Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

a nd the factory Ya maha ace almost came away with a clean sweep. Haga led the first race by so me five seconds when he hit a false neutral and cras hed . The race win instead went to Suzuki's Kitagawa , riding a GSX-R750 - ahead of yet another Suzuki (this one ridden by the surprising Akira Ryo) and Foga rty. Haga wasn't about to make the same mistake twice and he came back with a vengeance in race two, topping Kawasaki's Ak ira Yanagawa a nd Ryo in an allJapanese pod iu m. Foga rty was fou rth, sett ling ins tead for a third Wor ld Superbike title. The Americans didn' t have a good d ay in Suzuka, th ou gh th in gs s ta rte d well for Georgian Scott Russell. The facto ry Yama ha rid er managed to finish a fine fifth in the first leg, despite starting from 16th o n the g ri d. In the secon d race, however, things didn't go as well for Russell in what will be his final race o n th e fac t ory Yam aha; h e ended up 12th. Still, his da y was bett er than -that of Cas tro l Honda's Colin Edwards II. The Texan on ly managed to q ualify 15th, and he ended u p 13th in bot h races as he struggled w it h hand li ng problems alI weekend - not a good way to en d th e , season. Still, Edwards managed to salvage fifth in th e championship point standings. But at the top of those standings was the gritty Fogarty - just 4.5 points ahead of Slight after 24 races . Corser held on to thi rd despite not racing, finis hi ng the year with 328 .5 points. T he n ca me Du cat i's Pie r-Francesco Chili in fou rth with 293.5, 14 poin ts ahead of Edwards. Ch ili ended h is season in mis erable fashion , finishi ng 12th in the first race and failing to fin ish the seco nd. RAC E ONE Even b e fore t he li g h ts fl a sh ed t o green, the title ba ttle had lost its number-on e candi date. During the morning warmup, Corse r cras hed and was taken to the medi cal center with th ree broken ribs. - Between the warmup and the start of th e fir st ra ce , the Au stralian rec eived painkiIlin g inj ections, but after some vision and concentrat ion tests , it became clea r that he wasn't in any cond ition to s ta rt th e firs t race. It 'w as al so hi ghly u n likely that he wo ul d s tart race two. His final title ho pes were fina lly smashed when he beca me d izzy af ter the start of the first race, and his blood pressure dropped . He was q u ickly rushed to a hospital in nearby Sen dai, where it was discovered tha t he'd punctured his spleen. His doctors will d ecide shortly whether or not the u nfortu nate Australian will req ui re surgery. Back at the Sugo tr a ck, Ha ga was doing wha t every bo dy ha d expecte d him to do in the near-perfect conditions (a d ry track wit h temperatures in the 70d egree range): He was leading the pa ck in fro nt of Ryo, Fogarty, Kitagawa, Russell (after ano ther very fast start) and the rest of the gan g. Slight wa s ninth after one lap, and he had his work cu t out for him. He had to carve his wa y through the field in order to ge t at least close to Fogarty, his on ly remaining title ·riva l. Haga pulled away pretty eas ily, wi th Ryo the on ly one who could keep the Yamaha in sight. . 'Fogarty was further back, w ith Kitagawa in fourt h and Russell fifth. Slight, , meanwhile, was trying to get in fro nt of the two Kawasaki riders, Yanagawa and Neil Ho dgson. After five laps, Foga rty had passed Ryo to take over seco nd but w as u nable to close th e gap to Haga. One.la p.la ter, Sligh t moved up to sev- (Right) Fogarty did exac tl y what he had to do t o win his th ird World title. (Bel ow) Neil Hodgs on (5), Aaron Slig ht (111) and Akira Yana gawa (4) had a heated battle in the first race. (Bottom) Troy Corser 's hopes of a title went down the drain when a Sund ay morning crash left him with a punctured sp leen . enth, at the expense of Yanagawa, who was s t ill su ffe r ing from his p racticecras h injuries. With Yana gawa taken care of, a ferocious battle between Slig h t and Hod gson ensued for six th pla ce, w ith both riders hitting eac h ot her on thr ee sepa rate occasio ns . Th e incident s occu rred w hen Slight trie d to dive insid e Hod gson , w it h th e Brit refu sin g to give an inch. The fina l enco u nter sent both rid ers off the track , leaving the d oor ope n for Yana gaw a , who imm ediat el y grabbed fifth pla ce. By th is time, Haga was dusting off his leath er s after having hit neutral at the end of the front straight and cras hing. Tha t pu t Foga rty in the lead - and gave him a free bonus of five extra points. But even befo re the Ducati rider could start calcu lating his position in the Wo rl d Champions hi p, he had to let Kitagawa go . Five laps fro m the end, Kitagawa was leadi ng comfortably, with Fogarty s truggling more and more with w ha t a p pea red to be a rear tire gone bad. Ryo, m ean while, was now closing rapidly and wa s in Fogarty's draft going into the last lap. Behind the m, the as tonishing Yanagawa had moved aro und Russell to take over fourth, with Hod gson a nd Sli ght continu in g th eir figh t over sixth . Four laps before the end, Ryo got in front of Fogarty, and that was it. Nothing e lse would cha nge, with 31yea r-o ld Kitaga wa not only taki ng his fi r st vic tory in the World Superbike Cha m pionsh ip, but also his first victory for Suzu ki. ' 'T hi ngs have sta rted goi ng welI for the Suz uki team in the All-Japan Champ ionship 'after th e eigh t- hou r ra ce a t Suzuka," th e fo rmer Ka w a sa k i rider sa id . "T he new e ngine parts and thecoo ler.weather have allowed us to have the Suz uki runnin g in top form. Having sa id that , I had nev er expected to wi n her e - especially not w ith the com plete Wo rld Supe rbi ke co m pe tition a t th e start." Ryo was qu ite pl ea sed w ith second place. "I have tri ed ve ry hard during the last lap in order to ge t back to Keiichi, but I was ove rpacing m yself a bit and made a few mistakes, " Ryo said. 'There was nothing I could do. He was riding ver y smoothly and did not put a wheel wrong himself." Despi te having take n the lead in the champ ionship wi th a point-and-a-half lead over Slight, Foga rty w asn' t a happy man as he climbed the rostrum in third place. "The first part of the race felt realIy good ," Fogarty s a id. "T h e b ike wa s go ing well and I was ge tting int o a fast rhy thm. But as soo n as I passed one of the Suzukis, the tire s started to go off. Thi s made life very difficult. I couldn't get a ny co rn eri ng speed. I just had to concentrate on keeping the bike upright and tryi ng' to keep the pace." Yanagawa fini shed a lo ne ly fourth, with RusselI just a second a nd a half behind - but 'ahead of the duo of Hod gso n an d Slight. Russell was obvious ly pleased wi th his per forman ce considering his start ing posit ion , bu t he would have liked to ha ve bee n in a position to battle with someone. "I kin d of got lucky at the start," he said . "If I had got hung up in the group behind, it would have been a who le lot harder. I got out of the sad d le a couple of times. My rear tire was spinning up a 00 0\ 0\ ,...... -::t'~ ,...... l-< (J) .g ...... u o 21

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