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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127991
(Left) This was the scene after both races - Corser on top of the podium, Fogarty second and Edwards third. (Above) Aprilia-mounted Peter Goddard started the weekend off well with a sixth in regular qualifying but suffered mechanical problems in both races. Despite professing tha t such a fea t would be nigh on impossible at the postSuperpole press conference, Corser got the jump on the pursuing pack with a holeshot from pole, pulling a 0.7-second gap in a single lap on cold tires. Two laps later eventual second-place finisher Fogarty had elbowed his way past a serum of top four-cylinder riders to commence his vainglorious chase of Corser. He proved to be chasing shadows, as Corser had pulled a 2.1-second lead by lap four. With the help qf a cool race brain and the intervention of a backrnarker, Corser laid the contest to rest from that point onward, maintaining a comfortable twosecond advantage over Fogarty for most of the race, finally finishing 3.8 seconds ahead for his fir t win of the season. '1 just kept pushing hard for the first five or six laps until [ got a two-second gap, then 1 slowed a bit to save the tires," said Corser. "1 knew it was Carl behind me because of his pit board. If 1 slowed just a little bit, [could see he would make three- or four-tenths right away, but 1 was controlling the race at the front." Fogarty may posses a never-say-die attitude that is unmatched in the World Superbike realm, but that couldn't help him when he got balked by a backrnarker on lap 12 while slowly but inexorably ca tching Corser. "Cost me about a second, the wanker," said a highly miffed Fogarty. Behind the Ducati jamboree was where the real racing was. Despite losing around 0.75 of a second per lap to the red devils, Slight, Edwards and . B.rieflv..·. With a damp but drying track' surface before the start' of scheduled Superpole qualifying the session was declared "wet." Thus the nonmal convention of the top 16 going for a grid position after a sin~le fast lap was replaced with a 50-minute session, during which each of the top 16 qualifiers attempted to set the fastest lap, with a li.mit of only 12 laps each. Thus it became a game qf strategy. won as.usual by TrOy Corser. New rules to determine whether Superpote would be wet or dry were announced at Phillip Island. which included the new rule that if a "dry" Superpole is interrupted by rain, the remain.der of the time would be treated as a "wet" Superpole. with all previous times canoeled. Robert Ulm suffered a massive crash at the ultrafast Honda Comer during the first timed practice on Friday, comprehensively destroying his ZX-7RR. "I had four or fIVe real big front-end slides there in winter testing because some riders have indicated that it is possible to do it full open before. This is the last try to do it full open. because the bike slipped away I ccashed over .the front at over 200kph. The bike is virtually destroyed." The damage to Ulm's preferred ZX-7RR was ihdeed extensive. writing off the chassis and swinganm and Virtually every protruding part "Of the bike. " en en en ~ as N .;:: Q. « 14 Haga were eventually joined by Yanagawa on the seventh lap. Haga pulled his favorite overtaking maneuver, down the hill into the first right on all of his opponents at some time or other, and most notably on Edwards on lap five, but couldn't make any of them stick. By lap eight this gang of four were . 5.2 seconds down, but by lap eight they were a whopping 12 seconds dear of the next-nearest challengers, Romboni and Connell. The following pack did not include any of the likely challengers such as Chili (out on four with a fuelpump problem), Lavilla (out on lap five with a front-wheel tuck) or homeboy Goddard (with a broken engine). Romboni maintained his good form to the end and pipped Cannel, a crash having dealt with his teammate Martin on lap eight. Up the crazy end of the world, Honda backmarker Webster caused much consternation as the warring quartet tried to negotiate him and each other on lap 14, a feat which looked impossible but merely scattered the little group for a short time. Edwards and Yanagawa dropped back, seemingly for a bit of R&R, because they got right back into position for the frantic final laps. . The last few laps disappeared in a frenzy of elbows and improbable maneuvers from everyone, and culminated in a line-astern cavalry charge for the line, an indecently long way past the exit of the very fast final corner at Phillip Island. With Corser and Fogarty long gone, the 40,OOO-strong crowd was treated to the sight of Edwards whipping every Honda horse at his disposal to exhaustion to take fourth, ahead of the squeezing pack of Slight, Yanagawa and Haga's slightly less powerful Yamaha, which ended up as the sushi in Slight and Yanagawa's lunchtime feast. Going into the last comer second in the group, Haga took the flag (not to mention one of the nine lives of the flagman) in sixth, finds the whole job of racing harder as he gets older. despite his dominant performances at the opening two races of the year in South Africa. "I never used to think about the setup and tires between. sessions or between races. but oOW I have to." Fogarty said. "I used to just jump on the bike ani:! go. but oow I find I have to think about setup a lot more to stay competitive. I find the racing the easy part. All the buildup and travelling is the hard bit. The racing itself is like a release. " the time. I don't know why F!ammini let people enter into a World Championship race - guys who can't even win an Australian Champion.ship race. Some of them, like (Craig) Connell