Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I I Brief'Y... Continued from poge 2S 1l1e Suzuki Cup, a contest which includes the odd guest rider, had its qualifying sheets headed by a World Supersport name ofgreat pedigree Fabrizio Pirovano, the man who organizes and oversees it all. Although overtaken on the final day, he scored the fastest lap on day one, years after his retirement. The British-based Hawk Kawasaki team are a possible entry for Superbike in 2005, according to paddock rumors at Misano. 1l1ey currently run Aussie pairing Glen Richards and Dean Thomas in British Superbike, and are regular podium threats. R had a bit of a clutch problem in the opening round, but we thought we had sorted that out. I know that the bike doesn't like doing lots of starts, so the first race was always going to be tricky, because the two-parter and a false start meant that I did three starts! So I spent most of the second part [20 laps] without a clutch. That made it particularly difficult on the brakes when I was close to Chris and Regis. In the end, Idecided third was better than trying for second and making a mistake. I also had clutch problems in race two and could get right up to Chris, but wasn't confident that Icould get past safely and make it stick, so I settled for another third." At the front, the very happy laconi gave Ducati its third win in three races, and in front of its local crowd, less than one hour's drive from Bargo Panigale and Ducati's home town. Vermeulen's second seemed almost forgotten by the 1Y commentators, but after the trouble he was in on Friday, he pulled it all together when it counted. "I was a little closer to Regis [laconi] that time, but the important thing was that I finished ahead of Troy [Corser] in both races," Venrneulen said. "Regis was really strong today, and, although I was okay through the faster parts of the circuit, where I could pick up a tenth or two, I had very little grip in the tighter sections. I nearly lost it in the last chicane on Virtually every lap. It was hard work in the heat and doubly hard having to compensate for no grip, and the last five laps were really tough." With some of Muggeridge's crew reckoning he may not make the end of race two and a few of the riders complaining that two 25lap races were too much, especially when the tires seemed to have been at their best at half-stage, the second race took place in similarly hot conditions, and on time, despite all the problems with race one running so late. Vermeulen took the lead, closely followed by Corser, Muggeridge, laconi, Toseland and Kagayarna By lap four, Corser had moved to second, with laconi third and Muggeridge fourth. A small gap back to Toseland gave him fifth, with Martin, the race-one revelation, following. Chili deposed Martin on lap fIVe, when he ran straight past him, leaving him to fall into the clutches of Haga "I think we did as well as we could do with the conditions we had," Chili said. "When the tires support me, I can go fast like the guy in front, but when the tire performance drops down, it drops our performance down too much. We need to make some more work with the rear linkage as well, because we are not giving the rear shock enough travel. I used the bigger rear tires this weekend, and it brings with it heavy steering, but it does offer more rear grip, until it drops down." On the sixth lap, and with Vermeulen ahead and not willing to slow his early pace, Corser and laconi had a dust-up, with championship leader Corser fighting hard to keep second as the three riders circulated within a second of each other, with Muggeridge 2.6 seconds from the lead and Toseland a dosing second, behind Muggeridge. laconi slotted past Corser at Tramonto, dMng up the inside at the first opportunity, before nailing Vermeulen with a breathtaking pass at Misano on lap nine. It looked like laconi had more in the tank and the tires than the others, as Vermeulen appeared to be modifying lines as he held off Corser and tried to stay with laconi. He failed in the latter, as laconi was gone to the tune of a second by lap 10, with 15 grueling laps still to go. He proved more successful at fending off Corser, as he slipped back to seven-tenths of a second behind the leader. Chili and Toseland had both passed Muggeridge before I0 laps were over, and it looked like Chili would simply disappear into the distance, but he slowed significantly and Toseland repassed him on lap 13. Haga took some time to get on terms with Muggeridge, but by lap 14 Haga was in the slipstream, awaiting his chance, which duly delivered itself at the first comer of the 15th lap. The relatively static front positions were firmed up and finally closed up again when Corser chipped away with a couple of tenths per lap. Haga got past Chili on lap 23, just as his teammate Pitt was draWing in to retire for the second "no score" of the day after his crash in race one. Chili would repay the compliment before the race was out, taking fifth behind Toseland. Muggeridge was a battling seventh, Martin a quite heroic eighth on the underpowered Petronas triple. "I'm really happy to have finished two Recent tests at Bmo and Magny Cours for some of the top teams elicited some improvements in both equipment and setup. 1l1e Ducati squad, pleased with their progress at Bmo, carne to Misano with new bottom fork triple clamps, and MotoGP derived brake calipers. 