Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

1Ju. ( l(aw); 19. Igor Jerman IKaw]: 20. Lucio Pedercini (Due); 2 1. James Randolph (Hon); 22. Rick y Orlando lKa w) ; 23_ Frederi c Prout (Due). lime: 17 min ., 35.408 sec. D isunce: 12 la ps, 26.4 miles Ave-rage-S~ : Ql.614 mph M argin o r Vi ctory: 7.646 sec . F.astt'Sl u p: Tro y Ca ner, 1:27.149, Lap 4 RACE T WO : 1. Noriyu ki H aga (Ya m ); 2. T roy Corser (Due); 3. Ben Bostrom (Ho n): 4. Pier-Francesco Chili (Due); 5. Jami e Whitham (Suz) ; 6. Neil Hodgson "( Ka w ): 7. Jami e H ackin g (Yam); 8. Peter Goddard (Suz ); 9. Alessandro G ra mig ni ( Due) ; 10. Col in Ed wards II (Ha n); 11. Igor Jerman (Ka w ); 12. Lucio Pedercini (D ud ; 13. Rickv Or lando (Kaw). T im e: .. i min., 7.668 sec. • Distance: 28 laps , 61.6 miles Average Speed: 9\ .426 mph M .lrg in ot Victory: 0 .488!ioeC. F.J.5t~t Lap: oriyuki Ha ga, 1:27.340, Lap 25 WO RLD SUPE RBIKE C'SHIP PO INT STANDINGS (Aft u 8 o f 12 ro u n ds): 1. Tro y Corser (241.5/ 1 ",'in); 2. Aaron Slight (214/2); 3. Pier-Fra ncesco Chili (211.5/ 4); 4. Ca rl Fog arty l20 M /2); 5 . Co lin Edwa rd s II (195.5/ 2); .5 '6. Noriyu ki Haga 093/4); 7. Akir a Ya nagawa ( 32); 8. Iernle Whitham (02); 9. Peter God d ar d OOt); to . Neil Hod gso n (BO.5) ; 11. Sco tt Russell (75.5); 12. G re gorio La vt lta (68 .5); 13. Picr g ior gi o Bon temp i (58) ; 14 . l Alessandro Gra mlgn i (45); 15. Igor [errrwn (35). Norlyukl Haga sprays champagne In the face of Yamaha team manager Davide Briv lo as he and Tro y Corser celebrate. Upcoming Rounds: Round 9 • Brands Hatch, England, August 2 Round 10 • A·I Ring, Austria, August 30 Corser- Mr. Su e~ ole A lthough he ha s voiced his disda in for the system, Du cati's Troy Corser continues to show that he is the master of the new Su perpole qualifying for mat. Thi rd qu ickest a fter regula r qu.llifying was com pleted, the Australia n turned it up a notch when it came time to d o his one-lap flier, a nd in doing so he earned his fifth po le position of the eig ht-race-o ld season. The po le position, the 76th for Ducati, put Corser in a perfect posit ion to regain the championship lead he lost with his recent non finish in the first leg in South Africa. For Corser it was a homecoming of sorts, since he'd raced at Laguna Seca in 1994, 1995 and 1996 - en route to winning the AMA Superbike and World Superbike Championships in '94 and '95, respectively, In '94, he finished seco nd in the .AMA Superbike National; in '95 he was seco nd in the first leg and won the second leg of th e World Su perbike round ; a nd in '96 he fin ished second both times out. Last year, Corser raced in the 500cc Grand Prix Series and did n't race at Laguna Seca. When rid ers are asked what it ta kes to go a round Laguna Seca fast. their answers usually contain at least one wo rd in common - balance. The AM A regulars know that and consta ntly work to find it. Ditto for Corser, who ap pa ren tly foun d it. He liked his cha nces of comi ng away from the Lagu na round wi th a win or two . " 1 felt like in So u th Africa I had a fairly good ch a nce as well," Corser said . "Practice went well, qu alifying I was fast and I was confident I could do so me good tim es. But we had those prob lems wit h the engines, so hopefully we wo n't have any of them this weekend. The mo tor's feeling really, really strong and the set up is working great. We cha nge d the gearing to try and use less gea rs around the track, and it seems to be working. The Ducati works great here. Every time I've raced here, I've been really happy wit h the track and the setup. J hope to be back on the podiu m again." The track see med mo re slip pery than Corser remem bered it being in 1996, but he said it was cons ta ntly im p roving as the weekend wore on. "Ha ving the support classes here this weekend has helped because it's helped get the track ge t some more tract ion, some mor e rubber on the grou nd:' he exp lained. "Th e track's d e finitely improved since Friday, so hope fully it'll be even better for tomorrow (Sun day). I never put them (the AMA riders) out of the story at a ll. We knew coming here that Mat (Mladin) had been goi ng we ll th e wh ole season, a part from havi ng a few proble ms with the bike, so we knew he'd b e fa st her e. And Doug (Cha nd ler) the sa me - and I' m sure Miguel (Dul-larnel) would have been her e as we ll if he was racing. An d probably Anthony (Gobe rt). I raced here befo re and raced here w hen the World Superbike race was her e, and I know the pressure is a lot less. If you're going fast, grea t. If you're not, then it's no t reall y a big pr oblem