Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

tea mmate Tam aki Serizawa, w ho took a fine sixth in race one. The best non -Japan ese finisher after Foga rt y pro ved to b e Pier -Fran cesco Chili, fueling th e id ea tha t Sugo su its Dunlop s mor e than any othe r tire (only Fog arty was a pod ium man on Michelin). Two lu cky seven ths to mat ch h is ra ce number ca me a t o ne of hi s least favorite tracks. "We did not ge t the setu p the way I wanted it, so I had to pus h on the handleb a rs ve ry ha rd," C hi li sai d . "I' m exhausted , but if yo u take out the wild card Japanese rid ers, I was th ird . For me, th is was th e hard es t race a nd the best result of the yea r." Co rser, Edwards a nd Makoto Tam ada made u p the top 10 in race one, with Serizawa, Edwards and Tamada doing the sa me job in race tw o. Aston ishingly for the last com petitive outi ng of the RC45 in World Su perbike, Ed wards' pair of ninths w er e the best Hond a results of the day. Shin ichi Itoh threa tened to do much better in race two until he crash ed out on lap 14. Aaron Slight 's practice woes con tinu ed in the ra ce itself, when rear tire (Above) Carl Fogarty (1) was the lone excepti on 10 Ih e " local rule " at Sugo. The regi ning World Superb ike Champio n fi nished second In race one and fifth In race two 10 break his own record for mosl championship points earned In a single season. (Left) The ol her Akira: Local rider Aklra Ryo piloted his Suzuki 10 Ihe faslesllap and also Ihe win In race one , com ing from beh ind 10 . overtake Fogarty lal e In I he race. Corser,_a-..l-T _ he la st few Su perpoles hav e been living up to their grandiose title, a nd Sugo W .1S no excep tion . Ducati's Troy Corser upheld the "away tearns '" honor with his fifth pole pos ition of the year, afte r scorching around Sugo in 1:29.910. Even that could have been bettered had the Aus trali an not had to modify his line on the exit of the chica ne wh en he saw "a couple of rocks on , the racing line, left over from wh en so meone had go ne off the track earlier in the day. " Castrol Honda's AMon Slight had an even nasti er surprise as he slithered to a career-worst 16th place on the grid. Having received the oil flag on his out lap and having witnes sed the sigh t of flag marshals brushing the tra ck su rface, he gingerly approa ched the com er the next s time around only to find no oil flags and no marshal . HLs lap time was affected enough, in such a cutthroat session as this, to drop him to 16th and the four th row . It turned out that the marshals had been brushing a snake off the track, wh ich they had finished doing by the tim e Slight came around for real. . Slight, livid at yet another tum of bad luck this year, remonstrated angrily with track officials whom he thought should have shown him the red flag on his flying lap, so that he cou ld get a clean run all the wa y around. Shinya Takeishi an d Akira Ryo took second a nd third places on the grid, with wandering . hom eboy Akira Yanagawa in fou rth . Carl Fogarty, on pro visional po le afte r a last-lap cha rge in regular qu alifying, dropped to fifth when his Ducati hopped out of gear going ove r the line on his ou t lap, slowi ng his approach to the firs t comer. And with one second covering the top 12 riders, it was enough to put him on the seco nd row . Corser's perf orman ce put him a t the top of the Superp ole Wor ld Cha m pionship . His 25 points for bein g fastest a t Sugo .meant Corser beat the other Pole Position Prince of the yea r, Ca rl Fogarty, by two poin ts. "The main problem I have here is that 1 can' t get out of the chicane: ' Fogar ty said, "I can ' t seem to hold a line which lets me power ou t properly, and that reall y hurts when you hav e to d rag all the way up that hill." problems and starting from the fourth row saw him hit an a ll-ti me lo w 16th and 13th places, ending his season on a bu m note. "The rea r tir e was the sa me ty pe I chose after practice yes ter day, bu t th e gri p w as shoc king tod ay," Slight said. Ano the r toiler was Ka tsu aki Fu jiwa ra, who' s return to familiar gro u nd d id not help his performan ces a t all, finis h ing 12th a n d 13th, ju st lik e h e frequently does at any other World Superbike rou nd . Ap rilia's first great Wo rld Superb ike ad ven tu re ground to a halt (literally, in r a ce o ne) when Goddard 's en gi n e expired , and the local rid ers and his big twin's lack of horsepow er meant a DN F and a 19th positio n. It wa s a poo r end to a season that offered grea t promise. "The bike' s power com es in an d ou t li ke a light sw itch here, so w e really stru gg led :'. Goddard said . "We' re down on horsepower as well. " The rest of the World Superbike reg u lars, like G rego rio Lavilla, had the strange experience of setting lap times all weekend not far behind the leaders, and yet battling for the last points-seer- ing-posi tio ns, The regu lar priva teers had it even worse, with no ne of them scori ng points at all. RACE 1 T he ex p ect ed o nsla ug ht o f th e loca l Japanese riders arrived like tsunami at the first co rner, with Takeish i takin g a tempora ry lea d in p roceed ing s, fo llowed by foreig n invad er Fogarty, Haga and Yana ga wa, an d the second Du cati interlo per, Corser. Th e loca l Kawa sa ki m an Takei sh i lasted only half a lap before his eng ine dropped a valve entering .the Rainbow corner , e nd in g his participa tion a nd causing a few nasty moments for the follo w in g pa ck , fueled with fi rs t la p aggression and desire. Fogarty may have in herited an initially u nopposed lead, but the Englishman mad e the most of his opportunity and ke pt his lea d for th e follo wing 13 laps. Behi n d him, Corser was layi ng a move on Haga on the second lap, but the follow up - an a u da cious charge aro u nd the outsi de of Yanagawa at the entrance to the final chicane - was a tad ambitious. The real batt les for su pre macy would take p lace fart he r back in the fight for fou rth, with Ryo joining Ha ga, Cor ser, Ch ili a n d - fo r a w hil e a t lea st Edwards. Meanwhile, Slight's race, which sta rted badly and got a little wo rse, was toiling away in 14th place, followed by Lavilia. The fastest man of the race was Ryo, who was on a mis sio n th rough ou t the d ay, as he attacked Corser up the insid e, ta k ing th ird and puttin g Yana g aw a firml y in his sig hts . The problem for Ryo was that his fellow Japanese rid er was a little more d ifficult to pa ss than an y of his previous victims, and he almost lost his whole race on lap six after a rear-end slide exiting the final chica ne. With Fogarty slowly extending his lead to 1.2 seco nd s by lap eight, however, Ryo knew he had to make a move Q N .8 .2 u o 7

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