Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE WORLDSUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP (Left) Haga and Fogarty co ngratu late each oth er aft er t he second leg. (Right) Fogarty is mobbed by h is crew after w inning the World Champions hip . 00 0\ 0\ ,..... "':!"~ ,..... l-< (l) ..0 o ...... u o 22 lot. If I cou ld ge t it hooked up better, I'd b e sc a ry . I h ad to b e r eally s moo t h towards the end and cou ld n' t attack." Slight and Hodgson continued their fight o n th e slow-down lap, with both men stop ping on th e tr ack a nd hitting each other - with Slight later ac cusing Hodgson of dangerous riding. "M y race was spoiled by Neil Hodgso n," the New Zealander said after ha vin g co o led d own a bit. "Th ree times I pa ssed him o n the brakes , a nd three times he just threw his bike in to the side o f m in e . I didn 't ex pect him to m ove o ver, but when som eo ne is alongside and on th e racing line, it makes sense to concede . I ca ug h t H od g s on ea s y enough, but I spen t 10 hard laps trying to pass him, a nd by the tim e I had , my rea r tire w as finis hed. I was-doing fine u ntil then . I go t a good start , had a little m oment th roug h th e firs t co rn er and lost a place; then I was hit goi ng in to the t h i r d co rner a n d drop p ed a not he r place: ' Shinichi Itoh, Wa taru Yoshi kawa , Goddard and James Whitham crossed t he fi nis h lin e no t far apar t, taking p laces eigh t th ro ug h 11. Goddard a nd W hit ha m had bee n involved in a racelong scrap that nearly en ded in d isas ter when they almost co llided in the m id d le stages of the ba ttle. "Ja m es was a head, but I w as faster and I di ved thro ugh on the inside a nd we had a bit of a coming-togethe r," sai d Goddard. A co m plete ly u nm ot iv a ted Pi e r Francesco C h ili to o k 12 th, in fron t o f Edwards. The Texan's 13th-place finish his first finish of the year ou tside the top 10 - w as d ue to the handling p roblem s the American had suffered all weeke nd. " We s ta r te d ou t o kay, b ut s o m e w he re in the cha nge s we have mad e to the machine, we hav e go ne in th e wrong di rection," Ed wards sai d. "I had cha tter in the fron t o f th e machine and no rear grip in that first ra ce: ' RACE TWO Wit h on ly a pointand -a- h alf d iffere nce bet w ee n t h e tw o remain ing title ca nd idates, the st ra tegy for both was clear: !t was all about s ta y in g in front o f the competitor . Wh en th e li gh ts turned to green, Haga dived into the fir st corner just ah ead of Fogarty , with Slight having gone fro m the thi r d r o w to fourth place. But after a few la ps, it beca m e obvious tha t there was not going to be a direc t confront a tion . The o n ly th ing that ha p p en ed was th a t t he distance b et w ee n the two title rivals changed. H a g a , m ean whil e, s u cceeded in build in g a co m fo rta ble lead . Foga r ty , th ough, had hi s hands full w it h Ry o, Behind th em, Sli ght couldn't keep u p th e pace of the front-runners , a lthoug h he seemed to be in a fairly comfortable posit ion , as nob ody w as close to him . Th ings started to cha nge a t the middl e stage. Afte r a slow st a rt, Yanagawa had caugh t u p with Slig h t an d had started to attack him for fourth place. A few la ps la ter, th e Kawasaki rid er charged past the Honda and pulled away. Slight, on the ot her hand , was now coming under pressure from Kitaga wa and Yoshikawa , who had kep t each other company right from the start of the race. Things really started to get interesting with seven laps to go, when Ryo clawed back a t Fogarty an d even got in fron t of h im five laps befo re the e nd . And the Brit was lo sing grou nd fast, wit h Yanagawa cha rg ing behind him . At ro ughly th e sa me time, Sligh t's fift h position w as co ming und e r a ttack fro m Kitagawa and Yoshikawa. One la p . later, things got ev en hairier for Fogarty w he n Ya nagawa g o t in fro n t, o n ly to continue sto rming all the w ay u p to secon d place with tw o laps to go. Slig ht w ho wa s o n ly a few s econds beh ind Fog arty in fift h pl ace - dropped ba ck a nother pl ac e when Kitagawa w orked his w ay past him. At the end , Ha ga finis he d on top, brin ging Yanagawa a nd Corser's super fJ_ol_e_ _ W ith the title up for grabs and the Sugo circuit famous for being difficult to pass on, qualifying proved to be even hotter than normal - with some surprises. The first surprise was the ponr performance of the Hondas. Despite having new and more-powerful engines, the factory team struggled with suspension and other setup problems from the get-go. On Saturday, however , Aaron Slight seemed to have things worked out as he notched up the third-quickest time. But then he threw it all away during Superpole, endin g up on Satu rday morning notching up a third time - and then throwing it away again duri ng Superpole as he s lip ped back to 10th. The Ducatis, on the other hand, went well from the beginning. and they held the top three spots after the first qua lifying session. Only on Saturday morning did the locals begin to show what they are made of as they started to fmd their way to the top of the charts. Saturday afternoon would again provide surprises - with Troy Corser taking his seventh pole position of the season after almost losing it in the final chicane before the long