Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Mlsano Adrlatico san Marino, Italy Results: June 23, 2002 QUAUFYING: 1. Troy Bayliss (I :33.525); 2. Ben Bostrom (1:34.074); 3. Colin Edwards (1:34.258); 4. Neil Hodgson (1 :34.356); 5. James Toseland (1:35.004); 6. Noriyuki Haga (1:35.032); 7. Lucio Pedereini (1:35.459); 8. Ruben Xaus (1:35.032); 9. Steve Mllrtin (l :35.5 t 7): 10. Pier-Francesco Chili (1 :35.931); 11. Juan Borja (1 :36.054); 12. Chris Walker (I :36.202); 13. Gregorio Lavilla (1 :36.253); 14. MereD Borciani (1 :36.480); 15. AJessandro Antonello (1 :36.893); 16. Mauro Slllnchini (1:37.227); 17. Serafino Forti (1:37.016); 18. Brock Parkes (1 :37.273); 19. Peter Goddard (1:37.296); 20. IVllln Clementi (1 :37.774); 21. Hitoyasu Izutsu Mauro Sanehini (Kaw); 13. Steve Martin (Due); 14 Serafino Forti (Due); IS. Peter Goddard (Ben); 16. Paulo Blora (Due); 17. Ivan Clementi (Kaw); 18. A. Velia (Due); 19. M8rk Heckles (Han); 20. Betrand Stey (Hon); 21. M. Malec (Due). RACE TWO: I. Troy Bayliss (Due); 2. Colin Edwerds (Han); 3. Noriyuki H8ga (Apr); 4. Neil Hodgson (Due); 5. Ben Bostrom (Due); 6. Gregorio Lavilla (Suz); 7. Pier-Francesco Chili (Due); 8. Chris Walker (Kaw); 9. Lucio Pedercini (Due); 10. Marco Borciani (Due); 11. Mauro Sanchini (Kaw); t 2. Steve Martin (Due); 13. M. Malatesta (Due); 14. Brock Parkes (Due); 15. Betrand Stey (Hon); 16, M. Malec (Due); 17, G. Sartoni (Due), SBK SUPERBIKE C'SHIP POINTS STANDINGS (After 8 of 13 rounds): 1. Troy Beyliss (360/13 wins); 2. Colin Edwerds (311/2); 3. Nell Hodgson (194); 4. Noriyuki Haga (182); 5. Ben Bostrom (165); 6. Ruben Xaus (152); 7. James Tosehmd (1:37.811); 22. M. Malatesla (1:38.746); 23. A. Valia (1 :38.855); 24. Mark Heckles (1 :39.069); 25. Betrand S'ey (1:39.123); 26. Paulo Blora (1:39.322); 27. G. Sartoni (1:40.153); 28. M. Malec (1:40.883). RACE ONE: 1. Troy Bayliss (Due); 2. Colin Edwards (Hon); 3. Neil Hodgson (Due); 4. Norlyuki 10. Pier· Francesco Chili (77); 11. (Tie) Lucio Pedercinl/Juan Borja (53); 13. Hitoyasu lzutsu (47); Haga (Apr); 5. Ben Bostrom (Due); 6. Pier-Francesco Chili (Due); 7. Chris W81ker (Kaw); 8. J8mes Tosehmd (Due); 9. Lucio Pedercini (Due); 10. Gregorio Lavilla (Suz); 11. Marco Borciani (Due); 12. This is pretty much all anyone in World Superl)ike has seen all year· Bayliss' back end. Upcoming rounds: Round 9: Monterey, Calffomia, July 14 Round 10: Brands Hatch, England, July 28 (107); 8. Chris Walker (97); 9. Gregorio Lavilla (84); 14. Makoto Tamada (45); 15. Steve Martin (40). BRIEFLY••• Factory Kawasaki pilot Hitoyasu Izutsu returned to the fray at Misano - hardly an ideal place to come back from a serious wrist fracture sustained at Sugo, four rounds previous to the Italian race. Aided by pain-killing injections and a special carbon-fiber wrist brace (designed to help distribute braking loads and support the joint during changes of direction), Izutsu was back but not back to his best. placing outside Superpole after regulation qualifying. He opted out of Satunday afternoon's final hour of untimed qualifying, resting his injury. "Rather than make the injury worse, I decided to sit out this aftemoon's session - to give my wrist a chance to recover. .. Thanks to the qUick work of his team on Fnday, Noriyuki Haga had 13 minutes of the opening timed session left in which to set his best lap. He needed them, having crashed at the start of the session, then again a few minutes later. Fortunately for him, it took hiS pit crew only 24 minutes to replace most of the major ancillary parts of his motorcycle, have it cleaned and ready to ride again, The FGF PlayStatlon 2 Aprilia crew had to replace the exhaust. footpegs, gear linkages, bodywork, rear sub-frame, battery, airbox intake pipes and all instruments, plus other smaller items along the way. Haga' s team was happy enough with his performance in qualifying top five before Superpole, but team boss Fabrizio Guidotti said that he was not so happy with some aspects of the performance of the whole package. "Always we can get to a certain level and then we run up against the same problems. In the winter, there was some improvement and development for our package, but I think that Ducati. Honda and Michelin took another step higher." Guidotti was also dismayed to find that. during early Saturday qualifying, they were not given access to dual-compound Dunlops, despite assurances that they would be available, and despite the availability of the late arriving Dunlop 'Evolution' tires, using MotoGP tire technology and different profiles. A Dunlop spokesman, when asked if any dual-compound tires were available during the Misano weekend, merely stated, "There may be." The fact that Haga is trying to develop and race the Aprilia in a singie-rider team has also not aided the overall Aprilia cause as a package in any case. Tire performance and longevity testing 'on-site' at races is one task made twice as stra1ghtforvvand with double the number of riders, as Aprilia had until this season. Whether or not there is a change in rubber for any of the World Superbike teams for next year, it is expected that Aprilia will run two riders, if only to help develop the bike faster than one rider can do, having realized that running one top rider, with constant setup problems and thus little chance of beating the likes of BayliSS and Edwands over full race