Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128399
"The get-off from qualifying yesterday
morning did not help me at all," Bostrom
said. "I just couldn't risk crashing again. I
found a good dry setting for the bike, so I
was very disappointed not to be in better
shape. I'm much more confident for MagnyCours now; I just need to get as fit as I can
before we get there."
Only 17 riders finished race one, with 16
riders not making the finish line.
The first race had been declared wet,
and Vermeulen and Corser headed into the
first chicane with the championship to
decide between them. Corser had the early
advantage, but immediately Vermeulen
stuck it past him and tried to make a break.
His immense early pace ended with a rearwheel slide at the Ravazza exit, and thus he
had to slow, allowing Corser back on him.
Toseland was third, ahead of Kagayarna, Pitt
and - temporarily - Karl Muggeridge. He
experienced technical problems at the end
of lap two, and soon after, Chili was out as
well, falling at the exit of the last chicane,
going over a patched piece of tarmac that
was still wet.
Ivan Silva was off on lap three, crashing
his borrowed DFX Cardoso machine.
Another Yamaha rider was haVing better
as the leaders', but because the dry line was
very narrow, I could not pass Toseland easily, and that let Troy [Corser] and Chris
[Venneulen] get away. I was actually looking
forward to the second race, because I have
a good feeling with the bike in the wet. In
the end, though, I am smiling when they say
no race, and I do not have to ride in the very
bad rain!"
The strength in depth of the championship this year was perfectly demonstrated by the fact that Petronas rider Steve
Martin finished fifth, just ahead of PSG-I
Kawasaki's Chris Walker, making it six different machines in the top six places.
Walker had his rear brake damaged in his
off-track excursion and thus found his
machine a handful from that point on.
Superbike rookies Max Neukirchner and
Sebastien Gimbert had strong runs in race
one, with Neukirchner caught by Martin
late in the race and Gimbert happy on the
fast curves and dips of the Imola circuit.
"Not so bad today, eighth position is
good for me here," Gimbert said. "I had a
good feeling from the bike, even in final
qualifying. After the Bol d'Or, it was difficult
to make the adaptation to a full Superbike
again at the very start. For the second race,
we could start - no problem! I like the wet."
The top nine were rounded out by
Laconi, who lost strength in his recently
injured elbow and faded throughout the
race.
"For me, the race was a tough one,"
Laconi said. "I started well, but it took me
five or six laps to find the right rhythm, but
by then it was difficult to pass. At the finish,
I had pins and needles all down the left side
of my body because I was riding with one
arm and both legs! Chris [Venneulen], Troy
Briefly...
It took SBK's Pirelli partnership awhile to
reach the heady heights of breaking Michelin's
and Dunlop's old lap records, but in Superpole, despite Chris Vermeulen starting his
Superpole lap third last, he ended it with the
new fastest lap of lmola by a Superbike, setting a I:48.075. This new mark was almost .3
seconds faster than the previous best, set by
Colin Edwards in 2002, in the days before
control tires in SBI<. It was Vermeulen's second Superpole success of the year (and of his
career), and it puts him in perfect shape for
his race-day attempt to take the championship battle to the final weekend at MagnyCours next week. Pirelli put this increase in
pace down to a new qualifying tire they
brought to lmoia for the first time, with a
construction more similar to their latest full
race tires than their traditional qualifying tire.
In years past, Imola has been a twin-cylinder
circuit, and despite Vermeulen's Superpole
pace, the twin-cylinder machines continued
their good form, with Regis Laconi (Ducati
Xerox 999FOS) scoring the second-fastest lap
of the session, albeit almost .5 seconds behind
VerTTleulen. No non-twin has f?\Ier won a
Superbike race at Imola, not even Edwards
running on a Honda VTRIOOOSP.V-twin rider
Laconi was joined on the front row by his
teammate, James Toseland, who improved
from ninth in regulation qualifying to fourth,
despite a damaged right hand from an earlier
crash.
Garry McCoy did not start the races at
Imola, as he severely bruised his tailbone in a
Friday crash. All riders behind his starting
position now move up one place. A later Xray diagnosed that it was indeed broken.
Yukio Kagayarna seems more likely weekon-week to stay in the SBK paddock with
Alstare. A retum to form started a couple of
races ago, and as a Japanese placement in the
Alstare team, he is very possibly "grandfathered" into the squad in any case. A recent
meeting with the Japanese factory did not
elicit the level of support that Francis Batta
had expected, and with a new GSX-R600 to
race in 2007, the Alstare efforts for the next
season do not seem quite as fIXed as they
[Corser] and myself were in agreement that
racing in these conditions would have been
too dangerous. I am sorry but we cannot
risk our lives and safety out there. I am sorry
also for the fans but today we were just
unlucky to have such bad weather."
Lorenzini by Leoni Yamaha rookie rider
Gianluca Vizziello scored a popular top-10
finish.
Some big names fell from top positions at
Imola, with the crash list including frontrunners Yamaha Motor France lpone's
Norick Abe and Andrew Pitt. Uke AJstare
Corona Extra's Yukio Kagayama, Pitt
crashed but remounted to finish, but
Kagayarna took the last possible point.
Local hero Lorenzo Lanzi fell in the
treacherous early drying conditions of the
delayed first race, as did his compatriot
Pier-Francesco Chili. Renegade Honda Koji's
Ben Bostrom struggled with his lingering
back injury to secure 13th place.
fortune, as the slow-starting Haga sliced
past Toseland at the final chicane entry of lap
four. At the same point on lap five,
Kagayama fell after a dramatic lap of
attempted overtakes and close riding from
Toseland, Haga, Pitt and the upwardly
mobile Walker, riding his Kawasaki like a
wild yellow bull.
He was too wild into Aqua Minerale on
lap six and ran wide, allowing Abe past and
dropping from contention in the group.
At the sharp end of the competition,
Venneulen was not making a break on
Corser, who was content to follow for a
while.
Down in 12th place at one point, Lanzi
fell on lap six, spoiling the viewing for many
of the thousands who had turned up to see
him repeat his Lausitz win. With no race to
make amends in race two, the question of
who goes where for Ducati in 2006 became
no clearer in the Imola murkiness.
once were.
Pier-Francesco Chili looks set to retum for
another year, as suspected at Lausitz, in a split
team setup. All Honda's plans for the 2006
season hinged on a Saturday nigiht meeting at
lmola, after Carlo Fiorani, boss of Honda
Europe's racing operations, arrived to meet
key team managers and personnel.
A celebration of Sebastien Charpentier's
championship win, in the form of a party
thrown by the Winston team in the latest
incarnation of the "Win-Win" Lounge, proved
to be more of a of Supersport rider recuperation lounge, after crashes suffered by Charpentier and Katsuaki Fujiwara on Saturday.
Spinning the decks in his much loved role as
resident OJ Charpentier had to hold his headphones on the other side from his dislocated
(or broken or tweaked collarbone, depending
on whom you were talking to at any one
time.) Present at the party for a short time,
CYCLE NEWS •
Continued on p