Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

crashed and was left lying on the track, on the racing line. With no immediate red flag, the course workers surrounded him with hay bales. After the field streamed through, Alessandro Antonello takes up the some missing the bales by uncomfortably close margins, the red finally was brought out. Unconscious for just a few minutes, Holon was takent to the hospital with a suspected broken shoulder. The delayed and restarted second segment saw Bostrom take the early lead from Edwards. Hodgson was chase. The Aprilia test rider had a good day at Misano, finishing eighth and fourth. third, but moved up to second place down the back straight after slipstreaming Edwards as Laconi took the fourth spot. Bostrom and Hodgson start to pull away from the battle behind them as the Ducati boys started their attack on the top step of the podium. Edwards was third with Antonello sticking behind him in fourth place, a over sixth place, but two laps later he RACE TWO slowed and retired to the pits, handing Edwards again took the holeshot, only to have the lead taken from him two turns later by Bostrom. Hodgson the spot back to a grateful Hodgson. Bayliss, having made his racer's mind up to go for the win in the last few laps, was soon in front of Bostrom, with the American only just able to hold onto his draft as he parried Bayliss's every move - for the time being. On the last lap, it was hard to distinguish between the two Ducati riders as they were so close, but it was Bayliss taking the victory after his last-ditch attempt proved to be successful at Tramonto. Lavilla ended up third, followed by Edwards, Yanagawa, Hodgson, Corser, Antonello, Okada, Xaus, Toseland and Chili. Nell Hodgson (1001 and Bostrom (1551 took part in triple digit warfare as they battled for the lead in race two. Bostrom eventually took the win with Hodgson chunking a tire and finishing 16th. was also looking threatening from the start, but he had to settle into the fifth spot after the first-lap sort-out. With Edwards in second and Bayliss third, it was Laconi that separated the factory Ducati man from Hodgson, who was followed in turn by Corser, in sixth place. Bostrom, streaming ahead to a huge lead, was on fire, determined to take his second race win after his first-race disappointment. Behind him, Edwards attempted to take Bayliss at Tramonto, the corner at the end of the back straight, but Bayliss came back in ebullient style. With Bostrom two clear seconds ahead of the rest, Bayliss was consolidating his second place, pushing Edwards to third. On lap two, Ludovic Holon, the second Kawasaki Bertocchi rider, Closely fought out as ever, the Supersport race proved to be a curious mix of occasional flurries of four-rider outbraking maneuvers, double overtakes in one comer and a waiting game. The man who played the latter best was winner Jorg Teuchert, who slotted in behind a rejuvenated lain Macpherson on the final approach to the fmal straight and then swept past like his life depended on it. Holding of the ripostes from Macpherson, the World Champion is coming onto a game at just the right time, and has proved, just like last year, that anything is possible in World Supersport, especially when you can ride hard at every track on the calendar. Evidence of his willingness to take risks to win came from his overtake on Macpherson. Knowing that his attempt to pass would have to be a good one, he sailed into the comer with the front tire protesting and sliding and as he was moved to say afterward, "right on the limit." His championship chances may prove to be enhanced by this result, but for one of the previOUS top challengers, the game was over before it had begun properly. Kevin Curtain's injured arm, gashed and damaged in a big pre-race accident, prevented him from fmishing, as he pulled in on lap nine. For Macpherson. it was paradise found, a near win coming from a season of despair until now. His first finish at Misano could have been a win, had he not been so ring rusty when going up against the top riders in the Supersport world. The heat was on for him more than any other, coming as he does from the normally cold center of Scotland, but grit goes a long way in Supersport racing and the carrot of the win overcame the anvil of the sun. Paolo Casoli, unable to quite get on terms when it mattered, was nonetheless right on the money for most of the race, leading but unable to repeat his favorite escape tactic, whereby he stuns the opposition with speed early on. Fabien Foret proved to be the only Ten Kate Honda finisher, as Pere Riba crashed out for the second weekend in succession, just asking too much of his front tire on the last lap. The fact that Foret finished fourth, 2.46 seconds down on Teuchert, was mainly to do with the men, as the machines were on a pretty level footing. Practice, they say, makes perfect, and with Chris Vermeulen doing a lot of that at Misano, he was right on form. His best-ever finish of sixth could have been even more if he hadn't made small mistakes at strategic times. A potential winner at one point was Katsuaki FUjiwara, who likes Misano, qualified well, and rode as hard as anyone in the early laps. Four seconds is not much of a gap to give to the leader, but there was a big three at Misano and nothing less. A poor qualifying performance from James Whitham made his race an uphill struggie against adversity, but his lap times proved that he could be in there if he qualified better, and he has seemed to have developed the knack of riding at only 100 percent and no more, which appears to be a Supersport must. Macpherson's teammate, Andrew Pitt, scored eighth, enough to give him fourth in the championship hunt, but slip a greater margin behind Teuchert and Casoli. Karl Muggeridge recovered from a shock 23rd place in qualifying to finish an almost perfect ninth, while Piergiorgio Bontempi ran out 10th. Nello Rosso was the top wild card rider in ] 1th, ahead of Christophe Cogan, Alessio Corradi, Camillo Mariottini and Werner Daemen. Big-name non-finishers, apart from those mentioned, incl ude 2000 race winner Christian Kellner, who was punted by Vittorio lannuzzo, and almost predictably, Vito Guareschi, fighting tire woes yet again, before he slid off spectacularly at Curva del Tramonto. Only 22 of the original 36 riders made it, the most troubled of them being Markus Barth, who took a works Honda out on the first lap and may be looking at an early exit from lain Macphe....... (Glleads eventual winner the well-supported Castrol Honda Jorg Teauchert (21 andthe lI00cc Wortd Alpha Technik team. Supersport pack. cue I e n e _ S • JULv4,2001 11

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