Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

and Steve Martin ha ving a private DFX Ducati d ust -u p just behind the young Brit. Haga w o uld push through to the lea d for a corner or two, but with 10 laps gone, Tose land was still in a better position t han any of his peers - and wi th 12 gone, he had eased out a I. I-second lea d, just as Laco ni lined u p Haga an d passed at the favored spo t - Harbocht. Chili , having waited his turn, passed Haga on lap 14 , lining up Laco ni in his sights. Ve r me ule n's lap time, dropping into the 2:07s, was peeled off the back of the tail -enders of the group, but with the fast-progressing Garry McCoy 13 seconds down on the le ad e r, Vermeu len was guaranteed fifth . Giovanni Busse i went o ut on lap 15 the last of eight nonfin ishers. Mauro San chi ni's Kawasaki an d Lucio Pedercini's Ducat i clashed an d each we nt o ut, Sanchini missing o ut on race two with an injured (but not fractured) shoulder. A spirited fight between the group bat t ling for second saw Chili , Haga and Laco ni dodgi ng each other on the main straight, all within .4 of a second 01 each other, w ith Chili taking second from Laconi and the hard-charging Haga fourth . It was Toseland 's race, almost from start to finish - a real boo st to the young Brit who looked more assured in this event than in any since his first of the year. Vermeulen was nine seconds down, with Haslam winning the fight between the tailing group, with Haslam, Martin and McCoy all close together over the line . Borciani held off Troy Corser for ninth. Friday sensation Gianluca Nannelli was I Ith and Chris Wa lker an unhappy 12th. Piergiorgio Bontempi, Warwick Nowland an d Sergio Fuertes picked u p the last points, the only rider missi ng o ut being wild-carder Ro be rt Menzen. After being demoted in race one, Chili was out for his revenge in race two, and he hit the early le ad . The same leading five as in race one fought it out, as it turned out, almost to the end. McCoy went out on lap six, a broken oil-line clamp draining his chances of a good finish . Haslam was a little closer to the cream of the crop as race two drew on, and the slowing Chili, gently dropping o ff the pace, may have been playing a waiting game at that early stage. It turned out he was not: a gearing change between race one and race two was backfiring on him . Laconi , just behind, was 1.2 seconds down at the halfway point, suffering front-tire woes. He fitted ostensibly the same tire as in race one, but it performed very differently in the real-world situation, making Laco ni nervous and blunting his resolve to make up ground on the leaders. In a stark contrast to race one, Vermeulen installed himself in the driver 's seat by overtaking Tosel and on the curb on the inside of one o f the fas te st corners on the track, as the top five once more compressed themselves into a bait ball of Briefly... Both roces were scintillat in9. Race one went t oselond (52), the Bfit beat In9 the likes of Noriyuk Haga (41), Regis Laconl (55 lind Chili (7) to the line . speed as the race wore on. Toseland repassed Vermeulen fo r the lead as he went for his desi red dou ble win, but Vermeulen went past at De Strubben on lap 13 - on the inside as Toseland left a gap. Im m e d iately, he made an error of a couple of fe e t , and Vermeulen slipped his banana-yellow Honda right pas t him , with Toseland smoking his rear tire in an effort to stay ahead. It was to be a classic las t lap, with pass and repass and three changes of the lead on the last tour. Toseland was le ading on the start of the last circuit, Vermeulen passed on the inside once more, Toseland swept by on the outside, but in the last instance another gutsy pass by Vermeulen before the final complex pushed Toseland and the strangely non pouncing Haga to t he smaller tro phy positions. "I'm very happy now, and the team has a good reason for celebration at their home event," Ve rm e ule n sa id. "We made some changes to the bike after ra ce one. I could run at a much better pace, and I knew it was going to be close when I looked back and saw Haga behind , with Jam e s [Toseland] just in front of me. It was even more exciting on the bike than it was watching from trackside! When you get into a race like that and then win it , it's always very rewarding. I'm happy we won that o ne . All credit to the team - the bike was br illiant in race two. With 14 points between four riders and 100 points up for gr abs, it could really still be anyone's ch amp ionship." Toseland was second, his impressive day coming to a close with the championship points le ad in hand . " It was great racing today, elbow-bashing with Nori [Haga] an d so close w ith Chris [Vermeulen]," Toseland said. "I hate great races where I finish second, but 45 points out of a possible 50 today is what we needed if we want to win this c hampionship. There are a lot of people knocking on the door, but I've got to ride like this every weekend for the rest of t he season. T he re are a lot of British fan s w ho come to Assen, an d I d idn 't want to le t them down . It's such a fast , flowing circuit that it's difficult to pull away. I o nly got a twosecond gap in the first race and the o ther guys