because it's not your cha mpionship . But the bike is going so we ll, I'm going ou t for two wins - it's abou t tim e. I can mak e up for the points I lost in Sou th Africa." Yoshim ura Suzuki' s Mat Mladin w as the first of the AMA regulars on the grid, putting his GSX·R750 second on the grid next to his fellow Australian. Mladin had also improved from his qualifying tim es, dropping down to 1:26.448 on his Super. pol e lap . Still, it wa s slower tha n this qualifyin g time of 1:25.600 from the AMA Superbike National in April. "Obviously, it's goin g to be hard," Mladin sai d. "These guys (the World Supe rbike regulars) race week in week out with each other. Obviousl y, they are some of the best supe rbike rid ers in the world. To be up here is good, but it's only qualifying. We have two lo ng races , so we'll see what happens . Things have " It' s actu ally m y best -e ver quali fying her e, so I'm really been okay. We raced here with the AMA , so we ha d a pretty hap py," Fogarty said, "I' m -usua lly 12th or l lth, SO I've come u p reasonab le setup there. We haven't touched the motorbike all weekend. We've been lucky . Qualifying is qua lifying and 30 to 10th. Race- w ise, I'm usuall y all right here. I can d o low 27s in laps is 30 laps. I've qualified goo d all year, but I st ill ha ven 't the race; it's jus t wh en it comes to do fas t laps , I can' t find any. won a race yet - so who knows what's going to happen tom or When I pu t the soft tire in at the end , I go a qua rte r of a seco nd 'S row? " slower. II was tha t way at one of two circu its last year, and it's Somewhat surprising was the Superpole effort of Kawasaki's the same thing here . I'm not too worried . I know I can ru n low Akira Yanagawa. The japanese rid er ended up seventh after the 27s in the race a nd I don' t th ink they'll go much fas ter tha n two timed quali fying sessions, bu t he jumped to third wh en it that:' came time to run his flying lap against the clock in Superpole. Starting fro m th e thi rd ro w at Lagu na is no thing new for "For Superpole it was not so bad, but for normal qualifying I Fogarty, and he did n't expect it 10 be a problem this year. have pro blems with suspension setup; Yanagawa said. "I keep "I did it las t yea r, the yea r before and the year before thai , looki ng for good se tu p, bu t so fa r I can ' t find . I like Lagu na so... Last year I didn't do too bad. I go t through pretty early on. Seca, I like Corkscrew - it's like a roller coaster." lf I ge t a good start, I should pick them up and it sho u ldn't be a Filling the fro nt row was Italian Pier-Francesco Chili, the problem. We cha nged around too many things this afternoon Italian hot off his double wins in South Africa just a week prior a nd got conf used. I sho uld n' t have changed so many things in to Laguna . Things weren't coming easily for the factory Duca ti the warmup. We'll go back to what we had a nd wha t we were rider as he struggled to find "balance" with his setup. ha p py wit h ." "Here, Friday morning. we have some prob lems and we've Next to Fogarty was Ben Bostrom· in his World Superbike been working, w orking, working," Ch il i said . "Maybe just de but. before the Superpole J found somethi ng in the setting. I was ' "My bike wasn't so good for qualifying." Bostrom said. "We looking and I saw something in the telemetry, and I'm looking just had too much tractio n in the back and both bikes were forward to the race tomorrow. I look at it race by race. I don't d oin g the identical thing (the superbi ke a nd his 600) • I was try to win absolu tely, I just do the best I can do all of the time. In cha sing the fron t. I waslike, 'Guys, I'm go nna crash in the race South Africa , I think , 'Sure I can win: But here it is hard to say ." because I'm not wi lling to finish 10th: So they just changed a The second row would be led by Castrol Honda's Aaro n who le bunch of stuff to mak e the bac k end slide like a dirt trackSlight, a rider w ho has never been ove rly fond of the Lagu na er. I d id n' t care if I was sliding all the way around the track Seca layout Still, he ' d persevered and ended u p cloc king a that's sa fer than chasing the fron t." 1:26.878 d uring Superpole, just off his qua lifying time. Yoshim ura Suz uki 's Aaron Yates was next, with Scott Rus" 1 wasn't happy w ith my lap, bu t I'm ha p py wit h bei ng fifth," Sligh t said. "It's Laguna Seca and I'm fifth, so I'm rapt. sell a disma l 13th on the grid. Then came Gregorio Lavilla a nd the two Superpole crashers, Colin Edwards II and jamie HackIt' s just been so ba d for me for the pa st three years here, and