Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Former British Superbike rider ond World Superbike rookie Yukio Kagayama crossed the finish line first in both races, but the first was on aggregate and netted him second while the second gave him a win. "I think today I did not have good luck, especially in the first race," Abe said. "I went fourth then the next lap it started to rain. Afterwards, the electronics on the gear change broke and I need to make a pit lane start. In the beginning of race two, the start was not bad, but the engine was not quite so fast as normal. I finally passed some other riders, but if I had more speed to make passes, I would have taken many more top riders." Yamaha Motor France IPONE front row qualifier Sebastien Gimbert had two good races, setting the new lap record for Superbikes at 2:0 1.8S2 (2.6 seconds off the MotoGP best) in race two, despite his three c1utch-buming starts in an afternoon. "It's a real shame because I got taken out by another rider in race one, and in race two I burned the clutch a bit on the start and could not use all the engine power," Gimbert said. "It was okay to ride on my own but not to pass, as I could not run out of the slipstream on my own. Punted off by Neukirchner's braking error in race one, he was unhappy with 10th place and no more. With a host of riders only taking one race finish, due to a rash of crashes and some unexpected mechanical gremlins (Chili was a retirement on the warmup lap in race one, for example), the championship table from ninth place features some riders many expected to shine after pre-race tests and outstanding qualifying rides. DFX Sterilgarda Yamaha's Jose Luis Cardoso had an electrical contact problem (rusted wire, from all the rain) kill his RI on the warmup lap of race one. A selfinflicted crash in race two, with wildcard Yamaha rider Ivan Silva Albertola, put him out of contention for points of any kind. It was a day for big name crashers and quarrelers. A clash between another new SBK force, Winston Ten Kate Honda's Karl Muggeridge and PSG-I Kawasaki's Chris Walker saw each man out of race two, underlining a harsh first weekend for Muggeridge and robbing both he and Walker of a good finish. Debate raged on who was most to blame as Muggeridge went up the inside late in the corner apex. Wildcard Spaniard La Glisse Yamaha's Ivan Silva Albertola had an engine problem, which sidelined him from race two after an excellent ride in race one, taking seventh place, ahead of riders who should have had his measure. A force in the Spanish Formula Extreme Championship, he showed that this, too, along with the British Superbike and AMA Superbike series, can produce top-class pilots. A sad but ever-smiling figure on race day was Renegade Honda Koji's Ben Bostrom, who just missed out on a point in race one and retired shortly before the start of race two, with a mechanical problem. This was touted to be a clutch issue on their hastily prepared CBR IOOORR, although Ben's lips were pretty much sealed on the exact cause. "You could see how my weekend was from the points table," Bostrom said. "It's a bummer. We had a small bike problem right from the start, and so it was a tough weekend. But this was really like us testing at our first race, so we will have two bikes and more parts at the next tests, new motors as well. We are down at the bottom this weekend, but we will be accelerating up at a rapid rate from now on." Who did we miss from this rundown of the races? With so many new faces, and with 29 riders on track in total, it would be easy to pass over riders like Giovanni Bussei. But finishing as he did, 11th and Briefly•.. There was only one man to follow in the World Supersport race, and that man was Winston Ten Kate Honda's Sebsatien Charpentier. He was a diamond, shimmering on top of the qualifying results, and was in the lead for almost the entire race at Qatar. For a full IS laps, he was in charge, and in spite of having made some tests at almost full race distance on his CBR600RR and a soft Pirelli front, his tire gave out way early. The evidence in the winners' circle said it aU. Eventual winner, his teammate Katsuaki Fujiwara, had chosen the same tire but had seemingly used it better. Fujiwara had even stalled it on the line, had to press the starter button again and then scorched through the field. With only three laps completed in the lead, he still managed to win by over five seconds, a remarkable ride from Ten Kate's other new boy. There could be some better, closer races, this year, but It is unlikely we will see quite such a miraculous - or outstanding - recovery from one of the top runners, and the championship leader, Katsuaki Fujiwara. Will the Aussies rule at home, on a betterknown circuit for Pirelli and the protagonists? A month or so will soon tell us. A bizarre pre-race publicity day on Wednesday, February 23 saw many of