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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128172
..- ,- --- -- 'I . ' • • -'l -, .... " WOr"'ld Super"'bike Championship '~ Round 12, Assen. Holla .- road.r~c;:~~ Norlyukl Hasa (411 was In the hunt all day, bu1 his ramming of Hodgson In the second race cost both riders a shot at second place. Ducati's Neil Hodgson made enough points at Assen to almost assure himself of third in the title race. His Assen weekend was blighted by a non-fmish in race one and a fourth in race two, after a collision with Japanese rider Noriyuki Haga and the PlayStation 2 Aprilia, a rider who himself took a podium in race one, followed by a sixth place in race two. Following Hodgson on the brakes, it appeared that Haga made an error of line, or was suckered by the late braking Hodgson, but there was contact of a kind and both went grasstracking and gravel-plowing, after which Hodgson recovered fastest. The second race delivered the first podium of the season for former Assen race winner Pier-Francesco Chili and his NCR Ducati, and the first World Superbike podium for young Briton James Toseland, Hodgson's HM Plant Ducati teammate. The strong British contingent in the Assen crowd thus had their own man to cheer for once more - despite the bad luck suffered by Hodgson. Chili, for his part, had a spray at all the knockers, in very pubHc ways, at the press conference. "' am very happy to be in second position because this is my first season where I have not won a race - so second is fantastic," he said. "Coming to Assen, I have ~ podiums, and I thought that it was time for more. My bike is not as fast as me, so I try 115 percent instead of the usual 110 percent. There have been some Italian joumalists saying I am too slow, so this podium is for them. I am Frankie, and I am still herel" For Toseland, the achievement of a podium was all too much, and he spent long periods thereafter in tears, his 2002 ambition achieved in a season when Dunlop have struggled to match Bayliss', Edwards' and Xaus' Michelins. "Being on the podium is a great feeling and where I want to be," Toseland said. "I came around and saw my pit board saying 'P3' and thought 18 SEPTEMBER 18, 2002' II: U II: a that they've got it wrong and that's the laps to go. But once it sank in, I was just thinking podium, podium. I've only just found out that it was Neil behind me, and I was pushing as hard as I can and put in a good last lap. I've just signed a two-year contract with GSE, they are a fantastic team, and by trying 110 percent it shows that you can get to where you want to be." For Ducati Infostrada rider Ruben Xaus, his weekend was little better than his team leader Bayliss', scoring a fourth in race one, but being blackflagged out of race two after problems with his machine were fixed inside the Ducati pit garage, not the open pit lane. His broken gear lever was an unusual problem - but then again it was that sort of day for the men in red. And speaking of which... Ben Bostrom's best finish of the weekend came in race two, his fifth place a counterpoint to a disappointing eighth in race one. Bedazzled by Assen from his first-ever excursion around it in 2000, Bostrom was once more caught out by cambers and bewildered by the blacktop. "I really wanted a top five here at Assen, and I tried so hard to keep ahead of Noriyuki," Bostrom said. "I can't believe it about Troy, though man, that's tough. But now I'm looking forward to Imola, where I'm going to win." In the opener, Bostrom finished behind the lone factory Suzuki Alstare effort of top four-cylinder runner, Gregorio Lavilla. The Spaniard failed to finish race two with a mechanical problem, and allowed another few riders to move up the rankings. The only other factory four-cylinI _ n _ _ os der rider in the race, Kawasaki's Chris Walker, was in similar dire straights in race one, with a rearwheel hub problem, after being smacked in the foot by a rock in warm-up - hard enough to break his boot and his skin in a nasty fashion. Bandaged up, Walker ignored the pain and even made up for it in race two with an aggressive seventh. "That was a great race, and 1 enjoyed every lap despite my foot, which is punctured and broken," said the enthusiastic Walker. "The bike felt great in the second race, and I was lapping half a second quicker than my best qualifying time. This has been the toughest race that we've had all year, so to come away with a semi-result is great. I'd also like to congratulate James [Toseland] on his first-ever rostrum today." His teammate Hitoyasu Izutsu failed to start either race due to an old wrist injury (old as in Sugo - in April!) throwing serious doubts once more on his motivation. Broc Parkes put his name higher in the results than most of his privateer peers, taking his Parmalat NCR Ducati to ninth- and eighth-place finishes, thanking Pirelli for some soft and slideable compounds, but asking for some harder rubber to wrap them in. Lucio Pedercini and Juan Borja swapped 10th-place finishes, Borja in race one