Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World S upe rbik e Champ io n s h ip R o u n d 2 : Phillip Is la n d , Au st:r a lia [){)@ 9~ iiJ ft Dft iiJ@ffJD[fiJ (Above) Haruchlka Aokl (12) tries to hold off yittoriano Guareschi 110) in the first race. Guareschi put h is Yamaha in third place at the end of the race w ith Aokl crashing out. (Right) Co lin Edwards was careful and he finished fifth in both races, doing little to hurt h is champi onship aspirations. (Below) Race two saw Corser (3) holding off Gregorio Lavilla (6) with Katsuakl Fujiwara Ig) and Akira Yanagawa (4 ) g ivi ng chase. o ne g o i n g at a ban za i pa ce wh i ch drew hi m cl e a r of fi r st - la p c r a she r Co rser and the c ha si ng pa ck of Borja and Chili (w h o would bot h c rash la te r at MG co m er) . Th e scope and sc a le of The Go Show 's la t est vict ory was simply too v as t to contemp late as both h e and his tea m scored a v ictory that ne ither cou ld have thought genu inely cred i ble in anything ex cept bizarre c ond iti ons . "T h is is li k e a whol e different track sin c e it has been resurfaced ," Gobert said. " I just nu rsed the b ike home for th e last five laps in race one . It fe lt so good to w in for th e t ea m and myself. We ap p roached th is season wi th virtu all y no t esti ng so th is h as b een th e h ard w ay to do it . It also fe lt ni ce t o beat th e Du catis this ea r ly in the sea so n ." Tire choices d ict at ed v ir tually the whole race f rom begi nni ng to en d , al t ho ugh th ere was t hree sepa ra te 8 MAY 3 . 2 000' c ue • e ne""s The im po ssible not onl y happened , but it happened for th e second race in su ccession wh en T r o y Co rse r again took Supe rpole (his 23 rd career pole pos itio n ) afte r th e bi g guns once ag ain st u mbled at t h e fi nal single -lap hurdle. "My lap wa s g ood but no t p er f ect b ecaus e I brak ed a b i t too early for Honda co rn e r ," Corser said . "It's a very easy place to run on at so I decided to play it safe b ut a b it too safe ." Cor ser ' s time of 1:3 3 .3 2 1 was h ardly the stu ff of mi racles, but all th e to p rid er ' s ti m es we re affected by the co ld condit ions. Corse r' s pole was a hu ge boost to the soaring r eputa tion of the Aprilia team and t he '9 9 str uggler th e RSV Mill e. First Colin Edw ard s an d th en p rovi sion al pole -sit t er Carl Fogarty f ailed t o b etter Co rs er's smooth , bu t ph y sical. bes t. F og a rt y p l a in ove r - r o d e h i s D u cat i to s i xth o n th e grid and admitted as muc h later. "I was probably t oo aggressive on my fast lap," Fogarty said. " I saw a few drops of rain on my visor so I wan te d to get the lap over wi th ear ly. It' s im ma terial bec ause Tro y is a one-lap won der and our bike is setu p wel l. We're the fastest t hi ng out on th e track . I feel good and we ca n w in here." Th e closes t ma n to t he le adi ng bunch prov ed to be Su zu k i 's Pier Fran c esc o Ch ili, who had a c lo se run at Co rser' s time befor e settli ng for second . Still an outspoken critic of Superpole in gen eral, Ch ili confirmed that the FIM had no t accept ed his vociferous sugge st ion s th at t h e y withdraw Supe rpo le a nd repl ac e it w ith normal qua li fy ing or pay the riders. "It m akes me sad that they did n o t listen to us , and if anything were to happen to one of the rid er s during Su p er po l e w e will be very angry ," Chili said . Th e best of th e private riders was Juan Borj a. on his Ducati . taking a fine and unashamedly ab an done d fourth fastest on h is b ig Du cati, The biggest Superpo le lose r was Anthony Gobert , who w a s i n stunni ng form in regu lar qualifying , fi nishing sixth fastest. An im perfect per fo rma nce a nd a bike t h a t is slower than anyone in th e fiel d. it seems, did not help hi s single- lap cause. "It d oesn't matte r that I' m an A u stra l ian r iding aroun d here , be cause most of these guys have been here more than m e recently," Gob ert said. " Th e bik e feel s a lot better t ha n it did at Ky a lam i , b ut Co li n (E d w a rd s) done me o n th e straig hts when I was fo llow ing h im , t h en s l o w e d m e u p a co u p le of places on th e co rners ."

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