Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES By Johan Vandekerckhove Photos by Gold & Goose ASSEN, HOLLAND,SEPT.6 ha t is the differe nce be twee n cha mpionship poin ts leade r Troy Co rse r a nd th e man in second, Aaron Slig ht, after an eventfu l Holland round that saw the fig h t for th e Wor ld Cha m p ions h ip only get closer for the top three riders. Ne ither Slight nor Corser won at race a the historic circuit, both suffering from mi no r tr oubl es in th e ra ces that kept th em fro m fighting for th e lead . Still, th eir results we re good enou gh tha t Co rser co uld barel y h ang on to h is points lead after he finis hed third in race one, wit h Slight just beh ind, the n thi rd again in race two - bu t with Slight one spo t ahead. 6 Round 11: Circuit van Drenthe The man for whom the weekend was mos t beneficial was Ducati's Ca rl Fogarty. The Brit end ed his weekend with two finish es ahead of both Slight and Corser, taking second in race on e and stealing the win in race two . Who d id he steal it from ? Italian PierFra ncesco Chili . Chili had trailed Foga rty until the second-to-last lap in the second rac e and made a d ecisi ve pa ss to tak e the lead. But Fogart y foug ht back a nd dived up the inside on the brak es for the fin al ch ica ne. Ha vi n g left the ins ide lin e ex posed , C h ili su d de n ly found Fogarty was w here he wanted to be, a ndChi li crashe d into the gravel tra p, with Fogarty taking the win. The conflict d idn't end there. Chili had won the first race and made up points on the leaders of the championsh ip - includ ing Fogarty - and looked set to gai n that mu ch more until the incident with Fogarty . After the race, Chili sto rmed after Fogarty in the pits and there was nearly a fist fight. High drama, indeed. With one more round and two races to go in Sugo, Corser, Sligh t and Fogarty each s till have a cha nce at ta ki ng the title, as Fogarty is now on ly six points behi nd Corser. As it sta nds, Corser has 328.5 point s, Slight 328 and Foga rty 322.5. Chi li is still fo ur th , n o w w it h 289.5 poin ts, but cla imed in a nger afte r the race that he wou ld ski p th e Sugo r ound . Coli n Edwards II, fifth and fourth on the day, is next with 271.5. RACE ONE The nume rous Brit ish fans at th e Dutch circu it go t what they asked fo r . right from the start of the first race - at leas t for the first couple of minutes . Their hero Foga rty took comma nd . before the first corner after a holeshot by Peter Goddard. Jam es Whit ham , for whom the crowd had been chanting " h a p p y b irthday" before the s ta r t of the ra ce, didn 't m ake i t much pa st that first turn, cra shing on th e first lap a nd unabl e to reviv e his downed bike. (Top ) Carl Fogarty (2) leads the way at the start of race one . . (Left) Troy Corser (11) was quickly Int o the lead but eventually fin ished third beh ind winner PierFrancesco Chill (7) and Fogarty. After one lap, Fogarty was lea di ng Corser, Chili, Goddard , Neil Hodgson, Akria Yanagawa and Slight. Corser took over on the second lap, and from that moment on, the three factory Ducati riders built a lead that carried them awa y from the rest of the field . Corser held the lead for fiv e laps, challenged mostly by Fogarty. Just befo re the halfw ay stage, however, the Aus tralian s ta rted to drop ba ck a nd soon found himself a t the tail end of the lead ing trio, with Chili and Fogarty then battling it out for the lead . After eight laps of 16, Chili an d Fogarty we re engaged in a fierce bat tle, wi th Co rser a few bike lengths behind, and Slight well off the lead ers after working his way back from a poor start . Slight's teammat e Edwards had h is work cu t ou t for him as Godda rd an d Yanagawa were d et erm in ed not to let th e Texa n ha ve the fifth pla ce. Eve n fu rth er back, the tw o Yamaha fa ct ory rid e rs - Scott Ru ssell a nd ' No riyu ki Haga - had been try ing to cut loose fro m Hod gson and Lavilla. Th e I Spania rd wou ld eventua lly have to reti re wit h a broken engine. Two laps before th e end, Fogarty looked set to continue his winning tradition in As sen. Chili wa s the only one able to keep the Brit within striking distance, with Corser looking to have settled for third. Slight a nd Edwards were cru is ing solitarily in fourth and fifth, respectively. Goddard and Yanagawa were still in a hea ted battle over sixth, with Haga, Russell and Hodgson battling at least as ferociou sly over eigh th. At the front of the field on the last lap of the race, Fogarty got a big surprise w hen Chili passed him for the lead on the back straight behind the paddock, the Italian tu rn ing in the fastest lap of th e race in th e process. Fogarty was helpless to respo nd before the end of the race and Chili had the win , wi th Fogarty a safe second in front of Co rser. Both Chili and Fogarty mad e up a few p oint s on cha m p ions h ip lead er Corser, thou gh the Aus tralian stretched his lead over fourth-placed Slight to 4.5 points. " I want to wi n as man y races as possib le be fore th e season is over," sa id Chili, who is aiming a t a top -three finish in the cha mpio nship in order to guarantee a job wit h Ducati for next yea r. "For a cha nge, m y start was all right, but afte r a few laps I felt so me tro uble wi th : the suspension, so I decided to let Carl pass a nd try to save the rear tire a bit , which was reall y su ffering from the bad suspension setup. It all wo rked out very well , and I was happy to get back in to the lead on the last lap ." For Fogarty, second was obviously not what he had been hoping for, bu t it was wh at he had to take. "I was struggling at one point on the circu it, and that is where Frankie got past me," Fog arty sa id. " I thou gh t I could get back a t him in the chicane, as 1 had been faster there than him for most of the race, but I made a sma ll mistake just before coming to the chica ne, and , tha t was it." Ear ly in the race, Corser had confidence that he could take the win, but hefound .that as the race wor e on he was r losing traction at the rea r an d had to settle for third. "The bik e was working well," Corse r sai d , "a nd m y to p s peed was pretty mu ch th e sa me as the others. But then th e rear tire s tarted to spin qu ite a lot toward the end , s top ping me from gettin g back to the two lead in g riders in that final stage ."

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