climb toward the finish line. "That chicane is one of the most difficult corners on the circuit," said Corser, "because it"s very tight, and because it"s very important to accelerate well from it. [ went in well, hit the curb with my footpeg, but managed to keep the bike up . I thought [ was fast enough to be on the front row, but was quit e surprised to sec I was on po le." Second place went to the surprising Akira Ryo and his factory Suzuki. Ryo, unlike his teammate Atushi Watanabe, was riding a carbureted GSX-R. "I have tried very ha rd during the whole weekend to get on the lront row," the young Japanese rider said. "Before the weekend, we had received some new suspension pa rts, but as soo n .1S I go t used to tha t, I have stead ily improved my lap times." Yamaha's Noriyuki Haga had to settle for third in his home race. "l was third on the grid last YCilr and [ did well, and I want to db the same tomorrow," Haga said. "I was hoping to get below 1:30, but I did not manage to do so. [ hope to do it in the races." Carl Fogarty put in his be qualifying re st sult of the season, ending up lourth on his lactory Ducati. Of the three title contenders, Fogarty seem ed to b e th e o n e wi th th e mos t co n fide nc e a s th e fi nal r ace approached. Ryo w it h hi m to th e rostru m . Fo urth w ent to Fog a rty, in fro nt o f Kitagawa, Sligh t, Yoshikaw a and Ken Ha ga . Obviously, Fogar ty was the hap piest man in the pad d o c k, h a vin g ta ke n hi s th i rd Wo rld Superbike title. "I st ill can' t believe tha t I am Wo rld Cha m pio n again," Fogarty sai d. " I am overco me w it h emotion, especia lly as this has been a great comeback after having lost the title for a couple of years. I am very pleased for the tea m, for Davi de (Ta rdozzi), for the factory at Bologna and for my British fans . The bike was perfect this afternoon. But 10 la ps before the e nd , the back started chattering ba dly. At first I tho u g h t th e tire was gone and that big chunks were co ming off it. I d ecid ed not to rev the engine hig he r than 10,000 revs, in order not to have the tire spin more. Later, it beca me clea r tha t the tire w as jus t slip ping on the rim. For me, it was the n a matt er of sta ying ahead of Aaron. I d idn' t ca re abou t losing second or thir d pla ce: ' It's expec ted that Fogarty w ill sign a new co ntra ct w ith Duca ti within a couple of da ys. As a tok en of his gra titude, Federico Min oli p romised Fogarty that he could keep th e bike th at had taken him to his third World title. "I thought this was going to be one of the most difficult circuits to qualify on," he said, "but the bike and the tires were working well, so everything went very smoothly." The second row was an all-Japan line, with the exception of sixthplaced Neil Hodgson. The Brit was joined on row two by Akira Yanagawa, Keiichi Kitagawa and Wataru Yoshikawa. Peter Goddard qualified his Su zuki in ninth. The Australian was a little disappointed to be starting from row three after his pre-Superpole preparations were disrupted when the circuit's electricity generator failed, shutting off his tire-warming equipment. "It was very unnerving. having to go out in the warmup on cold tires, and it meant that I was not in just the right frame of mind for Superpole itself," Goddard said . "l couldn' t seem to find the correct rh ythm, and tha t is esse ntial on thi s circui t. Howev er, w e have a good race se tu p now ." Honda was in the most trouble, with Slight 10th and Colin Edwards II even further down in 15th. Still, Slight believed he was still in contention for th e two races . "Where [ have qualified is my best performance at Sugo," the Kiwi said. "Last year [ was 13th and finished sixth and fourth in the two races. The Su perpole warmup this afternoo n was really good, the machine felt good and so did the tires. It's just a shame [ didn 't have more time on the Honda before Superpo le. I have no need to change mu ch for the race , I just need m ore laps on the machine as it is now - and I'll get them in tomorrow's warmup . We've always had a problem getting the bike turning wei] here at Sugo, with the ensuing front-tire problems. So 1have to live with that. My practice and qualifying plan is always to be fast on race tires, and [ am. It's a real shame [ won't get away at the front with the others, but it's not over for me yet. My only worry now is using up the tires in the early laps. trying to get throogh the traffic. I know I'm quicker than every other rider down to about third position," Pier-France co Chili qualified 13th after failing to find the correct s setup for his Ducati. Edwards came home 15th, suffering from the same prob lem s as his team mate. "I'm struggling, but we'll keep working at it," Edwards said. "The machine setup is good, but it's not giving me the reel [ need. My big problem is the first section of the track. I'm losing about eight-tenths of a second throu gh the firs t six corners." Yamaha's Scott Russell was even further down, clocking the 16thfastest time. "It's the same problem I've had all season and I can't seem to get anything to work," he said. "I thought we'd found something with the front yesterday, but it came to nothing. The track is a bit uneven. but en that shouldn 't be a problem for me - it never has be in the past."

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