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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128006
The firs t Ducati home in each race
was down in fourth place, with the surprise figu re of John Reynolds coming on
s tro ng on h is British Championship
Reve Red Bu ll machin e - largely beca use
his Michelin rear lasted the pace far better tha n any of his rivals .
Hu nting down Troy Corser in the
final s tages, Reyn old s, a former Wo rld
Superbi ke factory pilot with Suzu ki ,
ove rcame the factory Ducati ma n on the
last lap .
The second race was almos t a consolation for Fogarty , bitt erly disappointed
to have to pit to rep lace a chunking tire
in race one .
" Big lu mps of ru bber we re comi ng
off the tire in the firs t race," Fogar ty
said. " It was like ridi ng a bicycle with
sq uare w hee ls . If 1 ha d n't pi t te d to
chang e the rear I wo u ld have cras hed .
I'd lik e to apo log ize to everyone w ho
came h e re to see m e w in today, bu t
sometimes these th ings just aren' t possible - thr ough no fau lt of my own. "
Rejoinin g the first race proved to be a
vainglor ious effort, bein g a whole lap
down on the lead ers, finish ing 19th and
takin g his first no-score of the season.
His rid e in race two was gutsy and
d et erm in ed to th e ex t re me, wit h no
answer to hi s term in al tire problem
coming in the ga p between races.
With Tr oy Corser in si mila rly d ire
tire straights , it was a disastrous da y for
the factory Duca ti squad, with Corser
fifth and 13th.
" I can ' t explain what hap pened
toda y," Corser said. 'The same tires we
used in our long practice runs yes terday
gave good results, but in similar temperatures tod ay they disintegrated. We put
on a harde r tire for race two, but it mad e
no difference at all. We also had a problem wit h the steering (tho ug ht to be a
ba d s tee ri ng d amper) w hic h we ha ve
now identi fied and will be able to fix."
Other than Chili's pod ium, it was a
rela tively poor d ay for Dunlop rid ers,
with sixth and fifth the best Akira Yanagawa cou ld d o, with his own tire problems.
"I had a very goo d start in race one,
bu t so me thing must have been wrong
w ith the rear tir e," Yanagawa sai d. " It
was chattering so bad it was like skating
across th e road . I a lso s tru ggled to do
consi stent lap tim e s so I am very
pleased with sixth. I changed to harder
tires for race two and that was a lot better."
Another hard weekend for Gre gorio
LaviIIa saw him cras h in race one.
"I had terrible problems wit h a slid ing front, and I crashed at the hairpin
just after I had passed Peter Goddard,"
said the Spaniard, wh o finished 10th in
race two .
Other than Reynold's fine p er fo rman ce in race one, whi ch helped make
him the best Ducati rider in the field
today, none of th e local riders threa tened to win e it her ra ce, b ut Niall
Mackenzie did , nonetheless, consis ten tly
stro ng lap tim es on his recentl y compe titive R7, to record an eighth and seventh.
Sean Emm ett mad e up for the disappointment of mechan ical retirement in
rac e o ne w it h a battling s ix th in th e
other. He earned a nod of respect from
series regular Peter Goddard even if he
did pa ss him in race tw o, but the ot her
men to get the bes t of the former Austra lian Superbike Champion, Mackenzie
an d Reynold s, just got the rough end of
his tongu e.
"My bike and tires were fine in race
two, but I could n' t say the same for the
un gentlemanly local ride rs, " Go d d ard
sa id . "I thou ght Mackenzi e had me off
on the way into Dingle Dell."
Goddard was in for anot her top 10 in
(Above) Both races came down to an allHonda affa ir wit h Edwards (5) and Slight
(111) finishing one- two In the pair of
races.
(Left) Chill (7) t ries to hol d off Haga (41).
Chill was thi rd In the fi rst race and Haga
earned the final rostrum spot In the
second race .
40 poin ts as they ap proach the A-l ring,
Assen and Hockenheim in rapi d succession . Tho se tes ts of cha racter and
en d u ra nce m a y even crown Fogarty
1999 Worl d Champion before the final
races at Sugo, but based on tod ay' s evide nce, there is a lot of racing left in the
1999 Worl d Superbike Cha mp ionship.
RACE ONE
race one when his gearshift broke, dropping him three places in three laps right
at the end to finish 12th - stuc k in fourth
gear and all.
A startline drama for Chris Walker
saw him start race one fro m the pit lane
a fte r his number-one bike expired
before the final warm-up lap, necessitating a last-minut e sp rint back to the pits.
Yet anothe r impressive ride in a World
Supe rbike even t, after his grea t fourthplace finis h at Don ington earlier in the
seaso n, n ett ed h im 10th , one pl a ce
behind James Hayd on, who was havin g
th e first of two mature a nd controlled
rid es after his rodeo anti cs in pra ctice.
Top non-British privateer wa s Andy
Meklau on his Red Bull Ducat i in both
races, with 11th and 12th.
'That was great, just perfect for me,"
Meklau said . "I was 17th on the first lap
but I man a ged to work m y wa y pa st
Chris Walker, Fujiwara, Gu ar eschi and
so on. My last lap wa s my fastes t lap . I
think 11th here is a good result."
Robert Ulm had a d isappointing pair
of 18th-pl ace finishes on his Kawasaki,
w hile Guareschi a nd Fujiwara had a
pair of less-than-dazzling finishes, a particular di sappointment for Guares ch i
who has been used to better recently.
It would appear tha t the spell Fogar ty and Ducati have ex e rted over the
most recent races in the Wo rld Superbike Championship can be bro ken wh en
the circumstances are right.
Davide Ta rdozzi's pro p hecy af te r
Superpole, that th ings wo uld not be so
easy come ra ce d ay, was pro ved to be
eerily acc u ra te, with b oth h is rid ers
struggling for rear tire grip.
Tires we re, in fact, a serious problem
for many of the competitors, with track
temperatures into the 135'