distance. With the clock ticking, the Petronas World Superbike effort is in the last stages of attempting to produce the final version of the road machine before the June 30 FIM inspection deadline. The FIM Inspection is due to be carried out by F1M official Fabio Fazi. Launched to the world by the race team aiready, in terms of chassis and overall design at least. the Foggy Petronas Racing crew in the UK are completing dyno and powertrain testing of the machine before they attempt to track test In eamest. Therefore, the first test at Almeria has been postponed, and a test is planned in the UK at the end of the week after Misano, All being well, a Spanish test could be squeezed in before the team packs its bags and takes up its ready-booked seats for its first race at Laguna Seca. Foggy Petronas team manager Nigel Bosworth vehemently denied rumors that the first batch of engines did not fit the chassis. "That's absolute nonsense, I have no idea why anyone would think that. The bikes were at our London launch and the engines were fitted into the bike for everyone to see. " The participation of the team in any round of the World Championship from now to the end of the year depends on the results of an FIM homologation inspection, which has to be completed by June 30. If the reqUired 75 road-spec bikes have been manufactured, then the team can go racing - if not, no dice, according to FIM technical director Steve Whitelock. "There are oniy two opportunities per year to homologate parts, and if they make it they can race at Laguna; if not then they get to stay home all year. Those are the FIM rules." The homologation dates are June 30 and January 31 . Whitelock ruled out any of the thoughts floated recently about a special dispensation for the Foggy Petronas team. "I know it will be a very correct inspection because there are so many parties interested in this project. A lot of focus on it." Whether or not the team competes is therefore up to the project engineers employed to produce the streetbike, MSX, based in England, and engine supplier Eskil Suter in Switzerland, licensing the machine for the road may be the sticking point. as a certificate of roadworthiness from a govemment department of whichever country the machine has been approved in first is required for the machine to meet FIM rules, It is beiieved that approval has been submitted in several countries to obviate this potential problem. Dunlop called a press conference for the local journalists at Misano to keep them up to speed with the developments in their racing department since the advent of another four-stroke World Championship event, MotoGP. No real secrets were revealed, but the numbers were intrigUing enough. No less than 120 new compounds have been tried at Dunlop in the UK. and a further 30 at the Kobe factory in Japan, and three shapes of profile in the search for better performance from the increasing demands of World Superbike and MotoGP power outputs. Another generation of new tires is due for Superblke from Dunlop. and are somewhat ovendue, as Michelin riders have dominated results thus far, and pre-race few felt that they could find not even a singie tire which will do close to the full 27 -lap race distances at competitive speeds. Concerns over tire longevity and the less realistic concerns over the riders' health due to heat exhaustion were genuine enough for some members of race direction to discuss the possibility of reducing race distances. The temperatures at Misano were as hot as it had ever been, 95 degrees on occasion, over 100 degrees out of the shade and over 120 degrees on the track surface - but seasoned Suzuka 8-Hour veterans felt concems about rider longevity were unfounded, Dual-compound tires were well in evidence at Misano as usual, to counteract the effects of the high lean angles on the many left-handers on the track. Although they are still not talked about openly (the official Michelin press release before the race mentioned, "Michelin engineers have come up with special solutions to the problem, ") this is the usual way of dealing with tracks such as Misano. Ducati's announcement midweek that they would run an official team in World Superbike after all in 2003 was not unexpected, given Ducati's reliance of thiS class of production to sell their 916-derived streetbikes, but it has thrown up many possible outcomes for the rider line-ups, With Neil Hodgson in the official team, and thus out of the HM Plant-sponsored GSE Racing Team, there is one berth available alongside James Toseland, who is expected to be retained, especially as he shows signs of coming close to results which match hiS abundant, if still raw, talent. Ben Bostrom is the favored rider to join Hodgson in the factory squad, assuming that Bayliss doesn't pull out of the new MotoGP team for any reason. That leaves Ruben Xaus going spare, with the L&M squad expanding In the Hodgson/Bostrom direction, and Xaus without a full factory World Superbike ride. He is a possible in the GSE team, but has also been linked to a couple of GP rides for Spanish teams. The Spaniard is, naturally enough, extremely disgruntled and nervous about his future, GSE Racing Team Manager Colin Wright confirmed that there had been lots of meetings about the future of the GSE Racing team, despite it's confirmation as favored sons, the only team to race in 2003 