Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

RACE TWO: 1. Tr oy Ba yliss ( Due); 2 . Colin E dward s ( Ho n) ; 3 . A ktr e Yana gawa ( K a w); 4 . Tadayuki Okada (Hon); 5. Pier Fran cesco Chili (Suz); 6 . Ruben X au s (Due) : 7 . Neil Hodgson (D ue): 8 . Regis Laconi (A pr) : 9 . Stephane Chambon (Suz); 10 . A lex Gramign i (Yam ): II. Giovann i Buss e! (Due) : 12. Robert U1m (Due); 13. Lu ci o Pedercin i (Due ); 14 . Steve Marti n (Due); 15. Mau ro Sanchini (Due) ; 16. J uan Borja (Ya m) ; 17. L udo vic Holon (Ka w ); 18 . Luca Peslni (Due) . Time : 32 m in . 57 .108 sees. Distan ce: 64. 54 mi les Average speed: 117 .51 m ph Margin or victory: 3 .310 Fastest lap: 1:48.94 2 . Lap 12 . Troy Bayliss WORLD SOPERBIKE C'S HIP POINTS STAN DINGS (Afte r 5 or 13 rou nds ) : 1. Troy Ba y li ss (150/2 Win s) ; 2 . Tro y Corser (122/ 2) ; 3 . Co li n Edw ards ( 120 / 2) : 4 . A ki ra Vanag a wa (7 g) ; 5 . (Tie) Ben Bo st rom/Pi er Fran cesco Ch ili (7 4/1); 7 . Gr egor io Lavilla (6 8) ; B. Neil Hodg son (5 8) : 9. Regis Laconi (54 ); 10. (T ie) Makoto Tamad a/ Stephane Cha m bon (50); 12. Hitoyasu Izutsu (43 ); 13. Tadayuki Okada (37); 14 . Ruben Xaus (36); 15. Giov anni Bussei (25) . Ruben Xaus had an up-and-down day on the factory Ducati. He was running third In the first race when he crashed then he finis h e d s ixth In race two. Upcomi ng Rou nd s: Rou nd 6 - Donington Pa rk. Eng land. Ma y 27 Round 7 - Lausitz ring, Germany, J une 10 BRIEFLY• •• A mee ting between a large number of the top Superbike and Supersport competitors at Monza finally elected a rider's representative. although at present such a position does not exist in any official form . His appointment by the riders is de signed to prevent any of the sc enes of open rebelli on that dogged the ill· fated Phillip Island rou nd. w here Troy C orser too k it upon himself to prevent any of the rider s from going onto a track he considered to be danger ous. and which was finally proved to be unrideable. The man they chose is indeed the former tire engineer Pete In9ley. who has had no offic ial involvement in bike racing for a number of years. This he sees as an advantage. -I believe that an exrider is not necessarily the best person to choos e to be a rider's rep. " said Ingley. " So meo ne in my position has no slanted view point or a former co mpetitive relationship with ot her riders . I have had a range of jobs in mo torsports, including F·1 experience, so I know racing very we ll. I have no favo rite s in racing. no political or financial interests. The first thing I think I have to do is establi sh my credibil ity . but there have already been moves to get involved in the overall orga nizat io n of the ser ies . This is a big champions hip. and has the best guys in it. but they need an independent voi ce. My primary interest s will be the health, safety and general well being of the ride rs . There is also a politi cal dimension. in that racing is changing and it is in the interests of the Superbike ride rs to keep the series st rong. so there will be that aspect of it to look after as we ll. " W hen asked if his elect ion was a unanimou s one. Ingley rep lied . " Of all the ride rs present at the meeting , the vot e wa s unanimous, but there weren't probably all 60 or so of th em there . But there were no biq- name absentees. " N oriyuki Haga was in attendance at M onza. as wa s M ic k D o ohan, altho ugh sightings of the latt er were sca rce .. Haga looked a lot more at home in the Superbike paddock than he does in the GP one, and his fee lings of homesickness for everything Superbike would only have been heightened at Monza. The classic Monza circuit. a much hacked-about piece of real esta te since its incepti on in 1923. has gone under the machina tions of the bulld ozers once again. The firs t two chicanes have been changed, after a fatal accident during a Formula One race. The first in now an almost dead-stop 90-degree right. with a curv ing exit to the left and then right again to the next chicane. the middle of which has been length ened. and thus slowed. Most of the riders hated the firs t chicane. with some even believing that a yellow flag shou ld be held out there on the first lap. so that the order in which the riders arrived there . w ill be the order they went through in. to prevent an even higher level of incident than usual. The chicane wa s believed to be the slowest comer on any World Supe rbike c ircuit by many, but it is not thought to be as slow as the ch icane at Sugo where riders get down to around 30 mph . The next slowest is Goddards at D oning ton. where the riders crawl