and Pedercini in the second. Borja broke down in race two, and with Lavilla, plus stand in Jeronimo Vidal also out, it was a dean sweep of misery for the Spaniards. The factory Benelli of Peter Goddard scored good points after 12thand 11 th-place finishes, and a change of tire made race two better than race one. Still frustrated, Goddard was, however, trying his hardest again. In race one, Marco Borciani placed ahead of Goddard, Mauro Sanchini, Serafino Foti, and the aforementioned Vidal. In race two, it was Sanchini, Alessandro Antonello, Ivan Clementi Drama and controversy were bedfellows (of the gravel variety, of course) at the end of a thrilling Superpole competition. The single flying lap of the magnificent 3.736-mile Assen circuit gave Castro! Honda's Colin Edwards the pre-race win, but only after a dispute, and a lengthy regulatory discussion, about the legality of the rapid time from the Texan Tomado. Cutting across the grass and gravel of the final chicane, apparently to avoid almost certainly crashing, Edwards set the fastest overall lap of the weekend and his 14th career Superpole; his fourth of the season. "I was on for a pretty special lap until the final chicane," acknowledged Edwards. "AJI weekend, I've been struggling with the chicane, but I fmally worked out that I was going too fast into it and missing the paint on the exit by three feet. Unfortunately, when I got there in Superpole, I got it wrong and there was no way I was going to make it, so I took to the grass. My motocross skills came Into play, and I needed them. Here at Assen, in the race, drafting will come into play, and I don't think it will be as easy as it was at Brands and Germany. If I can get away at the front, that would be great. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. " A drawn-out meeting of the Race Direction (Max Deubel of the FlM, Glulio Bardl the Teams' Rep and AJberto Fantini of SBK Intemational - but ironically not the race director himself, Roberto Nosetto) delayed the official notification of the result for some considerable time, before confirmation came that his lap of 2:01.743 was legal - and the fastest lap of the weekend. (It is thought that the team's rep, with a foot in both camps so to speak, was tom in his decision, and a unanimous decision was requested before a judgment was made. With Davide Tardozzi animated in his protests after Edwards ran off the track, the controversy Assen sometimes attracts was well in place again.) Had Edwards not run off the track, there was a strong chance that he would have been into the 2:00 lap times, such was his pace at the first two splits. Had he been penalized, there was a strong possibility that he would have started from row two or worse, making his job of staying in contention with Bayliss all the harder. Ducati Infostrada's Ruben Xaus, the last man aWllY, was in great form in his Superpole lap, rekindling happy memories of the 200 1 season, when he came close to winning both Assen races. Second by only .009 of a second, Xaus clearly loves the convoluted nature of the heavily cambered Dutch circuit. Third on the stopwatch was his teammate Troy Bayliss, riding on the limits of adhesion and track edges on the faster sections of the circult. No one is more spectacular on the fast sections than Bayliss, who manages to ride the rear tire hard enough to slide frequently, yet lean the bike over so far he wellrs the side fairings away every session. HM Plant Ducati's Neil Hodgson, who looked to have lost a front-row start at one stage, recovered well enough to join the leading rank, with a time of 2:01.958. Only .215 of a second separated the top four riders after the Superpole pressure-cooker, giving the prospect of an exciting race day. Experienced Assen privateer Pier-Francesco Chili and his Ducati NCR mount scored fifth-fastest time, Noriyuki Haga (PlayStation2 Team FGF Aprilia RSVlooOSP) sixth and stuck in with the top men again. Ducati duo James Toseland (HM Plant Ducati 998 F01) and Juan Borja (Spaziote] Racing Team Ducati 998 RS) scored seventh and eighth, and would thus start from the third row. Of the two, Borja had the better Assen record, being a double podium finisher in 2000, when a factory Ducati rider. On the third row of the grid, ninth on time, factory man Ben Bostrom (Ducati L&M 998 F02) was down among the privateers on' possibly his least favorite circuit. Off the pace from day one, Bostrom sadly looks more and more like an ex-World Superbike rider every meeting, with his recent boating rnlshap an indication of how his luck is turning. Young Aussie Brae Parkes took the 10th fastest time after another tire-abusing lap around the classic Assen layout. None is more animated on a bike, and at last the NCR kid appears to have a bit of consistency in there as well. The first four.cylinder man was, once again, Alstare Suzuki's Gregorio Lavilla, fighting his uphill battle with some degree of elan. Kawasaki's Chris Walker greatly improved his regulation qualifying position and eamed a third-row start by going 12th overall.