Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

decided th e re and th e n, despite w hat eve r t he yellow coated Imo la roulette players we re up to. Park es' moves were so unse tt ling to the team, w ho had not issued a ny team orders, that t he y eventually had a word via Par kes ' pitboard , and by Ronald t en Kate leaning out onto t he t rac k pointing to his head , a sign fo r Parke s to keep his. He du ly oblig ed , but still tried to w in until almost the very e nd . "Today was good . Karl w as st ro nger than me at the e nd of the rac e even tho ugh I felt good at t he sta rt ," Park es sa id. '" felt I co uld w in t he race to day, but it didn 't stic k, a nd Karl re alized I w as so close an d kept the pre ssure up. I couldn 't sta y w ith him . Som etimes w he n I sta rted to put th e pressure on Karl I saw my team ma nager Ronald le aning a bo ut fo u r me te rs over the pit wa ll pointing at his head , telling me to sta y calm , but it was always o kay!" Muggeridge was too hard a nut to cra ck , w ay be yon d the ab ilities of all but one o r two a nd on w hat is plain ly t he best ove rall package on the grid . T hre e titles in three years speak vo lumes about Ten Kate' s approac h to racing, especially as th e tea m's done it w ith an ev e r-changing ride r line up. Pa rkes - des perat e fo r a win befo re he is reputedly off to the Megab ike Ho nda te am ne xt year - was sim ply a bit too eager to o ea rly, en ding up una ble to stay w ith th e w ily Mugge ridge and losing by only just ove r a second , his t ires finishing up earlier t ha n Mugge ridge's. Sebast ien Charpentier was th ird , co m plaining that he had had a bad qu alifying, but his fo urt h place start from the grid seemed just fine to mo st . Slipping past Lanzi, he w as on his usual almo st magnificent form , an d he mo re than anyone w ill be glad to see the back of his bet e nair an d old mate Muggeridge, and see the inside of th e Te n Kate pit garage for himse lf ne xt year. Th e first no n-Ho nda was th e Breil Ducati of Lorenzo Lanzi, fourth , th e litt le Italian beam ing at his goo d showing, dismayed not to be able to tak e th e pod ium finish itse lf. Th e Ducati w o rke d just grea t aro und Imola, th e place seemi ngly made for its mix of solid chassis and booming to rqu e . The tim e of the twi n has po ssib ly co me and gon e in Supe rsport, but Lanzi had a last hurrah - o r should that be se cond to last . Fabie n For et, getting th e bette r of Andrew Pitt (his new Yamaha Italia teammate) , waved as he passed him , keeping th e Aussie rider be hind him for a bit as t he y tr ied to hunt down Lanzi. T hey never qu ite man aged it bu t sho uld be happier th an van den Goorbergh, w ho got his m a rc hing orders from Yamaha aft e r anot her disa ppoint ing finish in a promising race. Fo re t was pa rtic ularly impre ssive for a r id e r st ill ge tting around on a paddock sc o o t e r wit h crutches , his constant co m panio ns. A new Supersport star was born, I Briefly... .' ~. _ - P 9 Zongshen is expected to run Suzukis again next season, with Warwick Nowland on one and possibly Piergiorgio Bontemp i on the other. The level of its machinery is e xpected to go up, as this year 's machines have suffered from a lack of horsepower relative to the bulk of the Superb ike field. No 200S ca lendar was released before or dur ing the buildup to the Imola race , with the final word supposedly coming for the Magny Cours race . The delays in the posting of dates hascaused much consternation for team s tryi ng to set budgets for next season. Without know ledge of how many races, especiallylong haul races, they have to compete in, few have been able to approach sponsors with a co mplete package. A gro up of children from the Chernobyl area of Russia, site of the infamous nuclear accide nt , were guests at the (mala race . Atte nding the Italian National Institute for the blind in Florence , the kids, between 13 and 17 years old and who attend for regular testsand cultural exchange visits, we re bowled over to get up close the Superbike stars in the open ing day. Michel Fa brizio , a defector from the WCM MotoG P squad and an inductee into the Team ltalia Megabike tea m at short notice to rep lace the injured Alessio Corradi, is the subject of much planning for the Rome based team. It intends to run him on the CBR600RR in 'OS. Ifhe progresses as expected then he willmake the jump to superbike the year after, and MotoGP is the reward in the third year if superbike goes according to plan. The WCM team is still see king legal advice afte r Fabrizio left the m, just afte r (according to team boss Pet er Cliff ord) agreeing to ride the WCM mach ine until the end of the year. Craig Coxhell, having just completed his British Championship commitments, was give n a chance to shine in the Yam aha M otor Germ any Super sport team. Co xheil, an Aussie, runs Pire llis in the UK championship, easing his transition to World Supersport. Riders loo king for job s we re thick on the ground at Imola, with Jeremy McWilliams and Gregorio Lavilla sniffing arou nd the Super bike paddock for gainfulemployment. McWilliams especially sees little opportunity for a full time ride in MotoGp, but still being a fast ride r of 40 years of age , he may still have a lot to offer in Superb ike. The Klaffi Honda team finds itself in a strange position at pre sent, w ith the Au stri- Cop ies of Milon Finanzia Magazine , an an-based team e ither abo ut to make a jump It alian gentleman's m agazine . were very in status and invest ment for the future asan much in evidence at Imola, as a small-scale corporate tie up between FGSpo rt and the magazine grou p saw Supe rbike ads in the officiallysupported Honda Supe rbike team or sto p racing all together. Budget is the prob lem for the team at