Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

second leg was necessary. This second 10lap heat was run under "wet" rules, with the aggregate leaders from the first race being Corser, Ducati Xerox's Laconi and Neukirchner. Corser, leading for a period, was repassed by Kagayama, but he won the race on aggregate time by 5.822 seconds, again from his Japanese teammate. "Fortunately, I had that bit of a gap at the end of the first leg when they redflagged it," Corser said. "It had to stop; it was really slippery. They had to do it. When we went out and restarted, I didn't panic, and I didn't get a fantastic start. Yukio [Kagayama) and Walker were flying out at the front. I didn't want them to get too far away, but at the same time I just wanted to feel the tires. And I didn't have fantastic grip at the beginning, and they slowly started to get better and better. A few of them crashed - actually, McCoy crashed right in front of me going through the Haysheds, the fast right-hander. I must have missed his head by about two inches, and the bike for that matter. I went off the track, came back on, and I caught up really quick. I was surprised at that. Just stayed consistent, watched my lapboard, the guys giving me plus seconds. I wasn't leading the race, but I was still leading the race off the track [on aggregate). That was alii could do. I could see that Regis was dropping back, as that was the guy that was lying second in the first part. When Yukio was in front, I pushed to catch him, then I went past him just to try and up the pace a little bit, just to help him get up to second place, really. Then I tried to save the tires until the end of the race, then rolled off when I knew I was going to win the race. 50 Yukio came past - I didn't let him past he come past and he was just lighting it up everywhere in the last lap. Pretty impressive to watch. I was trying to do it but at the same time I didn't want to risk flipping myself off. It's great good team effort the whole weekend. It's been fantastic." Third, on the track and on aggregate, was German sensation Neukirchner, his first podium score in only his fourth-ever World 5uperbike race. Not bad for a rookie. Winston Ten Kate's Chris Vermeulen ended the day in fourth place in the championship fight, after a fourth in race two and third in race one. Starting from row three, these were impressive results, and unlike many other riders, he was to finish both races. "I had a real battle with Max [Neukirchner) on another Honda towards the end of that first race. He was riding really well - so well that I have a big black mark from his front tire on my leathers," Vermeulen said. "It's just a pity that we had to start from the third row and had to push so hard in the early stages. In race two, it was really slippy out there, worse than in warmup this morning. A third and fourth from ninth on the grid isn't so bad." His teammate, Karl Muggeridge, suffered one retirement after a crash in race two - taking out World Champion Xerox Ducati's James Toseland - and he got a lowly eighth in race one. "I was having real problems getting the power to the ground in race one," Muggeridge said. "In the second race I was battling with James Toseland, and we got into a situation at turn 10 where I just had nowhere to go. After my crash in warmup this morning, I wanted to have a couple of good results for the team, who have worked really hard." It was a seriously difficult day - nay weekend - for Ducati. on about every level possible. They seemed to blame tires for their main troubles, but it cannot go all the way to explaining where they are right now. There were flashes of old form. After a lowly seventh in race one, Laconi looked on course for a second-place finish in the race two, charging hard before the rains came to spoil his day. After the restart, he was still on course for second, but he had to make an acrobatic save of a potential high side approaching Lukey Heights, hanging off one side in midair and riding it like a rodeo pony right until the inevitable tumble. He fell gently from his Ducati at the top of the hill and then bravely restarted to finish his day with a pair of seventh places. His restart was perfectly legal, just pressing the starter button Ducati has left on its race bikes this year. Two times 7 equaled some points but glum faces all round for Ducati, despite Laconi leaving Australia third. with 54 points. "I never had to ride so hard to stay on the bike, because the front was just going away all the time," Laconi said. "I lost it five times at the same place at 135 mph because of the wind or the tires, I don't know which. It was so crazy that I couldn't even stay on the bike and I just did the best I could do. I passed everyone to move up to fourth and thought I was okay, but then it was so difficult because after six or seven laps, the bike was just so hard to ride. I made a good start in race two and had a good first lap to be immediately up with the leaders. Troy was a bit faster than me, but I kept second place well. I was happy because we changed the bike totally from the first race and now it was so good, so thanks to my team for giving me something different for the second race. I started to ride it in the wet but the rear shock was too hard, and after three laps, the rear tire was finished. When I crashed, the rear went away and I made a big highside. I restarted the bike with the starter and got back in the race to finish seventh."· His teammate, Toseland, had an even tougher weekend, finishing race one only 14th after a bad start and some grip issues throughout. After his second race tangle with Muggeridge at the hairpin, he slipped to eighth in the championship, on 22 points. His two points in race one even came to him only after another Ducati rider, Lorenzo Lanzi, was disqualified, and thus Toseland grabbed another point. Lanzi was disqualified from the race when his machine was found to be underweight, promoting all riders behind him up one place, thus earning Toseland his two points. CYCLE NEWS • APRil 13, 2005 25

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