Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

decided by less than the two points he lo st, th en t h e re may be some questions asked elsewhere. Probably by Edwards ... Ben Bostrom o verca m e th e pr ob lems of his partia lly dislocate d shou lder (an unwelcom e leg acy from a Monza race crash) to finish fourth in race two , once he had his tire choice perfectly sorted. "Those were rea lly tough races for me to day , but I jus t had to grit my teeth and ride a s ha rd as I cou ld," s a id a visibly exhausted Bo st ro m . "I t hink , yeah, p robably the Du nl o p s were a bit better today . My bike and tires were perfect in race two, but it wa s still tough ." Hislo p, looking good for a brilliant ride to another podium finish in race two , was forced to pull in, on a day when all of the top Superbike fac tory m e n finished each ra ce. A re m a rkable conclus ion , when yo u consider how many of them were in tire trou ble and how much emphasis Doning to n places on front-end grip. The lap reco rd wa s never threat ene d in e ith er ra ce, alth ough Chili came close st in rac e one, but another rem arkable happening c a me to pa ss at Donington . The rac ing wa s c lose and e xc iting , with many changes of t he lea d, c ha ng e s of posi tions from firs t to la st and real excitement fo r t ho s e w atch ing . No t the no rm , wheth er it is Wo rld Superbike or Grand Prix racing you cons ider. Th e very natu re of Donington , a circ u it th at re wards a lm o st exactl y how well e ac h rider has got his bike setup, usually means that those with a good package under them s lowly and inexorabl y spli t into s ingle file and lose touch w ith e ach other. T h e re are e xceptions , of c ourse , and last yea r delivered some classic stuff, but everywhere you cared to lo ok there were battling riders and overta kings a plenty. Missing out on the party , o nc e again , it appea rs were the F u c h s Kawas ak i riders - Ak ira Ya n a g a wa and Gregorio Lavi lla - with the best of them only e ighth (Ya na ga wa in race two) . Th e curious case of the m iss ing Kwaks reapp eared once mo re , as they struggled with setup and strug gled even harder to make those race s etups work after poor q ualifying . Best of th e pr ivateers was fo rmer British Superbike fa ctory rider Marty Craggill in ra ce on e , a nd h is Auss ie co untryman Broc Parkes in race two 15th a nd 13th , respectively. Ch ill t o o k h is fi rst win of the year In race two at Donlngton Park after finishing second in race one. After a s low start t o the s e a s o n , t he factory Suzuki rider moves up int o fo u rth in the points standi ngs. BRIEFLY••• T roy Ba ylis s suffered two crashes in practice. to the baffement of his team manager Davide Tardozzi. who believed that his nurnher-one rider was suffering fro m an unconscious lac k of focu s after his M on za double win . Bayl iss himself knew his performances were below par , but at D o ninqt on. as the 1999 British Cha mpion. he was not writing himself off. " I'm not at all happy with my second-row grid position . even though my Superpole lap was the best I had done all weekend - by half a second ! The bike was sliding around a bit in qualifying. espec ially on the fast downh ill at Craner Curves. but I'm co nfident we can find a bit extra ." .John Reynolds , rampant in the British Championship this season. had a te rrible pre -Superpole. due to a host of mec hanical problems with his Ducati, and a cras h. and could only watch in deep frustratio n as his main UK rival Steve Hislop pulled into the middle distance. Lo g ic finally prevailed at Donington when the Media Cen ter for the Worl d Superbike race. which attracts a large crowd. was finally expan ded to the same size as that wh ich is used i n the GP championship. whic h attracts a tiny crowd by co mparison , There has been an undramatic but noticeable upturn in the numbers of regular and natio nal media at Superb ike races in 2001. w hich the regu lar D oningto n Media center could not hope to contain . The latest development of the much-awaited Be ne lli Tornado three -cy linder Superbike was tested recently at M isano . w it h Peter Goddard taking the bike to a reasonab le 1:38 time. w ith the machine still rep ortedly down on top speed . Goddard himself explained that "chassiswis e. the bike is pretty good, and it is really easy to ride . The bike has twin exhausts now because the pre vious one probably didn 't meet the noise limits. but the new sys tem actually makes the bike a lot better anyway. We need more top -end engine power. but the pull out of comers is quite good . We just want to start racing now. so we are on sc hedu le for ou r return at Misano. " Another top rider in the qualifying doldnums was Troy Corser. who was having so me thing of a co mm unications impasse wit h his Ap rilia team in the early sess ions . "The bike is very aggress ive whe n I open full throttle. Maybe part of it is the setting we have left over from the M onza race . but the mec hanics are checki ng it ou t. The gearbox ratios also feel o ut . so the telem etry guys are chec king t hat out now . The bike feels pretty strange to ride all aro und ." He o nly ju st go t onto the second