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/128611
World Super bike C h a m p io n s h ip Round 2 : Phillip Is lan d. Australia ra in showers just to a dd little ne eded (but a lways we lcome ) ex tra spi ce. The d rier , or certai nly drying , conditions of race tw o saw a who le swathe of differe nt ride rs take the upper hand compared to the first one. Where Co rser a nd Ch ili c rashed and Gu ar es c hi a nd Fogarty took podiums , those roles were re ve rs ed completely with G u a re s c h i goin g down in the thick of a flve -w ay battle , and th e aforement ion ed Fog a rty suffering at the ha nd of some male volen t force. With the man who started the day wi th the joint le a d of t h e cham pi onshi p, Edw a rds " a pair of fifths and a long s ti nt in th e lead of ra c e two were his most visible rewards for his day 's work , bu t the 22 po ints may prove to be the most cherished. "Aft e r two d a y s of prett y much comp letely dry qualifying , I would have liked nothing be tter tha n a cou ple of good close ra ce s , but I g uess it wasn 't to b e ," E d wa rd s sa id . "My main problem in race one was in turn 10 when the fuel from [Juan) Borja 's crashed b ike was slow ly m a king its way down the hill. Ea c h time th rou gh there I was taking a tighter line than the last. Scoring points is what it is all about. " Haga has got the most reaso n to be ple a s ed with his Austra lia n Wor ld Superbi k e part icipat io n, h a v ing danced a nd sli the red his wa y to the c ha m pio nshi p lea d . "The first race was te rrib le, " Hag a said. "I got a bad s tart an d it was too we t for m y cut slick tires. It was suc h a we ird race that even with full wets I migh t have had the same re sult. Corse r wa s a c om plete s urprise when he a p pe a re d in race two , but then he BRIEFLY••• Robert Ulm was in the wars on Friday when he crashed on the ultra-fast last comer onto the main straight. Pushing for a goo d lap time, he appeared to have too much speed and lean angle for the available grip from t he apex of the co rner and he lost the front. Al tho ugh largely unhurt, he w recked good ly parts o f his Ducati, including both w heels that lay outsi de the pit garage as a rem inder on Saturday . In another strange quir k of racing fate. Ulm ended up com ing into the pits in the crash truck in the afte rnoon session on Satu rday - but only after his bike ran ou t of fuel. Manabu Kamada . Honda's test rider. has bee n c hosen to replace the disgruntled Simon Crafar on the seco nd factory Ca stro l Honda at the Sugo World Superbike race . Embarrassed by his lowly performances at Kyalami on his Michelin-shod RC5 1 the New Zealander requested that he not have to ride at Phillip Island. A k i r a Yanagawa was adopting the grilled teeth philosophy at Phillip Island. riding while injured . The Fuchs Kawasak i man has been undergoing treatment on the collarbone he broke in pract ice for the Kya lami round . but an operation to plate the injury has been ruled out because there is already a plate inside his shoulder from a previous breakage. A truly gritty performance saw him qualify eighth afte r Superpo le. claiming that his shoulder was get· ting bett er. 'It is much better." he said. ' The bike is also handling better but it doesn't want to steer. I will be taking pain-killing injections before the races . to help me finish them. " Ben Bostrom struggled badly in qualifying at Phillip Island. just as he had during pre-season test ing. A low ly 15th fastest time , more than tw o seco nds a lap off the pace. was only achieved right at the end of the final qualifyin g session. Although he beat this time in Superpole, he was st ill disappointed with his perf ormance. "Today I managed to make up so me of what was a fo urseco nd gap which was far too much," the Californian said. Anthony Gobert had a particularly pleasing game o f cat and mouse with Colin Edwards during the final untimed qualifying session, w hen the Au ssie tucked in behind Edwards to see how far he co uld tag hi m for . As it turned out. Go bert c ould follo w Edwards quite success fully everywhere but on the main straight. where Edwards wo uld blast past the young Aussie in a demonstration of sheer Honda hor sepower. "That wa s fun," Gobert said. " I tried to get a bit of a help from Colin. but actually found he was holding me up in a couple of places. The bike has been way off . but now we're getting closer to them up front. " Co lin Edwards' atte mpt to improve his bes t qualifying time on his already fast Honda on Saturday morn