Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

FIM World Superblke Championship Series race one wasn't so bad," Bostrom said. "I just wanted to get more grip for the second race, so I changed to the largest-section rear tire. It was a bad choice, because we were just plowing the front. You can only ride the thing like that so much and then you will crash. The lights also went red, then yellow. then red, in the restarted race, so a few of us went, wondering what was going on." Max Neukirchner collided with his teammate Chili just as race one was stopped for the first time, and on the restart he suffered brake problems, crashing once more. In race two. he battled against a cracked exhaust and a lack of traction before retiring. The day started bizarrely in many ways. After a crash in wannup, Ben Bostrom recovered to make the start line of race one, but from the start it was Vermeulen, Corser and Laconi heading up an eight-rider second group, the lead of which was contested by fast-starting second-row man Toseland. Venmeulen carne close to taking the front wheel of Corser at Tramonto on lap one, appearing to clip the Suzuki as he overtook, and this almost demoted Corser one place more. Toseland was fourth, with Muggeridge and Kagayama behind, Martin and Jose Luis Cardoso following on. Neukirchner fought through from a poor qualifying position, but his race was about to get very interesting, for all the wrong reasons. On the completion of lap two, it was Vermeulen, then Corser, then Laconi, with a I .3-second gap from Vermeulen back to new fourth-place man Muggeridge. Corser looked ragged on the left at Tramonto, and he seemed to have issues at this comer, but not as many as did Andre Pitt, who fell on lap three. Michel Nickmans's machine was set on fire in the banriers on lap four, which threatened to call a halt to the race until it was extinguished. A fabulous ride by Martin put him seventh overall after four laps, but he looked in great danger of being eaten up by a massed pack of riders, with Cardoso, Lanzi and the Iastadvancing Haga bunching up behind. Nerino Brignola crashed his Ducati on lap flYe. and his accident spilled oil on the track, 26 and with the ricIer needing medical transportation, the race was stopped. Laconi had just made a break for second, but his advancement was short-lived, as the red flag carne out after frve laps. A crash by Neukirchner. when he did not see the red flag early enough and then touched his slowing teammate Chili, saw him fall at high speed. The young German dusted himself off and restarted the aggregate second leg of race one, along with the remaining 31 riders. They lined up on the blistering Misano tarmac with 21 laps to go, or so they thought. A false start for a number of riders caused a further delay, as the troops on the last few rows broke ranks too early, and engines were stopped to keep them cool. Bostrom was the most likely culprit, but as he explained later (and as the Supersport guys would attest later), there was something wrong with the starting lights. The race was reduced by one lap, to 20, and Vermeulen, Muggeridge and Laconi jumped out front on the restart, followed by Kagayama and then Corser. Muggeridge had a big slide exiting the Curva del Rio, then the Variant del Parco, just as Vermeulen took a three-tenths-of-a-second advantage. Chili started to lance his way to the front, as did Haga. who was up to eighth place after the second restarted lap. Laconi went to second on lap three of the restart, with Kagayama right behind him. Bussei and Neukirchner crashed - the German for the second time, due to what he described as a not-quite-right brake feel- on lap three. Laconi was pushing Vermeulen hard and trying to pass, but, despite two more-thanexploratory ventures on lap four [net lap eight), Vermeulen continued in his advantage. Laconi passed at the first corner, Misano, to take the lead on [net) lap 10, with the race order now being Laconi, Vermeulen, Muggeridge, Kagayarna, with Corser a second or so back, and then a gap to Toseland and Haga. Kagayama took third on the first comer of lap I I, although, with the aggregate results JULY 6,2005 • CYCLE NEWS be i n g calculated live, he was still in fourth place. By lap 12, Laconi had a 1.22-second lead on the road, a six-tenths-of-a-second lead in reality. Toseland went through on Muggeridge up the inside at Carro. Then Haga had to wait until Tramonto to pass, or at least try to, as the entire overtaking maneuver took three corners to complete. with the riders shoulder to shoulder all the way, until Haga found the best line and speed into Quercia Kagayama crashed under acceleration onto the Curvone on lap I S, losing his chance of a podium finish. Muggeridge was clearly in trouble, with his rear end allover the place under power. Laconi's impressive front-running placed him four seconds clear of the best of the rest on the road with less than I 0 laps left, his closest rival being Vermeulen, with Corser running third. Chili waltzed past un unaccustomedly fast Nieto, but even better than him at that juncture was Lanzi. who passed Muggeridge on lap 18 of 24, cutting I :37.0 laps when most others were in the mid- to high 38s. Chili had a short battle of wills with Walker, but he made it stick into Quercia, and soon after, Chili sailed past Muggeridge, as did Walker. With frve laps to go, Corser was running at the same pace and position as Toseland, but with four seconds in hand over the Englishman, he seemed less than perturbed. He was more perturbed when Toseland went past - perturbed enough to defend his line with some force, maybe even toughness. at Curva del Carro, as Toseland tried to outride him on the exit of the tum. "I rode really hard in both races, but in the second we made a slight change, but it didn't make things much better," Toseland said. "Unlike Regis, I've never been unbelievably last around here for some reason, which is my problem, and I know I have to sort that out. I was good in a few places. but I didn't get the best feeling all weekend, and it was a bit frustrating for me out there today. Coming home in fourth was not the plan, but that was all I could get, and I couldn't do any more. I've had worse days, and two fourths are not bad results, but I have to feel a bit disappointed. I might have had a podium if the first race hadn't been stopped." Toseland went past into Carro on the very next lap, but Corser simply stayed behind until the straight, blasting past even though he had wandered over the circuit's entire breadth to avoid the blocking tactics of Toseland, and the 1996 champ retook the lead on pure power. Toseland did it again on the final lap, and after a superb show of elbow-to-elbow action, Corser fought back all the way to the final chicane, where he allowed Toseland a clear run. Corser was nonetheless third, with a safe four-second cushion to fourth-placed Toseland. "That was, without a doubt, one of the hardest day's racing of my life," Corser said. "One race, in these conditions, would have been bad enough, but two was murder. The heat was one thing, but today was much more humid than the past two days, and that really sapped my energy. I had some clutch problems in both races today, and I feel that prevented me from doing better. Our GSX-

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