Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Le ur ent B ri an (1 :4 7 . 3 2 9 ) ; 30 . Arn e Vi s sc he r (1:48.602); 31. Sebastien De Rosa (1:49.087). S / B K QU ALI F Y I N G : 1. Ja mes T o se l a n d ( 1:40.965): 2. Neil Hodgson (1:40.976) ; 3. Regis Laconi (1:41.196 ); 4. Ruben Xaus ( 1:41.558) ; 5. Pie rf rancesco C hili (I :4 1. 6 3 4 ) ; 6 . C hris Walke r ( 1:41.638); 7. Gregori o Lavtl fe (1: 41.9 64); 8. Se b a st ie n G i mbe r t ( 1 :42.060 ) ; 9 . St e v e Ma rtin ( 1;42.108); 10. Leon Haslam ( 1:42.528); II. Juan Borja ( 1:42.712); 12. David Garcia (1042.723); 13. Jam es Ha y d o n (1 :42 . 77 4) ; 14 . L uc io Ped e rc in i ( 1:4 3.34 6 ); 15. Alessan dro Grl!lm ign i ( 1:44 .2 2 1); 16 . T r o y C o rs e r ( 2 ;07 .57 4) ; 17 . Iva n C le me nti (1:43.378); 18. Mauro Sanchini (1:43.397); 19. M a r c o B o r ci a n i ( 1:4 3 . 7 7 5 ) : 20 . B etr an d Ste y ( 1:44.520); 2 1. Sergio Fuertes ( 1:44.7 16); 22 . C h rist ia n Zaise r ( 1:4 4 .8 3 1): 23 . F r e d r ic Pro t e t (I :46.632); 24. Horst Saiger (1:47.131). S / S PT : 1. Karl Mu g g er id g e ( Ha n) ; 2 . C hris Verme ule n ( Han ); 3 . Ju rgen vd Goorberg h (Yam ) : 4 . Sebas tien Charpenti er ( Ho n) : 5 . Step ha ne Chambon (Su z) ; 6. Pere Rib a ( Kaw ) ; 7 . Mat thieu Lagrive (Yam ) ; 8 . C h r is t ian Ke llner (Ya m ) ; 9 . Chri stop he Co gan ( Ya m ) : 10 . Wern e r D a em en ( Ho n); 1 1. S im on e Sa n n a ( Ya m); 12 . J u l i an D a C ost a ( Ka w): 13 . Gian luca N ann elli ( Ya m ): 14 . Mi c ha el Sch u l t en ( Ha n); 15. Lu dov ic Hal on (Yam ); 16 . Den is Sacch etti (Y am ) : 17 . Sha nn on J oh n son ( Ho n): 18 . D id ier Van keym eu len ( Kaw) ; 19. Sebastien De Rosa ( Kaw); 20 . Arno Visscher ( Kaw). Tim e: 4 0 min .. 24 .892 sec . Di st ance: 23 la ps. 62.90 miles Ave rage speed: 93 .38 m p h Margin of vi ctory: 3 .543 sec. Fa stest lap: Karl M ug gerid ge. lap 10. 1:44 .64 3 S/ BK RA CE ONE: 1. Neil Hod g so n ( Due): 2. Ru be n Xa u s (D u e ) ; 3. C h r is Wa lke r ( D ue); 4 . Greg orio La ville (Suz ) ; 5. J ame s Toselan d (D ue); 6. Reg is La con ! ( Due ) ; 7. Stev e Ma rtin ( D ue ) ; 8 . T ro y C o rse r ( Pe t): 9 . Ju an B o rja ( D u e): 10 . Ma uro Sa n e h i n i ( K a w) : 1 1. S e r g io F u e r te s (S Ul) : 12 . Chr ist ian Zaise r (S uz) ; 13 . Be tran d Stey ( Ho n) ; ]4. Fr edri c Protet (Yam); 15 . Horst Saiger (Ya m). T im e: 39 m in.• 3 .73 8 sec. Di sta nc e: 23 laps. 62 .90 m il es A vera ge speed: 96 .61 mph M argin of victory : .348 sec. Fastest lap: Neil Hod gson . lap 22 . 1:41. 227 S / B K RACE TWO : 1. Ru b en Xe u s ( Due) : 2 . J ames To sel e nd ( D ue); 3 . Chri s Wal ker ( Due) ; 4 . Greg orio Laville (Suz ) ; 5. Steve Martin (Due) ; 6. Leon Haslam (Dux ); 7 . Jua n Bo rj a ( D ue ) : 8 . Sebastia n G im bert (Su z) ; 9 . Ivan Clement i ( K aw ) ; 10 . Ma uro Sa nc hi n i ( Ka w) ; 1 1. Lu ci o Ped er c ln i ( D u c); 12 . Allesandr o G ram igni (Yam) : 13 . Be trand Stey (Han); 14 . Ma rco Bor cien i ( Due) ; 15. Fredri c Protat (Yam) ; 16. Regis Laconi (Duc): 17. Horst Saige r (Yam). Time : 39 min ., 2 .330 sec . Di sta nce: 23 lap s. 62 .90 m iles A verage speed: 96 .67 mph Margin of victory : 10.435 sec . Fa st est lap : Neil Hodgson. lap 17. 1:4 1.219 WORLD S/SPT C'SHIP POINTSSTANDINGS (After 1 1 of 1 1 round s) : I. Chr is Vermeul en (2 0 1/4 win s); 2 . St epha ne Ch ambon ( 13 7/ l win ) ; 3 . Jurg en vd Goorbergh ( 13 6); 4 . Karl Muggeridge ( 134 /3 wins ); 5 . Kat sua ki Fuji wara ( 119/1 win ) : 6 . Ch ristian Kell ner (90/1 win ); 7. Seba stian Charpentier (7 2); 8. Aless io Corradi (68) ; 9. Fabien Foret (64/1 win ); 10. J orge T euch ert (6 0) . WORLD S/BK C'SHIP POINTS STANDINGS (After 11 of 11 rounds ) : 1. Neil Hod gson (489/13 win s) ; 2. Ruben Xe us (386n win s) ; 3 . J am es Tosela nd (27 1/1 w in ) : 4 . Reg i s Laco ni (2 6 7) ; 5. G rego r io Laville (256 ) ; 6. Chri s Wa lk er (234 ); 7. Pierfrancesco Chili (1 9 7 /1 wi n ) : 8. Steve M artin ( 139 ): 9 . Lu c io Pederci nl ( 1 12) ; 10 . Marc o Bor ci ani ( I I I); II. Ma uro Sa nc hi n i ( 108) ; 12 . T ro y Corser ( 10 7); 13 . Juan Borja (8 7) ; 14 . Iva n C lem e nti ( 7 6 ); 15 . Gto va n l Busse! (52 ) . BRIEFLY. •• The Renegade team. in France with Leon Haslam. will be back WIth him full time. running Yamaha. Honda or Suzuki machinery in 20Q:'1.