Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

allowed the top three to net a 2.5-secand gap on their pursuers in an instant. J In race two, Haga reversed the inexorable slide backward he experienced in race one. Although seventh is hardly much better than 10th for either Haga pr the factory team itself. Not good either was Lavilla's second off of the day, on lap seven. Corser's lead, whittled away by foggy and Edwards had now become nothing, and Edwards finally swept past Corser in the inside at McLeans, having already outleaned and outbattled Fogarty during an earlier overtaking move on lap nine. For that alone he deserved to win by his eventual four• second margin, as not that many riders can say they've out-anythinged Fogarty. With Fogarty passing Corser on the Superl?ole qualifier PierFrancesco Chili leads Carl Fogarty and Troy Corser in race one. Chili later crashed, but bounced back to finish fifth in race two. circuit may get ,the second British round. If n6t. there will probably' the serious btlsiness' of goi~g' fast. T~oy C6r.ser.acknowledges . only be one round. at Brands Hatch. Donington Parik has.recently that it plays a part· in proceedings. but .could give harassed riders signed a six-year deal to keep the Grand Prix at the £ast Midlands a bad name: "It means that sooner or later you've got to start runvenue, splitting the two premier International races in England ning away from them -' which is all right to do sometimes, but it between its two most prestigious circuits. SBK is known to want d6esn't get you too good a name," Corser said. "The setup looks Sticky situations one: Carl Fogarty is the late.st Brembo perime· only one race in each country from now on in any case, io try ·to. very professional but t1iey need te, have some can trois so that we ter·brake user to complain of brakes sticking on. blaming them for can m'eet· the {leople. and. sign autographs without. getting spread the ·net wider into countries like F'!'nce, where th.ey have a practice crash on Friday. "I came out of. Redgate in the untimed · swamped: - Carl Fogarty found the pressure 01 hero worship all no presence whatever. qualifying session:got the power on. the front wentlight. and when too much 10 bear at Donington, even taking the extreme meait landed again I crashed. No one could Worik out why I had fallen · sures of getting changed in and out of his race 'leat~ers in his pit· Paolo Flammihi ended the great Ducati Do"';natiOn off between two corners. but it was the brakes sticking on. I've box to save venturing out into the throngs of fans who besieged (for the time .being) by confirming that there are no plans to 'liter had no problems on the second bike. and the mechanics say they his ga,rage door all weekend. the WSB rules .at present. "The technical rules were diSl'ussed at can't find anything wrong with the brakes on my number-one bike." a meeting in Japan, but it was agreed not to change· anything .this N.i..-II MacKenzie, now struggling in the British Superbike year," Carl Fogarty seemed to put a final note on it with the comSticky situations two: Gregorio Lavilla was another. who expeseries on his amazingly standard R7 Yamaha, was pleased to rienced the strange case of the sticky Brembo, striking at the . ment that "it stands to reason that the two best'riders in the have qualified for Superpole, ·even if he .managed a lowly l.4th .. series, constantly pushing each other on, will·finish well ahead of most inopportune moment possibie . Superpole. Crossing the line "The bike is really good for Donington, but we need some more the. rest when the .bikes were woriking as well as they have' been , to start his flying timed lap, Lavilla slowed suddenly, lifted from power. We· hoped to come 'here and go away with some new fbr the first couple of races." the tuck arid then carried on at a vastly reduced pace. "The brake parts from the official WSB team, but it wasn't -to be. If we can I felt strange, then locked up," he said. "[ decided to pull in to get some horsepower, ihen we won:t be too far away." MacKen· "Four-strokes in GPs" has been a -r~ent battle cry, but it looks avoid crashing." Team Manager Harald Eckl was still bemused by zie was -also ~eriencing a sirange phenomenon at Donington. like very few manufactures would have the money or the· inclina· Lavilla's problem. "We are still looking for the reason why his when his bike's EFI system developed a mind of its own. compention to maKe a truly prototype GP machine. Once more, Paolo brake seems to have seized up. He did a wheelie and when the sating for changing weather conditions even when they had not Flammini spoke on the subject: -I 'think that if Honda or any6ne wheel came down he had a strange feeling in the front. so he changed. else wants to make a lightweight, high-technology four-stroke stoppeQ." It was a particularly bad stroke of luck for Lavilla. who 500, the rules already allow it. I think it is important that everyone had been performing well in practice up to that point, citing sever· Donington was a· good weekend for celebrity visitors. Owner agrees that each championship must be protected. ithink it will be al factors for his upturn in pace. "We 'have tried some now set· of Virgiri, sponsors of Niall Mackenzie's Yamaha team, Richard more of a problem for GPs, especially if someone buijds a comtings for the suspension, but I think it is a number of things, a little Branson, Rew into Oonington by helicopter on Sunday morning, petitive bike for relatively little money, because everyone would suspension, a little the tire, a little more confidence from me." A while