Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Road Race , Round 10:A Ring ;.1 WORLDSUPERBIKECHAMPIONSHIP ~ By Go rdon Ritc h ie Photos by Gold & Goose ZELTWEG,AUSTIUA ,AUG.29 f we thought tha t the Nurburgrin g races earlier in the year were going to offer up the most topsy-turvy pa ir of Wor ld Superbike results of the sea so n, then we were wrong. Way wron g. The a trocious weather that d ogged most of the World Superbike race weekend in th e tr ee-lined bowl of th e A-I ring pla yed a huge part in the ou tcome of the d ay' s brace .of su p erbike races. But no one could have foreseen the carnage of fiber glass and metal that ensued in both races. The mu ch-criticized track surface at th e A-I Rin g was th e primary guil ty party, according to most of the rid ers, and it claimed six rid ers in the fullv we t second race and a wh ole 11 rid ers in the drying first race. The result was tw o completely differen t p od ium s . Th e o pene r featured a podium of Colin Edwards II, Carl Fogarty and come-good-rooki e Vittoriano Guareschi, while the second race's top three w ere Pier-Francesco Chili, Troy Co rser and Aaron Slight. It wa s all the result of track co nditions th at - if not quite maki ng thin gs a lottery - certainly foul ed the pavem ent enoug h to cat ch out even the most careful of men. The main ben efactor of all this was aston ish ing as it seems - Fogarty, who increased hi s .cha m pionship lead even more than he could have expected with I en en en li; s:> ]! go en 20 a very for tunate second and fourth, whil e his main title riva ls on ly managed one good result apiece. Languishing behind pri vat eers for mu ch of the races, Fogarty's trademark de termination and the crashing rid er s in front allowed him to increase his poin ts advantage ov er Corser to 61 poin ts, 363302, with o n ly thre e rou n ds a n d six races remainin g. . "Th e las t laps seem ed to last about five mi nutes," Fogarty sa id. "I've go t no com plai nts. I hate the we t, but I'm qui t e pl ea s ed w it h th e way I rode . Colin (Ed w a r ds) mad e a good s ta r t, ro de weIl and d eserved his wi n. Once Aaron (Slig ht> an d Troy (Corser) had faIlen in the fir st race, I slowed righ t d o w n b e cau s e m y tir e was pretty shred ded - then it started raini ng again! Tu rn o ne was es pecia lly b ad tod ay . Normally I go fo r th e w in no matter w hat, but in cond itions lik e thi s I just go into win-the-champion ship mod e. In the seco nd race, I rea lize d I was so far d own I was only goi ng to sco re a few points if I carried on that way - or lose a few poin ts if I cras hed - so I go t my h ead d o wn and s tarted p a ssing p eople." Edwards, th e man most favo red to overhau l Fogarty , wa s well up to th e task after a s tu nning race-on e performance. He almost got the holesh ot wi th hi s Ca strol H ond a teammat e, Slight , then he go t overhau led by Fogart y, Ch ili and Co rser before eve ntua lly stre tching ou t a ma ssive Jead of 20.964 seconds as all of theremaini ng top rid ers - excep t himself - backed it off a littl e to ensure th ey fini shed af ter all the others ha d cras hed . "I had been so u sed to see ing a lap board of 'Plus-O, Plus-l ' and so on that w he n Aaron a nd Tr oy cr ashed a t th e end, and the gu ys chan ged my board to 'P lus- Iff I never noticed the I !" The us ual game of "lire lottery" was _ partl y respon sibl e for the multitude of pos itio n cha nges in the open ing leg, but Edwards' charge to th e w in af ter running the last few laps on an interm ed iate fron t and a full slick rear were awesome to behol d . "I go t kind of conned into usin g a full slick by Ad ria n, my ch ief technician," Ed wards ex p lai ne d. "It w orked p retty good exce p t for a t the end of the race when it started raining again. Troy came past me at one poi nt, but there was no way I was goi ng to let him beat m e today." Yamaha's Gua resc hi was ano ther to tak e advan tage, in the nicest possibl e way, of th e othe rs, mi sfortunes, but it wo uld be unfair to say that this was all it took to d eliver him his first podium of his su perbike career. "I can't believe it," th e Italian said . "It hasn't su nk in yet. Luck was on my side in so me wa ys, but I knew I rod e a good race and con centrat ed to the end despite the crazy cond itions. It wa s my firs t time on in terme d ia tes all season, but thi s seems to be a good tra ck for me." Aaron Slig ht (111) got the jump on his teammate Colin Edwards II (5) and World Champion Carl Fogarty (1) at the start of the fi rst World Superb lke race In Austria. The second Italian of the day on the podium, Chili, ma y not have just delivered Suzu ki their first World Superbike wi n in th e Alstare era, but could have g ive n th em a d ou bl e - h ad h e not cra sh ed w hile comfortably leading the opener. "Everybody was saying to me that I can win the races in the we t today, and I we nt out and cras hed in the first one," Chili said. "A little mistake. I was two second s a lap faste r at one point , but for not hing . Bet ween the f ir st and second race, I stay ed in the pitbo x and kep t ou t of the w ay. The second race was over after abou t 10 laps and all I had to d o was concen tra te on my lap tim es and not cras h. I am very happy for the whole team ." . A radically new we t Dunl op rear tire, with ma ssiv e water cha nne ls running con centric to the tir e's direction at the crown and with com pletely straight cut s from a third of the wa y into the sid ewall helped Ch ili lap at a pace no one could stay wit h. ' "The n ew rear Dunl op w a s v e ry good, and I must say thanks to them for this tire," Chili said . Ed wa rds' ea rlier words abo u t not lettin g Cor ser beat him we re to come ba ck to haunt him w he n h e fi nished

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