Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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like that litt le chicane t ho ugh!" With Chili starting from the fourth row of the grid, he was up to seventh in o ne lap, and be fore th ree laps had elapsed , Ch ili was an unbelievable third. With five laps completed, he was even catching the front two. " Me starting from the fourth row of the grid was not my problem, it was the Federation's problem," Ch ili said (see Superpole bo x). " I am not able to make the rules. As I said , I think I have 22 years of career, and I can teach everybody, but t hey don 't list e n; they have to be how they are. I was comfortable in the first race, but these two guys were faster than me, and they pushed hard. I just saw my pitboard say ' plus one' when Regis crashed, so I didn't know. I looked back, an d no one was there and I thought, 'Uhoh , maybe so met hing happened.' For ra ce two? Maybe they want me to start fro m 20t h place this time!" Smelling Toseland 's imminent tire Toseland, 17 1- 168. Haga goes third, with 139, Vermeulen fourth on 137. Ultimately, Haga or Vermeulen co uld still win the title if the Ducati boys have much more bad luck like this . It was a momentous day for the old, bold Chili. He fought brilliantly through to th ird in race one, but after he fell once more in race two, he dropped to fifth in the championship. Having led it going into Monza, his decline has been of plane-crash magnitude. He collided with Toseland in the second leg, as the local favorite ran off track, recovering to finish fifth. Chili, not so fortunate on this circuit today, is nonetheless now the rider with most SBK race starts in his career, 229 , as he overtook the previous record of Aaron Slight. Some harsh words with Tose land were soon forgotten by both riders, as their wounds started to heal. Behind the podium action , Xerox Ducati's Garry McCoy was one e lement of an entire freight train of riders fighting for the o ff-podium positions in race o ne . He was rewarded with fourth in race one, but he slid back to eighth in race tw o. He now sits sixth in the championship fight, having been overhauled by Vermeulen an d Haga, ea ch on t heir way up the rankings. W ith the Renegade team already on cloud nine in its return to the British scene, Leon Haslam had another excellent day of racing , finishing fifth in race one and fourth in race two. His ste rling efforts may have even been eclipsed by privateer James Ellison, who rode a very stock Yamaha R I. Losing the from and falling in race one, Ellison shot back to prominence with an excellent seventh in race two, proving that the modern generation of Japanese four -cylinder mac hines are potent-enough SBK tools. The current three-cylinder offering is a different kettle o f fish. The Petronas triples o f Troy Corser and Chris Walker had tou gh ,Briefly... Silverstone's status as a center of motorsports activity gives it a few more brownie points on the popularity scale just by being the home of F I racing, with all the attendant facilities that implies. The car connec tion was carried on pre-race, with a media vs. riders off-road 4 x 4 challenge, arranged at Silverstone's purpose-built off-road track. The winner was Noriyuki Haga, with some saying he won because he couldn't quite understand exactly what the rules of the game were and proceeded to give it heaps of throttle in every situation. In readiness for the American round of World Superbike, Pirelli had a North American representative in town at Silverstone, even though no one could say which of the locals at Lagunawould be the ones able or willing to run an FIM-specSuperbike on Pirelli tires for the weekend. Children's charitable organization Burning 2 Learn had the most impressive race transport in the paddock at Silverstone. The foundation aims to help kids with troubled backgrounds, or special needs, to hone their IT and communications skills, ultimately to help them realize that there is a big old world of employment opportunities for them. far beyond those which disadvantage would normally offer. Bike nut and organizer Alan Dean brought some 28 kids along to Silverstone, and they used the ir own rolling media center to write race reports, pressreleases and so on. Their impressively appointed wagon . supplied for the event by sponsor ICW Power, housed computers and IT equipment and received visits by the likes of Pier-Francesco Chili and James 'Ioseland, who wowed the students over what was a busy weekend . The Supersport teams, which will not follow the Superbikes to America, now have almost two whole months orr from com- weekends on the team's home so il. As team owner Carl Fogarty watched, the injured Walker fell in race one and , despite some determined riding t hrough the pain of three suspected broken ribs, secured 12t h in race two. For Ccrser it was little better, with a seventh and a ninth being hard -earned on a circuit w here t he Petronas were not expected to sh ine too brightly in any case. Having to start from Pit Lane after his latest dose of mechanical mayhem d idn't he lp Corser in race two. T he first race itse lf was a classic manto-man combat, the o ld SBK sparri ng partners Ho nda and Ducati at it again , in a whole new fashio n, of course. Haga shot into an early lead but was soon disp laced by the yellow Ho nda of Vermeulen. It stayed that way for much of the race be fore Haga found his way past on the finalcircuit to rob the Aussie o f the win. ''A really enjoyable ra ce, race one, big risk in my opinion," Haga said. "Th e last lap it was not possi ble to pass Chris, but he made a small mistake, and I won, so I was happy. I don't think we actually touched, but we came pretty close sometimes. I like Silverstone, but I still don't problems in the first race, Haslam passed the Fila factory rider for fifth, as Laconi and Chili were fighting it out close by. Behind the podium pugilism a huge freight train of riders was cha rging at fifth place , with Haslam, Tose land , Corser, Wa lker, Mart in, Bo rciani and McCoy all within a second or so each pass over the line. Walker was out on lap seven, having steppe d off as his back w heel locked up and lowsided him. "I got a really good start and go t up to where I should have been on the gr id," Wa lker said . "I was right behind Troy when the bike locked up . Obviou sly I'm more than disappointed." Laconi go t the better of Ch ili for a time, but with even Laconi five seconds down on the lead after nine, neither was bound fo r the top two steps. Toseland was dumped out just after halfway, his front tire not functioning as expected in the hot, 40 -degree (Celsius) track temperatures. Mauro Sanchini (Kawasaki) was another faller out on lap IS, and the last nonfinisher was none other than Laconi , allowing Chili in fo r an unopposed third www.cyclenews.com petitive action. With the proposed Donington MotoGP race being body-swerved by the top teams. they have nonetheless made a request to have an all-outer test , somewhere in Europe (maybe even Brands itself) in the middle of the break , to keep their teams and riders race sharp. Oschersleben, one weekend before Brands was the latenight Sunday guess. Say what you like about Pier- Francesco Ch ili, but he sure can ride a motorcycle, as his table-topping performances in the first two timed qualifying sessions attested to. Trackside Pit Lane commentator Larry Carter also made a very public reference to the apparent complete lack of any Ducati decals and logos on Chili's equipment, backdrops or equipment. Evidence of the rift between Chiliand the factory, you would imagine. It fueled more rumors about Chili - if he races again next year being on Hondas, not Ducatis. The Ten Kat e team came to the Silverstone race with new fork settings to try on their CBR600RRs, but after just one session, they were discretely left to one side. With the Euro 2004 soccer competition getting under way in Portugal as Silverstone was working through qualifying, the foot Continued on page 29 CYCLE NEWS • JUN E 23, 2004 27