Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Briefly... th ree. At t he en d Fabien was sliding a bit too much , destroying his tire , so I had the chance to wait and t he n pass when I co uld. I still had 5 percent more grip . It was a fair fight and a one-two for Yamaha. I rode 15 years on two- strokes, but now I have taken a year but I have leamed the four-strokes. I am getting older - I'm 34 now - but I am getting better." A qu ite brilliant win for t he guy who has not won a race for 10 years. Foret followed him home in second place , a similarly outstanding performance all t he same for the on ly man to break th e Honda homogony at the head of the qualifying table. Not to mention on yet another new bike this year, having ridde n for Honda and Kawasaki in previous seasons. Third place for Fujiwara, fully 16 seconds shy of the Yamaha Italia duo, was nonetheless a great start in a new era of the GSX-R600 . It was also the Alstare team's IOOth pod ium finish in all competitions in Alstare's 20th year of existence. An outrageously rapid ride from Lorenzo Lanzi pushed the Ducat i 749R rider from a lowly qualifying position to fourth place , eliciting t he comment from Ducati SBK racing boss Paolo Ciabatti that he is a "racing animal." In a nice way, of cou rse . Stepane Chambon, the diminutive Frenchman, was fifth, w hile an excellent ride from his Italian te ammate Vitto rio lannuzzo put th ree Alstare Suzukis in the top six. After them came the first two Hondas, the delighted Daemen and a highly pissed off Muggeridge, riding on his co ntrovers ial re ar tire . Curtain, anothe r possib le winner at on e stage, was ninth , and t he eN first Kawasaki, that of Stefano Cruciani , was 10th. RICARDO TORMO CIRCUIT VAIINCIA, SPAIN RESULTS: FEBRUARY 29, 2004 (ROUND an en Goorbergh celebrates his World S persport victory. It was the Dutchman's first win of any kind for 10 years. he was catching the leading group. On lap 10 his oil cooler bo lt she ared and blew oil allover his sixth-placed CBR, putti ng him out like te ammat e Sacchetti. It was a grim day for th e Ho nda guys, w ho had hop ed for so much but only been given part-time ride r Daemen's seventh-place finish to show for it. Afte r Foret took t he lead, he looked to be away and gone, as van den Goorbergh had earlier had a co uple of big bites at Muggeridge bu t almos t crashed twice at the same point on the track, t he slow infie ld right- hander. Foret, the original charg ing rider himself, had to succum b to t he pr essu re of a rejuve nate d van den Goorbergh, w ho swept past in t he final four laps to make t he win his, and by a healthy margin of almost five seconds. "I prepared myself re ally well this year, and then I had a crash t hat distu rbed my schedule - but I ke pt working hard," the Dutchman said. "I came her e with no riding for three wee ks and w it h new suspension on the bike . I only had one day of testing on this, plus some new electronics. Every minute we worked on the setup, and it worked rea lly well, especially w ith the Pire lli tires. In t he race my mobility was enough. Fujiwara had the same tires, so we were do ing really well to finish so far ahead . My race starts in lap IS, but a lot of t he other guys start th eirs on lap 18 MARCH 10,2004 • CYCLE NEWS 1! Sl BK QUALIFYING : I. Regis Laconi ( 1:35.935); 2. James 'loselard ( 1;36.973); 3. Chris Venneulen ( 1;36.977); 4. Leon Haslam (1;36.980) ; 5. Steve Martin ( 1;37.050); 6. Noriyukl Hagergh (25); 2. Fabien Foret (20); 3. Katsuald Fujiwar.>( 16); 4. Lorenzo Lanzi (13); 5. 5tephane Chambon ( I I); 6. Vitt orio lannono (10); 7. Werner Daemen (9) ; 8. Karl Mugger idge (8); 9. Kevin Curtain (7); 10. Stefano Cruciani (6); I I. Manieu lagrive (5); 12. Arne Tode (4) ; 13. Matt eo BaJ co (3); 1 Max Neu kirchner (2); 15. I

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