and (Steve) Martin on the Ducatis, are going fast. but they're letting all sorts of dic.kheads out here and it's crazy. Some of them wooldn't get into the top 1"0 in Australia. It doesn't help us. It makes us look stupid. I'm going tQ say something to· Flammini. This isn't on. Someone. is going to get hurt." The highly abrasive nature of the newly resurfaced Phillip Island circuit has posed unique problems to the tire suppliers this weekend. Dunlop, which has been losing the tire war thus far, hopes that its fortunes have changed. "We have brought tires more suited to Phillip Island's more abrasive surface - basically harder tires. with more durability." said a spokesman. Durability was the word on every ride( s lips after the ftrst qualifying .sessions. with Peter Goddard especially a lillie concerned that if anything was going to ruin his good chances of a fop-five home-circuit result. it would be tires unable 10 hack his or his rapid Aprilia's pace. Four. World Superoike regulars - Vladimir Karaban. Frederic Protat, Camilo Matiz Ovalle and most noticeably Alessan" dro Gramigni - were absent without leave at Phillip Island. Gramlgni is thought to be experiencing a worrying lack of spares for his Yamaha R7. a bike which is not developing a reputation for reliability outside the cosseted confines of the Yamaha superbik" squad. The Colombian Ovalle was the subject of much conjecture over the weekend. with one paddock wit Claiming th'at he had "taken a powder. - At press time, it is not understood what. if any, disciplinary proceedings will be taken against these riders and teams. but an SBK spokesman confirmed that no action wi~ be taken if the teams have a genuine reason for not attending. A handful of very' slow riders provoked great ire from the top riders by getting in th", way to an abnormal degree. Colin Edwards II was the most vocal critic. "This guy Sartoni came out of the tum. I'd just started my first qualifying lap, I started to nail it and this dip-shit's silling in the middle of the road. Then he sits back and looks at me. So I come up the inside, thinking he's gonna stay outside. and he just chops the nose off me and I missed him by about two inches. I had 20 mph on him, he's got new tires on... it would have been big! That damn Giuliano Sartoni dipshil. I tum when I go around him and I just sit there. waving the bird in his face. He .shrugs and goes like, 'Duh. sorry.' One other time when I was behind Goddard coming out of turn two,. he sticks his right leg out. like he's finished or something, and'then he just sits in the middle of the track. So me aQd Pete come out. thin'king he's gonna stay wide - no, he dives to the inside. so me and Pete have to adjust. go to the inside and then back out for tum three. which was beautiful. .. I don't like to see anybody crash. but I am so happy that m----------- crashed." Goddard confirmed tbat he had no choice 'in the matter, but was. another who criticized the riding level of many of the lower-order competitors. "Even my fastest lap was done while dodging some slower rid· . Another Austrian rider who was haVing difficutlty was Andreas Meklau. "I only had one set of soft tires for Superpole. which were only good for one lap," Meklau said. "I went out but didn't get a good lap time. So I waited and waited to see if I cO.uld get a tow. In the last fIVe minutes of Superpole I got Slight, Lavilla and Fujiwara going out. The tires weJe perfect and I got a really good time, For my bike it is good. I only have one 1998 bike at present, a normal production racer. I can't wait .to get back to Europe to collect my new 1999 bikes. They should be the same as Romboni has - 1998 factory specification. but all new. ,. also can't wait to come back to WSB with ·my new bikes. Maybe. then we come a little closer to the top .10." Mekalu was one of many riders who found Phillip Island a difficult circuit to learn. but witb few problems during practice. Meklau has now got it figured out. "I have been coming here for fou'r or five years, and this.is the first time I have felt happy to. go fast. " Troy Corser was another who was amazed that certain riders Reigniog World Champion Carl Fogarty has claimed thaf he had even been given a start. "Some guys out there are riding around like they are on the street." Corser said. "It happens all Both Colin Edwards II and Aaron Slight were running Nissin perimeter brake systems in Australia, replacing the previous Brembo units. "The big change between running the other brakes and the Nissins is fee!. It's all feel. I wouldn't say we've cured the problem that we had with the other system. but the lever feel is . there. The Brembos were spongy. and you didn't know when it's off going into the comer, whereas these are the way it should be. We've got a couple of races to decide." said Edwards. Slight has already opted to use the Nissins. Troy Corser made it two for two in the Superpole battle this year and a record 18 pole-position prizes since his entry into superbike - a· new record that launched him out above previous fellow pole kings Carl Fogarty and Doug Polen. His philosophy? "Sujoerpole. well, I hate the thing, but if you"re going to do it, you might as well be good at it.· I don't ,like it at all. but I don't find ii hard to just go out there and do one fast lap.. Even at this track. beoause· you can go down here into turn one and. it's dry and then go into turn two and it's drizzling. " ers... Carl Fogarty's attempt to displace Corser from pole was. hindered by clutch problems dUring his final portion of rationed laps. ''I'm more conoerned' with getting a good race setup than worrying about being fastest in practice," Fogarty said. ''I've ncit been