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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128102
World S uperb ike Cham p io n s h ip Round 3: Ph illip Island , A:ustralia 1'!A!l@[f{J@] ~[j)@[ft;j[fJ@f?{J IiJG!J[;S[;SD@[;S [X]G!JD@ the fact rema ined th a t the hea vy rai n and high wind s ma de t he g e ntle o il slick a living , m o ving beast , accord ing to Ed wards . "O ne la p I woul d go low into the c orner and I cou ld see th e film la ying on the ground. Then I wo uld go hig h and it wo uld ha ve moved ." One top rider s t r ugg l ing even more was Corser, getting invo lve d in some scraps with rid ers like Robe rt Ulm a nd Giovanni Bu sse i. By la p s ix, Edwa rd s was a head by no less than t h r e e se c o n d s w it h Okada and Ba y liss h o ld in g each oth er up as t h e y c ircu lated in th e deepening wate rs on the track. A coupl e of la p s la ter, Ba y lis s forg ed a littl e le a d o ut fo r h im s e lf o ve r Okada an d s ta rt e d towa rd h is very o wn goa l of winnin g a t ho me . He was n e ver to get th e re , but the tussle betwe en O kada (g ood on the bra kes) , a nd Ba ylis s (bette r o n corner s pe e ds a nd exit s ) wa s e ntertainin g e no ugh on th e s lip pe ry stuff. Re gi s Lac o n i fo u n d it a ll a little too e nt e rtai ning , c ra s hing out of the race on la p five. Xa us , c a tch in g t h e lea ders at a rate of two seconds per lap , set the b e st circui t of the race with a 1:4 6 .4 56 on lap seven , but was soon to fall from grace in circumstance s he could no t understand - a lthough g o ing two seconds faster than othe r riders is maybe reason enough . T h e ra c e o rder at the halfwa y m a rk of the race , during whi c h we h a d lo s t Borj a and Xaus, w a s Edw a rds , Ba y liss , O k a d a , Parkes , Yanagawa , Bor ja , Ch ili, Martin, La vilia , Busse i, Corser, Ulm , Cha mbo n , and Bostrom - having an off da y in the we t , literall y at a la ter stage. Par k e s , the y o u n g A ussie a b so lute ly o n fire a t his home ci rcu it, d id a Hodgson , by c ra s hing a nd re -m o u n t in g al t ho u g h h e was to m a k e it all th e way insi de the top five. His rid ing style pr o ved to be a lla ction and he was to s urvi ve anothe r b ig rear -end s lid e exit ing the sa me MG c o rn e r he fe ll off a t. Starting to hit backmarkers at the 18 MAY 2 ,200 1 • cue I e Running water and standing puddles made it Im possi ble to race in the second leg at th e Philli p Island track. h a lfwa y m a rk , t h e t op ride rs dis posed o f J ames Tose lan d and J ir i Mrkyv ka first of all , and the n started t o p e rfo rm P ac Man maneuvers th e re a fte r. Edwa rd s , Ba y lis s a nd Okada came u p behin d the lap ped Neil Hod g s o n . Th e re t he n ensued the stra nge s ight of Hodgson running at ba s ic all y t he s a m e speed as Edwa rds , then a llo win g the leaders thro ugh one by one. By lap 14 of the 22 , Steve Ma rt in , in n inth pla c e , wa s a whol e minute b eh ind Ed wards , as t he process o f unnatur al selectio n too k ho ld. Lavilla , w h o ha d b e en ly ing in six th pl a ce , lo s t the re a r a nd du mped himself on to the ta rm a c on la p 13 . Co m pa re d to t h e strong r id e s Bostr om was puttin g in at Valenc ia a nd especially Kya lam i, t h e soggy ve rs ion at Ph illip Is la n d was strug g ling, lugging h is Duc a ti a round outside the to p 10. An idea of how wet the tra ck surfac e was d etermin ed from the fa c t th a t numerou s TV cameras around the course misted up o r got c overed in water, as they s low ly succumbed t o the wo rst efforts o f a veng eful mother nature. In th e fina l th ird of th e ra ce , O kada t ired of toying w ith Ba yliss and promptly shot ahead s ig nifica ntly . In pr ivateer la nd, a ra pi d Gio vanni Bu s s e i hel d the bra ke lever in just a little too m uch on the drop down MG, lo st the fro nt a nd cra she d with o ut injury. Hea rt break ing ly for Bost rom , he was to fall almost within sig ht of th e flag, si tt ing b eh ind Ma rt in Cragg ill an d a ll re ad y to poun c e on t he sta rt/fin ish st ra ight. With three la ps to go , O kada, c irc u lating t wo seconds (and mor e) fa ste r th an lea de r Ed wa rd s , look ed to ha ve a c ha nc e, bu t rea