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/128321
sion betwee n the w ild card ride r and o ne nonfaller in front of him. Broc Parkes, we ll up for winning his latest big public fight, even in bad conditions , launched himse lf into the lead, with Kevin Curtain, Muggeridge and half a company of wo lves in pursuit . jurgen van den Goo rbe rgh made an early pass to move up from sixth and avoid the risk of dropping too far behind to secu re a podium. Lo renzo Lanzi hust led his Ducati into an ea rly third place, wit h the first-lap top six including Curtain, a prove n World Supe rsport race winner in the we t. Stefano Cruciani was on e of the quick crashers on lap three, by which time Parkes was 2.80 I seconds ahead and looking smooth and totally in control. Things continued in that vein for a w hile, a long wh ile, afte r Muggeridge , down in fifth for a very short period, started to lead the hunt fo r Par kes . Christan Kell ner was the next cras h victim, howeve r, exiting the final turn o n his backside and not a bike, as the rear fishtaile d and sp at him 0 ((. Seb astie n Charpentie r was also to leave co mpany wit h his Klaffi Hond a 600, at the same spot, five laps later. On lap four, Muggeridge had almost 24 crashed at tha t co rner as well, proving tha t there was a shiny bit the re under all that water. A su pe r b fight for se cond, with Katsuaki Fujiwara passing Lanzi on the last corner and Muggeridge going past Lanzi on entrance to Tramonto , slipped Muggeridge back into a commanding sec ond , w ith only a chas ing shadow of Curtain left to pull himself around behind his com patriot. With Par kes five seco nds clear on lap five , Mugge ridge was headi ng for the e mpty space of t he vacuum left by Parkes, in a rewarding seco nd place. Muggas convincingly made a break with a lap of I :49.S5, the fastest to that point, and from then on he and Parkes would close and extend the gap between them, like separated conjoined twins . The spectacularly fast and unexpected winner of the 2003 race , Fabien Foret, crashed his Yamaha ltalia R6 on lap I I, just at half-race distance of the 23 laps. Ales sio Corrad i, struggling on his Honda all season, was we ll in with the upwardly mobile set , finally fifth after a diabolical start, as he misse d a gear going from first to second. Parkes, fee ling the closing heat of Muggeridge some three seconds beh ind, APRIL 28,2004 • CYCLE NEWS set the fastest lap of the race with a I:47.789 to kee p Muggeridge's charge at bay. He did too good a job and fell as he lost the front on the second-to-Iast left. " I lost the front on the second-last left," Parkes said. "I sort of just touched the brake going in, and it tucked under, but so fast. I never had any moment in the race before that , and I felt really good . I saw that Karl [Mugger idge) was catching slowly, so I was dawd ling a bit and need ed to go a little faster." "I'm delight ed to win in such horrendous cond itions," Muggeridge said. "I was nearly out of the race a couple of times early on , so I'm pleased to be here . I do n't know if I could have caught Bra e [Parkes). I'd close on him, and he would respond, so it was stat ic. I had a few slides and woul d have settled for second, but I'm happy to win." Van den Goorbergh has made something of a specialty of attacking the race from be hind in recent contests, and this was no diffe re nt. Sixth on lap one, Parkes' exit shoved him up the order, afte r he had depo sed Fujiwara; the Dutchman finished a fighting third. ''A good race ," van de n Goorbergh said. "Be ing 13th on the grid was not a good place to fight for victory, but after 40th Ann ive rsa ry morn ing warm-up I was co nfident that I could have a good res ult as long as the track was either full wet or full dry, rather than the mixed co nditions we had in qualifying - so surprisingly I was really happy when it rained so heavy before the race . I got a good start and took it easy for the ope ning laps. I was able to push a little harder to pass [Katsuaki) Fujiwara to keep up my 100 percent record of be ing on the podium this year. With on ly ten races in the championship th is is very important for us. Maybe we will not always be in a position to fight for victory, but it is important to keep getting these good res ults." Fujiwara, still easily the top Suzuki rider, wen t fourth , Corradi a closing fifth o n his Honda, and Lanzi, the boo m boy from Ducati's Brie l team, sixth. Ste phane Cham bon, who is dw arfed by his newer and physically bigger GSX-R, ran out seventh, one up o n Giovanni Bussei and his SL Ducati 749. Suzukis had a good day out in the rain, w ith Vittorio lannuzzo ninth and former Euro Superstock leade r Walte r Torto roglio 10t h. jurgen van de n Goor berg h leads the title still by 10 points from the 38-yearsyoung Curtain, 57-47. All the sevens co n-