Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

first lap to almost last. The main benefactor of the long racetrack was Klaffi Honda's Pier-Francesco Chili, who had to work hard in both races to come through the pack after a poor qualifying session and so-so starts. His brace of fifth places were impressive to watch, although the large German contingent in the crowd was disappointed with the fortunes of his teammate, Max Neukirchner. He was only 14th in race one and a retiree in race two, fighting front tire push in each contest. A superb start in race two, to second place, almost allowed experienced Brno runner Yamaha Motor France's Norick Abe a podium, but he lost out to determined Vermeulen on the last two laps. With such a positive first race result from Laconi and Toseland, race two proved not so successful, as they could only finish seventh and eighth, respectively. SC Caracchi Ducati rider Lorenzo Lanzi repeated his fine first-race finish of sixth in race two and beat both Ducati factory runners, causing much shrugging from the Xerox camp, as they reversed their fortunes again. Other top names struggled, and most blamed tires. Winston Ten Kate Honda's Karl Muggeridge showed strongly in the early parts of both races, but his ultimate results of 13th and ninth were disappointments for him and his team. For Ben Bostrom, each race was a torment, as he finished 20th and 18th, well out of the points, blaming most likely himself; he was uncharacteristically quiet, nonfulsome in his descriptions and carrying the KOji. It was a black-dog-day afternoon for the team with a white dog as its logo. The contrast of results between the races was perfectly summed up by Walker, as his near podium race in the opener dissolved to a 10th in race two, as he was slowly dropped from the freight train of riders fighting for the podium at one stage. Andrew Pitt, Haga's teammate, had two tough races again, with little front grip making him a lonely 10th in the opener and then a slipping clutch putting him out of race two altogether. The Petronas triples found the challenge of Brno another tough one, and in race one, Superpole qualifier Gary McCoy was involved in a collision with Jose Luis Cardoso, injuring his neck and elbow sufficiently, ending his day in race two. Also involved was Mauro Sanchini, who almost missed race two through injury to his arm. Steve Martin took his three-cylinder machine to 17th and 16th places. The individual races were similar only in loose form, with some leaders and a big bunch fighting out the top places behind the podium. RACE ONE Corser sprung to the holeshot for the first of 20 laps, with Vermeulen a close second. After a bad start, Toseland, from second on the grid, was down in eighth at the first split. After a good start, Walker was a dogged third, behind Vermeulen, with each rider attempting to stay with the once-more front-running Corser. Toseland made steady progress through in the first couple of laps. An audacious pass on Kagayama's Suzuki just before the end of lap two was immediately overturned as Kagayama, Laconi and Neukirchner all repassed down the straight, holding him off under braking for the turn-one horseshoe. After three laps, the race order was Corser by 2.223, followed by Vermeulen and Walker, then a gap to Laconi, Muggeridge, Neukirchner, Toseland and Haga. On that third lap, Walker passed Vermeulen, even if he lost more ground to Corser (with the gap up to 2.8 seconds). One lap later and at the sharper end of the line of podium hopefuls, Laconi had passed Vermeulen, and Toseland had hit the front of his mini-group. Walker was even up to fifth, some six seconds from Corser (who was still cutting 2:03 laps), only setting a 2:04 on lap six. Corser had set a temporary new lap record of 2:03.812 on lap four. ! I Brief'Y··· It's that man again. World Championship leader Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki's Troy Corser deposed World Champion James Toseland (Ducati Xerox 999FOS) from his unexpected position of likely Superpole winner, thanks to the Orily lap of the Brno race weekend below the 2:03 second barrier. It was Corser's Brd career pole position, extending his record once more, and it came after a difficult period of regular qualifying, as he frequently fought hard to stay in the top 10. Most riders improved their personal best times in the cooler afternoon Superpole conditions (all despite a short fall of rain on one section of the track in the final untimed practice session), but Corser duly took the Brno bar to a new height of 2:02.694. expected at Assen), but the last one is a choice between the status quo (a ridethrough penalty), a straight 10-second penalty, or a new signal system to notify the offending rider of his error and make him move back, giving up the place he had gained illegally. Another initiative is to allow riders who have a technical problem on the warmup or sighting laps the chance to use their second bike by returning to pit lane and making a second and final sighting lap. Another proposed rule, of more import, is that the 15 minutes of mandatory wet practice - should the rains only appear before the races, with no prior wet