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/128329
air just blew in across the flat Northamptonshire countryside, and it is heading a straight course across the Atlantic Ocean. all the way to California. Laguna Seca is next, on July I I. place, six seconds down on his peers. McCoy took a sweeping fourth , with Haslam fifth and Steve Mart in, rebuilding confidence on his 999 DFX Ducati , in sixth . Five seconds down. Corser limped home, ahead of Marco Borciani and Piergiorg io Bonternpl , the first Suzuki finisher on his Zongshen machine in ninth. Ivan Clementi's lukewarm Kawasaki Bertocchi season continued as he took a top-10 finish. Warwick Nowland, still hurting from his horrific Monza crash , finished I Ith o with the improving Jiri Mrkyvka 12th, Sergio Fuertes (Suzuki) 13th and Michael Praia (Ducati 998) - fully two minutes down on the leaders. Race two was an almost complete replica of race one, if you substituted Laconi for the falling Chili. Even the margin of victory from leading pair of Vermeulen and Haga to third place was similar. 6. 155 seconds. Haslam had a largely lonely ride into fourth in race two, assuring he would be the best-placed local finisher of the weekend in the process. As Chili tried to pass Toseland on lap six. he collected the rumple strip on his rear wheel rim. smashing the seal to the tire and falling, taking Toseland with him. Chili saw it as Toseland's basic fault, not happy about how Toseland made it hard for him to pass for so long. Toseland had the last say in any case, recovering to take fifth place, one second up on Steve Martin. "Race two was going well," Toseland said. "I was being pulled along by the leaders and doing some good race times, only a tenth off my Superpole lap. I was comfortable and looking forward to getting on the podium in my home race after the problems I had with the front in race one. That was the fastest crash of my career at Abbey; I damaged my thumb and bruised my back. So I was a bit banged up and just wanted to put in a gritty performance in race two, then Chili came past. took me out. and by the time I got back and tried to catch Haslam, my tires were starting to go off again. It's been a frustrating weekend. but I haven't lost too much in the championship due to Laconi falling in the first race ." The excellent showing of James Ellison continued with the former European Superstock Champion seventh, running easy to start but rolling off as his tires and neo-streetbike setup took their toll. He was up to fifth at one stage . "I'm happy with that," Ellison said. "In the first five laps Iwas pretty comfortable, but then the pace got a bit hot , and I had to concentrate on defending my position . I held off Steve Martin for a while and tried to stay with him when he eventually did get by me . I always lost ground at the chicane. I pegged him back all around the lap. only to lose it all again at the chicane ." McCoy and Corser were two riders to chase his fleeing slipstream, with Clementi rounding out the top 10. Corser said that this was a weekend he would rather forget . "It really shouldn't have been," he said. "My lap times were up there with the group battling for fourth, but I was surprised to get in the points after starting from Pit Lane. I could pass everyone on the brakes at the end of the back straight , but Iwas going in hot because that was the only place I could pass them. And I was probably riding a bit more angrily than nonmal - the first time I looked at the lap board. there were only four laps to go!" Borcian i and the brave-but-slowed Walker finished the dozen top points scorers. Sanchinl, Bontempi and first-race faller Lucio Pedercini were the next up. last with any points at all. while Mrkyvka was good enough for 16th, but nil points . 28 JUNE 23, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS The latest rite of passage for Ten Kate and Vermeulen marked a warm and fuzzy end to a day blessed with heat haze, and more importantly for everyone with any interest in bike racing of any kind, it broke Ducati's complete domination of the top podium places in SBK. A breath of fresh PLUS CA CHANGE Mercurial probably doesn't quite do the elemental gale of talent and unpredictability that is Fabien Foret any justice . It is as close as we can comfortably get, however, and the one-man mistral blew the others away on the same day that his football team performed the same trick to Silverstone's host country England in the Euro Championships. Foret was not alone in his brilliance. as three riders in the end up. and several beforehand, rocked their way in and out of the podium positions . Simply outstanding rides from the leading trio of Fabien Foret (Yamaha Italia), Karl Muggeridge (fen Kate Honda) and Broc Parkes (fen Kate Honda) made it a day of blistering race action in front of appreciative fans. §ul3erpole to Laconi, Heartbreak for Chili 40th Anniversary