Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Steve Martin (99) ca rd ed a seventh in ra ce, bes ting Marco Borciani (20) a nd the ultimate legacy of the Assen event. If they all keep their nerve and luck, and no one strings a cou ple of wins back to back, then w e co uld well see th e closes t multirider finish to a Wo rld Supe rbike t itle since Carl Fogarty's penultimate champio nship in 1998. WORLD S UPERSP ORT Wh at do t hey have to do to sto p t hat man Karl Muggeridge? Well, if t hey co uld catch him, t hey could get Boss Hoss to get Sherrif Roscoe to lock him in the Hazzard Co unty jailho use . No one is sure why the Klaffi Honda team deci ded to ce lebrat e t he Dukes of Hazzard TV show in their pit bo x and o n Charpe ntie r 's bike, but eve n t he almost perfect Fre nchman cou ld n't cat ch the t ruly perfect Aussie in t he Dutch Te n Kate tea m . Slick Seb astien had a good go at it, but o n th e rost ru m he even adm itted that beating Muggeridge is now looking like an elusive dream, as o pposed to a viable reality. jurgen van den Goorbergh had one of his off days (relatively speaking, of co urse) his fifth place allowing Muggeridge more of a champio nship escape. Muggeridge made the most of his start from po le, winning the battle into turn one and leading Kevin Curtain, Sebastien Charpentier and a fast-sta rting the first ot hers. Katsuaki Fujiwara, the latter on the only Suzuki at the sharp end . Fujiwara would run off and then retire, Alsta re Suzuki 's Supersport season in tatters as even wild card Barry Veneman's Suzuki Netherlands GSX-R be at their sole race finisher, Stephane Chambon, who en ded his weekend - appropriately en o ugh - 13th . At t he lead ing ed ge , Charpe ntier, tiring of watching Muggeridge ahea d, passed second-placed man Curtain, while Andrew Pitt, drafted into van den Go orbergh's squad to attack the Ten Kate Honda steamrollers on three fron ts , set about Curtain on lap tw o as well, passing o n lap three . He was up to second o ne lap later, closing in o n Muggeridge after disposing of Char pentie r. The Frenchman wo uldn't give up without a fight and attacked back where possible, eventually overhauling his rival. Th e main champio nship challeng er to Muggeridge, van den Goorbergh, was in a close se ve nth place , with t he race order after q uarter-d istance being Muggeridge , Pitt , Ch arp en t ie r, Cu rtain, Fab ie n Foret, Broc Parkes and "VDG" all covered by 2.152 seconds on t his mammo th 6km circuit. The crash totals were up, thanks to Vittorio lannuzzo, who fell on lap four, starting the A1stare Suzuki run of misfortune. After six laps, with 10 to go , Mugge ridge was only 1.7 seconds ahead 46 SEPTEMBER 15, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS of his chief rival, van den Goorbergh, who was still in seventh place , and it looked like the fight for the end would be split in multip le direct io ns. Curtain pushed his way past both Charpentier and Pitt on lap eight , as the Honda rider's t ires appeared to start sliding at the halfway point and Curtain fe lt he could make it to the w in. Lorenzo Lanzi, the sole Ducati Breil rider in the factory squa d, we nt out on lap 10, blaming his front tire . With van den Goorbergh dropping back to some 2.5 seconds behind the leade r, still t he unassailab le Muggeridge on lap 10, it appeared to be a good day dawning for the Ten Kate lead ride r, who seemed to have just enough even at that point to lead an impressively combative force of would-be lead e rs all the way home. They were one less pretty soon, on lap I I, with the brave Foret crashing out on a fast right-hander, in the gravel but otherwise okay - that is, okay fo r a man w ith a broken ankle, a bruised thigh, and another face full of gravel for the seco nd time in three days . The last few laps were a test for Muggeridge, tired by his exertions but e lated at what was going to be his fifth win in eight goes. There was drama to come, as two other Aussies tangled on the last corner of the race. Curta in, passing Pitt and entering the corner on a w ide line, crashed into the 2002 World Champion, who had gone up t he inside on a seemingly risky podium fishing expedition. They touched, and Curt ain fe ll and bounced alongside Pitt's bike as Pitt took to the gravel. Curtain's crash helmet was hit a hard glance by Pitt 's bodywork as he went by, and Curtain tumbled into the sand. Pitt was blamed by most, even the man res ponsible for Yamaha's racing operations. Had it been more injurious for Curtain, or been performed on van den Goorbergh, fo r example, Pitt's inclusion in the Yamaha squad for the last two races wou ld be under serious question. Van den Goorbergh himself actually benefited fro m Curtain's discomfort, to the tune of a wh ole point. The Dutchman was not a force after half-distance and was beaten by Parkes, who himself had setup problems on his Ten Kate Honda. In sixth , jan Hanson was a happy Swedish wild card for the Kobutex Ho nda squad, and the young German regula r in the Klaffi team, Max Neukirchner, was seventh, albeit bei ng stretched by aneth- [hili 5hinE!§ After several close callsearlier in the season, Pier-Francesco Chili and his PSG-I Ducati 998 took his first Superpo le win of the 2004 season, running out the victory with a time of 2:03.10] - the fastest officiallap of the weekend so far. The 40-year-old phenomenon, the holder of the fastest-ever World Superbike lap of Assen, set in 200] , just over two minutes on a Dunlop tire, was in untouchable form. He won the otherwise closelycontested Superpole by over .6 of a second - an age - even at such a long track as Assen. Curre ntly fifth in the championship fight, two wins for "Frankie" on Sundaywould make the championship battle a five-way affair with two rounds to go. Afte r some difficult times in recent events, there were smiles all around in the Ducati pit at the postqualifying prowess of the official factory Ducati Fila squad members , James Toseland and Regis Laconi. Toseland just edged out Laconi for the second-best grid position by .10 1 of a second as he strove for his first Superpole win of 2004. The Ten Kate Honda CBRIOOORR of Chris Vermeulen set the fourth-best time of the Superpole session, earning a front-row start, but onlyafter the 22-year-old Australian experienced some front-end chatte r problems in regulation qualifying. In front of hisTen Kate team's home crowd , a front-row start for the second-placed championship contende r was a popular result in most areas of the expansive Assen grandstands. Leon Haslam (Renegade Ducati 999RS) put a disappointing 14th-place qualifying position firmly behind him with an outstanding lap of 2:04.266, taking fifth place in the Superpole rankings. He managed to overhaul not only experienced DFX rider Marco Borciani but his own teammate Noriyuki Haga, who is himself chasingoutright championship glory from an overall third place. The second row was rounded off by the dramatic, all-action style of class rookie Gianluca Nannelli(Team Pedercini 998RS who took his 2-year-old machine to ), eighth, usingall the track and more in his desperation to make another good impression. With more revs and power from his three-cylinder Foggy Petronas FP-I at this race, TroyCorser stillcould not quite reach the pace of his peer group at Assen, finishing Superpole in ninth position. His teammate Chris Walker took the 14th-fastest time, for a fourthrow start. The well-sorted 99BDucatis have been a force allweekend at this most classic of all current World Superbike tracks, and thus Lucio Pedercini was inside the top 10, demoting previous qualifying sensation Giovanni Bussei to I IthoGarry McCoy, an experienced Assen campaigner, dropped from seventh in regulation qualifying to 12th after Superpole. Ducati DFX rider Steve Martin had the misfortune to fall on the de Strubben comer, as his front tire lost adhesion around what is the first left-bander for almost halfa lap. Failing to record a Superpole time, Martin would start from 16th position - one worse than his 15th starting position in Superpole. 40th Anniversary

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