ing ended in a shower of supersonic sparks when he lost the front at the infamo us Doo han Turn . Cha rging throu gh there at around 140 mph, the front of the machine simply couldn't handle it and off he went for an unfeasibly long slide to an unhurt halt. His RC51 proved to be relatively crash proof. even if it did go fo r an unfeasibly long jo ur. ney on its right hand side. Despite prof essing that he was fine before em barking on a luci d de sc ript ion of exactly wh at happened. Edwards had eyes as wide as dinner plates for so me while afterwards. " That was probably one of the fastest crashes I've ever had. " said Edwards, who had only just moved from a 16.5inch front t ire to a 17 -inc h qua lifying ve rsion . " W e had just changed th e tir e to go for a fa st lap and on my first fl yer I crashed . So I gu ess it did n' t work then. " Inte res ting ly enough, Ca rl Fogarty 's sec ond race cr ash at Kyalami happened sho rt ly after he made the same swap fro m the familiar 16 .5 race tire to mo re unusual 17-inc h fro nt. Luca Cadalora , D ucat i' s new test rider . was in atte ndance at Phillip Island and was his usual laid back self. "The new Ducatl is okay ," he said. " I made some tests last M onday and Tuesday, but I have no idea how the new bike {w ith tw in-chambers on the rear suspension units. a la GP world . plus new brake pads and 23.5' steering headsl co mpares to the old because I have never ridden the older ones. I wasn't going for fast times, I was working to find the right feeling with the bike and the team. Despite the bad weather of the past co uple of days, the co nditions here in Australi a allow ed me to get a lot o f wo rk don e afte r the wet M ugello test. I did 50 laps on Monday and around 80 yesterday . and shoo k off all the 'rust' afte r eight months inactivity. " Asked about wh e t her w e wo u ld eve r se e him back raci ng aga in whether in Grand Prix or W orld Supe rbik e - Cadalora was non- 10 MAY 3 , 2000' cue I e ne""s co mmittal. " I will hopefully be tes ting this bike again in M ay . but whatever I end up doing, nothing will be happening instantly." A a ron S l ig h t (pictured) was back in the W orld Sup erbike fold at Phillip Island. and champing at the bit to ride. " I feel ready to go race again now. I've been motocrossing , driving raci ng car s. 1feel fit and ready to go. I keep hearing the same stor ies abo ut head injuries taking so long to heal. but mine was n't a raci ng injury o r a co ncuss ion. I we nt for MR I and all sorts of scans and tests before Phillip lsland and everythi ng was fine. The big wo rry is appare ntly epilept ic fits . but people tend to get them after about a week or not at all. They tried to indu ce me to have one during these test s and it wa s oka y. If we go on the set do w n rules that I've been told to clear me. than I'll be fit to ride in the eye s of the powe rs that be on the eve of the Donington race. I don't want to do anything that would jeopardize my recove ry. but I honestl y feel fit to ride now . Everybodly seems to be talking about me com ing back for Hoc kenheim . but I would probably be better com ing back somewhere like Donington rather than at a 310 kmph 1190 mph] circuit like that. " Slight made a crowd pleasing return at Phillip Island itself. riding an RC 5 1 around Phillip Island for a couple of demo laps. A banner draped across the fen cing that separates the main spectat or area from the pit lane cau sed much amusement to everyone excep t M rs. Troy Corser. The offe nding banner read "Troy, I ' m pregnant" and was signed by someone named 'Elle.' W e presume the rest of her name would be Macpherson then? C arl Fogarty w as fined for speeding in pit lane des pite the protests of his team that such a thing was imposs ible. Davide Tardozzi disputed the claim that Fogarty was caught doing 63 mph and the datalogge r on the machine - used to determ ine the true outco me - proved Tardozzi to be right. The actual speed tumed out to be not 63 mph. but 65 mph so Fogarty' s 260 Swiss Francs fine stands . Great con sternat ion w as cause d in pit lane w hen, for the wan t of a better wo rd, dog shit was found on the floor of the pressroom on Saturday, The scandalized ladies who ably assist in the smooth run ning of the afo res aid press offic e were even mo re ho rrifie d when one British TV jo urnalist declared in a worried to ne that. "Yes, I did see a dog in here earlier... " Sea so ned hack s and tho se with a nose for these matt ers realized early on that it was. of course , all the work of perennial practical