Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Road Race tha t he should be okay - al thoug h he will have to spend a week immobilized in th e ho s p it a l to le t the bo ne h ea l enough for him to be moved . '" '" '" N ~ N a; .c E g CI. Q) en 12 RACE 1 Wi th Slight so d omin a nt in Su pe rpole, it was only fitti ng that he sho u ld cross the line .3 of a seco nd in front at the end of the first lap, bu t the holeshot itself wen t to the rapid -st arti ng Yanagawa. Wit h fou r rid er s abreast go ing in to ' the entrance of the first chicane, the Jim Clark Curve, the plans had been laid for a rea l battle of a ttri tio n , wit h the ra ce order Yanaga wa, Fogarty, Chili, Corser, Edwards, La villa an d Meklau. The first of the movers to the fro nt was Fogarty , a lt ho ug h he was quick ly d eposed by Co rser as h e wic ked u p his Du cat i in w hat looked like it may become a tw oman Duca ti battle at the front. Thankfully, it wasn 't, as Slig ht, mo ving backward a nd forwa rd through the lead ing bu nch seeming ly a t every corner, joined the Italian bikes and one Italian rid er - Chil i - as they hea d ed up a five-m an group a t the end of the first tw o laps. Ed wa rds, mean w hile, played ta il-end Charlie for virtua llv the rest of the race. • Behi nd the leaders came the rapidl y fad ing Yana gawa, who came under the at tack of And y Mekla u's rap id Duca ti with a 3.1-seco nd ga p having opened between the lead ers and the rest at the fou r-l ap st a ge o f a sch eduled l-l-l ap race. At that poin t, Ch ili, d esper a te for a dry race win to add to his wet A-I Ring su ccess, started to make a stro ng challenge to lead , attac king Fogar ty and new leader Cors er for tw o sol id laps befor e finall y passin g Foga rty into the Mot odrom. Foga rt y, wanting to win to keep his champion ship , bu t not w illing to go for . jus t a sa fe finish, hit the front on lap five and made su re he w as in the lead on ea ch cons ecu tive la p. Bu t he coul d n' t sha ke off any of his pu rsuers as the race "s e tt led" in to a ga me of h igh -s p eed chess - with every rider having a go at slips trea ming the man in front, with no one able to ga in any significant advan tage. On ly on lap six d id any kind of significan t ga p d ev elop be tween the top riders, with Corser and Fogarty gaining .7 of a seco nd on the chasing trio a t just under ha lf distance. By lap seven Meklau 's strong showing in his ba ttle with Yana gawa and Haga was over, with the sa me problem of rear sprocket stripping that he experience d at Monza coming back to haunt him . One lap later it w as Ch ili' s turn to exit, with a spectacular eng ine blow up on the stra ig ht a pp roa ching the Senna ch icane, bu t not befor e he had go ne to second on ce more as the pack bunched up aga in th anks to the s li ps trea m ing ad ventu res of them all. Wit h Sligh t tailing Fog arty closely, and Corser slipping back a very little, it was still anvone's rac e - until Corser's tire, with a -big strip ripped ou t of the mi d d le, became th e lat est casu a ltv of Hockenheim's heat and the riders' sheer speed on la p 10. Also sufferin g in the hea t was Edwards, back into the grip of Yanagawa , as his Ho nda s lowed and Yanagawa saw his cha nce. Fogarty, still in the lead and looking det erm in ed co mi ng in to th e fina l la p , had on ly Sligh t - and a World Champio ns hip wi n - to w orr y ab out. He had every righ t to worry as Sligh t passed h im a t the en tra nce to Se nna Curve, holdi ng h im off for a popu lar wi n as Fogarty wheelied over the line in celebrat ion of his title win. Slig ht's glee was sho rt-liv ed , as the . timi ng scree ns changed from the results on the 14th an d last lap to those fro m the 13th and new last lap. The God dard / Jerma n crash - started whe n Goddard's d estroyed tire ca used h im to tanksl ap and s low a tad , thus be in g s truck by Jerman at 180 mph occ u rre d on the la st la p of th e race . Altho ug h God dard d idn't cras h, he d islo ca ted h is s hou lder d u rin g th e tank slap, wit h the un fortunate Jerm an more serious ly injured and left lying on the side of the track. Thus the red flags came out - bu t ap parently not for Fogarty or Slight. Thus Slight was stripped of his victory , a deci sion his team imm ed iat ely protes ted a nd ultimately lost. Th e big picture was unaltered , but for Slight, his inc redi bly unluck y season just co ntinues. With th e rid ers a t the back of the The top three fr o m the second leg: Fo ga rt y (left ), Ch ili (ce nt er) and Slight (rig ht) spray the b ubbly. ci rc ui t ha ving seen the red flags, a nd subsequently pu lled in, a result after 14 laps wo ul d h a v e me an t th e y w oul d have only co m p le te d 13 before bein g pu lled off the track - w hich would have been a n equally un fair en di ng for them . A definite flag on the las t corne rs for -the lea ders, p lu s o ne a t th e s ta r t-finis h wo u ld have been a correct d ecision , but sadly, someone ha d to lose out from sorneone's oversig ht , a nd tha t person was Slight. The point scorers , fro m first to last , deserved their spoil s, with Gu areschi, Ma lat esta (s ta nd -in for Doriano Rom bo ni aga in), Alessa nd ro Grami gni , Ulm, Lucio Pedercini and Frederic Prot at taking the last points of the first race. Brieflv... An dy Me kla u ast onished ev eryon e but him self with sec ond in regular qualifying. ~nishi ng behind Aaron Slight' s Honda RC45. Ute rally behin d. as it turn s out . because M eklau' s best lap came courtesy of th e slipstre am from Slighf s machine on the very last flying lap before time ran out on the session. Slight seemed as pleased as M eklau and turned to him for a bout of hlgh·spee d handshaking. proving that all the top riders know they need even a partial tow to get the absolutely best lap time s at Hockenhe im. Honda o fficially announced for the first time tha t they wi ll indeed run their much-awaited V -twm instead of a V -Iour RC45 replacement in their works W orld Superbike team next season. Designated the VTR-SPI . the ggg cc machine will also be available for privateer s. Sugo. therefore. will be the last outi ng for the RC45 in official W orld Sup erb ike guise. Still homologated for ano ther year . the RC45 wi ll be available to privateers and may also form the basis of any World Endurance campaign. but the twin ends the specula tion that Honda . at a philosophical level. would not build a tw in for World Superbrke. but would stick Wit h the ir v -foor concept in some form. The VTR ·SP I . tested exten sively by Tadayuki Okada at Suzuka . is said to be t1' hly co mpetitive already and Colin Edwards. asked g how good it was , finally spilled the beans on the new bike 's performa nce . " tt' s gon na raise a lot of eyebrows , - he said . " It' s gon na beat everything." Honda was less forthcoming with information on who will be riding it next year or whe the r they will still be in Ca stro l col ors. Arguably the qualifying performan ce of the year came from German privateer Juergen O e l sch l a e g e r . w ho took Bnan Morrison 's place

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