given a s to p-and -go pen alty sign tw o laps later, then crashed in turn thr ee w hile running 'seco nd to his teammate Haga. RACE ONE It was Mladin who go t the bes t jump when th e lig ht s fla s hed green to s ta rt the first of two legs of World Superbike racing, bu t his lead was short-lived as , Corser blas ted pa st on the outside on the entran ce to tum tw o. As it tu rns out , things would only get wor se for Mladin and his race came to a stop on the front straight to end the s e co n d lap - the Suzuki having dropped a valve. (Right) Corser had his hands full In the second leg with Haga (41). The Japanese star battled throughout the race wi1h Corser and eventually beat the Australian to the flag. (Below) Doug Chand ler (110) and Akira Yanagawa (4) batt led for second place In the first leg after Haga crashed. Then the pair were involved in an horrific crash on the 13th lap. With the results being based on the running order after 12 laps, Yanagawa was credited with second place , with Chand ler getting third. "It blew up agai n," Mladin sa id later. "That's three (races) in a row." Wh en as ked if he' d sta rt the second leg, Mladin sa id: "I d on' t know and I don' t care. I'm sick of it blowing u p." But Ml ad in wasn' t th e fi rst to go . That hon or went to Haga, who cras hed in turn 11 while running seco nd on the second lap . "I go t a good s tar t behind Co rsersan," Haga sa id thr ou gh an in terpreter. "And I tried to stay behind him . Looking at the data, the corn ering speed int o th a t corne r was the fastest corn ering s peed, so it just gave away. Th at w as very stressful and I'm not happy with that first race." Things settled down from there, with Corser s tead ily pulling away . By th e time they'd finished three laps, the Au s- trali an was 2.2 seconds ahead of Chandl er, w ho was fee li ng p ressure from Yanagawa . The n there was a ga p to ' Hodgson, Wh itham, Bostro m, Foga rty, Slight, Chili an d Hackin g. Behind them came Edwards , rid ing hard to make up for his poor starting position and a mista ke tha t cos t hi m even mor e time . He would end up lIth. "I jus t made mistake after mistake as I tried to ca tch everyone in on e go : " Edwards said . "I pulled back the ga p to the guy in front at on e point, then mad e ano ther mistake. We've go t a few ideas for race two , includ ing a change of front tire: ' By the fifth lap, the race up front was for all practical pu rposes ove r. Cor ser was sim ply go ne, having pulled a gap of 3.9 seconds on the ChandJer/Yana gawa battle. Behind the all-green figh t for seco n d ca m e a ti ghtl y k n i t bun ch th at incl ud ed Bostrom, Hod gson , Whitham, Foga rty , Slight and Chili. It w as o n the 13th la p th at a ll hell bro ke lo o se in the Cor kscrew, with Chandler co llec ting Ya nagawa. The n Chi li a n d H od g s o n cras hed in th e d ebri s, bri ngin g ou t the red flag. Much to his surprise, Bostrom somehow mad e it through. Ditto for Foga rty. . 'T ha t w as scarv." Bos tro m said . " I was passin g Foga rt y going in to th e Co rks crew. We came over th e hill and t he re was s hit fl yi ng everywhe re . I couldn' t see and we wen t in there side by side. We bo th lost the front in the d irt a nd I th ou gh t we w er e bo th goi ng to high -side. It was just luck." Hod gson wasn't so luck y. "O n the approach to the Co rksc rew on lap 13, th e firs t th ing I saw was a clo u d of du st ," Hod gson sai d . " I w as comp letely unsig hted ; there were stones on the track and the next th ing I knew I was in the gravel trap: ' The restart lasted less than 100 yard s. Th at' s wh en th e cha in -reactio n cras h started . "Aa ro n Yat es took m y h a nd lebar aw ay from me and I was down," Slight ex p la ine d. " I wa s s lid in g a long th e ground, thin kin g I'd got awa y with H, then I just hear d 'boom, boom, boom' as everyone hit me. I was sure I'd broken some bones in m y feet, bu t the X-ra ys sh ow they're oka y. My right leg has a big gash, but they' ve s ti tche d that up now. I can't see m ys elf racing aga in u n til Bran d s H a tc h in thre e w e eks' time." Slight was one of the first to get u p, while Oliver, Randolph a nd Bontempi lay motionless on the race tra ck. In the end , Bon tempi was the on ly o ne who su ffered serious injury. The race, meanw hile, was natu ra lly stopped. And this time it wasn 't restarted . RACE TWO The second race ended up brea king in to two battling gro ups up fro nt: Ha ga vs. Co rser a nd Bos trom vs . Chili an d Wh itham. The rest of the pac k was fairly stru ng ou t and the racing was un eventful. Those fiv e, however, mad e it a ll wor thwhile and the racin g helped erase so me of th e bad mem ories of the first leg. And the start featured a huge shot in the arm to an yon e who is a fan of Scott Russell. Following his di smal first-race s ho w ing , Russell seemed hellbent on doin g something in the second race. At the flash of the green light, th~eorgian 7

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