Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

everywhere; he'd ha ve to co me on my outside if he wanted tha t wi n." Little did Edwards know that Sligh t had already mad e the decision not to try to pass his teammate. "After the Laguna Seca d isas ter and my leg pr oblem s, I had expected this to be a very d ifficult weekend," Slight said . "Bu t during practice, I had my hopes up again . I starte d rea sonably, the n go t Colin into my viso r and we managed to pull away pretty eas ily. We we re goi ng at a good pace; I had no reason whatsoever to ge t past him, (and) I wanted to sa ve my leg for the last lap s. But I've noticed that that wo n' t be a pr oblem , so expect me to go all the w ay right fro m the start for the next race." Sco tt Russell record ed his se asonbest result wit h third . "I co u ld see tha t so me o the r guys had trouble, but th is _ e ev erything tim worke d ou t a ll right for me," Ru ssell said . "We had mad e the right decisions durin g pr actice. I only start ed to worry a bit towar d the end of the race, w hen the engi ne sta rted to tighten up a bit. We'll cha nge that for the next race . If I can get off the lin e a bit bette r th en as well , I sho uld be able to mix it wi th the top riders . I am also happy to have beaten Carl .Fogarty - appa rently he still doesn' t like being beaten by me." Fourth w e nt to Fogarty , a head of Whitham, Mackenzi e and Corser. "No rear grip; the tire wen t off from the fou rth la p," Co rse r sai d. "The bike went mor e sideways than forward . We had bee n struggling wit h similar problems on Friday, bu t thou gh t we had figured it out on Saturday. But we' ll be all righ t for the seco nd race." The same prob lem slowed Chili, who dro pped to ninth at the finis h. Suz uki's Peter God dard finished 10th afte r blowing his start and finding himself boxed in on the firs t corner. He fo ug ht back fro m 16th a t the sta rt. Noriyuki Haga had to sett le for 12th, due to a bad rear tire choice . RACE TWO For the Du cat i rid er s, the lesson was clear for the second race: change tires in order to str ike back at the Hondas. All thr ee factory rid er s op ted for a 17-inch wheel inst ead of the 16.5-inch they had used in the first heat, copyi ng the choice the Hond a s had ma d e befo re th em in the first heat. For most of the Ducati ri ders , th is was a bit of a ga mble, as the y ha d n't had the time to try them d uring practice. Ju dging from Co rser's pa ce, how ever, this was the wa y to go. Afte r a rocket start from James Haydon, Co rser wa s in firs t after one la p a nd , d u ri ng th e ne xt few circuits, he would stret ch his lead to a pret ty-comfortable three seconds. Comfortabl e wa s not th e word to d es cribe th e s i tu a tio n of the people beh in d , howev er. A group of fo ur formed in the battle for second place. Edwards held on to second for the first fou r lap s, bu t he mad e a sma ll mistake a nd Foga r ty was a b le to mu s cl e b y, close ly followed by Wh itham. Fogarty a nd Whitham hu ng o n to th eir n e wl y ac q uire d p la ces, w it h Ed w ard s and S lig h t jus t a fe w b ik e len gths behind but never see ming abl e to pose a thr eat. Furth er behind, Noriyu ki Ha ga spe nt most of the time riding alone, until Hodgso n, Ru ssell a nd Chili ca ught up. Th e fou rsome we nt on to struggle for the rest of the race, and finally Chili muscled his way to the front of the group, claimi ng sixth position at the finish behind Corser, Fogarty, Whitham , Edwards an d Slight. (Left) Troy Corser (11) led the f irst race for fo ur laps until Edwards (45) passed him. The Australian faded to seventh with tire trouble. (Bel ow ) Corser returned in race two with different ti res and led from start to fin is h. "I pus hed as hard as I could, " sai d w inner Corser. "Bu t right fro m th e s ta r t I fe lt co nfi den t that this was going to be a good race. I wa nted to open a ga p up bec aus e I kn ew th a t if th e tir e we n t off a t th e en d , it wou ld hav e been th e sa me for eve ryo ne. I w a s a lso a bi t wor ried whe n I noticed after a few laps tha t I co u ld n 't st re tch the lead a ny furt her. But I hoped th a t p eople wou ld battle and hold eac h other u p behin d - w hich was exact ly what happened ." Fogarty came ho me second d espite never really feeling comforta ble with his bike. "Th is has been a very hard race fo r me," Fogarty said. " I too k my othe r bike for the secon d race, an d I also switched tires . But three laps into the race, the bike sta rted giving me the same sort of tro uble I had experienced d uri ng the first race - the _bike started to chatter when I tipped it int o th e co rners . It took me so me five laps to ride aro und the problem - braking later and go ing th rou gh the corners prett y slowly. At that time, the gap wit h . Troy was already some th ree seco nds too mu ch to make up. In the second half of the race, I was under a lot of pressure, but I d idn' t know from w hom . I thou ght 1 had Aaron behin d me . O nly w hen I turned back to look