with 2002 factory-spec Dukes - "lots of meetings but few decisions, - was his analysis of the state of play so far, in terms of the second rider in his team or the factory team. Ruben Xaus, notoriously hard on clutches as he downshifts, had a special piece of kit on his bike - a sensor to measure just how much force was being transmitted through the clutch, and exactly when it was being transmitted, relative to the clutch-level movement. A small, silver cylinder on the outboard of his clutch was the obvious giveaway, The conspiracy theorists were rattling sabers again at Misano, after Troy BayliSS was seen sporting a new style of Marchesini rear wheel (lighter and stiffer, acconding to team boss Davide Tar- dozz;) while Xaus and Bostrom got on with the older ones. "No special treatment." said Tardozzi, as he showed the new wheel in the batch behind Xaus' pit divider. It was just down to a shortage of the new wheels, which feature smaller but more numerous 'I' section spokes, in a radial pattem from the hub. Tardozzi was equally adamant that all the equipment on each bike was the same. despite some rumors and occasional veiled comments from the other Ducati riders. Mark Heckles has been suffering from more than an uncompetitive machine this season, he has been suffering from the misconception that he is part of some sort of junior Castrol Honda/HRC team. rather than the pure privateer that he is, due to his bike's color scheme. The fact is that Heckles is riding a near-standard streetbike engine in his VTR, a point which is eminently believable considering that his machine was almost 19-mph slower than Lucio Pedercini's privateer Ducati RS at Misano. Fears that Misano was going to be a repeat of the Lausitz redflag carnival started early when the first untlmed Superbike session on Friday was halted when oil was laid on the exit of the Variante Arena. following a crash suffered by the unhurt Ivan Clementi. It was to be the first and last, with no more major midsession incidents occurring. Robert Ulm, who has been something of a super-sub this season in World Supersport, fielded the handlebars for yet another one at Misano. the Van Zon Honda team. The Austrian rider made good use of his pre-race testing. jumping to fifth fastest after the final qualifying session. a feat only beaten by his front-row qualification at what was to prove to be a fated Valencia Superbike race in 2000. Ulm had the advantage of some racing practice at a Belgian Championship event. In the race, which Vermeulen won, Ulm made a very bad start (big wheelie) and was 12th into tum one, by the end of the second lap he was second and went on to finish in that position. Notorious as a rider who demands a perfect setup to perform his best. Ulm has took until the final qualifying session to get the bike set up for him, an even more complicated business given that Werner Daemen, the man he is replacing. is as short as Ulm is tall. At the end of the final qualifying session, Ulm declared that he was happy with the bike and said "the bike feels like it is mine now." Speed-trap figures show that the first three riders - Vermeuien, Ulm and Foret. all Honda - all had exactly the same top speeds in final qualifying, 164 mph. Thus far this year, Ulm has ridden for the BKM Honda team Honda UK, and now Van Zon Honda. Steve Abbott and Jamie Biggs took the" third win of the 2002 season to move into second position and within 10 points of Jorg Steinhausen at the top of the FIM Sidecar World Championship standings with just four out of the 10 rounds remaining. The 20-lap race was held in scorching temperatures, making it a demanding race for both man and machine. At the start, pole man Steve Webster lost his advantage and was forced to give way to Tom Hanks into tum one. K1affenbock charged Into third as the front three began to ease away from the chaSing Stuart Muldoon, Steinhausen and Abbott. By lap six, Webster was suffering again with engine problems and, after losing second pOSition to K1affenbock, he retired to pit lane and thus surely ended hiS chance of a 10th World title in 2002. K1affenbock was quick to capitalize on the situation, taking the lead on lap eight after applying significant pressure to the slowing Hanks. who was suffenng from a badly blistered rear tire. The lead, however, was short-lived after K1affenbock's engine cut out. only to restart as he headed of the track and sqUirmed through the gravel trap to rejoin the track in sixth position, The winners of the situation were Abbott. Steinhausen and Markus Schlosser, who moved to the front of the grid to occupy .the first three places. Schlosser continued his impressive charge from seventh position at the start to pass Steinhausen for second, which he held until the checkered flag to take his best finish of the year. Steinhausen took third and maintains his championship lead, proving consistency to be the key in 2002. Fourth place finally fell to Hanks after repassing Klaffenbock with a committed pass on the final lap of the race, but he has now dropped to third position in the championship standings 11 points behind Abbott and 13 points ahead of defending champion K1affenbock. who holds fourth. Schlosser has moved to fifth after his display at Misano, relegating Webster to sixth. cue' • n e vv s JULY 3. 2002 11

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