• _ _ _ --A ccording to pad dock ru~or. _Ne i l- Hod 9so n is scheduled to take his first -test in the -D esmosed ici at Valencia On November 6 ' or 7: ·Hodg son had some thing to co ntend w ith in S uperpole at M agn y -C ou rs wh en he wa s forc ed to sw itc h to hts second machine but sti ll set almost the best time of the weekend in any case. Practic ing his usual s low buil d up. ge tt ing fa ste r toward S uperp ole. he set the real (if rtonofft ciaf) fastest lap of the w eekend in the second untimed qualifying . "W e put the bike back to how i nor mally have it after changing it too much y esterday. and I felt much happier toda y" he stated. " For Superpole I had to use my spare bike because whe n I came in aft er th e w arm -up. my race bike had an alte rnato r problem. N o exc uses, but that bike didn't jus t feel the same over One lap. and it sto pped me from pushing that little bit harder. .. P i e r -Fr a nce s co C h ili is supposed to be back in World Super. bike in 2004 . run ning c ust omer D ucat is in a two -ma n PSG - t team. with Ivan Clementi as the probable second rider. Ten Ka te announ ced the pro motion of Chris Vermeulen to W orld Superbike at Mag ny-Cours. and the 21-year-o ld Aussie wi ll be the lone rider On the team - at least thu s far. There are plans afoot in the Honda Europe camp to push another rider into the 2003 Superbike breach . but as yet the rider to fill that berth is not defi nite . Broc Parkes is a defini te signing in the Supers port squad. wi th Karl Muggeridge clo se to being retained . It is unde rstood it is merely the financ ial nicet ies to deal With nOW. The team hopes to have one major Dutch and one global sponsor On board in 200 4. The team is also keen to supply complete bike packages to other team s. as satell ite efforts . saving other teams from having to start from scratch with t uning. etc . All the team s would need would be mone y. riders and a means of getting bikes to tracks and tests. The o ther Superbike rider? Take a pick from Shane Byrne. Greg orio Lavilla or any oth er po ssib ly displaced person from this season. Even the name o f Tohru Ukawa has been mentioned . although that see ms less than likely. Michelin urged its riders to pass On the morn ing warm-up session on race day. as the track has proven so treacherou s that a near-record number of cras hes came in the early ses sions . The first Supersport session On Saturday was stopped twi ce in the mo rning . the S uperb ike ti med se ssion also go t held up due to crashes and marshals used to having the right to sto p the race without the inte rvention of race directicn . The 2004 World Superbike calendar looks to be going through a few mod ification s. w ith Sugo loo king increasingly shaky and a Ca nadian race at t he reno vated M ont Trembl ant circu it maybe firmi ng up to be a po ssible insertion - before the Lagun a Seca round. There is a gap in the calendar at that time . with June 27 down as a po ssible rou nd alre ady. M oving the date o f any pr o sp ective Canadian race date One w eekend lat er than th at would make logis tics easier to handle. as Laguna woul d foll ow straight On the weekend aft erward. Mont Tremblant. cl ose to M Ontreal. is reported to be a little mo re than sho rt On facilities On present. but a decent tr ack in itself. privat ely ow ned. The fir st tum is a diff icult one to square wi th safety issues. but M aurizio Flammini is due to travel to Can ada again in early Novemb er for a seco nd inspection . hav lng sent a represen tative there earlier this year . Rumors linking Foggy Petr onas rider Troy Corser to the Aprili~ fact ory MotoG P te am (sho uld Colin Edward s ship out to Honda alter alll were strenuously denied by all Foggy Pet ronas staff at M agny-C ours. Given that the Fog gy Petronas contract is a leqendarily comprehensive one . it seems unlikely Cors er cou ld extri cate himself from It withou t the help of D av id Blaine. Rumors link