new "Star Wars - superstar Ewan McGregor was there end up using them and soon you would have no mo(e interest in lot of Dunlop runners were. if not necessarily much faster. then to lend moral support to Team·GeneRace, who were competing in the series," certainly happier with their practice tires than of late. the inaugural round of the World Superstock championship. Br:ieflv... Debate Unsticky situations one: Brakes were not Carl Fogarty's oniy .problem in practice .at Donington. "We've gone from loads of mid" comer grip at Kyalami and Phillip Island to none here," Fogarty said. "We started out with the same setup as PHillip Island', and we've been cha~ing grip ever since. l'm losing grip from" the rear really badly, so I have to pick the bike up before I can really start laying down power." Troy Corser was of exactly the same opin· ion, but this newfound problem caused neither of them too much of a problem, as' they were always in the fastest four as usual. Friday was obViously a fated day, as numerous top runners, including Aaron Slight, Carl Fogarty, and Noriyuki Haga all had a tum in the gravel trap. The many off·camber corners and the peculiar track surface at Donington were to blame for manY'of the accidents, some of which are still mysteries to the riders. "I'm not sure what happened," said Siight, who fell at the first corner, Bedgate, on oniy the third lap of the first timed session. "I was trying the spare machine and the front wheel just tucked under going into the .comer. " . . Troy Corser blew fl golden opportunity to depose ·teammate Carl Fogarty from the fastest regular qualifying lap when ~e inex· plicably slowed after beating his own pole time by an increasing margin at each time split. With a safe front-row start position assured for Superpole qualifying in any case, his team manager, Davide Tardozzi saw the funny side: "He had to pull out on the run up the hill to Coppice to pass Slight. and that put him off line a little," Tardozzi said. "He slid a bit on the exit because of his tighter line and he thought it was his qualifying tire which had'gone off. He only has a start/finish timer on his bike, so he had no idea tie was faster at e"ch splitl" . In an effort to ensure that the circuit was in tip-top ·condition for the start of practice, the Don.ington Park circuit was· washed clean on Thursday, only for a truck to spill diesel on the freshly cleaned tarmac. A WSB technicai adjudicator, the FIM'S Steve Whitlock, decneed in Australia that all of Suzuki's WSB chassis were close enough to dubious legality for them to need replacement in time for Donington. It is thought that the nature of construction appeared to be different from that of the road bike the machine is based on. Under prompting from the Post Superpole Press conference host Julian Ryder, Pier"Francesco Chili has spoken about his present relationship with Carl Fogarty after their infamous bustup at Assen.last year. "I shook hands with him on the slaw:crown lap at Kyalami," Chili said. "I am a r'lcer just like him, so I must do that because he had such good results. If I win, I think he would also shake my hand." Carl Fogarty seemed bemused by the whole 'thing afterward, ".I don't know what was going on with thai. I've got m.ore important things on my mind. f!anki~ apologiz.ed for Assen the other day, so I'm happy enough. I say hello' to him, how's it going, and that's about it really. I'don't wllnt to. make love to the guy. I don't like to get that close to any of the guys who race bikes. except. my teammate. I keep everybody' at anm's' length to be honest. " The strerigth of the British Superbike series was demonstrated at Donington in practice With six of the top 16 Superpole q~alifiers racing' in the. British Series full time. Consistently best of them was Chris Walker. on a .hybrid 1997/98 ex·factory Kawasaki machine. The dirty ·half·dozen would almost c.ertainly have been increased to eight. had it not been for tbe withdrawal of the British · Championship-leading INS Ducati team. Australian Troy Bayliss, and ex-Ducati and Kawasaki woriks star, Neil Hodgson have both won this season. The reason grven for their absence was the fact that they wanted to test -at other cincuits, Snetterton and Cadwell, that they would be racing on later in the year. An under· standabl", viewpoint. but for a team with real aspirations to do a full WSB seasOll next year. it does demonstrate a certain lack of get-up-and-go. races COlin Edwards'lI was glad nat only to have finished the first race on the podium, 'but to have finished at all considering the beating he gave hiS c1utoh off the start. ·"1 tried t6get a good start and just succeeded in burning out the clutch," 'Edwards said, "It's the' first'll me ever I've wasted. a clutCh. it was slippin.g from the first lap, then got a little bit worse 'as time went on. For the last five laps I was crossing my finger:s to hope ·that j co~ld si~y in it. Considering the position the dutch was 'in and the fact that still finished on the podium, I don't give a shit that I had a lonely race to third. - .' , r Aaron Slight continues to be displeased with the suc.cess of Troy Corser gave another insight into the World Superblke the Ducati and after trying to rurr down Carl Fogarty i'1 the first world at Donlngtan, with his summation of Chili's practice perlor·' race. "In race one I got 'an. okay start and fought up to .second mances. "Frankie Chili's Dunlops have definitely got g.6od quali. pretty easy: Slight said. "I got my head down to c.hase Carl and fiers: Corser said. "Look at ·

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