present, especially as Honda has told it that Ben Bostrom would be its preferred choice of rider. Max Neukir chner is in the frame to m ake a move to Superbike just a year after a move to Supersport, but only if there is a K1affi team in the first place. "It' s Super bike or nothing for us next year. We have to fix the budgets . It's important to have a German-spe aking ride r like Max, but not just for gett ing spo nsorship into the te am . G ermany is also Honda's biggest market in Europe , so it's necessary for them. The reason why comp anies go racing is to sellmotorcycles Max has . done incrediblywe ll for a guy with so little four-stroke expe rience, so we think he could do we llon a Superbike. It's a shame to lose Charpentier, but I told him that next year would be his best -ever chance in Supersport, so he should stay in that class." The Ten Kate Ho nda lineup for 200S was not made public at Imola, but it is know n that the Superbike duo will be Karl Muggeridge and Chris Verm eulen , w ith the Supersport pairing being new inductees Sebastien Charpentier and Katsuaki Fujiwara . Losing Muggeridge could have been a big blow to the Supersport arm of operations, but w ith the talents of Charpentier and the Current Ducati Corse team spo nsor Hokkaido is due to up its sponsorship profile in '05, appe aring under the new sponsor Xe rox Copiers - but ahead of the others that proliferate on the flanks of the Ducati factory machines. Mauro Sanchini missed out on the Imala race, stiffand suffering w ith the shoulder and arm injury he received at Assen. He has signed to ride for the PSG-I team in 2005 on Kawasakis, alongside Chris Walker, according to the team , though both Walker and hiscurrent Foggy Petronas tea m denied such a thing. It seems highly likely that ifWa lker is off to PSG- I and Kawasaki, and Corser is picked up by the proposed Alstare Suzuki team or anothe r well-eq uipped outlet , that Foggy Petronas will be looking for not just one but two ride rs. With a 900cc three-cylinder machine being blasted by the bigger tw ins and fours, it is hardly an attractive propositio n for anyo ne who has genu ine champibilities on th eir m ind. Frequ ent remar ks An indescribably tough start to the weekend for the Team Italia Supersport squad saw its former two -rider team swelled once more by the inclusion of Andrew Pitt to t he duo of Fabien Foret and Jurge n van den Goorbergh. For et , recove ring from his big Brands crash, was still waikingwith crutch es, but for van den Goorbergh it looked like his remote chance of the championship w as going to be robbed from him before the week end had eve n start ed . Suffering from acute abdo minal pain, van den Goorbergh was diagnosed with append icitis and sent to hospital on Thursday aftemoon. Fully expecting to be put under the knife for an appendectomy at 6 p.m., the hospital docto rs eventually diagnosed a kidney or gall stone, which work ed its way out by natural methods. Van den Goorbergh finished his weekend fifth fastest , his physical condition being described as "tip-to p". Leon Hasla m is now in the shop window due to no confirmation of t he Renegade tea m's plans for 2005. With Haga-hot property elsewhere, no sponsorship deal sorted about wh at a pity this was for all concerned w er e ma de at Im ola, as few teams w ork as hard as the Pet ronas crew or have a higher image in the current Superb ike paddoc k, a good multinational title sponsor or a desire to succee d that simply o utstrips the perfor mance boundari es of its curre nt m achine . Atrocious wet and w indy weather conditions hit hard at Imola, right after the first timed qualifying sessions on Friday afternoon . The wet track continued on right into regulation qualifying, with the trac k finally drying out in the late r aftern oon on Saturday. Troy Corser burst through to the 200cc Superb ike race barrier on Sunday, the 1996 champion still the object of desire to many teams in the paddock - if they can afford him. "I've got a few options , but the pro blem is that no one is in a posit ion to sign anything right now," Co rser said. "There are a lot of possibilities, but people have to start making signatures to start firming things up. It's all a bit deadlocked right now." asyet, and no deal in placewith a manufac- a competitive bike, the yellow dream team is ex pecte d to continu e its ways in 'OS. Brae into the team , which has w on races in Super - Parke s is expected to ex it the Ten Kate team bike w ith Haga and a British Supe rbike ro und at Brands Hatch with Haslam. Rides in the factory Duca t i t eam are still but stay in the Honda family riding for the , Team ltalia Megabike squad on a CBR6ooRR. that man proves to be in Fila Ducati colors at all - willalmost be guaranteed another year. Both riders may even stay if there is a onetw o for the dynamic duo of Laconi and Toseland. Otherwise, Haga is anoth e r possibility . onship or even freq ue nt race-wt nning possi- current issue s. turer, the whole Renegade team may well not happen in 'OSif there is not suitable support forthcom ing. Team principal Mark Griffiths has put substantial sums of his own cash proven winning record of Fujiwara when on the subject of much speculation. Neil Hodgson's manager Roger Bumett was at Imola, as the disgruntled MotoGP rider may be looking back to go forward and ofthe tw o present incumbents, the w inner o f the series - if www.cyclenEWs.com The Ya m ah a Motor Ge rm a ny Supersport team is due to be the only supported 600cc team in the paddoc k in 2005, if, as expected, the Yamaha ltalia team runs in Superbike . Riders in Superb ike? If Haga is not a viable catch for the team, for budget reasons, then anyone of Foret, Pitt and van den Goorbergh could be the ride rs. CYCLE N EWS • OaOBER6,2004 15

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