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/128318
By GORDON RITCHIE PHOTOS BY GOLD & GOOSE Add Laconl and McCoy to the list of four dl"erent wInners In the four World Superb/he races Garry McCoy was a very popular World Superbike race-two winner on his home racetrack at Phillip Island. said it was go ing to be an unpredictable season in World Supe rbike this year, and again we were half right and half wrong. In terms of qualifying, we were very wrong, as the same old faces that headed up the times in Valencia - and a mo re diffe ren t track to Phillip Island there cannot be - were the same o nes in the vanguard of both Superbike and World Supersport categories. Come race day, it was all different. We were absolutely right about it being unpredictable. Four races into the season we have four different winners, only one less than the who le of last seas on, and W 14 almos t do uble th at of 2002. James Toseland and Noriyuki Haga were the lucky pair in Valencia, and now Regis Laconi and Gary McCoy showed their bulging full pointers off in Phillip Island. With the vast majority of the competitive end of the field out on the new 999 Ducati (and in Pier-Francesco Chili's case, half on and half off a 999 Ducati), the fact that all four are on Ducatis may in itself be entirely pre dicta ble. But even the n o ne major force in Australia this weekend was not on anything like a V-twin. More on that impress ive Chris Vermeulen shortly. There are some nine non-D ucatis in World Superbike this year, but only really one with the pace and package to be taking on the might of Ducati in its own playground . APRll ? , 2oo4 • CYCLE NEWS Th e Te n Kate Ho nda C BR of Verme ulen proved once and for all that it is not the kind of Phillip Island surf bum to have sand kicked into its bellmouths by any passing Latin lothario. Upho lding the multicylinder honors in Australia, Vermeulen was one of five po dium finishe rs; Laconi and McCo y, Vermeu len taking seco nd o n two occasions, and Chili and Toseland on another. Could the Phillip Island pod ium have been molded to suit , then a seventh place there should surely have been found for Steve Martin, the experienced Aussie runn ing himself and then his bike into the ground as he attacked his fellow World Superbike pilots with a point to prove . Q uite a few po ints to pro ve, in fact. 4 0th Anniversary Despite a lowly crowd compared to some years, some 48, 000 all w e ekend according to the organizers, the atmosphere on race day at Phillip Island was as amenab le to goo d racing and happy fans as it was possible to be. Two riders at eit he r end of the experience spectrum new the Aussie nag from the toppermost poles, and one of them was even able to keep his promise to shave off his increasing ly Grand pa Clampett-style goa tee bea rd now that he's w on his first World Superbike race . McCoy's race-tw o win was not the first for the currently Xerox-sponsored NCR team (that we nt to Doug Polen in 1991), but NCR w ins are a tad less freq uent than Christmas. Hence the grinning NCR type s, who uphe ld the honor of Ducati in race two when the factory boys fell by the wayside and Martin's expired engine blew away his chances of a second caree r pod ium. And McCoy rode the nuts off the bike, of course. For the Fila squad , the new Supe rbike wo rld is a bitte rsweet place, w ith one of their biggest advantages, Michelin tires, now a fond memory. Even so , Laconi was almost unbeatable pre -race and was on for a second win of the weekend when he lobbed it. After such dom ination in qualifying, Laconi had hoped to give his season a dou ble dose of CP R, but he had to settle for a single, wit h a brilliant frontrunn ing display - then something less long-lived in race two. Laconi nonetheless shook off the specter that haunted him in the first round at Valencia, and he secu red a masterful first 22-lap Superbike race win, streak ing off to a clear 7.145 marg in of victory ove r his vain pursue rs. Laconi was