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
Briefly... Martin First.. Laconi Last Local boy Steve Martin delivered on the promise he showed earlier in the weekend by lapping the Phillip Island circuit fastest of all in regulat ion qualifying, his I:33.932 eclipsing the first day time of I:34.294, which put Regis Laconi ahead of his whole peer group overnight. Martin, always underrated, is walking proof of the increased competitiveness of all well-equipped riders in the 2004 season , and some other riders who leapt up the standings were similar examples. After Superpole though , it was Laconiwho was doing all the smiling. He secured his second Superpole in as many attempts after a superb best-of-weekend lap of I :33.427, slidingand powering his way to the fro nt of the grid, denying a rookie World Superbike combatant of a dream pole position. " For me the cham pionship is starti ng now after my dou ble zero in Valencia," Laconi said. "I am happy to be o n top in Superpole again, and we are working very we ll with the team ." Laconi set his Superpole lap with only Martin remaining to set-off, by dint of having been the fastest rider in normal practice. Martin took an eventual third best time , but the sensa- tion of the session was his younger countryman Chris Vermeulen, who on the Ten Kate Honda CBRIOOORR wen t second quickest in only his second outing on the big capacity Honda - still with no slipper clutch but otherwise a much more race-ready machine, complete with trick all-alloy WP front forks. His time of I :34.398 was almost a second slower than Laconi, but a convincing effort all the same from the reigning Supe rsport Champion. "I'm happy to be on the front row ; that was my goal," said Vermeu len. "The bike is get ting better and better; that's all I can say rea lly. We only had a new bike at the start of the year, and we're getting more and more parts as we go on . Hopefully we're going to be even more of a threat soon . The move from Supers port to Superbike has not been that hard, and things are going well. Regis[Laconi] put in a superb lap, so congratulations to him for that ." With Martin third, the last spot on the front row was secured in some style by another World Superbike rookie - Leon Haslam, the 20-year-old Brit (riding for the Renegade Ducati team ) outshone his teammate and Valenciarace winner, Nonyuki Haga, finishing fourt h fastest to the Japanese rider' s fifth. With a slippery track surface having twice caught out James Toseland in qualifying, it could have been expected that the ot her Valen cia race winner would be somewhat circumspect in Superpole, but despite recurring setup worries , he went sixth fastest overall after a lap of obvious effort . Hometown heroes aboun d this season in World Superbike , and another Aussie, 1996 World Champion Troy Corser, rode his Foggy Petronas FP-I three-cylinder machine to a fine seventh , despite a spectacular crash earlier in the day. Garry McCoy, a force in regulation qualifying, was eighth in Superpole, elicitinga second-row start for him and his Xero x Ducati 999RS. The top ten was filled out by the DFX Ducati of practice sensation Marco Borciani, while Pier-Francesco Chili rode a 999 machine, fitted with an experimental single-sided swingarm to he lp him overcome some serious problems wi th machine set up for his unique style. any others, with Corser beating the outo f-sorts Haga to take fifth. He used all his local knowledge and considerable guile to do it. Haga was an un recognizabl e force compa red to t he bludge on ing slide machine he was in Spain, and th ings inside the Renegade team see m just as fluid as usual. Haga's regu lar mechanic was a no show, due to illness; the hard-pressed team remained un der the cosh of t ime and m otion . Sanchini, Wa lker a nd Ivan Cle me nt i battled for seventh in race two, Sanchini ta king t he uppe r han d . Tenth place went to Has lam , a po o r rew ard for his frontrow starts. He had clutc h proble ms in race two and ran off the track, fighting back from 18th at one stage . The numbers game was played well by the slight fra me of McCoy. He was clo cked at 194.68 m ph down t he straight, the fastest a nyone's e ver go ne on a Superbike , the y claim ed . So at leas t t he 500cc two-stro kes after all. Isn't that righ t, Jam es and Garry ? ! They w e re co m pe lling viewi ng in Oz. So what if t he show is a bit slower, my Aussie-spec machine, but just a little bit be cause what it lac ked in pace in more to p-e nd would be nice." Broo kes has Aust ra lia, it ma de up for in d ram a. won all three races in the ope ning round of Afte r the shenan igans o n a fulso me the Aussie Championships, and he currently afternoon of seesaw ing fo rt unes, Tose holds the domestic Supersport lap record land leads by a paltry five po ints, with at Philli p Island. His wild sliding style was C h ili's sc hizoph ren ia-affected pita rage appreciated by all, and after qualifying housing Ch ili's S6 poi nts. O ne point fourth, he proved the talent pool in Aussie be hind , race winner McCoy shares his 55 racing may well be unquenchable. poi nts with Vermeulen but leads in t he table because o f his single race w in. The Pirelli tire experiment ran into some real pro blems at Phillip Island, with the dif"We ma de a slight mo dificatio n to the ferent characteristics of the r iders seeming se tu p fo r the seco nd rac e , an d it gave me to play as much a part in the proceed ings as a much better fee ling," Toseland said. "I the very limited choices of three tire types was a bit too