Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World Superbike Championship Round 1: Valencia, Spain it was a case of getting it to the finish and get some points and start the season with a finish. At the moment I feel like I'm riding around, not racing, but I think it's brilliant what we've achieved as a team already." He was forced to retire in race two (tire choice), leaving Corser to improve on the Englishman's high aquamarine- and - black -colored water mark. "It's good to finish the race; the bikes feels good, but we're just lacking acceleration, and when we get a bit more of that, we'll be fine," said Corser. "I was just losing too much time down the back straight, but it's early days, and we'll get that sorted with time." Corser had been up front in race one, holding up the chasing pack of nonworks or ex-works Ducatis, before he was engulfed by his faster pursuers. Then he became a crasher, as he ran off track, turning to cast an askance glance at his prone machine. The reasons given were as varied as the colors of the Valencia pit buildings and ranged from the official "tire deflation" to the quasi-official "gearchange problem" to the unspecified mechanical problems (clutch is always a favorite on this particular machine) to a simple rider error. Whatever, a promising top-10 ride ended up in the dust of turn 10. Honor, something the FPl boys deserved after qualifying, was restored in race two, even if Haydon had to pull out. Corser ran out an excellent seventh, gaining nine championship points. Not bad for a machine that looked Giovanni Bussei was among a ton of nonfinishers, taking the ejector seat once more on his UnionBike Yamaha Rl in race one, recovering from the pain of his latest get-off to home town showing with eighth in race two, with Marco Borciani, Bussei, David Garcia, Mauro Sanchini Clementi and Russo following. Overall, pretty dull racing, a smallish crowd of 40,000 all weekend and a foregone conclusion - or two. This said, the plethora of Ducatis was spiced up by some different technology, and the development of the FP1 promises a lot of interest, whatever happens on the track. Valencia seldom delivers close racing, and many interested parties are hoping for a repeat of last year - a runaway double for the number one Ducati rider which was finally turned into a fight of massive importance and excitement at the final round. WORLD SUPERSPORT Alstare Suzuki's Katsuaki Fujiwara dominated proceedings at the opening round of the World Supers port "I was just losing too much time down the back straight, but it's early days, and we'll get that sorted with time." as if it wouldn't finish a single race, such were its overheating problems, and the masses of flames still occasionally emanating from its exhaust on downshifts. Behind the exotica, the mundane Ducatis plowed out results as usual. Lucio Pedercini scored eighth and ninth places on his selfentered Ducati, with local hero Juan Borja eighth in race two. Marco Borciani went ninth and 10th, as David Garcia pleased the local crowd with his top 10 in race one. Not bad for a man who had to start at the back after missing Superpole. He followed it up with 12th in the second. score 11 th in race two. Pier-Francesco Chili, an occasional factor in qualifying, went out of race one with a broken rear wheel spindle and had an eventful second race, being black flagged for a jump start, speeding in Pit Lane (68 mph) and being called back in again. He threw an obscene gesture at the control tower and ended his day pointless and 5000 Swiss francs down after being fined for his visual outburst. Alessandro Gramigni pulled in on his UnionBike Yamaha in the opener and pulled out of race two's start. Foti, Tortoroglio and Sanchini also failed to finish, leaving the last points in race one to Ivan Clementi, Haydon, Nello Russo, Juan Borja and Sergio Fuertes. Borja somewhat redeemed his Championship, setting pole, taking the race win and beating the glut of all-new Hondas, Yamahas and Kawasakis in the process, riding the sole Suzuki on the grid. Fujiwara was in brilliant form, starting the season where he left off in 2002, with an impressive victory, ahead of the young Australian Chris Vermeulen and his Ten Kate Honda. A long-term lead for Vermeulen delivered him only second best again, after running on somewhat on the entry to a slow corner. His slip accelerated the attack of the stalking Fujiwara, who needed no clearer invitation. Fujiwara set the early pace, but on lap four Vermeulen took the initiative to lead the Japanese rider and looked set to dominate from there on. However, Fujiwara stuck to the task, bided his time, overhauling Vermeulen with a handful of laps remaining, before making a clean break to win by 4.5 seconds, his fourth World Supersport victory to date. Three different manufacturers placed machines on the podium, when Alessio Corradi scored his first top three-finish on a Team Italia Spadaro Yamaha. Corradi's third place also came with a new lap record, 1:38.874, set on his third charging lap. It was also his first-ever podium finish in Supersport. Frenchman Christophe Cogan ripped to a fighting fourth place on his BKM Honda, securing his points from an aggressive J6rg Teuchert and his Yamaha Motor Germany mount. Teuchert battled all race long with both Corradi and Cogan, but the for-

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