Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Road Race Round 3: Donington Park WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES ing Donington Park's undulating ribbon of tarmac finally got what they had lined up hours to see - a Fogarty hometown triumph. That said, it took Fogarty all of three laps to hit the lead he was to maintain to the flag - once he had overcome the early pace of Chili, substituting sheer Edwards and crew were obviously elated with the Texan's performance. aggression and experience for the deficiencies of his Suzuki/Dunlop combination. Mixed in with the regula rs was local wild card Walker, whose strong start saw him third after one lap, followed by Corser and another fast young Brit, Haydon, riding injured after two big get-offs in the British series the weekend before. For seven laps Haydon stuck in there with Slight, Edwards and Co., all the time never looking like he would crash until' he did, exiting Melbourne for the eighth time. Still, his momen t of fleeting glory lasted longer than Lavilla's, what with the oft-troubled Spaniard crashing between McLeans and Schwantz curves on the first circuit. With Fogarty and Chili a mere 1.2 seconds clear of the warring factions behind after four laps, Slight passed Corser at the Melbourne hairpin, something of a statement of intent as he proved to be the only man capable of hassling Fogarty in the later laps, as he cut consistent low 1:34s and even the odd 1:33. It was something of a slowish start to a mildly glorious end for both Honda riders, with Edwards, seventh on the first lap, starting a charge that would take him through to third on lap 12. Corser became one of his victims on lap eight, sliding down the field as his tires went from imperfect to impossible in no time. At the front, Fogarty had broken Chili by a second on only lap five, leaving the Suzuki rider to the inexorable hunger of Slight on la p nine, a small man on a big mission by that stage. One lap later Chili was off, high-siding his shot Dunlop rear at the exit of Melbourne in a good, old-fashioned, tarmac-slapping bone-cracker. With that, the first four places were set for the next 14 laps, with Fogarty managing to control his lack of corner speed enough to maintain a two-second gap over Slight to the flag, with the Honda rider 12 seconds up on teammate Edwards, who was complaining bitterly of a slipping clutch, and Walker, complaining about nothing through a contented grin. Especially contented, as he conquered the quietly determined might of Yanagawa, coming from 10th to fifth in In the end, Fogarty was somewhat surprised by his Superpole time, after what he judged to be an imperfect showing. "It was a bit of a scrappy lap really," Fogarty said. "I'm surprised the time was as good as it was. I wasn't sure if I was on pole or not until I got back into the pits. The marshals were waving two fingers at me on the coolhe depression of a poor showing at Phillip Island down lap, but I didn't know if they were waving a victowas alleviated for the Alstare Corona extra team at ry sign at me or telling me to go away! I wasn't surprised Donington when Pier-Francesco Chili ripped his when Chili went faster than me because he put in a fast way to the second-fastest regular qualifying lap, a mere time this morning in normal qualifying. He got the fastest lap, so good on him." 16 hundredths behind Carl Fogarty. . Troy Corser, Mr. Superpole at tlle first two races of "I still have problems with opening the throttle at the exit of a comer, and also on the way in, but I knew I had the year, ended up in not second but third place. "It's got to happen sometime, because it's so hard to done a good lap," Chili said. "I actually thought I was go out there and just do one lap," Corser said. "You fastest, so I waved hello to everybody anyway!" Their joy was compounded when Chili took fastest make one mistake and get one small slide and you lose a time in what was an unusually thrilling and action- tenth, and that would have almost done it today. As packed Superpole, holding off Fogarty once more, this . long as I have a chance to be first into the first corner, that will do. The Hondas were doing about the same time by a wafer-thin 0.077 of a second. "1 didn't expect to do this lap time because in the first time as me and Carl when they were on race tires, so two races of the year Ducati and Michelin were working that's about it. For sure the corner speed is a problem. really good," Chili said. "The Dunlops at Donington It's just so hard to keep the grip. I know they washed work not too bad. When I came here J had a different the'track on Thursday, and spilled a load of diesel