confide nt . Wh en I we nt into at any particular round and an ever-changSiberi a, the rear grip was n't t here. I ing track co ndition. According to a Pirelli pushed the fron t too hard , and it we nt spokesman, the same fro nt tire used by away fro m me. The only thing I'm ha ppy Garry McCoy, a race spec front , would last about is that we're getting there with the the front-end-sensitive Regis Laconi only bike and I'm still leading t he champifive laps before it was destroyed. Similarly, onship." Pier-Francesco Chili bare ly wears his fronts Lacon i, meanwhile, is a winner o n out , such is his smooth riding style. The tra ck, but now still on ly 10th in the title Petr onas team is still exp eriencing chatt er chase. from the ir triples and eve n resorted t o Ne xt stop Italy, fo r the Misano race reducing tire pressure to help the situation. moved forward from its usua l June date. lack of a new lap record wasn't for the want o f trying. The biggest story of the day, one that affected everyone, was the first real test of the Pirelli co ntro l t ires. W ith such a normally grippy and fast circuit featu ring so many left-handers, t he choice o f th ree rea rs an d three fro nts was always not go ing to be enough for the mo re demanding riders. T he best possible news is that even after the tires had bee n at their best, even Toseland, who seemed to be willfully sp inning up his rear in outrageous fashion at every o pportunity, could compose himse lf enough t o secure t hird in t he last lap of ra ce one. No favoritism to wa rd Tos e land in t hat re mark, just the fact th at the Pirelli contro l rubber seems adequate fo r most instances. And when the grip is not pe rfec t, the show merely improves. Aficionados o f the American-inspired rear-end sliding techniques were well rewa rded at Phillip Islan d , as seve ra l ride rs proved that Du catis ca n be ridd e n like WILD I N THE CO UNTRY O h, yes , he 's yet anothe r one. The latest fast Aussie has landed ; lock up you r outof -contract riders for next year. Not conte nt to qualify o n the Wo rld Superspo rt front row at his first attem pt , local wild card rider Josh Bro o kes we nt on and wo n the entire Wo rld Supersport race at Phillip Island, an d in company which could be expected to kick his butt royally 100 times out of 100. After all, Brookes is only 20 , a big noise in Australia but not t he best known to a wider w orld. He also only got a Wo rld Sup e rsport spec e ngine , a race -kitt ed HRC o ne , direct from Jap an , for this race. He normally rides on Mich elins but had to jum p on to the unfamiliar - and often criticized by some - Pire llis, tires some riders have been bitching about since the new rules got changed over. He had circu it knowledge on his side, but then again doesn't almost the whole field at this trac k? Nonetheless , th e w ildes t o f cards, w ith a bru ising, e lbows-out style and no regard for wheel alignment, st uck it to the top men in World Supe rs port, pulling o ff some passing maneuve rs no one q uite expected. Like around the outside at Lukey Heights and down into MG? No question, he had the measure o f t hem all, an d on ly Kevin Curtain, w ho m he was racing aga inst last year, co uld Jive with him over full race d istance . Bizarrely, the top t hree riders o n t he Phillip Island podium - Brookes, Curtain and Jurgen van den Goorlbergh - used different grades of Pire lli rears. What that proves, even Pire lli was uns ure, but it sh ows that in Supe rs port at least, t ires are not always everything, depe nd ing on the r ider 's sty le. www.cyclenews.com The Petronas team, stillunable to make any official comments about the takeover of the race bike's engine development by Ricardo Enginee ring, suffered some major reversals of fortune in qualifying at PI, when bot h riders were victims of huge crashes in the final untimed session on Saturday. Troy Corse r's crash was a part icularly nastylooking one, as he was flipped ove r the highside on the approach to a lefthander, when it appeared that the back wheel locked up. Landingawkwardly several times as he bounced through the grass and gravel, Corser nonetheless had a good Superpole ride to finish sixth. "We made progress with the setup and red uced the chatter by decreasing the pressure in the rear tire - something Chris [Walker] had t ried earlier. I was able to string some co nsistent laps together in the afternoon without pushing on the edge, and that gave me confidence . I feel that I can do times between I:3S.S and I:36. That is not going to put me in the first three, but, now that I am on the secon d row, I might be able to get a tow from the leaders down the straight. It was the first time I have used a qualifie r for Superpole, and they have a completely differe nt feel more grip but more movement." Walker' s crash was a high-speed affair and happened just close enough to the Superpole start to put him off his stride a bit. "It has not bee n the best of days," he under stated . "l'rn a bit frustrated because I have not been able to better yesterday's time , although I don't feel like I have reached the maximum for the bike around here. So I'm hoping for a good start so that I get towed along. The crash was my fault, as I turned in a little bit earlier as I was desperate for a good time . The back end broke away and flicked me over the top . I had experienced a few slides at that point, but I wasn't expecting the back to go so quickly. I have hurt a few ribs aro und my back, but hopeContinued on page 18 C YCL E N EWS • A PRIL 7, 2004 17