Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128220
Regis Laconi's results don't reflect his efforts, but the fast Frenchman has been riding the wheels off of his non· factory NCR'Ducati. World Superbike Championship Round 6: Silverstone, Great 6ritain bergh said. "The next corner Chris came underneath me, and his rear wheel stepped out, and we touched. It was a scary moment, but I thought if I can just follow Chris, it will be okay, but he put in a pace that I couldn't match. He was too fast for me at that moment, and I had to run my own lap times, and from lap three I was just sliding my way around. I'm definitely not unhappy with second. This is my first time at Silverstone. I like the track, the people are great, and only one guy can be first." For Vermeulen's more experienced riding partner, countryman and pal Karl Muggeridge, this weekend did not involve a debrief centering on what went wrong after a strong qualifying. For starters he qualified a bizarre 13th and then ran strong to third, second and eventually third again, hooking his first slippery podium of the year. "I was really pleased with my start and didn't expect to be so far up after one lap," Muggeridge said. "I settled down and got past Stephane Chambon and onto the back of Jurgen. I felt comfortable but was losing out coming on to the start/finish straight. I got in front and tried to run the pace myself but was sliding around too much, and Jurgen got by again. He put the hammer down, and I tried really hard to stay with him, but I had a bit of a moment and decided that third was a good result. It's been a long time coming, and it's been a really tough weekend, so I'm happy." He even found time for laughs. With van den Goorbergh looking over his shoulder at midrace distance only to find Muggas sitting in his slipstream exiting Club, Muggeridge took his hand off the handlebar and gave a short but unmistakably cheeky wave to the Dutchman. VDG has already sussed that these Supersport guys are a bit kooky - but now he knows they are all one quart short of a gallon. The battle for third was eventually decided when VDG sensed danger from those charging away behind, and he passed the second Ten Kate Aussie and ended up a comfortable second, with Muggeridge just pleased to be at the top table when the dinner gong sounded again. Talent, as they say, will out, and thus multiple World and European Supermoto Champion Thierry van den Bosch scored his best result in Supersport yet, sure and steadfast in fourth, and only a second back from Muggeridge. "I am surprised with the result," van den Bosch-said. "My injury has stopped me riding as I would like, and to finish fourth is very good. Since the first practice I have had a good feeling, we have started to fix confident on the bike. I tried to ride my own rhythm and was fast in the beginning of the race. I tried not to make a mistake and make my own race, and finally I finished fourth, which is fantastic for all the team." Valencia podium finisher Italia Spadaro Yamaha's Alessio Corradi was a sliding, bucking fifth and very much worth it, especially as his undisguised hatred for "That Chicane" didn't stop him attacking it like a hungry lion cub. BKM Honda rider Christophe Cogan used his guile and years of experience in this class to go sixth, he and seventh place Pere Riba mugging the hapless Katsuaki Fujiwara at the end, as the Japanese Suzuki rider lost grip from the front. For the Kawasaki Racing Team, Riba was once again well worth whatever salary he is drawing, and with their number one plate holder Fa?ien Foret out on lap four with clutch problems, he was the only points scorer in a green hue. His bike is slow, but he's fast; his chassis works great, and when the engine is fixed for good, Vermeulen is in trouble. "I lost a lot of time in the first ten laps because I was behind a group of riders and unable to pass," Riba said. "I need to start from the front row and with some clear track and then I can match the times of the leaders and it would be possible to finish in the top five. Every time I ride the bike, I am getting more comfortable. The feeling I have at the front now is unbelievable, and I am really enjoying riding the Kawasaki and am very happy with my own performance." Fuji's slip down the slope of the top ten points chart netted him eighth, and eight points, and a demotion to third in the table, behind VDG. The sudden upward trend in the Yamaha Motor France Camp was completed by the ninth place Matthieu Lagrive scored in England. Outpacing Robert Ulm's Klaffi Honda, Lagrive was an assured racer, not the haunted figure he has been cutting at the back of the pack until now. No secrets apparently, but he and van den Bosch both chose Silverstone to come to full fruition. After a race spent making up for a poor qualifying performance and a soso start, Christian Kellner scored five points for 11 th, ahead of imported wild card rider