Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

. - -- - - - - --- - _ ._ -- Road Race • (Left) Akira Yanagawa was cons iste nt, finishin g fifth and sixth in the two races. (Above) Colin Edwa rds won both races, ear ning his third a nd fourth wins of the series. wi n by b a rely a bike len g th , a h ea d of Haga and then Fogarty. Th e ot he r p laces each -carne with th eir own stories . Yanagawa 's early break away from a pack of regulars and domesti c stars prove d wise, with the Japanese rider able to make ground on eve ry lap aw ay from what wa s proving to be a bruising melee. His fifth may have come easy, but for fac tory regulars Goddard , Lavilla, G uareschi and Fujiwara, domestic riders proved to be their undoing. A m a m m oth ba ttle unfolded from the early laps, which saw locals Emmett, Mackeni ze , Haydon and Reynolds a ll mix it for ho m e glory with the aforementioned regulars, wi th Austrian visitor Meklua thro w n in for good measure. A n d it was to u gh . Goddard , who came ho me a roughed-up ninth, sai d he was o nly passed cleanly by one Brit in ' the whole race, a measure of how much the locals wan ted to sca lpso m e of the big na mes. • Emmett an d Mackenzie fough t their own ba tt le for six th and seventh, three seconds adrift of Yanagawa, a fight th at Em mett eventually won, a head of teamm at e Rey nol d s, who ended th e d a y as the top Duca ti poin ts scorer with h is _ eigh th p lace. Lavilla looked hap p y to keep it out of the gri t to take 10th after a mighty scrap w ith Haydon. Mekla u 's creditable 12th masked the fact that th is was his first visit to th e track, which Guaresc hi and Fu jiwara, in 14th and 15th, jus t looked like they wanted to ge t away from, bo th suffering tire problems. WORLD SUPERSPORT en en en 10 Th e red flag h as b een a constant, if unloved, com panion in the World Su persport Champ ionship this year and Brands saw it u nfurled in anger once again. Vittorio la n nuzzo was the victi m this tim e, ge tting tangl ed u p in h is bike a t th e ex it of Dru ids h ai r p in o n la p one, a nd en ding up p inned und er it in a da ngerous tr ackside position. A co mple te rest art ensued 15 minu tes afterward, w ith la n n uzzo h a vin g be en cleared to ride by the m ed ics in p it ' lane, mu ch to th e amu sement o f th e watchi ng tho usa nds w ho saw th e teen age Itali an ha ve to perform a series of bendin g and stretching exe rcises. Th e r estar t saw la nnu z z o o ff th e tra ck a t G ra ham H ill bend on lap one, only to rejoin th e fig h t once m ore. Th e first lap leader s w ere Pie rgio rg io Bon tempi, St ephane Charnbon, Massim o Meregalli a nd th e .determinedly aggressive Ruben Xaus. James Toseland, ha vin g his best s howing for a numbe r of ra ces, tailed th e leaders in fif th place, with secon d -ro w sta rter lain MacPherson moving up from eighth to sev enth at the start of lap two. Xaus was already on the m ove a t th at point. Makin g read y to hit th e lead on th e fir st lap a fter passing Meregalli a t Paddock, Chambon immedia tely after a t Druids, and sim ply elbo w- ba rg ing past Bon tempi on th e main stra igh t. Cha m bon , makin g h ard w ork o f th e e a rly laps, dropped to sixth on lap three on ly to th en mount a serious ch a rge to the front after Bonternpi h a d rega in ed th e lead on the fourth lap. Another hard charge was being put to gether by MacPherson, who w as trying to put hi s ch ampionship cha llenge '. 1\y • . r.1 e'fI''.•., •'. B I b a ck o n tra ck in fro n t o f 120,000 s u p porter s. Karl Mug gerid g e' s s u bs tit u tio n for Pere Riba lasted all of three laps before he was forced to p it, becoming one of 15 retirees in w ha t was to become a w ar of mechanical and human attrition. Th at la d lannuzzo wa s onc e more in the w a rs on lap six, cra shing terminally thi s time at Druids to fini sh his d ay off the w a y it s ta r te d, w it h a b ang and a cra sh. With MacPherson making ground up to fourth by .Iap si x , Chambon had . alrea dy hit the fro nt for the second a nd fi n al tim e, pullin g o u t a n a dva n tage over th e sq