ing . being on the second row is a really good starting pos ition for me Edwards was the man w ho suffe red the mos t from Superand I'm ha ppy. I made some mistakes on that lap ; I missed the pole. Second quic kest after the regu la r q ualifying sessions, apex heading on to the back straigh t, lost the front coming out of tum 10 at the end. The firs t section was good, the second secEdwa rds' Superpole was ruined by what wa s his second cras h tion was crap. I'm pretty ha ppy. The problem he re is tha i the of the day. The first get -off came in tu m four an d it destroyed bike p itches a lot. Th e fork settings I use arc rea lly good in the RC45, going as far as smashing the engine cases . This one Europe because you carry a lot of corn ering speed -vthere's a lot came in tum tw o, just after he'd gone on the clock for his flying of flat comers and ca mbe r. But here it pitches and upsets the lap . bike . I managed to find a new fork setting and we 're a lot happi"We had a front-brake p roblem that we've been having all er." yea r: ' Edwa rds said. "Basica lly , I ran it off in th er e and the Then came Muzzy Kawasa ki's Doug Cha ndler, the second brak e d id n' t let go, more or less, and away she we nt. From secquickest o f the AMA regulars . Chand ler had been fas test ond to 15th, tha t's pretty good. That's the way it goes. Whal ca n through the first two sessions, but he slowed d own du ring I say? I just want to ma ke it interesting for everybody tomorrow Superpole - his confidence not inspired afte r seeing both j amie - give everyone somet hing to wat ch. We haven 't had a ny pr obHackin g a nd Cas trol Honda's Colin Edwards II crash just p rior lems. The bike's pe rfect, the tires are pe rfect, everything's perto him going on the track. fect, so we're going to go ou t tomo rrow and kick everybody's " It was just a strange deal," Chandler said. "I do n' t know. I ass . That's the only thinking I can have. Yesterday we were ou t wanted to try 10 do good, but I did n't want to risk something of the range, and tod ay we moved in to the range. We fou nd silly and be put all the way in the back like Colin (Edwa rds) and some thing (a tire) that wo rks pretty good. Tha t's been the main (Jamie) Hacking. I watched it (Edwards' cras h) on the monitor thing. We haven ' t reall y had a ny se tu p problems or any thing. before I we nt out. It 's kind of neat (Superpole) • yo u 're out it's just been getting rear traction: ' there, there's nothing in front of you , it's just you an d the track. Haga ran off the track on his wa rm u p lap in the Co rkscrew You really ge t to do whatever. It' s up to you. " but bounced back to end up ninth on the grid . Af ter Chand le r ca me Suzu ki Wo rld Su perbike's j amie "I' m not so happy with my time because I have been quick Wh itha m, the Brit turning his quickest-ever lap of Lagu na at the er, so it' s nonnalto be frustra ted ," Haga said . "Superpole itself righ t time - during Superpole. Whitham lapped at 1:27.123 and is not w hat I'm unhappy with - only m yself. But this starti ng that was good enoug h to put him seventh on the gri d . Filling position is becomin g quite normal for me, and I have had some the second row wa s Ya naga wa's Kawa saki teammate, N eil Hod gson , the Eng lishma n jumping up a spo t from his original qu ite good ",'Suits so maybe it' s not so bad : ' Haga's team mate Russell was even worse off, ending Superninth a fter a so lid lap in Supe rpo le. Hod gson rates Laguna Seca pole wit h the 13th-quickest time . as one of his favorite race tracks in the wo rld . "My confidence has gone," Russell said. "I don't feel so good " I stil] ha ven 't been able to gai n the right balance on th e bike, but w e're ge ll ing the re," he sa id. "I w as fe eli ng a bit about anything right now. The com binati on I've go t just ain' t good eno ugh, but I' m ho ping m y race pace will be okay. I'm lethargic after this morning, but I'll be able to snap ou t of it in tim e for tomorrow. My p repa rati on s have been good, and I going to try a few things tom orro w mo rni ng and yo u never know, but realistically, it's going to be hard for me tom orrow. know I can go even fas ter under racing cond itions - w hich could Starting from the fourth row ain 't no fun a nd I don't like being make things inter esting." down there. I'll be going for it tomorro w a nd if a good start is No riyu ki Haga was nin th quickest in his first visit to Laguna important anyw here, it's here. I just hope I get a great one:' Seca, just ah ead of Ducati ' s Carl Fogarty. » 9

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