the World Superbike regulars join in with a Qatarithemed photo session, with falcons, camels, Arabic horses and khaimas provided by local Bedouins. Thus, we were treated to the sight of Karl "T.E. Lawrence" Muggeridge dressed for a David Lean film, Yukio Kagayarna and Troy Corser on camels, and PierFrancesco Chili trying to look meaner than the purposeful falcon perched menacingly on his begaundeted arm. Wednesday was the day for photos, as the entire World Superbike paddock collected in pit lane for the annual SBK group pictorial session. All were present and correct, as requested, in leathers and helmets underarms. Everyone except one Fonsi Nieto, wearing poolside attire, and blaming a lack of communication, as he believed it was only the camel photo shoot he was supposed to attend. Ben Bostrom continued the forgetful theme, by forgetting to have his bike there as well. Faced with a barrage of e-mails from irate Spanish fans, the Spanish offices of FGSport Iberia, a future and current key market for World Superbike (with Fonsi Nieto and Jose Luis Cardoso on its books now), managed to hurry up a deal to provide local 'TV in the Madrid area between the first qualifying session and the Superpole hour. This remarkable acceleration was partly due to the flood of e-mails and the on-site presence of onetime Dorna employees Dennis Noyes and Manolo Otiz-Tallo, the pair drafted in to do last-minute commentary. Just to add to the 'TV points of interest, the host broadcaster was one AI Jazeera Tv. a Qatari based channel most famous in global sense for providing the Arab viewpoint of recent Middle East conflicts. The unexpected rains had many effects in Qatar, some on track and some very near it. Some of the temporary and (otherwise out- standingly well designed and executed) permanent structures proved less than weather proof, and the circuit itself proved easy to get wet but curiously quick to dry. Pit lane proved to be something of a skating rink, especially after an oil spill was added to the layer of water. Chris Vermeulen had cause to rue this, slipping and then toppling over in his own pit garage as he entered from an on-track session. His pit box crash had added comic value, as he had to modify his line due to the presence of two marshals at the mouth of his pit. As he swung in he had too much lean angle on and with a two-foot line of gray paint between the tarmac and the safety of a nice dry carpet, he lost the front - right under the noses of some Winston VIPs being escorted into the garage by team boss Ronald ten Kate. The falling Chris also almost took out the spare bike on the stand next to him. The Ten Kate team chief, talking later with his tongue firmly in cheek, stated, "I had to make a joke about the problems we had with the tilt switch cutouts at Monza last year, and that this was our new way of testing them." Kawasaki racing parts development manager Christian Bourgeois, who has been working on Kawasaki's 2005 race kit for the ZX-IO (there being no 2004 version) was in attendance at Qatar. He stated several salient points for the new era of World Superbike to take note of. One was that it was "really quite easy" for the new generation of four-cylinders looocc bikes to get over 200 hp without resorting to any great tuning tricks - and for not much over IS,OOO euros of additional expenditure. The other was that as yet the PSG-I squad has been using its own engines, with the team's own engine internals, as the spec of the Kawasaki version has yet to be finalized. They will probably not have the Kawasaki kit until they have recouped some mileage from the engines they have already prepared, which are giving similar power to the kit engines. Probably Valencia will be the first date. Of most import he mentioned that there was "no chance" of Kawasaki fielding a full World Superbike factory team next year. In the difficult to judge "what is or is not a factory squad," this has definite meaning. A general lack of bike sales for most manufacturers and the never-ending financial drain MotoGP have put paid to that idea, even before the start of any ideas about a rapprochement between FGSport and the MSMA. With Superpole completed, there was little to worry the riders in terms of tire numbers, but the inclement weather and new tire rules - limiting the numbers of tires available to riders this season - may have played a part at Qatar. First of all, and despite brave faces being put on, it appears that three days of rain at Qatar would have exhausted the entire supply of wets before the end of race weekend. After all, who expects three days of rain in a row in Qatar. New regs for 2005 now limit the number of front tires to nine, with 13 rears - both in Superbike. The previous limits were 1S rears and I I fronts. The new rules are not Continued on poge 28 CYCLE NEWS • MARCH 9, 2005 27

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