uabb ling Yama has . . All th is in -fi ghting merel y a llowed Chambon to ge t aw ay a nd Ma cPherson to ge t in to second p lace an d m ount his challe nge to th e rapidl y d isappe aring Fre nc hman on the Als tare Suzuki. Jorg Teuchert an d Ch ris tia n Kell ne r, Ya ma h a Deu tschland tea mmat es who ha d no t qua lified well but wh o made up for it in th eir charge to th e front, were also maki ng good progress through the field, a t the exp ense of Sebastien Cha rpentier, w hose fast -s ta r ting H onda so on fell down the ra nks as the temperature s ta rted to tak e its toll of tires and riders. MacPherson, frustrated at his lac k of p ro gr ess toward s the flying Frenchman, ra n w ide at Dru id s hai rpin , a llow ing Cristia no Migliorati and Bontempi past m om entarily before a hugel y aggressive in side pass gave him a coup le of pla ces back. In his desperati on to pass MacPherson, Xau s tried to go in side him at the ve ry fast p ilgrim's drop section, only to find th at he had run off the tra ck, cove ring h imself a n d th e foll owin g p ack in dust. He made his move for rea l a t Westfie lds a la p later, and when anothe r small error from the Scot sman allowed Migliora ti through once more it looked like there was something amiss with the works Kawasaki rid er - or h is bike, his present standards, ",The bike seems to have I~ss punch out of the corner than 'a ny" track we've been to this year," FOgartyk said" ..1open the throtI tle -and it doesn't have thesame kick I've gone bac to a standard. shorter. , . . gearboX on the bike than I've' used all year. I think the very hot temperature _ :With the World Supe rbike year heading to' its last third qua rter afte r affects the 'e ngines on the Ducati badly ana we lose a lot of power." , ' , ' Brands Hatch . the silly season was in full s wing. The mos t st rongly . ,' . . rumored move 'was ,for, Aaron Slight. supposedly 'out of favor with . The hero worship o f Fogarty ai ,Donington' Park r~ache'd new andast~n Honda after his least s uccessful sea son in years. to join the Eckl Kawasa- ishing levels at Brands .Ha tch, The est imated 40·50,000 spectators on , ' ki team. The rumor Was denied by both S light and a Castro! team spo kes- ' ' Saturday welcomed his every exit from,the garage door with a deafening n men. with Slight denying any contact from Kawasaki. and Honda unsure bl ast' of airhoms a, d a dazzling array of customized banners: The .favorite , 'of exac tly what th e ir plans a're for next year , "I've heard ,that .rumo r on Saturday ; ee med to be"the, o,~e which' proclaimed "Fuck-the sheep. myself;" said Sliqht.,"But itwas newsto me. I haven't spoken to anyone clone Foggyl · allud,"g to 'Dolly ". the .sheep. made famous by being the . ' . first-ever s uccessful clone c reate? by mankind. The s ubject of all this lna green uniiorm , I'd .l ike' to still ride for Honda next.year," " .'. blind adoration was feeling the pres ~ure and strain of racing at Brands, :Ho nda, ~Ithough IikeiY,With a plan and at least one new W orid Superbike- realizing thatit was intolerable even on Saturday, ..We' re,in.the Thistle ready, motorcycle up their sleeves. failed to debut eltherthe plan Or the Hotel at t he, main entrance to the circuit. but I think 1 be sleeping in the , :11 bike at the Suzuke 8 Hours : theid avorite place to s how off theircorpo- motorhome 't his ' evening. I canteven get . to the -hote l without be ing rate pride and jays. The much-publicii ed tWin-cylinder project has contiri- ,' mobbed by fans. even whenl go .in the car or the scooter." Fogarty said. 'ued apace. but there are still persistent numors that there will be a V-roor The thre e-time World Champion. arguably Britain's most s uccessful flagship machine launched as well. Some rumors have had Honda maki ng sportsman at the moment. was the cente r of much mass-media attention a limi ted run v -four, wi th the twi n form ing base machine for sate llite all wee ke nd. wi th a. huge amo unt of pr eview featur es .runnmq in 'all. the -wo rks teams .and customer, machi nes -

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