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/128152
World Superbike Championship Round 4: Sugo, .Japan cards in others. James Toseland took ninth and 11 th places, ahead of Takeshi Tsujimura (Yamaha YSP) in the first and behind in the second. Chris Walker's 11 th and 13th, on an Eckl Kawasaki, were as much as he expected, especially as he was attacking those in front with all he knew. Eric Bostrom was a real disappointment to those who looked forward to a race between the two brothers, finishing 13th and 14th. Having raced at Sugo last year, in an end-of-season event, more could have been expected from the third American in the Sugo race. Gregorio Lavilla had a hard meeting, racing with bruises all over from f!ll®[f{k[j @rJn[j)@~r?fJ 5JDDo©li&Jr? @&J[JiJiJ@ Eric Bostrom 132} competed In Sugo as a wild card on his factory Kawasaki, finishing 13th and 14th In the two races. Here, he leads Gregorio LavUla, with the Spaniard posting two 12th-place finishes. place in race two, although he dropped behind Haga in the World Championship chase after scoring only a handful (sic) of points. "I was doing a good lap time and I passed Troy for fifth," he explained about his crash, "but then I had a problem with the gear shifter and that dropped me back a bit. I did two laps on my own, but then I slid the rear onto the white paint on the left/right before the chicane and the bike went away from under me. In the second race, my visor misted up completely, but I think after my crash in race one, ninth place was a good result." The lower points were shared by the same young and old faces in some cases, and the lower-order wild (Above) Fonner Castrol Honda rider Tadayukl Okada holds Tamacla's trophy, much to the pleasure of his fonner teammate Colin Edwards PetQ and Neil Hodgson Irlght}. (Below) Ruben )(ausI11) had a bad weekend. His teammate Bayllssl1} fared much better but stili lost points to Edwards, while Aldra Yanagawa 149) showed that he can stili be a factor In Wortd Superblke racing. 22 MAY 1, 2002' cue • • n __ • It was a two-horse, two-man, one team race at Sugo, at least at the end, as Stephane Chambon and Katsuaki Fujiwara (both pictured) scrapped their little hearts out in their own private Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki war. Chambon, the 1999 World Supersport Champion, re-asserted his claim on the 2002 World Championship battle with his eventual win, edging out a late challenge from his race-long companion Fujiwara, as the little Frenchman with the big heart and clever head won by only 0.282 of a second after 25 laps of tactical action. He was short in explanations, as well as stature. This time. "I raced, I won, I enjoyed it. Once the race got under way, I forgot all about the pain from my recently injured back." You had the feeling Chambon had all Fuji-san's best moves covered around the mountain and indeed the Japanese was a little clumsy and over-exclted when he did get a sniff of the lead on the penultimate and last lap, dropping back the 10 meters Charnbon needed to make his win safe. Chambon's 25 points took him back to the championship lead after four rounds, and kept up his perfect podium finishing record - second, third, third and now first - intact. Fujiwara wasn't too diSllppointed, not so you'd notice anyway from his comments after the race. "It feels so good to be on the podium at my home race that I think I can put all the bad luck I experienced last year - and at the beginning of this year - behind me now." Fabien Foret was third in this particular race, on his fast Ten Kate Honda, but he may have been in a worse position had It not been for a mid-race error from possible race winner Paolo Casoli, who outbraked himself before regaining the track, 10 seconds down and out of the podium fight he had been enjoying with the Suzuki brothers. Casoli dropped to fifth initially, overhauling Karl Muggeridge in the last laps to go fourth. "I lost the front on the brakes and I ran off onto the grass: said a sad Casoli, the loser of another winning position, like he enjoyed In Phillip Island. "I dropped about 10 seconds and that was the end of my chances to win. I tried really hard to get back to the lead, but I had to take a lap to dear my head and my tires and It was impossible to make up that much time. I was lapping well, but I had to wait for a couple of laps before I could overtake Karl Muggeridge, because he is a very difficult rider to pass. In the last three laps, my rear tire was completely destroyed, so I had to settle for fourth place." Muggeridge was an impressive force (behind the divine presence of the Alstare boys) on his Honda UK machine in the first half of the race, and slowly lost his realistic chance of a podium position as the race progressed, finishing sixth overall. In fifth, whipping Muggeridge at the last, came the Yamaha Moto Germany rider Christian Kellner, who got stuck behind the restarting Casoli and had to settle for a late attack on Karl Muggeridge to take him into the top flve. His good 6nIsh, after a big crash in qualIfying, keeps him top four in the championship chase, straddling the middle ground between the high-scoring Chambon, Pitt and Foret, and the rest, who are increasingly floundering, even at this early stage. Kevin Curtain, from the all-new OPCM Yamaha squad, was an excellent ninth and took the scalp of former World Champion Jorg Teuchert at the very gasp, after a race of toing and froing. Teuchert proved to be very much out of sorts compared to his usually pugilistic self, unable to make an effective flght-back on the sections of the track It mattered, and simply slower than his best possible pace. He did not have a SlItisfactory explanation, which appeared to worry him more than anything else. Alessio Corradi (Team ltalia Yamaha) was 11th in the race, one ahead of the rookie WSS rider David De Gea, having a respectable showing on his BKM Honda after his late call up as a replacement for Robert U1m. James Ellison scored points on the second factory Kawasaki, going 13th, nipping past Stefano Cruciarti (Team lorenzini) and more than 17 seconds ahead of Antonio Carlacci, also from team Wa. There were several fallers in an incidentmled 25-lap event, which, like it's Superbike cousin, was held in dry-but-cold conditions. James Whitham had another crash and no score, losing the front of his Belgarda Yamaha on lap three in inexplicable fashion while lying fifth. lain Macpherson also fell on the third lap, his fourth fall of the weekend, after highsiding, possibly on the dirt left on the track from Whitham's crash. A dash of machines, involving Piergiorgio Bontempi and Chris Vermeulen ,put both riders out of the race and caused a log jam of riders at the chicane on lap two. Chambon, now heads the World Championship on 77 points, with Pitt on 70, Foret on 59, Kellner 47 and Fujiwara 33. James Whitham stuck himself on 30 points with his no score and now shares the total with three riders: Bontempi, Teuchert and Casoli.