Takeshi Tsujimura, leader of the Japanese Supersport class, FCC Technical Sports rider, and still quick competitor in the world stage. Dean Thomas got a shock on Friday when he saw the level of competition in World Supersport this year, but the wild card man from Aussie, based in the UK, slipped into the top dozen in the race itself - a sterling effort for the Vitrans Honda rider. our problems, and now I am feeling 26 JUNE 25, 2003' cue I e n Gianluca Nannelli was a confie _ s dence boosted 14th, Werner Daemen For Jorg Teuchert, his season of misery sank deeper into the morass, a deflated 15th, having made a tire faux pas just before the race itself. his engine quitting on him with a couple of laps to go. His van Zon teammate Ian Macpherson crashed trying to have a good result in front of his home crowd, and although a diminutive Broc Parkes is sick to the back teeth of problems on his BKM Honda, and a warped disc meant he slid to man in terms of height, he was big enough to admit it was basically oblivion before retiring. More unhappy would have been Stephane Chambon, who was forced down to him. Before Silverstone, only Regis Laconi had deposed the heir apparent to Carl Fogarty's crown in qualifying. It was to remain the same story after the bizarre but sometimes beautiful discipline of Superpole. Ducati Fila's Neil Hodgson sweated long and bard in the regulation qualifying sessions fighting a lack of suitable chassis settings and all that that entailed, but he showed his true red, white and blue colors to his countrymen when it mattered, running to a tight but decisive victory in the Superpole competition. It was the fifth Superpole success of his stellar 2003 Superbike season and was nothing if not unexpected. "That was terrible; it was so nerve-wracking having to sit there and wait," Hodgson described. "Again I've struggled a bit through practice and qualified seventh. Normally I , get back in the garage, and there are only a couple of riders left to go, but this was a nightmare. I didn't enjoy it at all. We're on a brand-new bike that's never been rQund Silverstone before so it's been hard to get the right setting. Silverstone has a lot of fast corners, and when you dose the throttle, it transfers the weight to the front, and we're a bit unstable at high speed. The problem with the new chicane is that we will all be on each others' back wheels when we come in, but then you have to play follow-my-Ieader to get through, and it spreads the field out." He displaced the blue lighting from the East, YukioKagayama, who despite being a native of Japan is currently a British Superbike regular. Selected as a wild card rider at Silverstone for his Rizla team, he was worthy of the placing and showed that even if he was unconventional in style and speaks English like it was an unpronounceable Martian dialect, he was fully cognizant with what a stopwatoh was for. Regis Laconi took his NCR Ducati to a fine third place at the tricky Silverstone cirCUit, a stunning performance for a first·time visitor, even if be was scathing about the entire final section. "The chicane is stupid, just too tight," Laconi said. "But that entire section is bumpy and very easy to crash in. The paint on Woodcote corner, where they have made the start and finish for cars, is also made of a strange material. Even in the dry when you hit it, the l'ires slide. It is very easy to highside there.» Having been used to being the best four-cylinder rider throughout the whole year, Gregorio Lavilla had to be satisfied with placing a second Suzuki on the front row backing up his pre-eminence in regular qualifying. The Alstare Suzuki rider has been a force to be reckoned with on his GSX-RIOOO throughout the season, with Silverstone seemingly made for the particular qualities his four-cylinder machine possesses in - sometimes diffi· cult to unearth - spades. Fifth was the second-best wild card on display, Renegade Ducati's Michael Rutter, who held off the regular F02 Ducati riders in SBK, James Toseland and Chris Walker from the HM Plant team. The diminutive but stocky figure of John -Reynolds, yet another wild card, took his Rizla Suzuki to eighth place, hoping to repeat his 2000 season feat of winning an SBK race as a one~off rider. ' Pierfrancesco Chili slid to ninth" as his tires appeared to lose grip very easily, and Ruben Xaus had a kinetic time to himself, with a dynamic Superpole ride to tenth and a third row sta.rt. Sean Emmett (teammate of Rutter) was 11th fastest in the single lap, Lucio Pedercini 12th. SBK rookie and Lavilla's teammate Vittorio lannuzzo feU on the exit of the final chicane during his Superpole lap, suffering a firm head knock and bringing the session to a temporary halt as he was tteated at trackside. He was later declared fit at the medical center. Troy Corser failed to qualify for Superpole on the Foggy Petronas FP-1, setting 18th fastest time in regulation qualifying.