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BRIEFLY The Superbike event is the first truly major event at the Lausitzring and some cracks were showing throug h the per feet -on-paper venue . For starters. the track bou ndaries caused much disc ussion and were the subject 01 alteration betwee n the pre-race testing on Wednesday the 6t h and the beg inning 01 offi cial practice on Friday . W ith the FIM adamant that the main straig ht should only be used to the wid th 01 any other one in existence. Trackside curb ing was sent out lor from the nearby Osch ersleben track . located nearby on the Leipzig Highway. The previous ste ps 01 demarki ng the track from the tri-ovel. mere strips 01 paint and a series 01 orange plastic flappers (fo r want 01 a better word). rubber mounted in case of collision. were not deemed enough. Several riders voiced conc erns that because the curbing started some distance from the comer, there was a high chance 01 inadvert ently hitti ng it in the heat 01 a race . or when unseen by a rider in Iront. All 01 thos e worries appeared to be understa ndable. but ultimately lalse. There were also problems with some 01 the trackside transitions between the tri-oval and the motorcycle tra ck. The co nc rete wa lls. del end ed by tires. we re generally tho ught to be too far away to hit wi th any great lorce in the even t 01 a crash. but the blunt end 01 the pitwall itsell pose d a hazard as the riders exited the last co me r on a tight line. Kawasaki, having th eir SBK team bas ed in Germany. were out in Iorce at Lausitz , and planned to put 2000 Kawasaki fans, all dressed in green. in the same area 01 the main grand· stand lor the race . As part 01 their celebrations they had Hitoyasu lzutsu back with them again. alter his latest All Japan adventure. He took no time in making himse ll the fastest man in green in practice. and then spoi led at least some 01 his good wo rk by turning up late for Superpole. earning himsell a 1000 Swiss franc fine. The most wor rying a s p e c t o f the L a u s i tz track was a basic one. and not really a primary sal ety issue . N ot yet at least. The tarmac used lor the track and paddock was reput ed to be made of highly dense material. Thus when the rain lalls it has no chance to permeate through the tarmac rtsell to dry. The track is also almost flat. and thus it does not shed water very well either. Hy droplaning was deemed to be a big problem in any t hing approaching heavy rain and given that even the reasona bly light rain 01 the first day was enough to make the track wet. and then wetter still . heavy rainlall was so mething 01 a taboo subject in prerace conversanons. The one good aspect 01 the dry track was that all the tire s seeme d to be operating on the same level. with D unlop. Mi chelin and Pirelli runners all equally happy alter l inal practice . German efficiency w ent mad at Lausitz. with cont inual bat ties betwe en the regular SBK orga nisers and the track manapement about many basic thin gs in the lirst coup le 01 days . The most bizarre was the sight which greeted the photographers on the first day. Already depre ssed by grey skies. vantage point s wh ich were too far from the action and dull backgrounds. the photographers had an outright revo lutio n when they we re not allowe d to walk or take a scooter anywhere on the tra ck side. Given a shuttl e bus to take the m to each vantage point the photographers union finally had enough when the drivers failed to let them out. re quiring t hem to shoot ou t t he w indow s 01 t he van s. Some sense 01 norma lity was reso lved but only alte r much ill-feelinq . lor what appeared to be no good reason except a complete lack 01 understand 01 how W orld Champ ionship race meetings work. The p re·r ace testing at the LausiUring. on Wednesday before race weekend. attra cted all the top runners . with the lastest 01 them proving to be Troy Baylis s. Without the necessary modificati ons to make the tr ac k fully race ready . several ri ders came around and missed their tum -in point for the firs t co mer. causing them to run wide and enter the last bank ing sec tion. much to their surprise and the marshals' chagrin. Colin Edward s was a big·name crasher in the last lew minutes 01 final qualifying. losing the fron t