Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Road Race W Supersport Championship orld R 7:La Seca Raceway ound guna Moetand· ClJambon By Henny Ray Abrams MONTEREY CA, JULY11 , w o thing s we kn o w a bo u t th e World Supersport Championship: The riders have a hard time dealing w it h gra vity, and no one seems to wan t to win the championship. Coming into Lagu na Seca, there had been six d ifferent winners in the six prev io us round s . Leavin g Laguna Seca , there were now seven differ ent winners, w ith Suzuki Alstare' s Stephane Ch am bon taki ng the wi n on aggrega te time in a rac e that wa s run in two p ar ts after being red-flagged , with bik es and bod ies and oi l eve ryw h ere, mid w a y through the 25-lap event. The win vaulted th e Fren chman to the to p o f th e ch a m p io ns h ip s tandin g s with four rounds re ma ining . The irony of the tw o-stage race was not lost on those wh o'd witnessed th e d ebacl e at the AMA Superbike race tw o month s ea rlie r. On th at da y, th e ra ce had been stopped a fter 21 laps w ith An tho ny Gobert firmly in contro l and Mat Mladin an equall y d ominant second . It w as re started as a se ve n -la p sp rin t, th e w ork from th e previou s 21 lap s tossed out because the AMA choo ses not to score on ag gr egate tim e for a variety of reasons, one of w hich is their belief that it's confu sing . Today' s rac e proved just the opposite. The race had been stop ped on lap 12 of the origina l 25, with scorin g reverting to the end of the 11th lap - wit h 14 laps to go after all the cleanup wa s done. The announcer wa s aware of both the tra ck T ~ "" ~ ..., 12 po sitions and the overall positions, and it w as alw ays cle a r w ho was leading and wh o was fa d ing. If yo u co u ld n' t hear the announcer, the position s wer e clearl y posted on a scoring tower in the middle of Laguna Seca Raceway. All of whi ch is a long way of say ing there was no d oubt as to who wa s winning. Chambon was second in the first leg, a third of a second behind Ducati Perfor mance's Paolo Casoli, but he won the seco nd leg handily, cross ing th e lin e nearly four seconds in front of Kaw asa1<1' s lain MacPh er son . Ca so li, wh o'd crashed in the first leg and had to go to his spa re bi ke, finished seven th in the se co nd r ace, bu t his fir st-l eg perfo rmance allowed him to take third ove rall - six seconds down on MacPh erson . "When I w as in second place in the first par t, I knew that ( cou ld wi n, so I wa s determined to go for it in the second part," Ch ambon sa id . "Bu t w he n the second part began, I found it hard concentrating and made som e mistakes. Th en I se ttled down and after that it became much bett er ." Chambon com pleted the 25-lap, 58mile race in a combined time of 38 min utes, 19.719 seconds at an aver age speed of 87.696 mph . Ju st for co m pa rison 's sake , Yamah a' s Tommy Ha yd en ha d wo n the previou s da y' s Pro Honda Oils 600cc Supers port race with an avera ge spee d of 87.628 m ph, thou gh it mu st be said that World Supersport rul es allo w fo r g rea te r m a chin e m odifi cati on . Cha mbon's margin of victory wa s 4.083 seconds. Yamah a Belgarda 's Massim o Merega lli w as fou rth , jus t in fro n t of class ch a m pion Fabriz io Piro van o o n th e Alsta re Suzuki. . Nex t was Yamaha Belgard a' s Pierg io rgio Bontempi , wh os e seve n t h dropped him out of the title lead. Ch ambon and his. 101 points take over with Bont empi n o w seco nd on 92 poin ts, with MacPherson jumping into third wi th 67. In the mid dle of a ve ry ho t and su n ny Su nday afte rnoo n , th e Worl d 600s were fla gged off, with Chambon starting fro m the pole and loo king 'for his first win of the yea r. He andCasoll mad e short work of the 32-rider field , tak in g th e battle to each other on the 2.32-mile Monter ey circui t. Chambo n led only the first lap before Casoli took over, leading eve ry one until th e 13th ; w h en Ch a m b on ret ook the p oin t. N ot lon g af te r wa r d, Cas o li crashed , adding to the wre ckag e around th e tra ck - and a red flag stop ped the race. "After the red flags cam e ou t on lap 11 is wh en I fell, probably due to oil on the track," Casoli said . "It w asn't easy to ge t ba ck o n th e s eco n d bike for th e resta rt. It had a sligh tly different setu p and I had a few problems wi th grip." Th e oil had been pu t down in turn five, wh er e there were a number of riders down, including Sebastien Charpentier and Karl Harris. Walt er Tortoroglio and Dee Cee Jea n s Yamaha ' s Ruben Xa us ha d cras hed earli er in th e Corkscrew . Among the othe r cras he rs was Yamah a Deu ts chland ' s Jo rg Teu chert. Ma cP her son, who'd fini shed th ird and at the front of a trio contesting the spo t inthe first leg, jumped ou t front in the second, with Chambon giving chas e but h itt ing a false neutral in turn 11, wh ich allowed Cristiano Migli orati to go by. Even though he finish ed the first lap third on track, Chambon wa s still in the lead on time, and wo uld con tinue to be to the end . Jus t to make su re there was no confus io n, C ha m bon took th e lead fr om MacPherson wi th a hard bra king move in turn 11 ending the 21st lap. Fou r lap s later he had his first win of the year and the title lead . MacPherson finished second on track and second overall, the second best of his four finis hes this year. "It was so good to tak e the lead, but I felt a bit be tter in the firs t part of the lain MacPherson (12) led the restarted World Supers port race at Laguna Seca over eventual race winner Stephane Chambon and Cristiano Migliorat i (6) . ra ce ," th e Eng lis h m a n sa id . " W h e n Cha m bon pa ssed me, I reali zed that he took a differ ent lin e. I'm sure I did n' t use the best line yet, bu t I'm so ha ppy, also for the team to finish second after so much bad luck in the past few races." In the pr evious race at Misano , Italy, MacPherso n was inv olved in a first-turn pileu p w hich sent him to the hospita l after he banged his head . The pack contesting third in the second leg was five riders long at the end, w ith Bontempi at the front of it, the Ital. ian ha ving mo ved there with four laps to go. Still, it wasn' t enough to make up for his first-leg eigh th, and Casoli, who wa s seventh on track, dropped a spo t on the final lap and took third overall. "From the pit lan e, they were always signaling the aggr ega te time, and I succeed ed in hold ing on to third posit ion ," the Italia n said . "The second start wasn't a ve ry go od one a nd I wasn ' t ab le to . fight for the lead ." The next thr ee spots also cam e ou t of th e seco n d -leg fight for third , with Yama ha 's Meregalli end ing up fourth, two seco nds d own to Casoli, after taking fou rth in both legs. "Yesterday, I never thou ght I wou ld ever finis h the race in this position ," the Itali an sa id . "I ad jus ted the front susp ension to put mor e w eight ove r th e front wheel yes te rday, but I rea lized that I wo u ld not be able to go full race distance becau se of my dam aged hand . I cha nged the bike back aga in, bu t it was very unstabl e, especi ally ov er the crest at the fast first corne r. I am very happy to finish fou rth." Mereg alli h ad s u ff e r e d the hand injury a t th e sea so n -o p en in g race in South Africa three mo nt hs ago. Pirovano was a consisten t fifth an d fifth in the two legs, at the end o( the

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