round the apex at 35 mph . The new safety measures taken at Monza illustrate perfectly the need for different safety rules for bikes and cars . w ith three rows of tire barrier at the slip road of the chicane being remo ved so that eit her a crash ing rider. or one who has cooked it on the brake s. w ill not risk runni ng into a barrie r de signed to slow and stop an errant F-1 missile . Aprilia Pre sident and owner Ivano B egg i o joi ned in a specially arranged M oto G uzzi parade lap at M onza, between the Super. spo rt and seco nd Superb ike races. His Apri lia concem ow ns the class ic marque . along with the Laverda name. and it is hoped that the co ntrol by Aprilia will herald a new dawn for M ot o Guzzi. In the Paddoc k Show area of the Superbike paddock, a large co llection of classic G uzzi racer s wa s on display, topped off by a living, bneathing G uzzi V·eight of 1957 vintage . A touc h of irony crept in when an exo tic four-stroke GP bike such as this was on display in the W orld Superbike paddock. ju st as GPs go four-stroke , The Ghelfi Art Honda team was shO Wing off its third rider in five meet ings at Monza - Japanese pilot Ara i Shuja . The entertaining and verbose track commentator at Monza wa s in good voic e as always. expelling hyperbole and Brazilian soccer commentato r-style elongations of word s on a minute-byminute basis. He did , however. seem to be having some kind of problem wit h the English rider s. calling Neil Hodg son - Nile - and J ames Wh itham - J ames W hit·man. Steve Martin. the Austral ian w ho rides wi th the DFX rac ing team. was fined 1000 Sw iss Francs afte r untimed Superbike practice on Saturday for not sto pping wh en shown the black flag with an ora nge disc . signaling he had a mech anica l pro blem with his machine . Brae Parkes, the yo ung Au ssie who impress ed many at Phillip Island. attended the stay-behind tire test at Sugo. wh ere he unfortunat ely broke a cou ple of ribs in a heavy fall. He was a no nstarter at Monza. Rider s in th e W orld S uperbik e C hampion ship races at M onza were co mpe ting for not just points and prize money. but trop hies that had even been sponsored. The Motonl i ne.com troph ies were so-called as a promo tional exe rcise for the company w hich hosts the offi cial W orld Superbike we bsite . Too well po ssibly. as the sheer vo lume of visito rs to the site during final qualifying on Saturday caused a loc k up on the we bsite . No thing exceed s like success . The actual race-w inning trop hies were presented by the M ot online.com Ch airman Ari sti de M erloni. son of one of Italy' s bigge st industria list s, and brother to Andre a Merloni . bo ss of the revitalized Benelli marque . One of the most experience d ride rs in the W orld Superbike pad dock we nt through a bizarre experience at Monza. Riding as a w ild card for the Viall i M ot o team. former 125cc W orld Champion and fo rm e r f ull -time Su p erb ik e co mp e ti t o r Alessandro Gramigni ended up being black-flaqqed in the first sess ion of practice . The probl em transpired to be that he had not been pre sent at a specia l training session. which all the w ild card riders had to atte nd . Being a vete ran of t he ser ies, Gramigni did not realize that he had to attend this meeting. designed to familiarize the rookie s with the way each Su perb ike event runs. Gramign i wa s thus black-flagged and pre vented fro m competing in any more of the first session. The GSE Raci n g outfit, the bigge st and flash iest private team in the paddock. was showing off their all-new and extremely glittery pit garage des ign at Monza . Una ble to lug all thei r equipment to the far·flung round s that have formed much of the early seaso n. the pit garage (with separate 'dirty ' roo m for messy task s. and a half Perspex false back wall to allow vis itors to see the team at work without getting in the way) is more like that presented by a factory team. "It's t he fir st chance we have had to bring it to races,' said GSE Team Ma nager C olin Wright, - but we put a lot of work into the design and look of it. An alleged fall-out between Pier-Francesco Chili and his team bo ss had the Suzuki Alstare pit in a sta te of abject misery in prac tice . An article in an Italian new spape r quoted Chili as being ve ry critical of his new and thus far uncompetitive 2001 factory Suzuki. Team boss Franci s Batta was reportedly livid with his wayward . and under -pre ssure star, but all was forgiven on both side s when Chi li managed to stick his Suzuki to the top of the co mbined qualifying tim e sheets. eve n if he dro pped to ninth. and the third