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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128011
Road Race
slightly disappointi ng No riyuki Haga,
who cou ld only squeeze ou t a seventh
and eigh th.
" I was happy with the machine setu p
tod a y a n d h ad n o re al probl em s, "
Meklau sa id. " I had a big battle with
Wa lker , La vill a and Haga in rac e one,
a nd wit h a no the r lap or so ma ybe I
would hav e cau ght and passed Haga."
The Japanese star fought hard for his
seventh in race one.
"I was having so me power problems
like in practice, so I could not tum in to
corners properly," Haga said . " I had
. mu ch better ave rage speed in the second
race and a good fight for a good pos itio n
all throu gh . Generally this weekend has
been bet ter tha n last year, and my feelings for Assen have im proved."
Peter Goddard and the Ap rilia wo rks
team had o ne m a jor d isap p o intm en t
apiece, crea ting a ve ritab le commune of
gloom in their pit ga rage .
"The shifter bro ke again in the first
race whe n I was in a good pos ition and
that d ropped me back to 17th and out of
the po ints, " God dard said. "The clu tch
went in the end as well , because I was
stuck in fifth gea r for the last few laps.
My cras h happened because I had to run
a littl e b it too lon g gea ri ng for th e
Strubben corner, and therefor e had to
open the thrott le sooner tha n I migh t
un d e r normal ci rcumstances . The
telem etr y shows I opened it a little too
soo n, mavbe .25 o f a seco nd a nd th e
ba ck shot' ou t a nd lobbed me over the
highsid e. I'm d isappointed for a ll of us."
Ch ris Walker once more proved his
World Superbike creden tia ls, this time
not at it British circu it, wi th a pair of fine
10 ths, after scrapp ing ha rd w ith his
wo rks opposition.
RACE 1
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Yanagawa. fleet of foot if not quite as
sharp of wit after his Austrian brainscrambling crash, worked out a holeshot
from the second row, bursting into the
first real rig ht han der followed by Fogarty , Chili, Corser and Edwards - wit h
wild-ca rd rider Chris Walker in close
atten dance.
T h e Ja p an e s e rider quick ly s uccu mbed to the Englishman and then the
Italian, wit h the un usual sight of Peter
God da rd on the Ap rilia we ll up in the
stand ings .
The end of lap one had Fogart y·.2 of
a second ah ead of Chili, both of whom
had left Yanagawa half a second beh ind .
Co rs er wa s th e ne xt to a tt ack a nd
d efe at the defen ses of Yana gawa, but
even at this stage Fogarty had dropped
a gauntlet to the rest by pulling out an
increa sing lead on every lap, beating the
existi ng lap record as early as the third
lap .
(Righi) Noriyuki Haga
(41), Peler Goddard (9)
and Gregorio Lavilla (6)
mix il up.
(Below) Goddard
ended up crashing out
of one race and
finishing poorly in the
othe r when his Aprilia
suffered a
trans mis s ion problem.
By lap fou r he was 1.3 seco nds ahead
of Chili, and a nice little race-long scrap
was developing betwee n Laville, Wa lker, Haga a nd Goddard .
By lap five Foga rty was head ing off
to wha teve r plane of higher expe rience
he goes ·to when Assen rolls along, 2.5
seconds up on Chili, who was already
su ffering some minor tire woes and was
abou t to be axed by Corser from the
number-tw o spot.
It was soo n Slight's turn , eng u lfing
the Italian with V-fou r horsep ow er and
sheer grit as Slight star ted motoring for
rea l, at th e sa me tim e as Ya nagawa
started dropp ing o ff the back of the
chasing qua rtet. Lap eight S