World Superbike Phillip Island Test
Stili thee
Superbike C
Bayliss left the p
test at Phillip Island a
fastest of the superbike
who took pert. Believe It or
not, a.ytIss has yet to win a
""','......_lR PhIllip Island.
By GORDON RITCHIE
PHOTOS BY GOLD £, GOOSE
PHIlliP ISlAND, AUSTRAUA, JAN. 3D-FEB. 1
~here have been other and earlier
/
indications of the competitiveness
of each of the major World Superbike
teams in the build up to the World
Superbike Championship in 2002,
but the first real yardstick came at
Phillip Island, Or at least it would
have come, had it not been such a
clear-cut victory for the Michelin riders over all the rest.
Only three Michelin men were in
attendance, Troy Bayliss and Ruben
Xaus from the Infostrada Ducati
team, plus Colin Edwards from the
Castrol Honda team, but they duly
monopolized the phoney podium.
With a depleted field of factory
bikes in World Superbike this season,
and with Alstare Suzuki not even present down under, this fact could have
been highly depressing, were it not
for the fact that the margins of difference between all the top riders were
small. Reassuringly small.
Ben Bostrom ran the Michelin triumvirate closest - and with a qualifying tire on the rear of his HM Plant
Ducati, Neil Hodgson also drew up a
chair somewhere down the end of the
top table.
16 FEBRUARY 20. 2002' c u e • •
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