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/128325
Brief'Y··· ! The morning Supersport session on Saturday was halted and restarted after Gilles Boccolini crashed out, while the sight of a local rider with two simultaneously punctured t ires was somet hing of a myster ious inco ngru ity. few new parts to add to the recent list. A new operating method and sett ing for the standard clutch has been introduced, along with a new design of Arrow exhaust, new radiator and the all-important 6.25-inchwide rear wheel rims, replacing the previou s 6-i nch ve rsion s. A new engine spe c was Former WSSrunner-up and factory Yamaha Superbike challenger Vittorio Guareschi, test rider for the Ducati team in all classes, was out riding for the Breil Supersport team at Monza. Off the race pace by some distance it appeared , he was largelythere to provide another rollingbillboard for Breil and find out more about the performance of the 748 in race conditions. not used at Monza, as it has not been ful ly te sted yet . The team will be testing at Assen in the middle of the week following Manza to make sure the new engine spec is all the dyno figures say it will be. The Pet ronas team ran their interim specification o f engine at Monza, with the first spec of e ngine from new technical partner Ricardo Engineering. The machine, which pole by a second, a vast am o unt even at t his long 3.59-mile circuit, Muggeridge fluffed his start, stu mb ling to a first lap position of I It ho Another fast Ho nda qualifier, the Team Klaffi runner Sebastien Cha rpe ntier blitzed into an early lead , from Ducati rider Lorenzo Lanzi, Alessio Corradi and Jurgen van den Goo rbe rgh. Losing no time once he had negotiated t he first chicane safely, Muggeridge was up to fourth at t he end of lap one the n t hird shortly after, on a mission to make su re none of them bro ke fro m the usual Monza fo rmat io n flying. "I' m happy with that," Muggeridge said. "I had the worst start in mo to rcycle raci ng history. I just flaked it off t he line . The last cou ple of times I had clutch pro ble ms, so this time I wasn't going there at all. I wasn't too co ncerned as long as I could get through the first ch icane cleanly. We had a pretty good pace , and I knew that w ou ld help me wor k my way through. It wa s an excellent re sult for our championship hopes." Three laps in, the warning came out fo r Charpentier to take a time penalty in the pits, to counteract what the powers that be saw as a jump-start . Missing t he flags for a while, Charpentier carried on regard less, and the leading order was C harpentier, Lanz i, Muggeridge, Fabien Foret , Co rradi and Parkes . O r at least it was until Parkes and Corradi clashed and Corradi cras hed at exit of the second chicane , with Corradi's bike and the rider boun ding down the track like injured beasts. Corradi reckoned he as getting out of t he way of Foret after Corradi had cut the ch icane by accide nt and was me rely allowing Foret to keep his position - or else Corradi wo uld get done for passing on an existing yellow flag. Luckily everyone avoided the melee on lap two, and Mugge ridge scu rr ied away to lead at the very start of lap four, as Charpentier finally went into Pit Lane fo r his penalty. Lanzi loo ked to have retired on lap six, but it was a puncture to the rear t ire that held him back, thus he entered to get a new tire. W ith a total of on ly fiftee n finish- ers, and he being the last of them , he gaine d a Si ngle point for himse lf. Wit h that man Muggeridge off again, Parkes and Foret were d isputing second place , with Yamaha Ge rmany ride r Kevin Curtain in clo se pro ximity, van den Goorbergh in t he mix, and t he ever-progressing Katsuaki FUjiwara moving o n up on fo ur-fou r t ime . Muggeri dge was rele ntle ssly putting t ime between his exhaust and the following nose co nes , as the fight between Parkes and Foret heated up. For th e luckless Curtain things were to get terminally left behind in sp linte rs as he dro ppe d out with a blown engine , responsibly tak ing to the grass to sto p t he o il and water mix fro m contaminati ng t he track. Fujiwara, at lap ten , passed van den Goorbergh fo r fo urt h, but it was not to last. Foret got the better of first van den Goorbergh and t hen Parkes, running third some 0.5 seconds be hind Foret. Imp ressive veteran lo cal w ild card Kawasaki rider Cristiano Migliorati crashed out on lap 14 shortly befo re FUjiwara experienced a huge engine blow up, with black smoke and steam pouring out, se emingly back down to the Curva della Serraglio. Crue l luck w ith o nly three laps to go, and from that point in, the final order was set. T hus Muggas roa red to his second wi n on the bounce, second in the championship and increased contentment. For a wh ile. Seco nd was Foret, and joining him o n t he podium w as a slow ing Parkes, who