alt er hitting one 01 the perrnanent rumble strips. '1 hit one 01 the white lines , one 01 the one s which is supposed to be painted with something to give it adhesion." Edwards said. '1 just tou ched it. and the fro nt we nt away. It was a noth ing crash , thoug h. I co uld have hurt myself more lalling out 01 bed in the moto rhome . " Alter the initial problems w ith the circuit. the general consensus 01 opinion was that in the dry the track was okay. quite technical, but no worse than some other modem circuits to ride on. With an average lap speed 01 around 93 mph it is also faster than place s like Valencia. Nei l Hodgson appeared to have it sussed alter initial reservation s. "I didn ' t think I was going to like this circuit when I first saw it in pre-race testing on Wednesday, but it has grown on me," said Hodgson alter winning his firs t Superpole 01 the year. " I think the Lausitzring is a fantastic compl ex but the inlield lacks imaginatio n and it is a bit repetitive. " Boring in design maybe , but it did group the top riders pretty close together. with the top 12 covered in regular qualifying by one seco nd, and with 0.4 seco nds covering the top nine riders in Superpole. Troy Corser. ever the man w ith a wise word on bikes. tracks and much abou t racing in general. made one point that many others concurred wrth about the new Laositzring. " Getting the first row is very importan t here at Lausitz. especially because the top 12 riders are all grouped within the space 01 one second. I pred ict two very hard -Iought races . There isn 't even a clear supremacy of a tire brand and this means that a lot of riders are loo king to win on the track tomorrow. We'll see what the weather does. rain is always lying in wait out there ." The much-awaited Mondial S u p e rb i k e Ra cing T eam may well be on the cir cuits wit h the other Wo rld Superbike challengers this season. accord ing to a team spokesman at Lausitz . The ltalian V-twin. powered by a Honda VTR -based engine . is expected to be homologated in J uly, when production 01 the roadbike has begun . The roadbike has been tested at the Rijeks circuit and put in laps of 1:38 , which gives the factory hope that the lu ll race version will be capable of competing this season, rather than waiting until next. That linal decision and the list 01 sponsors is expec ted to co me at the end 01 June , maybe even in time lor the M isano Superbike race. which wo uld be perfect oppo rt unity in term s of publicity for the fledgli ng team w hich will res urrec t the impossi bly histori c name 01 M ondial. M ondial won ten World Champ ionships in the early years 01 GP racing . Tadayuki Okada admitted that one 01 the main problems he has had to deal with since his move from 500 GP s to Superbi kes has been in qualify ing. especially Superpole. although his performance in the disc ipline was muc h better tha n he could have ex pec te d at Lau sit zring . moving himself up to th e Iron t row. "Superpole has always been diffic ult l or me," O kada said. " W e do the same sort of qualifying at the Suzuka Eight·hours race so I should be used to it but for some reason I've found it difficult in W orl d Superbike. I'm very happy to be on the fron t row . The season reaches the halfway stage this weekend so hopefully the sec ond hall will be better than the first lor me." It was an impossibly happy beginning 01 the race weekend lor the Pirelli-back ed D FX D ucat i squad, who were on the pace in almost every ses sion - for the first time this year. The peculiarities of the track surface may have had something to do with it. but the performance of man, team and tires was impressive by any measure, as Marlin went to the second row alter Superpole . " Maybe we should get Pirelli to pay to have all the circuits we go to covered in this sort of tarmac.' Martin joked. " But seriously, we have some new tire constructions this weekend and they have been workin g really well . B ut I am rid ing no different than any other time . I haven 't grown another ball since Do ningto n or anythinq! " Acco rding to sources in the Suzuki team. the ti m e s whi ch Frankie Chili set in qualifyi ng at Lausitz were all done on soft race tires . not qualifiers . They discovered early on that thei r qualifiers - exclusively