1l1ey also tested Pirelli's latest 2oo-section rear tire, which Toseland liked but laconi was less keen on. Ten Kate brought out new swingarms, which Vermeulen especially liked. James Toseland featured in a British TV documentary on one of the big terrestrial channels, Channel 4, a few days before the Misano meeting. 1l1e story was similar to the others in the series - the relationship of the sportsman and his parents, in this case james's mother, and how he got into racing Pespite the death of his cousin in a racing accident. The Foggy Petronas team came to Misano with an unenviable reputation for a lack of reliability and speed. Team boss jack Valentine would not be drawn on whether or not they were running back to their season-starting specification engines, but he stated, "We are running a more 'back-to-basics' balance on the bike." His comments appeared to back up the thoughts of Steve Martin: that they would reduce the power output to find a consistency of on-track performance by using only the prehop-up engines. It was Martin's tum to run well on the Petronas, scoring a strong Superpole qualification, and then rounding out Superpole in eighth. "1l1e nature of this track helps us a bit," said Valentine. "There is not so much start/stop acceleration, which is where the fourcylinder machines have an advantage." After Friday's Cardoso vs. Kagayama showdown in pit lane, more miscreant behavior appeared at the end of regulation qualifying. Fonsi Nieto and lorenzo Alfonsi tangled on track, and stopped to argue the toss. After much gesticulation from Nieto, the Spaniard bitch-slapped A1fonsi's open visor, knocking it off before he rode away, continuing his roadrage incident with hand signals. Nieto was hauled before the officials and received a hefty $3000 fine. Pier-Francesco Chili was given a hero's reception on Saturday at Misano, after the Superpoie press conference. He was given a trophy by Marchesini and the organizers to celebrate his 250th World Superbike start, and had flagged up this landmark win in the run up to race weekend. Close inspection of the records, published before the Misano event, nonetheless showed that Chili's technical score thus far is 247 starts (according to the official SBK starting lists), making Misano races 248 and 249. Chili would have been on course for 250 and 251 at Misano had he not fallen and broken his collarbone at Phillip Island, so it appears that some well-laid plans were carried out at Misano in any case. The local crowd, and all who witnessed Chili's emotional acceptance of a seemingly never-ending standing ovation, seemed blissfully unaware of or indifferent to the arithmetical anomaHes in any case. Pirelli showed up with a new selection of tires at Misano, one of them being a 2oo-section. They also had a dual compound in two different carcasses, and three compound choices. Most riders found that hardest carcass too hard in the hot Misano conditions. There was also a new front with a stiffer carcass, and that, too, was discarded on the grounds that it did not have enough give over the bumps. With track temperatures of I25-plus degrees in Superpole, 25 laps of the Misano circuit in each Superbike race were going to be a challenge for all the tires. A Suzuka 8-Hour test has been scheduled for Katsuaki Fujiwara and Chris Vermeulen, and their schedule makes impressive reading. After Sunday's race, they were to leave by helicopter to the Bologna airport, fly to Frankfurt, and then on to japan. One more internal flight and some boats, trains and automobiles later, they were to start testing at 8 am. the next day. Fujiwara was seen in the blistering conditions of Misano with full winter gear on every now and then - an attempt (apparently) to simulate what a single session of the 8-Hour is like. Alessio Corradi, injured at a recent test in Brno, missed his horne race at Misano. SBK boss Paolo Flammini said at Misano, "It is - too early yet to give any more news about the calendar for 2006, but we will as soon as we can. We hope to expand the calendar to in include two more races outside Europe." In answer to a query about SBKs place in the American radar, he said, "It seems unrealistic to think about Rood America for 2006, and laguna Seca seems to be the same. As we have said before, we would really like to go back and race in America, but we will not until all the aspects of the event are right: a well-promoted event, a good standard of track and facilities, and all other things." To counteract the high temperatures experienced on track - more than 125 degrees at some points of the overheated practice days Pirelli had been filling most of their tires with nitrogen to reduce the intemal running temperatures of their rubber. Due to the high humidity, any water in the air changes volume as it increases in temperature. With the temperature of the tires increasing as they slide, and with so many places in which the tires can slide .at Misano, they also state that pure nitrogen heats more slowly than air, and only to a certain degree in absolute tenms. Troy Corser has spoken to Alstare team boss Patricia Batta about becoming team manager when he stops racing, such is his regard for his latest employers. Corser has waxed long and lyrical about the AIstare setup and sees it as a perfect place in which to continue his career beyond the day when he hangs up his leathers. CYCLE NEWS • JULY 6,2005 27 "

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