Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

best effort off th e s ta rt as he s tormed over the hill and into turn two w ith the lead . Gobert , thou gh , wasn' t in a w aiting-around mood an d he stuffed under th e Jap a n e s e r id e r e n tering th e Cor kscrew for the first tim e. "Whenever I've be e n be hin d so mebod v, there are a few sections of the race track that I know I' m qu icker than everybod y out there," Gob ert said . "I just try and wai t for those places and try to use it to m y advantage. I was go ing to stuff him in a few pl aces be fo re tha t, but I thought I'd be pati ent and no t risk go ing d own." At the end of the firs t lap, Go bert led Yanagawa, Ben Bostro m, Edwards, Eric Bostrom, H ag a, Fogarty, C hil i, Co rse r, Slig ht , Ap rili a ' s Pe ter G o d d a rd and Hacking . . Po le-st arte r Corser alrea dy k new he w as in trouble, as his Mic heli n wasn' t good and it wasn't going to ge t any better. " In th e fir st race I had a lo t o f tire p ro bl em s fr om th e rea r," Co rser ex p lained la ter . "From th e third la p, I just had no gri p at all and I was ha ting it from about lap five. I had a lot of laps to go, so I d ecid ed to stay u pright. I almost cras hed a lot, es pecially on the rig ht side of the tire where I cras hed this morning, th ro u g h turn th re e o r fo u r (ac tua lly four), whatever it is." No matter how bad ly he need ed to beat Fogarty, it wasn' t going to happe n. as the Brit d id an outstandi ng job of ultimately finis hing fifth after sta rting from the third row . Co rser wou ld end u p a close sixth. Back at the fron t, wher e th e ten sion rem ained th rou gh out d espite a total lack of lead cha nges, Yan agawa and Bostro m we re n't letting Go bert go and th e three stay ed tied tog eth er , sepa rated a t th e very mo st by just ove r a second . Bostrom was content to sit behind Yanagawa . In fact, he wa s enjoy ing the show. "Akira kept my motivation going a bit - he was throwing these big sprint-car slides through ev ery co rner," Bostrom said . "It wa s so cool, it kept me pumped." By the six th la p, Go bert ha d opened u p a 1.3-sec ond lea d o ver Ya nagawa, w ith Bost rom tu cked neatly in beh ind the Kaw asaki. Th at lead held s teadfast for a han dful of laps before the pursuing pair started to dose the gap. On the 14th lap , they were less than a second behind and the race was on . "These guys rod e good and they kept th e pressure th e w hole w ay," G obert said later . " I went to ba ck off a t o ne (Above) Anthony Gobert won the first race after holding off the determined challenges of Ben Bostrom and Yanagawa . (Right) The start of race two saw Yanagawa again leading the way , with Bostrom (90) trying to find a way around his teammate Gobert (95). (Below) The second rac e ca me down to Bostrom vs . Pier-Francesco Chili (7) and Bost rom prevailed for his first-ever World Superb ike win. In fact, it was the first s uper bike win of any kind for the Californian . p o int durin g the ra ce a nd th ese g u ys caug ht u p a few ten th s, so I kn ew it was n't over. To be honest, I thou ght it was Troy (Corser) . I don't look back during ra ces and th e guys don't normally tell me who's behind me." Gobert would bump his lead back up to 1.1 seconds, then it dropped again firs t to .9 on th e 17th lap, th en all the way d own to .6 a lap later...Th at stayed the sa me un til the 22nd lap, with Gobert drop ping the h a m m e r to slowly pull away - really slowly. The difference was just a tenth here and a tenth there, but it broke the pursuers' spirit and ga ve him the victo ry . On the fina l lap , Bostrom decid ed to ha ve a go a t Ya nagawa . En tering the Corkscrew fo r the fina l time, the Cali- forman copied exactly w ha t Gob ert had earlier don e to Yanaga w a and he sho t by up the insid e - to tak e over second place, a position he'd hold to the flag. "I knew I had a bunch of speed go ing in th ere," Bost rom ex p lai ne d . " In the firs t part of the rac e, I was rid ing pretty aggress ive a nd I w a s tr ying to show Akira a wheel a nd he was just riding gre at and I could n' t get around. I waited, waited and waited, and on the last lap I figured I didn' t have anything to lose and I just shoved it in there . I w as kinda testing h im, and I sa w I had a bit of speed there, so I threw it in and tried to ca rry enough speed down the hill a nd slide the bike around so he wouldn't get ba ck by . It worked o u t, so I' m pretty happy." Bu t he was hoping for just a bit more in the nex t race . "E very th ing w ent grea t; the Du ca ti wa s perfect a nd th e Dunlo p s worke d g rea t," Bostro m sa id . " I co ng ratu late th ese guys o n a g rea t rid e . I w a s out th ere going, 'God, I w ish th ese g uys would just slow down a bit.' They d id n't want to back off even a little. It was pre tty ho t ou t there and the bike was sliding aro und a bit. Everything wa s great. I'm happy to be u p here righ t now - it' s pr..tty cool. Maybe we 'll wi n the next one - I do n' t know." Gobert's performance was impressive. He never put a wheel wrong and he withstood the constant pressure of the pai r who chased him. " It went really good for me, " Gobert said . " I got a good sta rt and I go t past pretty early and I could just ru n my own race . The tea m di d a good job , really, and we had prior tests and racing here as we ll. We had a good setup with the mach ine, SD rea lly we just had to test tires th is weekend . Luckily, we chose the right tire. The tire wa s aweso me. I too k it a little bi t easier at the st art of th e race because I wasn 't su re w hat the tire wa s going to d o, because I had n't raced on it before. As yo u kn ow, they caught me a littl e bit and then I decided to u p it (the pa ce) and the tire was perfect. I had a little bit of an o il leak a nd my foo t w as slipping off the pe g a few times , so r was a little bit leery of maybe ge tting oil on the rear tire and going over the hand lebar s. Fortunat ely enoug h for me, I finished first and th at wa s the plan, but I d on ' t want to be happy until a fter th e next one, I want to do the same. hopefulIy. It feels weird, actually - it feels like we're do ne for the day, because I'm used tDAMA - but we've go t to back it up an d we 've been training ha rd , so I'm rea dy." He even sh owed some real emotion and even ended up predicting the future, though he didn 't know it at the time. "I started to cry a li ttle bit o n the podium," Gobert sa id , "I was tryi ng not In !!Iii :Iii ~ .. III .. 0 :iii " ., CI> ~ ..... N -5 ..., 7

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