qualifying time - be done away with. The IS-minute session actualiy means around an hour of delay in real terms, and in the 15 minutes sessions, few The placement of Chris Venneulen for the 2006 season raised its head again, as the lead Honda Superbike rider in World Superbike has tested for the Suzuka Eight-Hour and will be a guest of both Castrol and Honda Europe at the forthcoming British GP at Donington. It seems it will be more of a working/planning visit than just a jolly one for Vermeulen, who will see how the MotoGP world works close up. His most likely berth, if 2006 is his designated year, would be the Camel Honda Pons team, with the expected exit of Bayliss at season's end the most likely scenario, and the Winston SBK and Camel MotoGP brands linked by the same JT parent company. However, the ways of MotoGP rider placement are notorious for not necessarUy having logic as a keynote in any conventional sense. Nothing seems certain at present, but decisions regarding the makeup of Honda teams in the Superbike series should be worked out at Brands Hatch, with the arrival of Honda Europe bosses Silvio Manicardi and Carlo Fiorani, each set to carve out final plans for Honda's racing activities in 2006. Vermeulen himself is keen to go to MotoGp, but if he stays then so be it. "Yeah, I'd love to go to MotoGp, and it seems like there is an obvious link with Winston and Camel, so on that side, it makes sense," he said, "and I've put my time in on Pirellis. I'm not sure if coming from a Superbike background is any more of an advantage than the riders coming up from 2505. I think that it is in terms of the machines, but the GP guys know all the tracks and so on, so they could have that as an advantage." Although Ten Kate is keen to keep Vermeulen, it won't stand in the way of any potential GP move. Said team manager Ronald Ten Kate, "We would like to keep Chris, of course, but in way, it would be a good thing for us to see one of the riders that we have taken from one of our satellite Supersport teams to our own Supersport team, to the Superbike team and then see him move to MotoGP. It shows what we can do. But nothing has been decided by anyone yet." A meeting of the top players in the SBK classes was held on Saturday night at Brno, and under discussion, but not subject yet to any decisions, were proposals from FIM delegate Claude Danis to alter the Sporting Code in key areas. On the table were proposals to adopt the MotoGP system of grid spacing (three riders per grid, not the current four), flag-to-flag races irrespective of changing weather, and different penalties for overtaking under a yellow. The foremost two seem dead in the water (decisions riders are able to set enough laps to have any kind of proper wet setup in any case. Another Saturday evening meeting was called at Brno to sort out the growing problem of riders beating on one another or having to be hauled away from one another after ontrack incidents. Even before the mild punchinglhelmet-slapping contest between Chris Walker and Max Neukirchner in the final aftemoon session before the end of the final untimed session, the meeting had been called, though the outcome as yet is unclear. Ben Bostrom was prevented from making a final charge to the top 16 in the last qualifying session on Saturday morning after Jose Luis Cardoso - according to Bostrom T-boned him in the middle of a corner. "I was on qualifiers, and Cardoso maybe misjudged that I was going a lot faster than other laps, and into the first chicane he hit me from the back and we went down. I landed on my left hip, not my sore right knee, so it's not so bad. I love this track, it's one of the better ones in the world, but we have spent a lot of time swapping between machines with different setups. Sometimes it's better to just pick one and work with that. So, this afternoon, I'll be using a setup from each bike and then just riding my ass off. We've been a second a lap faster in each session we've done. So with a second off, I'll be running 2:05s, which is what I think the race should be run at. The problem is starting from 27th." Bostrom came good with his promise, running 14th fastest on Saturday afternoon, with a best of 2:04.730. Ducat; brought not only its new triple clamps to the Bmo race but also a modified swingarm, albeit only liked and used by Toseland. The unit looks the same from the outside but has additional welding and intemal bracing midway along the arm. "It stops the rear end moving so much exiting comers and helps it drive a bit better," Toseland said. The new triple clamps have three bolts holing them to the forks, and not only are they larger per se, but they also sit further down the legs of the fork, reducing the effective length of the upper fork tube and increasing stiffness again. Most four-cylinder teams have gone the opposite way with their bike setups, engineering in more flex, not less, to help with feel. Ten Kate Honda also made incremental improvements to its big CBRs at Brno, with the engines now benefiting from some dyno work to smooth out power delivery and Continued on page 25 CYCLE NEWS • JULY 27,2005 23

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