row afte r an uncharacteristically poor Superpole. A highly aggress ive looki ng P ier-Francesco Chili appeared to be ove r-riding his fickle fac tory Suzuki. es pec ially in Superpole , whe n he had a massive rear-end slide and came close to disaster. His seeming lack of re straint was actually put down to another cause buy the rider himself. "I have a lot of chatter in the midpo int of the comer, so I have been co unte racting that by opening the thr ottl e earlier, but that uses up the tire really badly. That was why I almos t cras hed in Superpole , because the qualifying tire was already done ." The GSE Team took the unprecedented step of calling its own press conference, inside the media center. after Sat urday qualifying . to explain the reasons why they had suff ered no fewer than seven mechanical fa ilures , sometimes at key moments at th e Monza race . The main idea put foward was that the machines . being the very ones that the Ducati factory team had used last year. were getting a bit old . and therefore they had numerous unexpected breakages. According to team manager Colin Wright. the team had replaced all the parts that were a conceivable problem. and the part s we re supp lied to them comple te ly free of charge by Ducati - a fact that co nfirms the semi-factory natu re of the GSE team . Foreign visito rs to the UK were bemused by the fact that all the entrances to Donington Park had disinfectant"soaked straw covering them . Or at leas t they we re until it was explained to them that it was a precautio n brought into all public areas to preve nt the spread of foo t-and-mouth disease . Kawasaki's lowly practice pe rforma nces w er e put down to th e fact that bo t h Akira Ya nagawa and G rego rio Lavilla we re expe rie ncing suspension problems. unt il they reverted to older setting on their all new for 200 1 W P units . The changes. carried out over Friday night. were better fo r Yanagawa es pecia lly w ho now feels that his machine does not dive so much unde r braking. and is there fore more predictable entering corners . The second Superb ike qualifying practice. held on Saturday morning. was stopped for 10 minutes after a cra sh involv inq M auro Sanchini and Marty Craggi ll saw the Italian run over by the Au stra lia n's mach ine . The incident was precip itated w hen B en Bostrom . in the lead of the three riders. ran wide and slowed dramat ically on the entrance to Coppice corne r. Sanchini had to take avoiding actio n at the entrance. went in on an unavoidable tight line and los t the fro nt. He almost saved it. but eventually wen t off . rodeo style, half on and half off his machine - taking the tailing Craggi ll wi th him. Sanchini was take n to the medical cente r. but was checked out with only bad scrapes on his neck and heavy bruising from the impact of C ragg ill's fr on t tire . It was a bizarre and seemingly impo ssible crash . Superbike racing in the UK has always been known as a pop ular event. but this lime around it act ually sto pped traffic . Air t raffic that is. D onington Park sits directly below the flightpath for the very busy Mi dlands Airport. with planes taking off and landing wi th great frequency . Neil Hodgson. wired up with an on-board camera fo r the Superpole lap. of course. needed a helicopter overhead to relay the photos. but at the crucial moment a plane was due to take off . The TV helicopter pilot . normally being required to move to the North by the local air traffi c controller. asked if the plane 's take -off coul d be delayed until Hodgson cou ld co mplete his lap. When the pilot realized the reason fo r the reque st. he waited on the runway for the required couple of minutes before tak ing off, and Hodgson was allow ed free and full reign . Tadayuki Okada and James To seland were reported to the F IM for tu rning up late for their Superpo le laps. and each rece ived a 1000 Swiss Franc fine for their trouble . Peter Ingl e y . the new ly elected riders re presen tative. was at Don ingt o n. assuring those w ho as ked that although his new office had not bee n officia lly recog nized by the SB K organizers it was in the pipeline. Sidecar race leader Steve Webster suffe red yet anot her no fin" ish w hen his passenger . Paul W oodhead. had to retire fro m the race w ith pain fr om t he knee injury he had an o pe ration o n at Phillip Island. Taking ove r the lead from a dow ncast We bste r. Klaus Klaffenbock was in a worl d of his ow n, as he to ok another maximum-points sco re. to lead the championsh ip - from second-place Doningt on fini sher St eve Abb ott - by 22 point s. W eb ster ' s no score plunges him to eig hth in the title chase. leaving him an almost impossible amou nt of work to do in the final six rounds. Abbott was the subjec t of a post-race jury enquiry into his last-lap overtake on Steinhausen. when he clashed wi th the German rider as he passed on the inside at the final comer. Stei nhausen was fo rced to run w ide and then stoppe d as soon as he crossed the line w ith loo se bodyw ork on his machin e . T om Hanks scored the fourth place finish . wi th the van Gils pairing in fifth . eye I e n e vv s .JUN E 6 .2001 19

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