ROAD RACE
WR S
O LD UPERBIKE
CHAMPIONSHIP
Final round: Sugo, Japan
By Johan Vandekerckhove
Photos by Gold & Goose
SUGO, JAPAN, ocr.4
h ree riders wen t in to the fi na l
ro u n d of the Wo rld Superbike
Cha mpionship in Japan w it h a
mathematical cha nce of leaving with the
ti tle. The lead e r going in to the final
s howdown was Ducati's Troy Corser and he was the first one to d rop out of
the chase. Eventually, it wo u ld come
down to Carl Fogarty vs. Aaron Slight,
though a direct on- track confrontation
be tween th e tw o nev er ma terialized ,
leaving the 28,500 spectators to watch
the magnificent perform ances tu rned In
by h om eb oy racers Keiichi Kitagawa
and Noriyuki Haga.
As for th e title chase, tha t fin ally
came d ow n to mathematics. When all
was said and do ne, Du ca ti' s Fogarty
had the better numbers after turning in
third- and fourth-place finishes to earn
his third World Superbike Championship. Sligh t, meanwhile, couldn't do
be tter tha n seventh and sixth, and he
ha d to settle for second in the championship - again!
If Slight was d isa pp ointed , he wasn' t
alone. Corser heard the news about the
cha mpionship from a hosp ital bed after
cras hing in the morning warmup and
breaki ng three rib s and puncturing his
s p lee n - a n in ju ry that kept him fro m
even sta rting the final roun d .
The race wins, how ever, wen t to the
locals. One was expected; the other was
so mewhat of a s urprise. Everyone
expected Haga to excel on his home soil,
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(Abo ve) Noriyukl
Haga (41)
probably would
have won both
races of the World
Superbike round
in Sugo , Japan,
but a crash In the
first race stopped
him from doing
so. He did,
however , manage
to win the second
leg. Here he is
being chased by
newly crowned
World Superblke
Champion Carl
Fogarty (2).
(Right) Fogarty
and Haga had
good days, but so
did Suzuk i with ,
Keiich, Kitagawa
(85) and Aklra Ryo
(91) fin ish ing first
.and second In the
first leg ยท ahead of
Fogarty (2).