made in the UK . as opposed to the race rubber, which is made in both J apan and the UK - did not seem to suit the bike's charact ensbcs. thus they used the J apanese race tire s alone. As Chili was right in there in Superpole, if only 11th in regular qualifying, this co uld theoretica lly count lor a lot . Ackn owl edged as the best wet tires, M ichelin held so mething 01an advantage in Friday ' s wet .conditions, bu t t he Pirelli ' s w or ked we ll enough to let Steve Mart in sit third in the lir st we t session. Dun lop are reported to be testing a new type 01 rain tire in Ameri ca, and hope to make them available lrom Mi sano onward. Previous Team Ghelfi Honda rider Nigel Arnold is recov ering alter undergoing an operation to repair the C6 and C 7 vert ebrae he fractu red during a car accident on Thursday, Ju ne 7. He has had a plate inserted to stabilize the broken bone s. and was up and about befor e raceday, but the nature of his injury means that it may be some time before Arn old is ready to co mpete at the top levels again. His travelling companions. including Broc Parkes and Marty Craggill, escaped relatively uninjured. A marshalling mix-up dunng the first periods of Friday practice caused the red flags to be broug ht out. and the ses sion to be halted. This cre ated disruptio n 01 the practi ce schedule, which was shuffled to try and catch up time . With that tactic provi ng to be an unwo rks ble one. the sessions were rescheduled 45 minutes later than normal in the mornings. and 15 minutes later in the afte rnoon . The SB K Paddoc k Villa ge. whic h spri ngs up for the delect ation and amuse ment 01 the masses who 've paid extra to get into the paddock in the first place. sprung a strange new device in Germany . Kawasaki' s marke ting people had com e up wit h the idea 01 c o nv e rt in g a lairground style m echan ical bu ll i nto a Kawasaki Superbike , comple te With Team Eckl bodywork and alloy chassis. The new Benelli Tornado racebike underwe nt more shake down te sts at Mi sano during a two-hour test on Friday J une Bth, with Pete r Goddard tryi ng out a new EFI map and exhaust sys tems in readine ss for the M isano race on June 24 . The team will again test lor two days rather than two hours this time , at Mi sano on Thursday and Friday alter the Lausitz race. Antonio Carlacci was replaced at the Lausitz race by reigning French Supersport Champion David Muscat. who was impres sive in the first wet sess ion. tak ing third place on the DFX Ducati 748, running Pirelli tires. Mu scat has won every single round 01 the French Championship this year . C hrist ian Kellner. fro m t he Wi lbers Suspen sio n Yamaha te am. ha d a le as -then -pe rf ect r un -up to hi s home race a t Lau si tzrin g , alter finding himsell the victi m 01a sinus inlection. The problem materialised at Don ington. where he felt diZzy and less than his best. but only when he returned to Ge rmany did the full effects show themselv es. The Bavarian rider, who wo n two races last season in the Supersport C hamp ionship. and challenged lor the cham pionshi p win right until the last comer 01 the last race at Brands Hatch. fou nd himsell in hospital l or a solid week. undergoing a course of intmvenous antibiotics. to try and clear up the problem. Kellner ended the first day at Lausitz in a lowly 24th fastest place . still not fully recov ered from his inlection. Fabien Foret was an excell ent polesitter in Germany . running last and sale lor the whole 01 pre-race. His pole time, although set in co mpany wi th his teammate Pere Rlba. apparently owed lit tle to the Spaniard's interventio n and was all down to the Frenchman." My bes t lap was very clean and I think maybe I could have pushed a bit harder. " Foret said alterward . " But my bike and tires we re working so well I held back j ust a litt le bit. I am especia lly pleased because this is my fo urth front-row start and my sec ond pole positi on 01 the year, and to reward the mechanics who've wo rk so hard. " Kevin C urtain, right up t here with the top men alter li nal qualifying. was in co nli dent mo od as he ge ts his season back toge ther again. "J don't think the Ten Kat e Honda guys will be able to do tha t kind 01 speed all the race and I've been doing 1:44s flat on race tires. " Curt