ing Chris Walker to the Foggy Petronas berth about to be vacated -by the outgoing James Haydo n were..seen as firmingup into tru th On race wee..beIld_-Shane-Bymeis still down as a po ssible . but a Jess than efinite one . c Noriyuki Haga has been linked to the Ducat i factory ride in the AMA Su perbike Series. but only if Ruben Xaus and Shane Byrne do not acccept the ride. Fabien Foret is clo se to Signing On the dotted line w ith Yamaha Belgarda to partner one J urge n van den Goorb ergh for the 2004 season. Having lo s t his job w it h th e demise o f t he -K awasak i tea m. Foret has been the tar get of severa l teams afte r a generally dismal season On the underpow ered Kawa saki. punctuated by the unexpecte d (not to mention almost inexplica ble) w in at M isano. There is the possibility th at Simone Sanna w ill still make so me guest rides for the Belgarda te am in European (pro bably Italian) races . There is also supposed to be a Honda Team ltalia effo rt in the oiling. w ith Gianluca Nannelli as a possible rider . Barry Sheene . who was something of a mentor for Verm eulen's career - thank ed his memory publicly.atMagny -Cou rs .ru-;)ning th e famo us duck.ga ctoon logo-thaCadomed Sheena' s helmet through his career. " Barry told me two things ; Don't crash. and wh en the bike feels good. don't let the mecha nics to uch it. and make sure they don' t touch it! He told me he never cras hed wh en he WOn his W orld ti tl e s in 19 76 and 1977 . and his confidence grew and grew . " Vermeulen con tinued; " This year has been massive for me. and it' s sad that Barry ' s passed away Withou t seeing me w in the world ti tle. But before the year ends. it' s also nice to be able to remember him one more time. " Vermeulen was sufferi ng the effe cts of a head cold at Mag ny·C ours . The cold weather at Magny-Cours wa s responsible for several cold-tlre c ras hes onc e t he action got unde r way and made a mo ck ery o f the previ ous t e st Inform ati on ga th ere d by tho se teams wh o trav eled dow n to France aft er Imola. Regis Laconi was part icularly miffed; " W ell. the job we have done durtnq the te st at th e begin ning of October is to throw away! The weather conditions. tw o weeks later. are totally different . and those unusually co ld co nditio ns the tires we selected did not perform we ll. so we mu st start onc e more fro m the begin ning - es pec ially wi th th e wea ther fo recas t promising abou t the same ove r the weekend . Of co urse that's what happen to everybody. but it's a pity are not able to use the very good wo rk we have done two week s ago. " Laconi was fee ling some extra pres sure. being the only convincing possible French winner at his home circuit. It was finally announced. the day before track action got under way at M agny-C ours. that indeed Re g i s Laconl a nd Jame s Toseland will be the two riders charged with the task of reta ining Ducati Fila's World Championship. Laconi, 28. will be attempting to replicate Raymond Roche' s 1990 World Cham pionsh ip w in for France. while To seland is merely the latest budding champion C h r is Walker . wit h his contract w ith GS E Racing about to expire . took the opportunity to go mot ocrossing back in the UK. from the English oak forest of recen t World Superb ike riding tal· He got a friend to boo k him into a motocros s park fo r a day of rident. He is also the third rider in a row to move fro m the GSE Racing. only to find that he had booked him into an act ual race mee ting team to the pos ition of joi nt heir-appare nt in the officia l D ucat i setup . Troy Bayliss and Neil Hodgson are the previous role moding ins tead . W alker. a top level National motocrosser before movels. and if history repeats itself. then To seland will be the next top ing over to streetbikes . won four race s. He may smell two-stroke dog . Laconi has other ideas. " I've been waiting a long time this fumes in 2004. as he has received an o ffer to ride a 250cc GP bike in the Grand s Prix. opp ortunit y. and I'm so happy to ride a factory Ducati bike for next year. " said the Fre nchman. ..J tried my best to wi n som e race s with NC R