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Van den Goorbergh now leads the t itle
chase with 4 I points, with Foret second
on 30 and Curtain third on 27. Top
Honda, amazingly it seems, is Broo kes thanks to a single race win and 25 po ints,
w ith Fujiwara in fifth on 21 points.
eN
PHIWP ISlAND C IRCUIT
PHIWP ISlAND, A USTRAUA
RESULTS:
Steve Martin (99) rode well all
weekend but had little to show
for it at the end, After finishing
fourth in race one, Ma rtin
looked to have race two in the
bag before his engine e x pire d,
'i\t the start I felt pretty comfortable,
but then after a few laps I started to feel
tired and got passed by a few of the guys,"
Brookes said . "I knew that to have any
chance of winning I needed to stay with
the front two, and once I got into second ,
Curtain was setting a hot pace, and we
were able to break away. Th is has been a
dream of mine for years - to win a World
Championship event. I didn 't have a plan
in the race, but after the first couple of
laps I felt very comfortable. I knew I had
to stay with the top two in the race, so
that was always in my mind . I just kept
pushi ng a nd pus hing. Kev [Curtain] was
sure running a hot pace, so I then had to
work out a strategy - pass him on the
turns or I wasn't going to w in. I'd love to
race in the championship on a full-time
basis, but at the moment I have a contract
with Honda Australia until the end of this
year. Then I'd like to try my luck in World
Supers port - it's such a competitive
class."
T his o ne was a dramatic and unpred ictable feast of Supersport racing, especially as a raw rookie stole the limelight .
An Auss ie championsh ip regular,
Brookes is a contemporary of Ale x
Gobert and emanates from the hotbed of
talent in Auss ie racing , just outside of
Sydney. He looked like a wild man from
the start, but as he got used to the Pirellis,
his times were impressive, his approach
still gung ho . More used to IO-Iap Auss ie
races, he was feeling the pace at midrace
distance, but he rallied toward the end,
mounting a final attack on the pugilistic
regular Curtain and his Yamaha R6 on the
last sector of the last lap. It was a c1oserun thing , with the gap at the end only
.0 25 o f a second, as Curtain attem pted to
slipst reain o n Phillip Island 's long front
straight, having to give ground at the exit
of MG a few hundred yards earlier.
" My plan was to run behind whoever
was in the lead, but with the temperature
rising, I didn't know how the t ires
were going to perform," Curtain sa id.
"Mugge rs [Karl Muggeridge] was hold ing
us up a bit, and when I go t past him ,
Brookes came with me, and I started to
18
APRIL 7, 2004 •
push. I knew I didn't have to beat Brookes
because he 's not in the championship, but
I'd be lying if I said I didn't try to."
It seemed an all-Aussie podium, after
an all-Aussie front row, was likely, eve n
after Bro c Parkes and his Ten Kate Honda
dropped back to what would be an eventual fourth. Van den Goorbergh, the
Valencia race w inner, extended his burgeoning championship advantage by
mounting a steady charge to th ird. He
may have caught the long -t ime th ird
position occupant Muggeridge (altho ugh
Muggeridge demurred to agree on that),
bu t Muggeridge's bike suffe red a mechanical problem , and the unluck iest Aussie
around had another shocker. Parkes was
an eventual fourth but said eng ine problems for Muggeridge put him down in
12th , losing him a seemingly certain podi um finish.
Klaffi Honda's Sebastien Charpentier
roared to a fifth-p lace finish, with van den
Goorbergh's teammate Fabie n Foret in
sixt h, hacked off at choosing too hard a
tire for the conditions.
Alessio Corradi, finding the hop from
Yamaha to Honda an unexpected chal lenge, wobbled his way around an imperfect setup and finished his day seventh.
Muggeridge would have swapped him the
placing.
A quite outstanding ride to e ighth from
Max Neukirchner showed that there is
still real racing talent in Germany. PI is o ne
of the most difficult tracks to learn in the
world, and yet Neukirchner's I Ith place
in qualifying was translated into an eighth
place in the race.
Lorenzo Lanzi, the only Ducati finisher,
rode through problems with his exhaust
system to take ninth , a disappointment
for one o f the only riders to have tested
at the Aussie ven ue in t he close season.
After a few days of previous World
Supersport testing, you could have
expected the A1stare Suzuki guys to be on
the money, but they are finding the new
GSX-R600 a fickle beast to set up .
The top Suzuki was that of Stephane
Cham bon with Katsuaki Fujiwara, in 11th.
Young Italian Vittorio lannuzzo went 13th,
respecting his Alstare e lders.
CYCL E N EWS
MARCH
28, 2004 (Roun d 2)
SiBK Q UAU FYING : I. Regis Laconi ( I:H .427); 2.
Chris Vermeulen ( 1:34.398) ; 3. Steve Ma rtin (1:34.600); 4.
Leon Haslam ( 1:34.838); 5. Noriyu ki Haga (1:35.0 18); 6.
James Tose land ( 1:35.034); 7. Troy Corser ( 1:35. 179); 8.
Gar ry McCoy ( I:35. 190 ); 9. Marco Borc ian i ( I:35.357) ; 10.
Pler-Fran ce scc Ch ili ( 1:3SA72); II. Lucio Pedercini
( 1:35.944); 12. Chn s Walke, ( 1:36. 179); 13. Gianlurgio Bonte mpi ( 1:37.08 5); 18. Alessio Velini
( 1:37.407); 19. Wa