World Sup erb ik e Champion s h ip
Round 2: P h illip Island , Austr a lia
Australia Day: Anthony Gobert (left) and Troy Corser (ri ght) made it a pe rf ect day In their home ra ce at Phillip Island. Gobert was a surp rise w inner in t he fi rst race while
Corser came back from a crash in race one to w in the second.
By
G O RDO N R IT CHIE
PH OT OS BY GOLD & G OOSE
PHilliP ISLAND, AUSTRAUA. APR. 23
t wa s the day the World Superb ike
World went m ad. O r a t least th e da y
it got a lot more crazy than no rma l.
The only wa y , it s e e m s, to ma ke
sense of th e greate r puzzle of exa ctly
what happen ed in th e m ise rably co ld
a nd wet s etti ng of Ph illip Is la nd is to
loo k at th e indivi dua l elements tha t
made up an extraord ina ry day .
F irs t we had Superpole , where
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Troy Corser , aga inst the run of convention al pla y , proved th at his Kyal a mi p ol e po sit ion wa s not indeed a
fluke , and that the 2000 Aprilia Mille
is indeed a via ble wea po n of wa r.
The n there wa s an e nd lessly mixed
u p first race. A few m inutes befo re
th e sta rt, th e threaten ing rai n mate ria lize d with great, if short-lived , a nger.
Th e fully we t ci rc uit s aid full wets, but
with t he expecte d d r y c on d it ion s
mater ializing e ve ry bit as fas t a s the
rain had first a rrived , the pla yer s , for
the most part, hedged their bets.
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Un like Anthony Gobert, who with
little to los e , and after some co m peti tive rides in pra ctice , c ho se full tre ads
a nd nailed his balls to th e wall fro m
th e first corner to the la st. Pu lling o ut
10 seconds a la p until he was over 40
sec ond s a head , Gobert was sim p ly a
re ve la t ion o n h is MVR Bimota a n d
wo n easily fro m the c hasi ng a nd clo s ing Ca rl Fo ga rty and a nother budding
tire clai rvoyant - Vittorio Gu ar es ch i.
T hen t here was the s e c ond ra c e ,
whe re Corse r o ve rc a m e a n d ov e rhaule d a ll the more fancied runners in
the field with 'a good de cis ion to run
dry tir e s o n a dry ing track a nd g ive
Aprilia thei r much -d esired first Wor ld
Su perbike win .
Then th ere was the fact that t he
seco n d- best Du c ati fi nis h a ll day
ca me not from from th e Bostroms or
Ao ki s or Borjas o f this world , but
fro m Luci o Ped ercini , a n ot h e rwise
non -d es cript pr ivate er wit h no re al
form to s pea k of - but th e righ t tire s
on th e rims .
Then there wa s the fact th at a fte r
fou r races of th e season , there have
