Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127995
., today, and after the disappointment of that one, I knew I had to win that second one," he said. His mysterious stoppage was attributed to an electrical problem, but the smart money (and the terrible-sounding engine when Edwards came down pit lane) places tbe blame on a broken engine. Fogarty made up the last of the podium men, fizzing with anger after the first-race result wben he complained of a lack of grip and severe back pain. "I was losing the front, losing the rear, and my back was killing me," he said. "Apart from that, it was fine. The other two (Haga and Yanagawa) could open the throttle coming out of corners and go, but I had to wait until I was almost upright." Following the podium men was a chore performed with fighting relish by Slight, Pier-Francesco Chili and Gregorio La villa in race one, and Lavilla and Chili in race two. "We need a little bit power," Chili said. "The tires were not okay but coming better. We need to work on the profile of the tires to help us." La villa was just happy to finish two races after no fewer than four nonfinish- pu tting hirn out of the race with a sick motor on lap two. By now it looked like the rising sons were away over the horizon and gone, especially as Yanagawa had put in a new lap record of 1:31.592 (which would survive the day) on the second lap. But with Chili trailing him aU the way, Fogarty got his stubborn head down and overcame any of his Ducati's relative deficiencies at such a twisty track to hang on to their coa ttails (if not their slipstream) and eventually overcome the eight-tenths-of-a-second gap. A much bigger margin separated an aggressive-looking Katsuaki Fujiwara's Suzuki from Vittoriano Guareschi's Yamaha as the leading freight train pulled away from th'e pursuing melee a pack that included Peter Goddard on the Aprilia, Igor Jerman and Robert Ulm on privateer Kawasakis, and former GP star Alex Gramigni on a privateer Yamaha. With Foggy shaving milliseconds off the leader's advantage, he drew inexorably away from Chili, but arguably es in a row. "I was pushing harder in this race because the re ult in race one made me more relax a little," he said. '1n race one, I was too careful because I wanted to make sure I fini hed. The fans cheering me on helped a lot today." Corser was almost philosophical about his misfortunes of the weekend, especially as he dropped points to his number-one title challenger and Ducati teammate - Fogarty. "I had to change direction witll my legs on the tank today rather than the bars, and you're nonstop working all tbe.time," Corser said. "Every time I tried to use my arm a lot, I just got pain. Today, that's tlle best I could do." The superbike-rookie club had a decent day in Spain, with Katsuaki Fujiwara and nis Alstare Suzuki taking two eighths and Yamaha's Vittoriano Guareschi making good use of his Super port lap-record-holding pace in Albacete to take both ninth-place finishes. Monotony was the order of the day in the lower reaches of the top 10, with Peter Goddard taking a pair of lOths to give hope to tne Aprilia factory after four nonfinishes. "I was just glad to get two finishes today," the Australian said. "I had a lot of clutch-engaging-and-disengaging problems in the first race." Austrian Andy Meklau overcame the problems he experienced in practice to stick his Ducati into 12th and 11th places. Fogarty's pair of podiums and Corser's sixth and seventh has stretched the current World Champion's lead at the top of the table to 36 points, putting Corser under real pressure to win races at Fogarty'S expense. Perhaps more signifieant is the creeping menace of Edwards, whom Fogarty could do nothing about today, and the number-one plate holder may well find the Texan even a more unappetizing morsel on the Honda speed-bowl of Monza. But that is in the future. With one win apiece, Haga and' Edwards have underlined their abilities in no uncertain fashion, the only shame being that we were all robbed of the chance to see what could have been an epic battle between the two in tl,e closing stages of the races because of their nonfinishes. (Above) Carl Fogarty may not have won a race in Spain, but he was the real winner when it came to the' World Superbike Championship, as he further padded his points lead. (Right) Peter Goddard (9) tries to hold off the luckless Troy Corser (11) in the first race. Corser had to start on a backup bike from pit lane when his Ducati failed him on the warmup lap. No matter - entertainment was had by all, even with a pathetic crowd figure of an estiinated04000. But that was to be expected when you hold a World Superbike race in two-stroke-soaked Spain just a week after the must-see Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez. RACE ONE U you were given the task of designing a race track for the all new Yamaha R7 to shine on,. you could do worse than copy Albacete. With no overlong straights and big rewards given to sweet handling and aggressive rider input, Albacete was always going to be the best of the bunch for Haga. A great Superpole ride and a frontrow start saw him into third at the first corner, behind Edwards' and Yanagawa, but drama was already developing in pit lane. Already injured, Troy Corser's Duca ti insulted the Aussie further by snapping a fuel line on the warmup lap, forcing Corser to start from pit lane and hit the first comer dead last. At the front, both Japanese riders, ignorant of Corser's woes, were well up for the fight, with Yanagawa and Haga slotting ahead of Edwards. Haga ended up doing a number on his countryman to lead at the end of the first lap, with the ever-inlproving, Dunlopshod Suzuki of Chili charging into third, ahead of Edwards, Fogarty and Slight. Fogarty overtook Edwards just before fate decided to foil the Texan, . the ride of the race was l?eing put in by Corser, who was up to 10th on lap seven. By this time, his fellow Ducati riders Jiri Myrkyvka and Lance I aacs became the last riders not to finish after crashing out - Isaacs so hard that he missed race two. The first backmarker was encountered on lap 10, by which time Slight, with a superhuman effort of will, had worked his way up to and then past Chili to' fourth - 3.7 seconds 60wn on Foggy. By now there were two groups of three at the front - Haga, Yanagawa and Fogarty; Slight, Chili and a refreshed Lavilla ~ then a big gap back to Fujiwara and Corser. The latter had finally overcome Goddard and almost instantly gapped him by 1.5 seconds. • en ~ 17