Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

this weekend, maybe we can go into the Ducati pit and detune their bike! For race two I'll go out there and bust my ass again." He busted it okay, but to no winning avail again. "I was a bit pissed off at the start and didn't really have any rhythm. Myself and Troy passed each other while Ben [Bostrom] was leading. Later in the race, Ruben came by and dragged us up to Troy, then Ruben had a big moment around the fast right-hander. He lost the front and he had his elbow on the ground and there was smoke, but he managed to save it. It was then that I thought he would settle for third and I managed to get past." The champion's own teammate, Xaus, looked like he would get the better of Bayliss for the first time in race two, but despite a bold overtaking move, the Spaniard had to even- (Rlghtt Edwards (21 was second both times out and he Is now the only man with a mathematical chance of catching Bayliss In the championship points standings. (BeIowJ &Gsb om got back on-track In Germa~. finishing fltth and fourth In the two race.. m&J'llDil00 WJf1f@0 U[Ju@ fPilw[Ju Most riders' new favorite fonn of qualifying was brought into play at Lausitz, and Troy Bayliss (right) added to his career total of five SuperpoIe wins, also scoring his third Superpole triumph of 2002_ Never one to be too fast in qualifying, Bayliss is making up for lost time now. The session was declared 'wet,' although by the time the riders had lined up, the track had an almost completely dry line around the length of its 2.66-mlle surface. Each qualifying rider was given 50 minutes to set his best lap time, and a maximum of 12 laps in which to do it. Bayliss, on his seventh circuit, took the prize with a new record time of ] :39.395. "Even though the officials called it a wet Superpole, conditions tumed out to be perfect," Bayliss said. "I was able to get my fast time in on the second stint out during the session, and that allowed us a little bit of scope to try a couple of things later in the session. The lap times this season have been incredible. Everywhere we've been, we've gone a lot quicker than last year, and again this weekend I'm over a second under the lap record that I have here. The one thing that doesn't seem to change is that every time you look at the time sheets, Colin is always there, a 10th of a second or so away. He does not give me any time to relax and is always on the case. It's good as it also keeps you focused on what has to be done." The top four were all in the I :40 bracket, and the top five all broke the existing Superpole lap record. Second place on the grid was won by another factory Ducati rider, L&M's Ben Bostrom with a time of 1:39.552. "I've had to dig deeper this weekend, and it's good to be on the front row," Bostrom said. "Someone had to grab me after Superpole to tell me to go to the press conference. It feels like about a year since I've been here! At the start of the year, we were going in the wrong direction with the bike, but since Monza we've gone back to what we know and we're able to run with Troy and Colin on occasions." Third up on the stopwatch was Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards, maintaining his challenge to Bayliss' dominance in good style. "We've struggled a little this weekend," Edwards explained. "It's easy to get a wet setup if you have a good dry setup; it's just a matter of a few dicks. We've been chasing our asses trying to get a dry setup and it finally came in the last 10 minutes of practice this aftemoon. I'd prefer a dry race - its better for the fans and it's easier to be able to push 10/1 Oths. I think it will be tough to make a break at this circuit, but when the red light goes out I'll be going for it. The race should be no different from the rest of them this year, it will be as hard as hell and I'll just go out there and push." Superpole winner in 2001, Neil Hodgson, made productive use of his laps and took the fourth-fastest time on his HM Plant Ducati. Ruben Xaus' recovery from recent misfortune allowed the tall Catalan to put his Infostrada Ducati fifth, one ahead of Pier-Francesco Chili and the NCR Ducati. James Toseland, from the HM Plant Ducati team, scored a fine seventh place, one ahead of double Saturday crasher Noriyuki Haga, who was somewhat detuned by his brace of falls and kept his Superpole session quiet. The first four-cylinder challenge to the Ducati/Aprilia/Honda triumvirate was Alstare Suzuki's Gregorio Lavilla, the lone Suzuki rider in the field. Steve Martin took his DFX Pirelli Ducati to a top-] 0 finish on the time sheets and was joined on the third row by the similarly equipped Juan Borja and the leading Kawasaki ridden by Chris Walker. Lucio Pedercini (Pedercini Ducati), Marco Borciani (Pedercini Ducati), Broc Parkes (Ducati NCR Parmalat) and Alex Hofmann (Kawasaki Racing) finished off the top 16 and the fourth row of the grid. cue' e n e _ os • JUNE 19, 2002 33

• Cover