Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128103
W o r ld Superbike C h a m p io n s h ip Round Four : S u g o , .Japan se c ond la p, t h e re a ft er pu sh in g past Se r izawa on the b rak es. Bostrom , be ing dropped b y the three samura i in fro nt o f h im , was soon to go 3.9 - sec onds beh ind , and then c ome under th e unwanted inAu ence of the ra p idl y p r o gr e s s i n g Sh inich i It o h . Izutsu , no w shadowed b y the poun cing T am ada , rebuffed h is first attempt t o overt ak e, a hint Tamada took as he wa ited until 10 laps f rom ho me to repeat t he manueve r m ore successfu lly. Itoh, still ch arging fo rw ard, took Corser's p lace on lap e ight. For others, th e day was going from disaster to n ig htm are, as Ed wa rds was stuck in 13th, w ith Bayliss out of the p oints all together in 16 th . J uan Borja r a n strai g ht o n on lap n i n e , a lap which pre-empte d a period of rela tive calm, not to sa y p roc essio na lism . A nasty i nc i de n t al m os t s aw a ma rsh al inj ured at t he ex it o f t h e chi cane on la p 13 , w he n the Kawasaki of Michele Ma latesta was l eft l an - c::I:I::ID Corser (lettl broke up 1he all-Japanese STR podium in race one - ra ce two's podium, however, was an all-Japanese affair. after hold in g off Ryo. His slip w asn' t when Hodg son m issed a gear, allow- te rm in a l , and he contin ued to head ing Lavi lla to pass h im on the run to h is c ount ryman , albeit sev en seco nd s do w n on T am ad a u p ahea d. Itoh and Lav illa were coming st rong ly beh ind , the line. W ith five to go, T amad a, maintain- looking fo r so me prey . Ry o , u nd er Se rizawa at th e first the 25 poi nts. Corser, who had bro- ing the gap to Corser, was away with ken lzutsu , was in a si milar position to t he eventual w inner - alone . Ryo , with Itoh again , was not to head th e corne r , left Ito h to try his h an d so o n a fte r. A n o t h e r more m aj or m ist a k e a ll o wed Itoh and Lavilla to do a doubl e p ass on Ser izawa at th e fi rs t tw o experienced Ho nd a m an . A late sp urt fro m Co rser , when h e corners. By l ap 12, it . was T amada from d ipped into t he 29s to try and ca tc h Tamad a , c a m e to nothing , as th e Corser , lzut su , a n d R y o , with th e Japan ese m erely upped h is own pace Suzuki rid er com ing und er major to t ak e an ea sy win . The la st surp ri se p ressure from Itoh. One lap later, j u st over ha lf d is tance, Tamada had taken a 4.21 -sec - o f a race - w ith a few ea rl ie r ones was th e fa ct that Toseland , a roo kie ond lead over Corser , wh ile Izutsu w as r ig h t with the Australian. Ok ad a, over-keen to impress pe r - enc e, managed to pa ss n on e other than Edwards for 11 tho h ap s , crashed at the Ch icane , Corser , Izutsu , Itoh , Ryo , L avilla , a lth oug h he got up and remounted, fi n ishing 20th . O n the same lap, Serizawa retired, Ho d g so n , Chili, Bos tro m , Yoshikawa , Toseland , E d w a rd s , Bayliss, La con i h is gearlever falling off. On lap 14 , young Tos eland , in 12th, was now only seven sec o n d s d o w n on Ed w a rd s , who was holding w ith littl e World Superbik e ex pe ri - The finishing order, of Tam ada , and Chambon. All the point scorers conta ined no fewer than two Michelin riders, and had four wild cards in th e top 10. RACE TWO off Yo sh ik aw a on the R7. In the beginning , lzutsu went into a B y lap 15 , Tamada was 5 .832sec onds away and c lear of Corser , wi t h Itoh 12.126 b ehind the leader. Tose la nd was beaveri ng away hard , that h e m ea nt it. Bostrom , filling in ahead of Bayl iss , no less. A nice little wa r was brew ing behind , had taken a short h ol eshot until lzutsu muscled past. lead that his body langu ag e a nd his bike 's obvious distress demonstrated betw e en H od g son t he catc he r and Serizawa , painti ng the world g reen Lavill a , the caught. With H odg so n p assin g m omentar ily o n la p 19, Lav- like his pal lzutsu ,w as next to pass Bostrom , shoving his ZX - 7RR into i li a fou ght b a c k quite successfu lly, con tention on the se co nd lap dropp ing H od g s o n w ho h a d b e e n forced into a small error. Their battl e would b e d e cid ed o n the last l a p, 12 MAV9 ,200 1 • cu e I ... A mark of 1.29 .5 22 , the new lap reco rd which wou ld see out the day, c am e for th at man T a m a d a on the neVIl's Kauro 'Joel' Ishikawa, the senior manag er of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. , sales and promotions, was in attendance at Sugo. and spoke about the company's plans for the future of their racing involvem ent. What has been decided about the 100 0ee limit for Superbik es? Noth ing has been decided yet, there have been discussions, but there is no comp lete plan yet. Is th ere a general intention among manu facturers to be allowed to race 1000cc machines in World Superbike , as is rumoured? Kawasaki is not a major player in many race act ivities. but if other manu facturers have formed a plan , and the tendency is in that di rection. then we have to go the same way. Are the 1000cc four-cylinder rules a slightly easier way for Kawasa ki and t he oth er Japanese manufacturers to go Superbik e racing? Speed witho ut massi ve development costs. I think that, frankly speaking about the 750cc situation , when the 1000cc twins are racing against the four -cylinder mach ines there is some handicap. In professional golf, for example, there is no handicap system. So maybe there has to be a change in this situation . Why did you join the MSMA , what used to be the GPMA? To go GP racing? Joining the MSMA was a partly to have the possibility to discuss racing with the other manufacturers. Before that, we were out of the circle because there was only the GPMA , which was only for GP manufactu rers. I took the opportunity of joining the MSMA and we have learned many new things fro m other manufa ctur ers. Is it your wish that Kawasa ki will go GP racing? Especially with the new four -stroke rules. It is not certain at this mo ment. Would any move into GP racin g mean any detriment to the World Superb ike effort? I don't think so. The reason we did not do GPs for, I think , 17 years is because it was a very difficult situation with a two-stro ke 500 . In our opinio n, there was no production benefit for Kawasaki. Only for the racing activities. For us it was very hard to maintai n the series products, and we wanted to concentrate on production development. So we quit GP. What about the benefits of building a GP prototype, and then selling it on the street later? We have to mai ntain the Superbike races as long as they have the regulations, but mainta ining Superbike racing is very costly. At this moment for us with product ion m hines. Is it company policy with Kawasaki that the bikes must be in corporate green, with no main ti tl e sponsor? If some outside sponsor was to apply to us then we would be open minded. but so far we do not have any big tobacco company or sim ilar joining with us. Is there a new Superbike planned? A 750? We introduced the bike in 1994, as you know , but we maintain the performance of the machine every year and have success on the racing circuit. The re is no new machine planned . Are 750cc mach ines finished now? Kawasaki have made 900c machin es for almost 30 years, since the introduct ion of the Z 1. The 900 is like our magi c number. Whenever we develop a big bike we are concerned with a 900 . How big is Superport racing for Kawasaki? There is a very direct connecti on with production model and many young customers recognize the success of 600 . It is the starting point for a lot of racing or just pleasure riding for many riders. This is a good size. It means we have a huge market for 600cc ma chines.