row , afte r a disastrous Superpole lap. Ap rilia test ride r and occasion al W orld Superbik e compet ito r Alessandro Antonello wa s his usual st rong self on home territory. qualify ing in the top 10 co nsistently. while running undi sclosed new parts in his developm ent RSV . His temporary teammate Reg is Laconi was also on an absolutely ide ntical bike to Troy Corser for the fir st time this seaso n. An aston ishingl y long-winded press conference on Saturday afternoon at Monza pre sented an idea for a new on-line lottery game that will be based on the W orld Superbike Champi· on ship, run w ith the ble ssing o f the FIM . C ompli cated in nature according to tho se Italian spea kers who co uld unde rsta nd what was being spo ken about. the outline of the game was beamed live on closed-circuit N throughout th e medi a center . The game was pr esented in part by FIM sup rem o France sco Zerbi, always an atte ndance at the Italian race s. A warm -up vers ion for Italian journalists saw some of them win a So ny P1ays tati on II. The ultra -high speeds at M onza. even wi th an altered and elongated circuit de sign. brought out the usual rash of special tires. A cc ord ing to Du nlop . the tread is unusually thin on mo st of the ir recommended rubber, to preven t too much heat build up. A nor mal tire. subjected to nearly 20 laps of susta ined flat-o ut abuse. would apparently not last the required distance before disintegrat· ing. The special t ires were made available to privatee rs at this meeting. due to the fac t that they are a safety measu re. The fact ory Ducati pit rese mbled an endurance garage durinq final untimed qualifyin g. as a team of fo ur mecha nics changed an engine in Troy Bayli ss' spa re machine. The reason was not given for the change but it most assuredly wo rke d, with Bayliss taking S uperpole . The lat est development of the 99 8cc Te stast retta engine is suppos ed to be putting out 2 horsepower more than th e prev ious one. Klaus Klaffenbock won the Side car race at M onza by ove r eight seconds from veteran rider Steve Abbott , afte r his othe r main rivals experienced problems of different kind s. Steve We b· ster was forced to retire his outfit aft er he experienced ove rheat ing problems as he lost engine coolant in the hot evening air of M onza. Jorg Steinhausen wa s even more cruelly robbed of any cha nce of c hallenging Klaffenbock wh en he lo st his passenger. Andy Heth eringt on , exiting the secon d Lesmo co mer with 11 laps gone. Unaware of his passenge r' s unplanned exit . Steinhausen carried on and almo st crashed at the next chicane as the sidecar wheel lift ed off the ground. The misfortunes for the traditional top men gave the V an Gils brothers the chance to ste p onto the po dium. finishing thi rd. ahead of Hauze nber ger and Uechti. Klaffen · bock's win keeps him at the top of the tabl e. with a maximum 50 points from the tw o races actually run this yea r. Abbott now sits in seco nd place . 17 points behind . wi th Hauzenberger in third and Webster fourth . The start of the sideca r race wa s delayed after a serious acc iden t involvi ng the Fleury outf it. w hich re sulted in a broken femur for passenger Jane Reu ry. Experienced W orld Supe rsport campaigner Christiano M igliorati has been chosen by the BKM Hond a team to take ove r the role as teamma te to Kevin Curtain. after Ivan Go i was released due to poor result s. The news was especially sweet for Mig liorati as he had suffered the agonies of wit nessing his 2001 race plans co llapse wh en his NCR-Endoug team folded at the start of the year . " I am ready to race." said Migliorati . " because I have been keeping myself fit and focused. My seaso n starts here again. and I am re ally co nfident that I can have good results. - Mi glio rati should ce rtainly have every chance of relaunching his career, as Curtain is right in con tention for the W orld Champ ionship at present. having won the Phillip Island race along the way. Th e Ya ma ha B e l g a rd a Sup ers p o r t tea m o f J am e s W hitham and Paolo Casoli unveiled an all-new paint scheme at M onza: blue and opaque gree n, to mimic the packaging of one of their ma in sp o ns o rs. D av id o ff C o o l Wat er f ragra nces . The change is not permanent. with the machines expec ted to retu rn to their norma l red -and-blue co lor scheme for t he re st of the races . The very professionally done makeover job includes the riders' entire rid ing kit. w ith th e mach ines standing out more de spite thei r res trained colors . cue I e n evv s MAY 23.20 01 19

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