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a year in w hich po ssible d e m ise w as
tra nsfo rmed into a se e m ingly rosy if
typ ically semipla nne d fut ure.
WORLD SUPERSPORT
It started in cha os. It e nded in an unsurprisingly fam iliar orde r.
All lined up on the grid and t he Wo rld
Supe rsport circus , all three rings of it, got a
co nfused Signal wh en the lights malfunctioned . T he wh ole field dum pe d the
clutch, the lights went o ff and t he n on
again, and a restart was called.
At tum one on the restart, Yamaha Motor
German y's Kevin Curtain highsided ou t of
the race , with his countryman Andrew Pitt
lucky to brake hard enoug h to keep from
running into him. After speaking to Kevin
Cu rtain, it seemed that Pitt was in contact
with his R6, add ing to mix of the cras h.
In any case, Pitt himse lf suffered , but
Curtain escaped injury, as the Yamaha ltalia
rider dr opped to 27th and had to fight his
way thro ugh the field.
Pitt, a former champ ion , made it loo k
easy, pos ting laps eas ily as fast as the leading riders'.
Those beacon s of powe r and prowess
were, uns urprisingly, the to p Honda ride rs:
lo ng-t e rm lead e r Bro c Pa rke s, Karl
Mugger idge, Sebastien Char pe ntier, and
th e new boy in the Megabike Ho nda tea m,
Michel Fabrizio .
Th e last named was to retire after sidesw iping one of t he short traffic con es that
lined the ou tside of tum one's en try.
Charpentier started this game of po lyvinyl
skittles by ta king a w ider entry line than
either Ten Kate rider.
Parkes, so desperate to win yo u co uld
almost feel it , looked good fo r his first win
in his last Ten Kate ride befo re his move to
the Yamaha Mot or Ge rm any team . Parke s
was frustrated to have led more laps than
Mugge ridge and still not w in.
" It was tough ," Pa rkes explained . "I got
a good sta rt , and as qu ickly as I co uld I got
o nto the back of Karl. I t hough t about the
last race, so I re cko ned I shou ld go as fast
as I co uld to dr o p the m o ff the lead . I got
past Karl, t he n he too k me at th e e nd and
I saw Ch arpe ntie r rea lly close behind me . I
really wa nted to go o ut and race for the
w in to day but I thought in the final lap it
was better to take second in the race and
earn second in the championship."
Charpe nt ier ran off right before th e final
chican e but ke pt it up to re join the race
witho ut losing too much . He was the latest
ride r to jo in t he Miche l Fabrizio fan club,
after t hey came toge the r and Fabr izio
elbowed him in the ribs.
Parkes had the fastes t lap and a new lap
re cord while catch ing up Mugge ridge, and
th e n he se t abou t losing his tea mm ate .
Parke s almost d id, but Mugga's inspired
late c ho ice of the soft est tires in the
Supersport Pirelli t ruck put him back into
the fray in a big wa y as the laps ticked by.
"I w as go ing pretty well , and th en I
sta rted to lose some grip in the rear and
my times got worse," Muggeridge said.
"Then Brae came through and started edging away so I had to try really hard to kee p
w ith him. Then final ly he slowed a little bit
and I could liftmy pace . I worked my way up
and passed him and then tried to keep him
beh ind fo r the who le lap. It was good to win
anothe r one before the year e nded ."
As pr ivateer Ivan Silva went out w ith a
busted gea r leve r 20 laps later, Lo renzo
Lanzi and the dejec ted Jurge n van de n
Goo rb e rgh were having a fight. Lanzi, the
aggressor, came fro m behin d to make the
pass stick as the Dutchman fell bac k in the
finishing order.
Muggeridge, now loo king th reatening
to go past on the way o ut of Estoril, just
be fore the hairpin, finally d id it on th e last
lap and secured his seventh win of the yea r,
after eight po les in 10 tries, fo ur co nsecutive reco rd wins and front-row sta rts at
every race o f the year.
His do minati on of Supe rspo rt eclipsed
even that o f his pr ed ecessor, C hr is
Ve rmeu len , and he ro unded his season o ut
in pictur e-pe rfect fashio n. T he brilliance of
the Ten Kate effort gave Parkes se co nd in
the race and the title .
Van de n Go o rb ergh 's fifth in Fra nce
was e nough fo r th ird o verall, wit h
Ch a rpe nt ier fo urt h, the last ride r to
score over 100 points.
Lor e nzo Lanz i had th e sat isfaction of a
fifth-place finish, no t a bad ro o kie season fo r a rid e r on a missile of a twi n,
a bike wi th too q uirky a c haracter
and abi lity to m ix
it up w ith the
Yamahas and
Ho nd as on a
regular ba sis.
The fact t hat
Pitt got u p to
sixth in the race
was
rema rk able, and he t:.
was fo llo w e d r~
in t he Auss ie
hall
of . ~
Supe rs port fa me
by th e latest
r ider to come
over and ma ke a
po sit ive im pa ct:
C raig Coxhel l. He
an d FUjiw ara) a nd Yama ha Moto r
G e r m an y (Pa rk e s a nd C u rt a in ), t he
cre a m is st ill t here , eve n if
Mug geri d ge is o ff to d ance in t he
eN
Su per bike ballroom.
MAGNY COURS CIRCUIT, MAGNY COURS,
FRANCE
RESULTS: OCTOBER
3, 2004
SUPERBIK E QUAUFYING: I. li-oy Corser 2. Chris
Venneulen (1,<1.8-45) l . jMnes 1O