Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I Briefly... Toselond (52 ), Noriyuki Haga (4 1) and Regis Laconi (55) battled a ll day at Magny Cours, with Toseland and Haga each taking a win. nate with his crashes through the season. That kep t me in t he cham p ionship, but a t the last t hre e ro und s we r o de r e ally well. To my. grand~othe r at ho me we've do ne it, bab y!" The final points ga p o ve r Laconi was nine - Tose land on 336 to Laco ni's 327. Tosel and ne eded the wi n in t he first rac e, aft er some tough tim es in q ualifying and a fou r-point disadvantage to Laco ni aft e Imola. Tose land had to ke e p the c ha rg ing Re negade D ucat i Koji rider N o riyuki Haga at bay, mai ntaining a good ra ce pace right to the flag after 23 laps of unb rid led tension. Haga was second w hile Laconi eventually rued his tire choice to take third and lose his ch ampion ship lea d. Vermeulen's retirement for te ch nical reasons put the Ten Kate Honda rider out of the championship challenge. Local wild ca rd rider Sebastien Gimbert gave th e crow d something e lse to ch e er abo ut, finishing fourth on his Yamah a R I, perking up many to its potential use as a superbike tool in 2005. Gimbert in fact took a fourth-pl ace double at his home track, rewarding the faith in those who agreed that he should race at Magny Cours rather than at the final round of World Endurance series at Vallelunga . He finished the series 18th overall. With Vermeulen once more out of the running in the later stages, the race for podium places was a tense three -rider affair, with Haga and Toseland swapping places at the front, as Laconi struggled to get to grips with the speed of the other ma in Ducati protagonists, thanks to a worn front tire and his hard-pushing front-end style. Haga pushed hardest at the end afte r se curing his sixth win of the season, earning third place in the series from the double nonfinisher Vermeulen. '" a lu happy t have won the second ra ce. In the firs t ra ce it was my first . With no 2005 ca lendar in evide nce at Imola, the paddoc k held its breath for its arr ival of Magny Cours, and fo r th e expect ed unveilin of th e suppo sed 13-roun d series. g We did not get the calendar, though we did get the news that it would probably not be available officially until October 19. The best guess anyone could make at Magny Co urs was that we wou ld have a definite 12 rounds, with a couple of floaters, should the re be agreemen ts in time. Changes in the Ge rman rou nd mean that Lausitz seems more favored than Oschersle be n, wh ile a myste rious easte rn European ro und can rea listically only be held at Brno. The Hungaro ring is a possibilityand did host MotoGP at one time, but it see ms unlikely. The ratified list has to be presented by the FIM, as pe r co ntract with FGSport , hence the secrecy surr ounding the calendar at present. In so me semb lance of o rder the date s should be : Q atar, Phillip Island, Valencia, Monza, Silverstone, Magny Cours, Brno (T BA), Misano , Brands Hatch, Lausitzr ing (TBA), Assen , Imola, Shanghai (TBA). time at Magny Cours , so I have on ly three days," Haga sa id. "U nfo rtu nately. I could not ge t t he t itle this year, but I have to say to all t he bac ku p peo ple and my te am , thanks very m uch. They ma de a big contribution. I'm enj oying myself in this padd o ck and I am looking at sta ying here ne xt year. I just have to decide [w he re]. " PSG -I Ducat i's Pier-Francesco Chili w ent sixt h and fifth to secure fifth place in the ch ampio nship after two races spent he ad ing up fights in the group immediately behi nd the le ade rs . " In race o ne , th e tire on the first lap spun on the rim," C hili said . " I use d a d iffer e nt rear tire w ith the same compound but a harder carcas s in race two . The setup fo r the sus pensio n was like for qualifyi ng, but the bike d id no t work like it did in pra ct ice . I ra ced w ith Gim be rt , and my judg ment of the Yamaha is t hat it has a little less pow e r than t he 999 D ucat i engi ne , bu t it puts it to the ground fan tas tically well." Steve Martin propelled his D FX D ucat i to fifth in race o ne , an ultimately lo nely affair, but his big twi n suffere d a technical DNF in ra ce two, d ropping him o ut on lap I I. Renegad e Du ca ti Ko ji's Leon Haslam was a fine seve nth and sixt h, head ing up a Petronas rider eac h tim e . He was vo ted ro okie of the ye a r in the Su perbike class, and finished the ye a r ninth o verall $ 20 ,000 rich e r to boot. G ar ry McCo y co uld o nly manage a ninth, times two , but nonetheless w as sixth in the series. Superpole wi nner Troy C o rse r co uld only score a DNF and a seventh in what was his final Petronas ride, w hile te ammat e Chris Walker was eighth in each race. Corser finish ed the ye ar off in nint h overall. He 's now off to Alsta re Suzuki, r iding the all-ne w GSX-R I 000, alo ngside a yet unnamed partner. It was all Toseland in Fran ce , ho w ever, as the lad se t a few firsts at Magny Cours , not least being t he you ngest ride r ever to wi n the Wo rld C ha m pion ship. He is c urrently 23 years, I I mo nt hs and 29 da ys old, w ith his ne xt birt hd ay coming on October 10. He was in sparkling, startling form in race o ne , a nd almost equally ade pt in race two, at leas t until his front tire went the way of his teammate l.aco ni's. The first Supe rbike race got under way w ith the ho leshot go ing to the fastest m an in Superpole , Corser. Second was Toseland , fo llowed by Haga; Vermeulen and com pa ny were clo se behind , but some were not goi ng to stay in t he hunt too lo ng. Marco Bo rciani went o ut o n lap o ne and Iva n C lem e nti o n lap three , bre aking his clavicle and scapho id. Tose land hit the lead afte r a pass up t he inside of Haga at Adela ide , just as Se rgio Fuertes was o n his way o ut o f th e race. Toseland and Haga enjoye d a fight with Verm e ule n in th ird , Laco ni breat hing in his fume s and G imb e rt fifth . Laco ni, the prerace favo rite fo r many, went to th ird at Adelai de, o n lap fou r, as Vermeu len's bike started to misbehave . T he le adi ng gro up of th re e had Vermeulen and G imbe rt be hind , t he n C hili and Marti n, wi th Corse r tacked on the e nd , being pumme led by the faster bikes. Laco ni st uffed it up t he inside of Haga at one of the faste st po ints, an d le ader Toseland w as half a sec ond ahead w ith seven laps co m pleted of ra ce o ne . Wi th a little bit o f a gap ope ning, after two laps of superclose action, Laco ni start ed clo sing in, and he was visibly clo ser to Tosel and on lap e ight . It was short -lived, as Haga was ba ck past Laco ni on th e left-hander down at the 180- degree co rner. W ith Haga stoppin g Laconi, Vermeul en was catching up fo r a w hile until technical probl ems of a n unspecifie d natu re took him o ut and ended www.cyclenews.com W ith privateer Hondas seeming ly the real objects of desire for several would-be supe rbike privateers, both Pier-Francesco Chili and Noriyuk i Haga have arranged to test Ten Kate Honda Superbikes the day after the race . The main Magny Cours track is unavailable, but the test track, a short and tw isty ven ue, is the best they can do . Chilimay fo rm a o ne-man team to ru n a Fire blade , if all else fails. At the last minute , the test was called off beca use of the nature of the tiny track. It will probably be reconve ned at Valencia in November. It appears that Haga's move to Yamaha is in flux. It seems that his financial req uests are meetable, but his previous Yamaha exit o n relative ly poor te rms has some lingering de bris attached. His brot her, paralyzed during a cras h wh ile riding a Y amaha and the inco ndusive settlement the reaft e r, has also pressed some hesitancy butt ons in the Haga cam p. The Yamaha deal loo ked on during Sunday night, off the day before . Sebastien Gimbert was a revelation to all in Superbike, the fact that he was on a we llpre pared , though not over pre pared , RI was of huge significance to the series as a who le. It proved - yet again - that anything the Japanese can make will be co mpetitive in superbike, ifyou have the right peop le loo king after it and the right pilot yanking the throttle cable into ex haustion. The fourcylinders make 190bhp at the rear wheel, w hich is the passport to superbike supremacy, whereas I BOhp may be enough fo r a torquey tw in. Gimbert may have lappe d Magny Cours mo re t imes th an he cares to remembe r, but his riding was smooth and polished and was carried o ut on the usual Pirellis he's used to in the Fre nch and World Endurance cham pionships. G im bert des erved eve ry ounce of pre -race praise and is ex pected to be in the ser ies fulltime in 2005 , with a riding part ne r, as yet unknow n. Fastest in both pre -Superpole qualifying sessions, the current World Endurance Champion showed the RI as an Continued on pa ge 00 CYCLE NEWS • oaOBER 13, 2004 27

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