Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128150
World Superbike Championship Round 3: Kyalami Circuit (Left) Bayliss leads Xaus and Haga in race two. (Right) BayUss Is on top of the world right now. (Below) Haga prepares for race two. IBelow right) After not winning a single race and winning the championship In 2001, Andrew Pitt has won the first two races of 2002. (Bottom right) Steve Webster took his sidecar to a 4.980second vic:1ory. IBottom left) Pitt (1) leads James Whitham (69) In the World Supersport race. Pitt won by less than two 10ths of a second. ence but way behind the leaders. He scored sixth in race one, but dropped to eighth in race two, finding consistency of performance more difficult than aggression and enthusiasm. The man he pushed out to seventh in race one, Kawasaki's Hitoyasu lzutsu, also took seventh in the second race, with a poor start to blame for his drop through the ranks in the early laps. The top four-cylinder finisher, he merely proved that the fours do not like Kyalami better than anywhere else. lzutsu had a lonely race in the first event, a busier one in race two, dealing with Toseland. Chris Walker, Izutsu's teammate, ended up in eighth and ninth places, thanking a sweatband under his helmet for the first races in the year when his frozen left eyelid was not filled with stinging perspiration. Juan Borja scored ninth- and 10th-place finishes, while Marco Borciani took the last top-10 place in race one. Only 14 riders finished the first race, after a rash of crashes and mechanical breakdowns. The highest profile one was a coming together of Lucio Pedercini and Gregorio Lavilla's factory Suzuki, which took both riders out of the event. Lavilla took a dispiriting 11 th place in race two. Said Lavilla, post-races: "Pedercini was a nuisance because he has a fast bike, but he rides slowly in the corners. I tried to pass him many times and on the downhill chicane he made a mistake and I was able to get by. By the time we approached Wesbank Corner, at the top of the hill, I was about half a bike length ahead of him. He came across me and his handlebar hit me in the ribcage and both of us went down - it was so unnecessary. Before the crash, I was catching Walker and I was thinking about a top-six place - then boom. In race two, I made an okay start - considering my grid position - and everything was fine and I was catching Toseland. Then, after about six laps, the bike started losing grip and I couldn't go any qUicker. Borja came past me and I tried to hold on to him, but it just wasn't possible. Later, I had a couple of really big slides, so I thought it would be better to stay onboard and ride for some points. My only consolation this weekend is that I didn't get hurt in the fall and that the bike went 32 ApRIL 1 7, 2002' cue • e n D _ S around Kyalami quicker than last year." Pier-Francesco Chili failed to start either race altogether, after he clashed with Ruben Xaus in morning warm-up, breaking his left collarbone when he was spat off his machine under braking. Despite his injury and the blame placed on Xaus by the race direction (after initially saying that he was blameless), Chili was supportive of Xaus, and put the accident down to experience. He did, however, mention how bad his luck has been lately.