did no t try to make an impos sible second out of a defin ite third . Van den Goorbergh was fourth and C harpentier a superb fift h, ahead o f Suzu ki ride r Vittorio lannuzzo . Troubl e is, t his would all change after scru tiny. As th e national anthems blared fo r Australia and Japan, Fo ret and lannu zzo we re in th e process of having their ma chines fail te chnical inspe ct io n fo r ino pe rative safety cutout switches for t he ignit io n. Rumo rs cam e out about it as the riders were YamahaItaliateam leader Maio Meregalli has redoubled his efforts to push Yamaha Europ e for permission and support to ru n a two- rider tea m in World Superbike 2005. Having failed to get factory sanction to do so in 2004, the impressive Belgarda team feels it's simplyvital to be in SBK next seaso n. Ifit happens, Dutchman Jurgen van den Goorbergh will be the number-one rider. Y amaha, which has always put great store by racing success as a ma rke ting too l, has litt le presence in any Superb ike class. In the USA there is no official team, and in British Superbike it has experienced litt le success in Rob MacElnea's Virgin squad in '04. With World Endurance a desert in terms of global publicity, World Superbike is the logicalvehicle for specifi c model promotion , despit e the massive fall o ut between the FGSport guys and the Japanese factories. Yamaha, like most of the rest of the other Japanese manufacturers , has an official wing in World Supersp ort but for political reasons is still completely ignor ing World Superbike . James Haydon, out of a ride in 2004, has added a th ree-race deal to his portfolio, as he is shortly to substitute for the injured Steve Plater in the Virgin Yamaha British Superbike team . w as tested in Spain pri or to race use, now runs coo ler and more consistently than before. The team were actuallyforced to use tape on the radiator to keep the heat in the engine up on day o ne , a true first for the Petronas team. Chris Walker was using Oh lins gas-pressurized for ks for the first time, gett ing used to how they feel compar ed to co nventional ver sions. The bike was always going to struggle around this superfast track (the quickest of the year), but at least the new engine is consistent in performance and more reliable. The first Monza event for the tea m, in 2003, saw them break three engines befor e the ra ce. Steve Martin experie nced a big crash on the fi rst day of action at Monza, hurting his left elbow enough to threaten his continued presence . He passed a Saturday morning medical check and did a few laps on Saturday, not im proving his pre vious best time. Noriyuk i Haga became a resurgent force at Monza, qualifying on the front row after regulation qualifying. The Japanese rider has never won at Monza before, and the only rider in the current line up who has is one Pier-Francesco Chili, four times. In most years, Monza delivers double wins, with the last three years having Neil Hodgson and Troy Bayliss (2002 and 200 I) securing dou- Pete r Goddard , former SBK race winner and factory pilot, has bee n drafted into the DFX Team for the next few races to help ble race wins at t his classic ven ue . w ith team organization and logistics at race t he most re developed circu it ever, has had Monza , which vies with Assen fo r being events. A talente d engineer as wellas an its recent makeover completed fo r t he awesome racer on occasion, Goddard has first time in SBK at least. Altered at the behes t of the FI organizers, Monza now come in at the behest of Steve Martin, who despite some good rides this season has had some difficulty organizingthingsto his liking and then going out to race. The Alstare Suzuki team , having had a wo rld of woes getting their new GSXR600s to the position of exce llence the older models consistently delivered, experi enced problems in qualifying at Monza once more . Rumors emanated that the tea m, still trying to fi nd a base setup at round four, were now banned from opening up the Showa front forks to do any work on the internals. features an incredible ar ray o f massive pit garages and a comp lete new block of main and orga nizational offices. The media ce nter is one of the biggest and best appointed on the tou r, all of which adds to the massive feel-good facto r involved in racing at o ne of th e most historic and atmos- pheric ve nue s ever. Troy Corser, who has traditionally produced a CD each season dep icting himself in one or ot her film star roles , has made an ob ViOUS, if clever use of the new motion picture blockbuster Troy. His version, so far just a promotional cover im age and a The new Ten Kate Honda has already proved to be a poten t force in World Superbike, and for Monza the team had a www.cycienEWs.com websit e page (see www.troycorser.com). features himself as "Troy - the Fighter" Continued on page 47 CYCLE NEWS • MAY 26, 2004 45