Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

er. We had different tires on today, and that was pretty much all it came down to." Fogarty has shown an uncharacteri tic degree of peed in off-season testing, and he carried tha t good form in to his hated Superpole, finishing second only to the master of the discipline, Corser. Both Ducati Performance riders and he Castrol Honda pairing of Aaron Slight and Colin Edwards n have been virtually unstoppable in preseason testing, a situation whkh carried on virtually all weekend. Only Pier-Francesco Chili penetrated the Ducati/Honda defenses in practice, and only the talented Noriyuki Haga could repeat this feat in a race, with a hard-fought fourth in the first race - so hard-fought that Haga crashed while attacking Slight in typically abandoned style in race two. Slight himself was pleased with third in race one, and more pleased with second in race two after overhauling Corser, who was struggling with a tire that had spun on the rim. "We did touch, but I went to see him afterwards and there were no hard feelings." Haga's teammate, superbike rookie Vittoriano Guareschi, had a hard induction into the 7S0cc dub with 12th and 13th places. "The main thing 1 learned this weekend is that a good start is very important and makes a big difference:: he said. Handling problems were the main concern of new Team Eckl Kawasaki works rider Gregorio Lavilla, who manfully wrestled his disobedient. Kawasaki around Kyalami's unique geography to end the day sixth in the table, one place behind longtime Kawasaki rider Akira Yanagawa. The Japanese rider's brace of top-six finishes seemed to be based more on hard riding than good setup. "I have to trust that the front end will grip when I try to ride hard:' he said. All the Dunlop runners seemed hampered by the British rubber's hot-weather performance at Kyalarni, prompting (Above) Noriyuki Haga (41) crashes right in front of Aaron Slight (111) in the second race. Haga was impressive on the new Yamaha, finishing fourth in the first race and crashing out of second place in the second race. (left) Troy Corser (11) and Aaron Slight (111) were this close for most of the day. The pair split second-place finishes in the two races and left tied for second in the series point standings. before to post a pair of gritty 14ths, which got the home crowd's cheers echoing around the magnificent amphitheater formed by KyalamYs hills. Edwards was lucky to compete at all, never mind set the fastest lap and new record in race one (a temporary mark of 1:43.800) while riding with a badly bruised shoulder. "The first 10 laps were all right, but the pain meant I could only do two fast laps, two slow laps and so on," Edwards said. ''I'm not upset about today. Otherwise, I feel awesome this year after the winter tests." A race weekend which promised much for the newly founded superbike arm of the Belgian Alstare Suzuki team delivered only a seventh and an eighth place for Chili, with new World Superbike boy Katsuaki Fujiwara adrift of the regular fast men in 10th and 11 tho "We knew that it was going to be hard to replicate our practice lap times," said a team spokesman, "and that's how it turned out to be." The most potenUhreat to the unholy Ducati/Honda alliance came from the ever-unpredictable Haga, compensating for what (seemingly few) deficiencies his all-new R7 may ha ve had in his time-honored fashion - with a wideopen throttle and a total disregard for his own well-being. "I had a bit of a coming together with Aaron Slight at one point," Haga said. one forthright works rider to state that, "Dunlop are just off tile pace - no other explanation for it, is there?" The all-new Aprilia works effort - a convenient marriage of the longstanding De Cecco team and Aprilia's GP experience - had one down and one up come Sunday, but Peter Goddard demonstrated that the bike has got genuine ability by mixing at the front of the second gaggle of works men in race two after crashing early on in the first race. A solid seventh in race two for Goddard, ahead of Chili and Fujiwara, was proof that there can be more than one competitive Italian V-~ this season. '1 really didn't do too much wrong in the first race:' Goddard said. "I dim,'t allow for the hot temperature and the lack of grip, but it was good to finish the second race and get one under the belt. I would have liked two, but it obviously wasn't to be. The bike was good, but we still have some work to do. It was a little bit slower than the Kawasakis I was battling with, but the good thing about it is that being a V-twin, it doesn't spin the tire so much when it comes off the comers." The Aprilia factory was despera te to show its newest bike is up to the job, and, with more development, it looks like it could be. "The chassis is pretty good; we've got some work to do on the motor, but 1 think we can go to Australia a little bit inspired by this performance:' Goddard said. The Bertocchi/Gerin team's Robert Ulrn may not have quite kept pace with the works Kawasaki men, but he made an instant reputation for himself by not only qualifying for Superpole on his first privateer attempt, but beating the likes of Guareschi and Fujiwara. "I think for the first time on slick tires and the first time to do two 25-lap races, we did well:' Ulrn said. '1 rode conservatively to make sure L finished both races." It was a torrid introduction to World Superbike for Doriano Romboni, fignting off tremendous pain in his throttle hand from a practice crash and yet finishing well in the points on Sunday. Naked aggression has a Iways been Romboni's trademark, leaving his GP career littered with injuries, and it seems his World Superbike career is starting out the same way. A similar situation confronted South African rider Lance Isaacs on his Team Ducati NCR. The new World Superbike regular overcame severe injury in his hand after a street-bike crash the week RACE ONE Fogarty's holeshot in race one had the surprising number of Brits in attendance at Kyalami roaring approval as he led Corser, Haga, Edwards and Slight into the ultrafast sweeper of turn one. New boy Romboni showed strongly in the early stages before quickly dropping back to his eventual ninth-place finish on lap three, failing to blot ~ut the pain of his injured hand. . Aprilia's introduction to the heat of World Superbike battle was short-lived, with Goddard crashing at the entrance to the chicane on lap three while lying 10th. The quirky nature of Kyalami makes for very difficult passing maneuvers, and other than a few early skirmishes, the race itself was as processional as any in World Superbike hi tory. Slight was a notable early improver, moving from the fifth place he held for five laps to third in the space of two laps, first overhauling his injured teammate Edwards and then R7 debut rider Haga at the bottom of the Vodacom bowl. The leading pack of four - Fogarty, Corser, Slight and Haga - had gapped their pursuers by four econds at that stage. By lap five, Fogarty had pulled a small amount on the pursuing Corser (who by that time had disposed of Haga) with his head-down, throttleopen style working as well as ever. By lap 11, the front four were spread out in uncharacteristic fashion, with Foggy three seconds up on Corser, who was in turn a second up on Slight, hin1self two seconds upon the fading Haga. 23

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