ain said. " So I think we can do well in the race . I put a new type 01 front tire on and jus t went too las t on it in the last couple 01 minut es. So I crashed . but I got on the fro nt row and that was the main thing. " Adam Fergus son was in bullish form. reeling happy with himsell . his team and the world in general. although It has not always been so this season. "It's about time I got back up there. · Fer· gusson said. " I have some bills to pay - although that may have more to do with how the race goes lor me! I think it has take n me a bit longer than I expected to get used to the whole European thing . It kind of over-awed me a bit at the beginning really and I had to take time to get used to riding at 100 percent on every corner on every lap at eve ry track. Also I took a while to get over my big preseason crash . But I lee l really confi dent now . even on the dry tires . which are working we ll lor us. " Over the last couple 01 races the Yamaha Belgarda team have been pretty much the l ront runners , but at Lausitz they were in relative woe . finishing te nth and 12th respectively in the shapes 01 Paolo Casoli (the champio nship leader) and James Wh itham. According to W hit ham, they both have the same problem, but him worse than anyone. "We've been having a co nsistent and immovable chatter problem from the rear tire," Wh it ham said. " On the really long right- hand corner it has been real bad . I only '90t the 12th place and the third-row start because I threw a qualifier on and took my brain out l or a single lap. - Teuchert , also on a Yamaha on Dunlops, was complaining 01 having the same tire -induced chatter, but Irom only one out 01 every three tire s he threw at his Wilb ers Suspen sion machine. Eight times World Champ ion Steve We bster was a clea r 17-second winner 01 the Lausitz championship Sidecar race. beating his old rival Klaus Klaffenbock to the draw in the early laps and cle aring off into the mist on the wet circuit. A seaso n-best third place l or Sc ot sman Stuart Muldoo n. which w as later to becom e a second . was a welcome boo st for his Yamaha powe red team. although he was over two minutes behind Webster at the end. Roscher and No rbert made use 01 their local tarmac to finish in l ou rth place (then t hir d), w ith Austrians Hauze nberger and Hanni filth (then excluded) . desp ite the pain Hanni was suffering since a practice crash. Jorg Steinhausen. who was running a cut slick on the rear of his LCR mach ine, was one of five riders to take to the banking instead 01 the prope r Circuit w hen he was blinded by spra y and fi nish ed a miserable ho me race one lap down on the leaders . Abbott and Biggs lailed to finish. burt are still second in the World C hampionsh ip table. although Steve Webste r jumped seve ral places to third , thanks to his 25 po ints. The championship batt le just go t a lot closer alter K1affenboc k was excluded fro m the results beca use 01 a minute bodywork irregularity, promoting all those behi nd one place . All those behi nd Hauzenberger went up two places . alter he was also excluded . The once-runaway leader Kla ffenbock now enjoys a 75 to 53 points advantage over Abbott. with Webster on 45. Another dominant win lor Jam es Ellison was his hat-trick, but the first l or his new Hi-Peek team . as the GS X·R 100 0 and rider combinatio n roared to a 6 .650-se c on d marg in 01 victory in th e Superstock championship race. Hitt ing the front early Ellison was unstoppable. des pite only having lo rmed the team in the last ten days. Second, alter fight ing through the first l ew riders, was W alter Tortoroglio, also on a GSX ·R 1000. in the livery 01 the DMR Suzuki Italia outfi t. Unable to get on term s with Ellison, he rode a lonely. il aggressive race, to second. Mark Heckles was a lully de se rved podium flrus he r . losing out on speed on the straight s to his rivals. yet passing Marty Nutt in the final lew laps to take third and the 16 points on his Rumi Honda. He was part 01 a lour-man battle fo r the last pod ium position, wh ich inc luded Nutt, local man Benny Jerezenbeck and Daniel Oliver Bulto. Ellison now leads the cham pionsh ip by ten poin ts fro m Tortoroglio, in what has become a two-man fight lor the 2001 cro wn . cue I e n eVIl's JUNE 20 , 2001 29