were battling behind , slowing themselves down. T hen, in race two , I knew they were on my tail; I could hear them at every curve. Fair play to Chris - it was d isappointing finishi ng second, but it was good for the championship spectacle." Chili was a sullen fo urt h, Laconi a d is tant fifth , and Haslam a two-time top-six finisher on another positive day for the son of Ron . " In the first race I had little grip fro m the rear and it was difficult to ride in the corners," Chili said . "In race two, I tried some different gearing. The bike was harder to ride, and in the las t part of t he race I was very tired, so I tried to conserve my fourth position." Troy Corser, happier in race two than race one, whipped his Pe tronas to seventh , three seconds Irom Haslam but a full nine seconds ahead of Borciani. Martin failed to finish, crashing w ith Gianluca Nannelli with one lap left to complete, as Nannelli suffered bra ke problems. "I think that seventh was about as high as I could have hoped to finish today," Corser said. " I might have been ab le to run with Leon Has lam in the second race, but he was able to open a gap in the first fe w laps. The tire was more consistent in the second race and wasn't backing in as much. But in the first race, I was los ing a bit at nearly every corner and had to push the front too hard. I made a m istake and lost contact with the group in fro nt of me in the first race, and w hen I caught them back u p, they were pulling away enough out o f the slower corners that I couldn't quite get close enough to get a draft and pass them." The im pre ssive ab ility of all t he top fou r competitors, with 100 points up lo r grabs Iro m now and chances of the championship win sti ll equally available, were www.cyclenews.com ' The entry to Assen was inflated by a few names - some well known and some less so. In Superbike, there were a paltry coup le of entries: Robe rt Menzen on his own Suzuki and the Paiic Kawasaki of Arno Visscher. In Supe rspo rt , the entry was enhanced by the presence of one former Kawasaki World Champion, Andrew Pitt, and one vice cham pion, lain MacPherson. Pitt was inducted to help the championship challenge of Jurgen van den Goorbergh, MacPherson to replace the defected Giovanni Bussei in the SL Ducati team (Bussei had disappeared to the De Cecco Superb ike effort) . There was a squall 01 local wild cards in the Supersport class, the best of whom was Barry Veneman, on a Suzuki Netherlands GSX-R. The possibilityof there being an Amerlcan World Superbike race in 2005, after the loss of Laguna Seca to MotoGP,isgetting more and more remote. But there are three possibilitiesto return to the USA.Road Adanta is one of the tracks in the frame , although SBK boss Paolo Flammini would not be drawn out on the detai ls of which particular tracks were under discussion. Road Atlanta wou ld be a good fit, as it is close to an Olympic venue of previous years and has a good infrastructure for travel from Europe. The 2.54-mile drcuit is not FIM-homologated at present, but reports from the United States suggest it is keen to host a World Superbike event . The Wo rld Su perbike calendar for 2005 is still something of a secret, but eventually the rumors of Qatar starting the season were confirmed. It will be Qatar on February 26 (one week later than originally planned), then Phillip Island In April. There will be a kickoffto the European season at Valencia, also in April, then an as-yet-unspecified number of races in Europe. The season will end with what Paolo F1ammini described as an ':.\sian tour," which will probably include China and anyone of Japan, Malaysiaor a second race in Australia. As per usual, because the calendar is released by the FIM, and there are still agreements to be reached with a circuit or two, Flammini would not be drawn out any further. There are expected to be no more than I3 rounds, but almost certainly more than this year 's paltry I I. Lor enzo Lanzi will te st the AMA-spec Superbike at Mugello after Assen, to prepare for his ride in the final AMA round of the year at Alton , Virginia. He was one second faster than Eric Bostrom in recent tests at Mugello, held after Brands Hatch. Paolo Flam mini also acknowledged that there will be a 9D-percent chance of having a title sponsor lo r the series in 2005. That title sponsor could well be Xerox, which is also expected to sponsor the top Ducat i team and maybe even a Ducati Supersport team . No more clues were fo rt hcom ing pre -race , but it is expected that there will be a full-on Ducati factory Superbike team again, riding lineup yet to be confirmed, plus a satellite lactory Supersport effort, with two riders , probably run by Stefano Caracchi's eponymously abbreviated SC Ducati squad (lormerly NCR). As they were the ones who brought Xerox into SBK this season, maybe this is some recompense for Ducati Corse "appropriating" their main sponsor. The links between Caracchi and Ducati have been strong histo rically, and with so many race series to compete in without Supersport, running a satellite team would be a good Continued on page 47 C YC LE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 15,2004 4S

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