Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE WR O LDSUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP SER IES Round 9: Brands Hatch By Joha n Vandekerc kho ve Photos by Gold & Goose KENT, ENGLAND, AUG. 2 ucati's Troy Corser fina lly wo n a race in a s tra ig h t fig ht. Sure, he wa s cred ite d w ith the win in the incident-shortened race two week s ago a t Laguna Seca, but th e rac e didn't go the distanc e and he on ly got half-poin ts, This tim e he d id tlie deed, leading th e second race from start to finish . It was a solid recovery fro m his disappoin ting first ra ce, in which th e cha m p ions hip lead er struggled wit h a poor tire choice to finish seven tho That first race belong ed to on e Colin Edwards 11, the Castro! Ho nda rider takin g hi s th ird w in of t he se a so n an d red eem in g h im se lf a ft er a mi s erabl e home round at Laguna Seca that saw him score o nly 8.5 poi n ts . Edward s mov ed to the lead on the fourth lap of his winning race and was never head ed, a lthough tea m ma te Aa ro n Sligh t wa s always lurkin g in his sha dow. Slight finished second tha t tim e ou t - th iriki ng bett er of ris kin g a p a ss as h e is s till recoverin g from injuries sus tained at the U.S. round - and follow ed his teammate once aga in in race tw o, Edwards takin g four th place, Slight fifth . Mu ch wa s expe cted of Ca rl Fogarty after the impres sive p erformance th e British rider had turned in ear ly in qu alifying, but, along w it h th e rest of th e Ducati squa d , he too struggled w ith a poor tire choice in the first race, though he had been the Italian manufacturer' s best h ope for a ro s trum fin ish in th e Ducati-fr ee ra ce one-po d iu m . Fogarty hung on to fourth in the first race; then returned in race two and card ed a second. . While the top two spo ts in each race were filled with podium r egulars - a pair of Ho ndas and a pair of Ducatis third in bo th races we re was filled by a couple of podium irr egular s: Yamaha 's Sco tt Russell in race one' and Suzuki's James Wh itham in race two . For Russell it was th e former World Champion's fir st rostrum finish of th e year a nd a grea t im pro vem en t over w ha t can only D (Above) World Superbike racing gets under way at - Brands Hatch. (Right) Colin Edwards II (45)and teammate Aaron Slight (1 11) left the res t of the field behind in race one. Edwards took his third win of the se as on with Slight just behind. be describ ed as a di smal season thus far, th ou gh th in gs returned to normal for the Georgian in race two as he rode to a more customary eigh th. Whitham spent mu ch of the first race di cing with Russell and Fogar ty bu t was u ltimately relegated to fifth in that fight , then found himself third in race two. .Thou gh Corser' s weekend wa sn' t the m ost cons isten t, the points leader did manage to stre tch his ma rg in slightly o ver second -pl aced Sligh t, th e Australi an now holding 275.5 poin ts to the New Zealander's 245. Both Fogarty and Edwards mo ved up on the lead erboa rd a t th e ex pe ns e of Pier-Fran cesco Chili (ni nth and sixth on the weekend), with Fo gar ty n o w th ird w i th 241.5 a nd Edwards fourth on 233.5. Chili, mean while is fifth wit h 228.5. RACE ONE A record crowd estima ted at 82,000 saw Corser di ve into Paddock Hill Bend at the s tart of race one ahead of Chili, . Edwards, Fogarty and th e rest of th e fie ld , b u t ju st fou r laps later it was Edwards ' Honda on top as Corser's run a t the front was over. It was just the b e g inning o f Co rser's troub le , a nd though the Australian hu ng on to second beh in d the Texan, he was comi ng under pressure from Slight, wh o finally moved in to the runner-up spo t behind his teammate a few laps lat er . The top thr ee con tinued to ru n in that order, but behind the m a n impressi ve Whitham h a d m o v ed to fo u rt h pl a ce, h a v in g p a ss ed both Ch ili and Fog arty , who we re both still just behind the English man . Kawasaki 's Neil Hodgson wa s follo w in g be h in d Fogarty, with Ru ssell an d Hislop in his wake. G regorio La villa, mea nwhile, h ad alrea dy retire d due to a broken clut ch, thou gh he was also suffering too mu ch fro m his knee inju ry sus tained during the most recent 500c c Ge rm an G rand Prix. As the race w or e on, it was clearly tu rning into a Honda affair at the fro nt as the Cas trol teammates slowly pulled away from a toug h figh t for third place that included Whi tham, Corse r, Fogarty, Chili, Russell, Hodgson an d His lop. The su rprise of thi s fig ht was th at Russell sudd enl y took over the spot, and even ma na ged to pull out a sma ll gap over his pursuers . Indeed, by th e halfw ay point, Russell had taken clear com mand of third p lace , thou gh he wo ul d never threat en Slight. With Russell off on his own, the bat tle was now for fou rth and it was led by Fogarty, who had Hod g- • son and Whitham in the thick of it with him . Whitham did better than jus t hold on, and was serious ly challenging the Du cati rid er for the spo t. For Hodgson, however, the pace proved to be a little too hot and seven laps from the end, his Kaw asaki tried to high-sid e him after he had mis sed a gea r; the Briton managed to save it, but then ran out of as phalt, hit the grass and crashed. Edward s w a s s t ill lea d in g with a sma ll margin over Slight, but wi th two lap s to go, th e N ew Zea land er upped the p ace, broke th e lap record in th e process and got into th e slipstream of Ed wards ' number 45 Honda. Both rid ers w ent a round th e track in u ni son, but even tu a ll y Sli g ht settl ed for se cond , happy to have reduced the p oints gap to championship lead er Corser , who had d ropped all th e way back to seven th with tire trou ble. "This was not an easy race," winner Edwards sai d . "I had Aaron to worry abou t for the w ho le race. But th e bike has been perfect for the who le weekend . Durin g pra ct ic e, we d idn 't h a ve too wo rry a bit abou t th e se tu p an d we cou ld conce ntra te on finding the righ t race tires. O n the last lap, I expec ted an att ack from Aaron, but I wasn' t going to -m a ke it easy. I was cu t ti ng it s hor t

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