with a few laps to go , I saw it was Jamie." Whitham was a very happy thi rd . "The bike has been performing quite well for the last four or five races," he sa id . "But , every time, I was ham pered by a poor qualifying result and sta rt . I know that if I have a good s tart, Ican cling on to the first bikes." Edwards finis hed fou rth a fter hold ing se co nd early in th e race a nd once aga in led his teammate across the line. The Texan knew the Ducatis were going to be tough to beat this time out. Corser rei ns F ourth in the cham pionship, Ca rl Foga rty knew that he had to star t workin g hard if he wa nted to keep his title cha nces alive. Where else but in Brands Hatch sho uld he start his cha rge. Fogarty has an excellent track record on the circu it just so uth of Londo n, and he reminded every body of that wh en he blasted to provisiona l pole pos ition on Friday qualifying. On Saturday morning howev er, things sta rted to go so u r for the local favorite. After the seco nd qualifying session, in which Fogarty d ropped to fourth behind fast man Coli n Edward s II. championship lead er Troy Corse r a nd a surprising eil Hod gson , the rain sta rted to fall a nd it wou ldn 't stop again before nightfall. So, for the first time this yea r, the Supe rpole sess ion was run acco rding to th e new we t-wea the r formu la, in wh ich eve ry rider gets the chance to record 12 fast laps 0 0 the tra ck. It confro nted the top 15 rid ers (afte r 16th qualifier and new com er Hitoyasu Izu tsu had injure d him self qu ite bad ly a fter a second serious cras h on Sat urday morning) wit h some extra cha llenges. With the track drying out very slow ly as the session we nt on, ge tting out on the trac k at the righ t time a nd on the rig ht tires turned ou t to be of a crucia l importa nce. Afte r Pier- Fran cesco Chili had led the tables for most of the time , Corser took comm and wi th onlv some 10 minutes left and too k his sixt h pole pos ition of the yea r. ' . "It was very difficult out there: ' the Australia n said . "The track was actually better at the beginning of the session, be au se it was wet all ove r c the place. I did three laps in the beginning, a nd then waited , hoping that the track would dry ou t completely before the end of the sess ion. It did n' t qu ite wor k out that wny. With a quart er of an hour to go, there was unly <1 tiny dry racing line available-. At that mom ent, Virginio told me to go out and try to rid e game four or five laps on a row, in order to work into ever faster laps. That turn ed out to be the best stra tegy; instead of going out for just one or two fast laps. I slow ly improved my lap times over those five laps , and fina lly took pole posi tion from Frankie." The Ital ian himself was not too unh ap py with second. "I had so me pr oblem s be fore Superpole, whi ch we fixed," Chili said. "So I wanted to try two or thre laps to p ush the bike a bit. Unfo rtue na tely, du e to the rain we did not learn much. But perha ps we will be able to try somet hing more du ring tomorrow mo rn ing's wa rm u p." " M y foot came off the footrest and 1 m issed a gear," Edwards said of h is dropping back two places on the fift h lap. "On ce I'd lost seco nd pla ce I knew it would be hard to make it up again. Afte r the firs t race I knew the Ducatis mig ht have a re think on tires, and they we re on the pace right from the green ligh t " Slight finis hed fifth, jus t a tenth of a second behind his teammate. "Finis hi ng fifth is no t what I wa nted bu t I did n' t ha ve m uch choice," Slight sa id. " I mad e a good start in the second Colin Ed wards go t home third. "The bike ha s worked well right from the moment we took it ou t of the truck on Thursda y," the 24-year-old Texan said . "We played aro und wit h a few different setti ngs but eventua lly went back to wh at we had originally. I was a bit surprised by my fa stest lap tim e durin g second qualifying, but it proved that we 'r e all set for the races tomorrow." The Castro} Honda rid er would have his teammat e Aar on Slig ht alongs ide on the first rowan Sunday. He wa s happy to be on the front row after su sta ining injuri es in the last round at Laguna Se a and after c so me disappointing performances at Brands Hatch in pr evious yea rs. "Especia lly my knee could be a problem tom orrow, but the st itches have been taken ou t of m y foot, so I do not expecl too ma ny pr oblems from that injury: ' Slight said . "Supe rpole was once aga in a big gam ble; it might haw been possible to use a n intermediate lire but they take a cou ple of la ps to warm up and we did not have that time , so the safe option was to be ou t there on wet weather tires and slide aro und a bit. .1St Especially the 1 corne rs were too dry and offered no traction at a ll for the wet tires. In all, this was as bad as a 'normal' Superpole. But consid ering som e of the troubl e I have had around Brands Hat ch in pr evious yea rs, I am very happy with toda y's result." The sec ond row W

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