Ducati, but next year everything will be in place . Z o ngs h e n , from Ch ina. will be in W orld Superbike in 2004 as ridand I hop e to do just that. " W ith the \'wo W orld Superbike berths ers Warwick Nowland and Piergiorgio Bontempi will compete next filled . It is obvious that Hodgson and Xaus are stepping up to a season for the former World Endurance Champions and makers of different plate for 2004. WIth bot h expect ed in GPs with D'Antin, _o":!..e r a million tw o wheelers per year in 23 factories across Chi na Ducati's wish to send Xaus to the AMA Ch ampio nship may still and Southeast Asia . They will run unsupported Suzukis and will come off. but there is the po ssibility that Shane Byrne will go the con tinue in endu rance as well . The Zuhai circu it. currently being USA. if Walker. as expected. signs for Petronas and Byrne does renovated . WIll host a World Endurance race in 2004 . in May. and not take up the NC R World Superbike o ffer. then a probable World Superbike round in 200 5. There will also be a Zongshen Superbike machine at some time SOOn. Du c at i play ed its entire de ck o f 20 04 fa ctory cards whe n it announced its W orld Supers po rt team would be a one- man effort. W it h P irelli abo ut to take over all classes w ith spec ti res in w ith 2 1-year-o ld Italian Lorenzo L anzi mov ing from Superstock 200 4. tw o W orld Superbike te ams elected to swa p to the Italian to Supersport. There is also the chance of Vitto riano Guareschl's rubber at M agny -C ours. Sergio Fuert es (MI R Racing) and th e riding in selected races. po ssibly the three Italian one s. Un ionBike Yamaha o f Frederi c Pro tat made the move. J ames To seland , meanwhile. is expec te d to test Pirellis at the first test of the off seaso n in V alencia on November 18. Mi chelin' s true fee lings about being ouste d fro m World Superbi ke next season were made plain in a pre -race state ment fro m the French tire giant. Pierre Dupasquier. M ic helin M o torsports Gregorio Lavilla . w ho spo rts a Road Runner cartoon as his boss. st ated : " Mi chelin's racinq philoso phy is different. W hen th e own personal mascot on his helme t design. wa s amazed to hear mo st suc ce ss ful tir e manufact urer in th e his to ry of the W orld that the bird really exists . He assumed it was a made-up cartoo n S uperb ike C hampion ship goes racing. it is to show the quality of character. and no amount of discussion co uld convince him otherits products by pilling the m against othe r brands . Mi che lin there w is e. To pr ove it. Ame ric an/ S pan ish journalist D ennis Noyes . fore deeply regrets that the authorities have decided to make this who spe nds mos t of the year in his C alifom ian home . brought pica single-tire championship, dep riving this series of all notion of a ture po stcard s and touri st information abo ut this mos t pec uliar real cha mpionship. " species of wild fowl to France to show the sk ept ical Lavilla. The Suzuki World Cup form ed th e main suppo rt at M agnyCours and fea tured 28 riders fro m 15 co unt ries . cho sen in a somewhat arbitrary fashion . Kevin Schwanlz wa s in attendance at · the French race. swaddled agains t the cold but grinning from ear to ear. He also did a Supermoto race in Belgium last weeken d. The aggregate winne r. second in both races . was Ge rman Herbert Kaufmann. with Steve Brogan (UKl and Luca Conforti (Italy) wi nning a race apiece. Chris Vermeulen. unable to give personal thank s to the lat e c W it h t he launc h o f the FP·' stree t bike abo ut to happ en in M alaysia. t he week alter M aqny-C ou rs. a decision is also imminent On wh ether or not there w ill be a change in the engine supplier to the tea m. Three other com panies are in the running. as well as the exis ting supplier - Eskil Sut er's com pany . According to some paddock gossip. the first ruling On the Dun· lop appeal to the Europea n com mtssi on will come 10 days alter the Magny-Cours race . That seems unfeasibly soo n, but it also appears that D unlop has made the need for speed well known . ycle n e vv s O CTOBER 29 , 2003 19

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