Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Hodgson (100) got the Jump on the field In the second race, leading several laps before coming under attack from Colin Edwards (2) and Bayliss (1). Noriyukl Hap also passed the Brit, relegating him to fourth. His wins were by no means easy, of course, none ever would be in such blisteringly hot race-day conditions, with no relief from the heat even from the wind - because that was hot too. "Yeah, we were on the ball out there today," admitted Bayliss. "It was a long, hard race for everyone; we're all out there for the same length of time. I actually think that the race was easier than qualifying. In qualifying, you're in and out of the pits and you have to stop to talk to the team; in the race you can just get out there and get on with it." He continued: "We're having a really good run at the moment but Laguna may be the place that our run ends. Every year we go to Laguna we get better, and I've got a good feeling that Michelin will give us a good tire this year. It's been a hard day today and I think I'll be heading to the beer tent pretty soon, although I've actually got a bit of a headache at the moment, to be honest." Air temperatures in the high 90s and a track temperature of 55~C (130 degrees F) were serious problems for the riders and their tires to contend with, and many had to conserve their rubber in the later stages. Even PlayStation 2 Aprilia's Noriyuki Haga, a native of the land where the Suzuka 8-Hours is based, felt that the heat was as bad as he had ever experienced. "It is so hot out there. The track temperature was 55 degrees and I have not seen this sort of temperature before. The race is very hard physically, and when you are close behind a rider, you even feel more heat from their bike. Now I would like to go back to Japan where it is cooler and then head straight to Laguna." The usual relaxed pre- and postrace Bayliss was once more in excellent, near-faultless form, and scored his sixth double of the year, even if he had to start one race if, for his rivals, Bayliss plainly still isn't catchable. Second in both 25-lap races was Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards, warm-up lap from pit lane after a fault developed in his own bike. He of Bayliss, after good starts and now sits equal second on the list of wins per World Superbike season, tied with Carl Fogarty, but some way behind Doug Polen's haul of 17 in one year. It's doable, though, with another 10 races still to come - even despite his best efforts to stay ahead determined levels of aggression throughout. In a strange twist during the second race, Edwards showed this by repassing Bayliss as soon as he had the chance, then bizarrely letting Bayliss through, only for Bayliss to let him through again. It transpired that Edwards had inadvertently passed Bayliss under a yellow at the end of the back straight and had immediately let him through again. Seizing the chance for a bit of mid-race fun, with the next-closest rider Haga a comfortable clutch of seconds behind, they had played "After You, Pal" for a couple of corners. Bayliss explained: "We let each other through under yellow flags all the time, but you guys just miss it on TV. We had a good lead in race two and thought it would be okay to take a break for two seconds. Seriously, it has happened a couple of times already this year, but it probably wasn't as obvious as that one." In all honesty, Bayliss would have felt more comfortable about this than Edwards, who probably had the feeling that, no matter what he did, Bayliss was going to have more juice when it mattered. Full marks for Edwards' sterling efforts again, if not full points for a brace of second places. Edwards explained that he made a mistake in one race in any case. "I lost time on the eighth lap when I missed a gear at Curva Del Rio and hit neutral and had the choice of selecting first or second," the Texan said. "I went for first, which was the wrong gear anyway and I was lucky that Troy [Bayliss] didn't hit me from behind and we all managed to stay Hap (41) got the best of Bostrom (155) for fourth place in the first race. cue' e n e _ 50 • JULY 3, 2002 7

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