Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

·- ------ I -- World Superbike Championship - road race -- --- -,......,-._~- James Toseland had his best qualifying effort to date with his fifth in Superpole. In the races. he finished eighth and was a nonfinisher after getting blackflagged for jumping the start. news of his promotion to the full works team in 2003 has affected his motivation to succeed only for the better. "It was just really difficult to keep my concentration up," the Brit said. "It's hard when you're five seconds behind second position and five seconds in front of fourth. I just stayed focused and tried to keep relaxed on the bike. My tire was sliding a lot throughout the race, but it's excellent to be back on the podium again. I feel like I've done my job today and I really enjoyed leading the second race, it was good for my confidence and good to lead in Italy. I was hoping that I'd get dragged along by Edwards and Bayliss and get a big enough gap over the rest of the Dunlop boys, but Haga caught me and at the end of the race - he had more grip left than me. I feel like I'm back on track now after Germany, where I was really depressed, and this weekend is good for my championship as [Ruben] Xaus crashed out of both races. " His potential teammate Ben Bostrom, a winner at Misano last seaupright and get to the end of the race." While acknowledging the lead Bayliss now has, Edwards looked forward, instead of moping. "That's five in a row now for Troy, but I'm excited about the next round at Laguna," he said. "I'm hoping that having a home-track advantage will play a part in the result. The Michelins should work well there and it should be another good race." HM Plant Ducati's Neil Hodgson and Haga took turns to fini,h third on the podium, and also swapped fourthplace finishes. The second race at Misano was Haga's 100th World Superbike-race start and he ran a celebratory sticker on the bike to show it. 8 JULY 3, 2002' cue I e He was happier to be using his newer 'Evolution' Dunlop tires than the previous versions and he made good use of them in race two, to beat Hodgson who was running different rubber. "We are the only team to use the new Dunlops this weekend and they are better, not necessarily the best but the problem is very simple," said Haga. "The endurance of the tire is much better, and it was still good at the end of the race." Hodgson was easily the third- or fourth-best rider on the day, and the Mlsano didn't revtve Bostrom's season as he'd hopecllt would. The Californian finished fifth In both races. n e _ s iiJDD !Jt?@W.-t--- _ For a man who was never that spectacularly adroit at Superpole before, Troy Bayliss has been blazing his way to the free eren watch with some elan this season. His fourth Superpole of the year tore the record books up, even thougb be suffered a huge rear slide exiting the final hairpin. Bayliss' performance elicited a standing ovation in many areas of the track, includillg the hard-bitten media center - such was the scale of his triumph. On a short, 2.48-rnile circuit like Misano, a 1.7-second improvement on the previous best is some feat to pull off, and the Australian was even faster than his old lap time in the days before the last chicane was slowed and extended, primarily for safety reasons. Local privateer and World Superblke Series regular Lucio Pedercinl set the competition aUght first of all, scoring easily the best time after the first six riders had completed their single flying lap. Hitoyasu lzutsu and Peter Goddard were not in the last 16; with lzutsu stili not l00-percent 6t and Goddard's bike stili not l00·percent competifule. liM Plant Duca!i's James Toseland put in a wonderful lap, which looked like it would be a front-row mark at one stage. ToseIand's time was fully 0.46 of a second fasler than he could manage in the two-hour-long timed qualifying sessions, but subsequently only good enough for fifth on the grid - although he delnoted Noriyukl Haga to sixth. All the lop-six riders went faster than the previous Superpole lap record in ll(ly case. "It's all come together today and this Is my best·ever Superpole lap," Toseland said. "We made some changes to the bike and c~ged the gearing and I started using first gear and not second for two of the turns. As a result, I've got a lot more feeling on the front as I have more engine braking from when I was usmg second gear. The plan for the race is to get away at the front and I'm feeling confident.· Neil Hodgson, Toseland's teammate, was the first one to topple JT from his pole-position placing, setting a time of 1:34.356, another well under his own qualifying best and almost a second faster than his record from last season. Ben Bostrom was the third-last rider away, faster than Hodgson through every split and ended up almost in the 1:33s, with time of 1:34.074. "Yeah, the weather here is like home in California," Bostrom said. "The race is going to be tough tomorrow. I've got a good qualifying tire from Dunlop, but doing one lap around here is different from a 27-lap race. We're working on a tire and setup that can go the whole race distance.· Colin Edwards' time of 1:34.258 we.s enough for third behInd Bostrom, but Bayliss had the adrenalin on the main jet, and his bike set up well enough to score his astonishing result. He decimated Hodgson's previous Superpole record of 1:35.235 with a time of 1:33.525. His dorninance may be boring for the neutrals, but Is awe-inspiring nonetheless. Will he do it straight off on a MotoGP Ducati? Most can't wait to see it. "I was watching the guys on their Superpole laps and there were some good times going in," Bayliss said. "I saw Ben's (Bostrom) lap and he was up on each split, so when 1 came out the garage I knew that I just had to go fast. For the race, despite the heat, I'm sorted for a race lire and have two to choose from. It's not only my decision though, the team and I will all put OUf heads together and make a decision this aftemoon. Tomorrow's races will be difficult and I thirlk we're all gomg to be in a bad state after the first and second races. I've been looking at the times and I've actually gone 2/1 Oths quicker than I did a few years ago when it was the old crucane, wruch has made me happier than anything... The gap between Bayliss and Bostrom, 0.549 of a second, was the equal largest advantage over the second-place man this season. Spookily the 0.549 gap of Misano was rnatched to the thousandth by the advantage of Edwards over Bayliss at Phillip Island. The smallest gap so far was the 0.017 of a second enjoyed by Haga over Hodgson at Sugo.

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