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
IAbove) The fi rst race gets started in a downpour w ith the pack, includi ng Colin Edwards (2 ), Pier-Francesco Chili (71, Juan Borja (19 ) and Troy Corser (3 ) sliding away from th e line. (Left) Gob ert was masterful in the rain. He came from the fourth row and was lea ding by the end of the first lap. He Inc rea se d that le ad until it reached a high of 51 seconds, then he backed it down to w in by just under 30 s e c o nds . been four di ff erent winners, and none of them mounted on a Ducati. Or there is the mysterious case of just how C a rl Fogarty managed to crash his way out of championship contention when closing in on Austri an privateer Robert Ulm . Fogarty, who seldom crashes and almost neve r hurts himself, has now had two i n ju ri ou s crashes in succession, putting himself out of co ntention for a m inimu m of 4 0 days. We no w have seven different manufacturers in the top seven champi onsh ip points posit ions. Not only that, but Duc at i, so used to heading up that table, now has the ignominy of 'Iosing their potential World Champion to a ser ious arm injury with only Bostrom The Rookie loaded into their Superbike breech, W ill their new test rider, Luca Cadalora , sh ow up in Fogarty 's place at Sug o? What chance is there of F og arty hanging up the Dainese suits for good? We also see the mercurial talents of Noriyuki Haga leadi ng the champi onship - on one of those supposedly outclassed and outgunned four cylin der mach ines, when everyone else seems to have gone for the idea that you can only w in World Superb ike races and c hampionships o n a bigbore V-twin. And on t h e subject of twins , we have had four races this year, three of which have been won by V-twins but as mentioned earlier , none of them by a desmo-powered one . We also had t he unseemly sight of Fogarty and Juan Borja leaning on eac h other as they tried to grab PierFrancesco Chili's draft on the startfinish straight in rac e one . " A t one point we looked in great sha pe with t he t ire choice we made, but then it started ra ining again and that was that: said Fogarty. "I guess cue I e it w as m y fa ult th at me and Borja st arted leaning on eac h ot her. I need ed to get past him to get the tow off of Frank ie and he wa s in th e way , He seem ed to g et all upset ab out it, but maybe tha t's becau se he's Spanish." F og art y ' s i nitia l app r oa ch was re b uffed test ily and ev en t ually Borja took t he opportunity to hi t t he Eng l ish m an ' s clutch l ev er wi th eno ug h force to bend it upwards. Then - in a truly bizarre twist - t he local wild cards, none of whom were expected to be anything b ut ca nnon fo dder fo r the big Worl d Supe rbi k e g uns , look ed like they we re about to engulf them in t he early laps of th e first we t race, wi t h rid ers li k e A lista ir M axw ell an d David Simpson showing no fear of the ir sup posed betters. Th ese we re just so m e of the m or e major scenes playe d ou t o n w hat turned out to be a la rgely soggy st age at Phillip Island. Weather had been on peo ple 's minds ever since the fi rst day of prac tice , which started we t (then windy) and thus negated the need for a fu rth er w et p r a ct i c e session o nce t he th un d er c lou d s turned ug l y on Su nday. Go ber t showed that h i s ex motocross ap proach wa s clea r with a ri diculously fast first few laps of race n e _ S • M AY 3 , 2000 7