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/128159
Briefly Continued MotoGP Desmosedici racebike) are prone to overheating on the enclosed and hidden rear cylinder. causing possible reliability. but more often stretching problems for the increasingly powerful Ducati twins. (The temperature of the beits determines the tension they should be adjusted to). The cooling duct takes air from the right-hand side of the radiator and directs it straight at the pulleys and cam-sprockets. Werner Daemen's luck did not improve at Lausitz. as the diminutive Belgian re-broke his already pinned and plated right collarbone in the first qualifying session. He broke the bone before he had even crashed. as the pressure of holding onto the bike under braking broke the damaged part; Robert Ulm. drafted into the Honda UK team to cover for John McGuinness. who was on Isle of Man IT duties at Lausitz. had a reasonabie start. and seemed impressed enough with the Honda UK setup. Twelfth on day one. he slid to 15th. The Lausitzring appears to bring out extreme opinions from most quarters. as it did last year. A host of track and admin improvements were in evidence, with the main peculiarity being the distance of the bulk of the track from the grandstand spectators. and the peculiariy laid and composed tarmac being the others. The lap speed at Lausitz is actually two or three Ks faster than the average 2002 SBK circuIt. and the World Champion Troy Bayliss described it thus: "This track is all about handling." Bayliss said. "It has a lot of second- and third-gear comers and a few flip-flop-style chicanes. It's quite a physical track. where you have to muscle the bike around. but you still have to be very smooth. " .Jorg Steinhausen and Trevor Hopkins (Steinhausen Racing) won the fifth round of the FIM World Sidecar Championship. In what was an incident-packed and hard-fought race at the Lausitzring Eurospeedway in Germany. Pole man Steve Webster (liveonscreen.com Racing) made a poor start to drop to sixth into turn one as Tom Hanks (Halton Fabrications) took up the initiative to lead. ahead of Steinhausen and Klaus Klaffenbock (Klaffenbock Racing). On lap two. Steinhausen took the lead with Klaffenbock. the reigning World Champion. moving into second place. relegating Hanks to third. By lap SIX. Webster was charging hard. postIng the fastest lap of the race as he moved into the lead ahead of KJaffenbock and Steinhausen. The following lap. the already smoking Suzuki of Webster terminated Itself with a split crankcase forcing him to retire out of the lead. The resulting oil that was dropped from the Suzuki caused Klaffenbock to spin. with his passenger. Christian Parzer. being thrown from the sidecar and suffering a badly twisted left ankle. The lead was now back in the hands of Stelnhausen. who himself had to ride around a constant overheating problem. Steve Abbott (Eastern Racing). who had qualified a lowly eighth. made his way through the field. and after stalking Steinhausen for four laps. made his move and began to ease away from the German. Meanwhile. Markus Schlosser (Hanni Racing) was making good progress. moving up from seventh at the start of the race to hold fourth in the closing stages. On the final lap. with Abbott holding a seven·second advantage. disaster struck as Abbott's' Yamaha ground to a halt with an electrical problem with just a few corners remaining. Steinhausen came through to take the win and move into the lead in the World Championship by a commanding 18 points. 21 7 ·623·4429 wWW,countrymotorsinc,com •• . WHY WAIT? CALL! I DON PEDEN & DONNIE LITTLE cue' e n e _ S • .JUNE 19, 2002 37