after, feeling from the first two races. The feeling in my head is so maybe that has something to do with it. It's getting better also. We still have problems. Every time I come to better, but even the sidecar guys are complaining about a race, I think that the problems with opening the throt- the grip." Akira Yanaga,wa was a minor star in Superpole, opertle at the exit of the comer is g~me and then it reappears again. I hope to do well on Sunday, but I know that rac- ating at full gas to lead for the most of it and then finally ing and practice are different. The bike is pretty much finish a strong fourth after scoring a mere 13th in regular the same as Phillip Island. I was getting chatter in the qualifying, only deposed by Chili, Corser and Fogarty. front, but it was Superpole, so I had to push as hard as I Yanagawa is hoping for a pair of Dunlops to let him go could. I was as careJtil as I could be, but I went as hard as fast all race, not just in 'qualifying. I could." Doriano Romboni put his Ducati fifth, with Aaron Ch·ili's milestone T yet another show of tenacity and aggression in the face of ad versity. Beating the works guys is always 'a good idea for any aspiring World Superbike racer like Walker, but it's probably best to wait until the steam gauge comes down in the Eckl pit before talking about contracts for next season. Aprilia's hopeful season turned tb mush again when Goddard cruised into the puts to retire from his otherwise safe and lowly 13th place when his clutch went south. I Both Guareschi and Robert Vim received stop-and-go penalties, causing Guareschi to miss out on any chance of points and Ul!J'l just to give up, succumbing to a flu virus that had wiped him out of his usual top privateer attempts. I The minor placings, as far as the crowd was concerned, were irrelevaljt from second place down. They came to see Old Laser Eyes get a win, and they got their wish. But only once.... I RACE TWO Corser, quietly raging at his poor tire in race one, started to redeem his weekend (not to mention his championshi~ position) with missionary zeaj, pulling an impressive 1.5-second gap on the field after a single lap. Now that's a sight you don't see every day, and neither is watching Peter Goddard high-side his Aprilia into the air fence at the fast Coppice double right. A little too much gas mid corner and Goddard was on to the medical center and Aprilia was in the doldrums again. Four DNFs in four races. The newest Italian V-twin may have struggled, but the Old Lady of Bologna was all beauty up at the front as Fogarty started to hunt down Corser, with Edwards in close attendance from the second lap onward. That is, once Edwards had unwittingly disposed of his teammate Aaron Slight on the second lap. Both Honda's exited the by-now-very-busy Melbourne hairpin together and Ed wards' foot nudged Slight's handlebar just enough to have the New Zealander off his bike. This little unharmonious interlude Slight and local rider Chris Walker next. James Haydon, another local wild card, filled the second row. Noriyuki Raga was in his usual form, muscling his R7 into submission, and almost crashing at the final comer as he braked far too late for the downhill, left-hand hairpin. His stunning machine control saw him sa"'e it to battle on to 10th place, but it could have been so much better if it weren't for his mishap. "It was probably me trying to put on my usual TV show," Haga said. "It's not a big problem for me to start on third row of the grid. I started there last year and still won. I just need to get past Colin Edwards II at the start." Colin Edwards II qualified ninth to lead off the third row. Aprilia's recent luck was confirmed in the 13th division when Peter Goddard failed to get the RSV1000 into the Superpole pool. "It's a problem of chassis balance," Goddard said. "So far we've been going by the data-logging computer, but I think we need to make the bike feel better to me, to give me more confidence. The strong local wild caTds don't help here, especially as they all know the ciTcuit backwards, but I reckon there's a second to come at least round here if I can get the bike to feel better." The strong local wild-card contingeJ:lt helped make Superpole an uncommonly tight affair. Chili and the slowest untroubled qualifier, Niall MacKenzie in 14th, were separated by a mere 1.438 seconds. Gregorio Lavilla's brake problems relegated him to 15th on the grid, but Yamaha's Vittoriano Guareschi first away in Superpole after a dismal qualifying session, crashed at the Old Hairpin, wiping him from the official Superpole time sheets, and making for an automatic 16th-place starting position. J

• Cover