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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128103
gui sh ing o n t he tr a ck . The lea ders,
com ing around t he ti ght rig ht ex it
a lm os t blin d s hot within a cou ple of
fe e t o f the h a p le s s marshals , bu t
thankfully no harm was done .
With Itoh o n his own , Bo s t ro m ,
Cors e r, Ho dg so n a nd Ch ili were all
tog e the r, un til Chili dropped bac k a
litt le under pr essure from the speed
of the m en in fro n t of h im a nd h is
shot tires.
With Tamad a tak ing hi s rightful
place at the front on lap 16 , he soon
pulled out a near one-s e cond gap on
lzutsu , pu lling out .9 5 0 of a seco nd
in on e la p.
The Japan es e Suzu k is , like th e
Ka wa s a k i a nd Hon da tea ms, were
form a t ion flying in th is rac e , jus t
a hea d of La villa and Yanag a wa .
It oh, b y no w d es p e r at e t o g e t
a he ad o f Izuts u , o ut brak ed h im s e lf
spectacularly on the e ntr a nce to turn
one , inadv e rtently ba c king it in and
leav ing bla c k lines fro nt a nd ba c k .
His mom e nt of sheer ente rt ainme nt
no t only contrasted with th e ge ne ra lly
du ll na ture of the race for long spe lls ,
bu t drop ped h im b a c k to n inth ,
beh ind Chili, where he would st a y. A
s ta tic last few laps sa w the finis hing
o rd e r T amad a , Iz u t su, S e r izaw a ,
Bostrom, Hodg son , Corser , Ryo a nd
Ch ili in the top e ight. Th e rest of the
points went to Itoh , Kagayama , Yanagawa , Okada , Edwards , Laconi a nd
de ar , oh dea r , Ba y lis s , who ha d
eN
sev er e tire probl ems.
April,4, ZOOl
Results:
QUAUFYlNG: 1. Makoto Ternada (1:28.797); 2.
Hit o y a su Iz u ts u (1 :29 .2 0 3 ) ; 3. Troy Co rser
(1:29.417): 4. Ben Bostrom (1:29.510); 5. Shinichl
For sure Troy Bayliss' eff ort s we re ham pered by t he b iz a r r e
final t imed q ualifying s essio n , but it wa s a stag ge ring non result nonetheless. Whe n asked about it. team manager Davide
Tardozzi, as my stified as the ' est of us apparently . replied. ' It has
neve r happened before . Not once. And I hope it never happens
again. " The guilty party in the whol e proceedi ngs were the Miche·
lin tires used by the Infostrada bo y s , w hile th e quasi-aut on om ou s.
but still full-factory machine of Ben Bostrom runs the Suqo-friendIy Dunlop s on its rims. Part of the reason is that none of the AIIJ apan Ch amp ion sh ip teams run with M ich elin s. and th us t he
French tire pro ducer traditi onally struggles wi th its prod uct on a
circuit it sees once a year. For Bayliss to not even make Superpole was a startl ing tum of events. espe cially as he we nt faste r in
pract ice here iast year . Also . anothe r big-twin team on M ichelins.
the Cast rol Honda outfit. qualified reasonably we ll