Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Rou 7: S M nd an arino By Gordon Ritc hie Photos by Gold & Goose MlSANOADRIATICO, ITALY, JUNE 27 ot being a betting man, it's nearly certa in that Ducati's Carl Fogarty didn' t have any money rid ing on the outcome of the Misano round of the World Superbike Series. And, going by pas t" form, it's eq u ally cer ta in that he would have gotten extremely poo r odds on himself tak ing a d ouble at the track he hates above all others. Bu t doubl e up his wins he did, after a close tussle wit h h is teamma te Tro y Co rse r in the firs t race (fea turing actio n which was ver y rem ini scen t of th eir ba tt les at Phill ip Island earlier in the year) and mak ing it look eve n more of a Su nday stroll in the seco nd . "It's incred ible' for me to win here at all, but to win both races was just ama zing ," Fogarty sai d . "I actually had it easier in race tw o, because I never had a repea t of the gearbox problems I had (jumping ou t of seco nd gear) in the first race. I was cruising around in the second race, runnin g easy 1:35s laps and I think I could hav e go t int o the 34s if I wanted . The team w orked really ha rd for me this wee kend , so I ho pe these two wi ns mak e up fo r th e mis take I made in Nurbu rgring." The common enemy today was the heat, as the therm ometer hit 30 degrees and energy was sapped from all the protagonists wi th equal venom. On ce more it wa s the turn of Corser to try (and ultimately fail) to brea k Foga r ty's almost tota l d omina tion of this year's series . He very nearl y succeeded in race one wi th a last-la p pa ssin g a ttem p t, but it mer ely resulting in a wide ex it lin e at th e Cu rva Del Tram onto (a fa vo r it e passin g place a t Misan o), allow ing Fogarty to pass inside and stave off his later a ttacks. Well down on Foga rty's pace in race two, Corser had to settle for second . duel '" (No"I pushed a lot durin g apretty with '" riyu ki) Ha ga and hard '" on the brakes," Co rserI was . "A couple -: sa id 3' of times I lost the front and the bike wa s .." vibra ting a little. Carl had set a consi s10 tent pa ce from the start, so I couldn' t ge t N ~ back to him . I decided that two seco nd places were okay in th ese co nd itio ns, and I was pleased eno ugh with them ." The upshot of all this is that Fogarty . now leads the cham pions hip by a bigger margin tha n he d id co mi ng to Misa no (now 293 poin ts to Corser' s 238) and a pproaches a no the r bogey track with more confidence tha n ever. ''I' m lo ok in g forwa rd to going to Laguna (Seca) now, and I'm go nna try and win it!" Foga rty claimed. Akira Yanaga w a was o nce more a dou ble podium finish er, a fact which is beg inning to becom e irksom e to him. "I can always finis h second an d third place, but now it's time for a first place," Yana gawa sa id. "I am hap py to be on the podiu m, and I scored many points tod ay. I am looking forward to tryi ng to wi n a t La guna Seca , and I d on' t hol d any bad mem ories after last year' s crash - because I can 't reme mber an yt hing! " Behind the podium fin ishers came the d et ermined bu t thoroughl y pissedoff Aaron Slight, / (Above) Troy Corser (11) and Akira Vanagawa (4) lead an angry swarm of World Superbikes into the first corner at Misano, the site of the San Marino round of the ser ies . (Right) Cor ser (11) was the only rider who cou ld get close to Carl Fogarty (1) - and he co uld only do it in t he first race. In the second race , Fogarty clea red off to win by over six seconds. resigned to his immedia te fate of consta ntly sufferi ng fro m brake drag, but s till unh appy to b e d own th e o rder, espec ially after what looked like a safe podium position in race one. "I think there wasn't a good Michelin four-cy li nd er tire h er e tod ay," Sligh t said. "I used the same tire as Fogarty in . one race, but it didn't last as well as his did . I'm still having the same old brakedrag p robl em as ever, and that ma kes things a bit harder on the tires as well." Asked if he thought that the Du catis were giving th eir tir es a n ea sier .time beca use of th eir bi gger power p ul ses, especially on such a slick trac k as Misa no, Slig h t replied , " I' m not go ing to answer that qu esti on any mo re, becau se every time I d o I ge t slagg ed off. Maybe Ca rl is just suc h a su perior rider to all the rest of us ..." With Corona Suzuki's Pier- Fra ncesco Chili beat en up in a Saturday crash, it was understandable tha t he ~ could not replicate his excel- .,f~ . lent fourt h place in race ., one and fad ed to sixth in the second, as Chili's flesh, if not spirit, finally wil ted in the hea t. "The first race was pretty good, only in the las t laps I couldn' t feel any blood in my feet," the Italian said . "In the second race I had no feeling whe n ridi ng the bike. I was no t free to move and it was har d in the last few laps, because this is a very physical circuit. We need to wo rk more on the bike. I made som e cha nges before race two, bu t I thi nk it made things worse, not bette r." Not b a d fo r a g uy lo ts of people expected to be in the hospital on Su nd ay , no t si x seconds off th e p odium places. Ato ni ng fo r his p ra ctic e cras h was the other Kawasak i teamster, G regorio Lavilla, wh o a ttacked from a less-than perfect sta rtin race o ne to finish seventh, and a better start in race tw o to finish fifth. "My sta rt was not good in race one, bu t I got past (Peter ) Goddard , (Katsua./. ~

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