lizing that Edwards could go fa ster at any time n e _ s With the incessa nt rain and wind lashing the riders, the 21-lap WorldSupersport race got underway with no end of frenzied jockeying for position in the first comer. Miraculously, all 32 riders negotiated the usual first-comer melee, with no less than five laps disappear ing before the first casualty, J ames Whitham, finally retired after crashing on lap four. The early leader, Katsua ki Fujiwara, was heading up the leading phalanx of Kevin Curtain, Andrew Pitt, and Pere Riba. By the standards of the first Superbike race. the Supersport event was a less frenzied crash fest of a thing, although the riders who tipped of in this event were of just as high a ca liber as their Superbike cousins. lain Macpherson (having just set the fastest lap of the race, 1:50.610 on lap nine) was the first of the big names to surf on the tarma c, and he was followed by Karl Muggeridge, the very impress ive and aggressive Chris Vermeulen, and most dramati cally, the then seco nd-place man Fujiwara, at half distance. With Fujiwara leading in the early laps, first Pitt and then Curtain attacked the numberone spot, with those two having a real elbow knocking competition with ea ch other as they splashed through the fifth lap. By lap eight, Curtain - intent on winning his first World Supersport race on home soil had eked out a 3.4-second lead over Pitt, Fujiwara and Vermeulen. Riding like the veteran he is not, and with a race win under his belt already this season (in a U.K. race two weeks before) young Vermeulen's confidence allowed him to harry the best riders in the chasing bunch, intent on catching Curtain. With Pitt and he trading spray on the Southern loop, however, and the hard-charging Fergusson and Fujiwara nestling in behind, Curtain was making good his escape. Until he crashed , MacPherson appeared to have an easy upper hand on the men he was closing in on, most notably Fujiwara, but a small mistake had a big effect, binning the Kawasaki man out of the race . The Aussie battle at the front soon brought the trailing peleton of riders to within 2.8 seco nds of Curtain's tail, as Fergusson made his attempt at reeling in the near-vet eran BKMman. Fujiwara, steeling himself for the second half of the miserably wet race, moved into second on 12th lap, almost simultaneously with the sight of his teammate Muggeridge, who was comi ng in to retire. Fujiwara's turn at catch ing Curtain, initially successful, final evaporated in tum three when the fast Japanese rider gave it a little too much gas and the bike did a lazy rearwheel lowside, with the back coming round in a graceful arc. A high-speed off, and Fujiwara was not the first rider of the day to thank the generous run off at Phillip Island for sa ving his skin and bone. Fergusson inherited second, therefore but, with Fujiwara's crash holding him back , Curtain's yo-yoing lead was back to full stretch of four seconds. By lap 14 Curtain, Fergusson . Pitt, Riba, Thomas , Guareschi, Casoli, Teuchert , Cogan, et all were increasingly unable to make much progress on each other. With five laps to run, Curtain's lead was looking, if not exactly unassailable, then certainly too risky for all the chasing riders to have a pop at without the threat of a nil points score. Therefore, the final positions remained on the last four laps, Curtain, from Fergusson, Pitt, a charging Guareschi, Riba, Thomas and Casoli, suffering with a misted-up visor. As the last lap rolled on, Curtain. a 34 ·year-old veteran, took his first World Supersport race win, and with three Aussies monopolizing the podium positions, the drenched crowd had at least success on the track to warm their chilled bones . Curtain's excellent performances , both here and at Valencia , place him in a tie with Pere Riba with 36 points, "I jus t ca n't believe that my fi rst rac e win ca me at home," Curtain s ai d. "It 's s uch a great feeling to do it in front of my home fans. I s pe nt the first co uple of laps seeing who was faster and who was slower . then I got my hea d down and went for it.' (Above) The World Superspon race gets re ady to stan. (Below) Australian Kevin Curtain pi ck ed the pertect place to win his first· ever World Superspon race • In his home race.