jo ker Steve Parrish. w ho had apparently brought seve ral joke shop dog shits and va rious other accoutreme nts w ith him from England . Ya ma ha tried ou t Niss in ' s new radial bra k e system at Phillip Island. and showed it in public for the first time. Thought at firs t to be pat ente d by Bremb o , the new sys te m is aimed at increa sing rigidity and feel at the lever . Yamaha was also testing new fork and shoc k internals, two specs of engine (with altered head profile) at Phillip Island , wi th the new one producing more powe r accord ing to Noriyuki Haga. A new radiator also appeared, w hich is quot ed as de livering five deg ree s le ss average engine temperature, and finally a new dry clutch, said to allow smoo ther mid-com er gearshift s. The on-bike TV pictures from PI included a t r i ck g raphic that depi cted real time eng ine revs, acce leration and braking G -forces. corneri ng G-f orces, and speed . Designed to jazz up the presentation , the new shots were ei ther distra cti ng or really cl eve r . depending on who you spoke to. W it h the pub lication of the incr edibly vague fir st dra ft o f t he expected new Grand Prix reg ulations. the W orld Superbike paddock seeme d just as co nfused as the rest of the planet. "The co mmunicatio n w e received is not very clea r at all." said Paolo Flarnrnini. president o f the W orld Sup erbik e organization. " O ur position remains t hat we thi nk it is all a bad idea - not just for W orld Superbike. but also for GPs as well. Until we get a clarification of the rules. o ur po sition must remain unc hanged . " With the pro spect s of the new German circuit at Lausitzring, near Dresden. being such a modern and well-equipped facility that it looks possible to take the entire prestig ious two and four wheel raci ng eve nts away fro m the ot her permanent race circuits in Germany , Hockenheim . there fo re . has instig ated plans to shorte n the existing circu it and do away with the fast est sections ou t to war ds the Ost Curve. The new 2.7-mile layout will make the new Hocken herm . o n pape r at least. just the same as any ot her mo re modern circ uit. James Whitham . not to be outdone by the likes of Edwards, also had a monumental crash at Doohan Corner (or turn one) but not for the reason mos t expecte d. " I hod finished even think ing about what the front was doing and had started putting the power down." W hitham explained. "As I opened the throttle a bit. the engine just died - like you had hit the kill switch - and that was that. I slid along no problem but the fro nt wheel of the bike dug into the run off and It started tumbling. " Wh itham showed grea t character by jumping stra ight back onto his spare machine, but despite improving his lap time, still finished outside the top 20 . World Supersport regular Wilc o Z eel en b e rg has defied time to return to racing a me re six weeks after breaking his hisch ium (pelvic bone) at the offi cial Valencia tests . A little far down on the time sheets after qualifyi ng. he none theless was a mere 1.4 sec ond s down on po le sitt er Ruben Xaus. A bruising sideca r batt le had all the gladiatorial attributes of a Ben Hur cas ting ses sion, as title lea der K la u s K ln H enbock and reigning World C hampion Steve Webster had pulled off some audacious moves on each other . Fo rced by the intervent ion of a backmarker, Klaffenbock had to ove rtake W ebster and a game of chess and chicken developed for much of the race . Seldom more than a fraction of a seco nd apart once Klaffenbock had made up W eb ster ' s initia l 1.B-seco nd adva ntage. they circ ulated as o ne, probing each other's defen ses. The hairpin was to be the deciding point for the battl e of the leader s. Gr avel on the track after an earlier incident had all the riders avoiding the inside line, but on the final lap Webster, dived up the inside of Klaffenbock . The two outfits touched and passenger Adol f Hanni ended up out 'of the Swiss rig as the tail came around. Klaffenbock none thele ss set off in pursuit of Webster and almost flipped over on the entr ance to the next left , before struggling home to fifth place. The postscript to the race was more unpleasant ness when Webster we nt over to the Klaffe nboc k pit to chec k that Hanni was okay. Coming face to face wi th Klaff enbock. he was told in no uncertain terms to "F- off" as he shouted his bes t wishes through the awning to Hanni. W eb ster wa s heard to utter the cla ssic expressio n " Do es n't he know how to race or something?" as he wandered back to his aw ning .