Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I:) r I:) n n I FIM World Champ ionship Superbik e S e ri e s R o u n d 3 : Sugo , ..Japan C lad In the victory wreath , Itzusu (ri ght) celebrates atop the podium with Hag a [left) after race one" Suga Cln:uit Suga, Japan Resuhs:ApriI30.2000 5(JPERBtKE Q(JAUFYlNG: RACE I : I. Hitoyasu Izutsu ( K~w) ; 2, Noriyuki Heqe (Yam); 3. Pier-Francesco Chili (Suz); 4. Akira Ryo (Suz ) : 5 . Co lin Edw ards ( Ho n) ; 6 . Keii chi Kitigawa (Suz); 7. Makoto Tama da (Hon) ; e. Wataru Yoshikawa (Yam) : 9 . Troy Corser (Apr); 10 . Gregorio Laville (Kaw); 11. Andy Meklau ( Due) ; 12. Robert U1 (Due) ; 13. Yuichi Takeda ( Hon); 14 , Juan Borja m ( Due); 15 . Gio vann i Bu sse ! (Kaw ) ; 16 . Makot o Keme de (Hon); 17. Jiri Mrk yvka (D ue); 18, Lance Isaacs ( D ue ); 19 . M . Borcian i (Du c ); 20. Jonni e Eckerold (Han); 2 1. Claude-Alain Jaggi (Hon). TIme: 37 min.• 57.425 sec, Distance: 25 laps. 57 ,92 miles Average speed: 91 .561 mph Margin of victory: 3.8 J2 sec. RACE 2 : 1. Hitoyasu Izutsu ( KlIw) ; 2. Wataru Yoshikawa (Yam ) ; 3 . Coli n Edw ard s ( Han ) ; 4 , Noriyuki Haga (Yam) : 5. Troy Corser (Apr); 6. Akira Yanag awa ( KlI w) ; 7 . Teme k i Seri zawe ( Ka w) ; 8 . Keiichi Kitigawll ( Suz) : 9. Ak irll Ryo (Suz ) ; 10 . Gregorio Lavilla ( Kaw) ; 1 J. Juan Borja ( Due}: 12 . Andy Meklau ( Duc); 13, Ben Bostrom ( Duc) : 14. Robert U1m (Duc); 15. Makoto Tamede (Hon); 16. WORLD S(JPERBIKE C'S HIP PO INT STANDINGS ( After 3 of 13 rounds): 1. Noriyuki Haga (104 /1 win); 2. Colin Edwards (94/1): 3. Troy Corser (69/1): 4 . Pier-Fran cesco Chili (59 ); 5 . Gregorio Laville (54) ; 6. Hitoyasu Izutsu (50 /2) ; 7. (TIE) Anthony Gobert (36/1)/C.rl Foqa rty (36): 9. Wa"'ru Yoshik.wa (2B): 10, (TIE) Akira Yanagawa/K atsuaki Fujiwara ( 27); 12. Heru ch ike Aokl (26): 13. .Juan Borj a (22 ): 14. (TIE) Robert Ulm/B en Bost rom (2 1). WORLD SUPERSPORT FINAL: I . Jorg Teuchert ( Yam) ; 2. Chr istian Kelln er (Ya m) ; 3 . St eph ene Chambon (Suz); 4, Jamie Whitham (Yam); 5, laim MacPhers (Kew): 6. Kevin Curtain (Yam) ; 7. Karl on Muggeridg e ( Han) ; 8 . Fab rizio Pirovano (Suz ); 9 . Andrew Pitt (Kaw); 10. Piergorgio Bontempi (Due) : 11. Massimo Meregalli (Yam ); 12 , Shinya Tekeishi (Hon): 13. Christer Undholm (Yam); 14. Ichiro Asa i (Due) ; 15. Christophe Cogan (Yam) . Upcoming Rounds: Round 4 " Donington Park. England. May 14 Round 5 - Monza. Italy . May 2 1 BRIEFLY Colin Edwards took his first pole position of the 2000 W orld Superbike seaso n afte r another sess ion of high drama during the sudden death Superpole cont est. " I knew that a quick lap was wit hin me, I got my head dow n, go t on with the job and got pole. " Edwards said. " I came here loo king for two wins and 50 point s and nothing has changed ." Edwards' pole time of 1:29 .519 edged out another regular W orld Superb ike compe titor, Noriyuki Haga " who was a mere .12 of a second behind . The array of fast local riders again made it difficult for the regular works men, with seven of the top 10 positio ns filled by indigenous A11·Japane se Cbampi onship talent. Local wild card rider M akota Tamada took the ven erable Honda RC45 to third fastest time . ahead of another local rider, W ataru Yoshikawa on an R7 Yamaha. Troy Corser blamed insuff icien tly heated tires for his fifth place on the timesheets , with Hrtoyasu lzut su, Keiichi Kitagawa and Pier-Francesco Chili the morning one occurred on Saturd ay, causing many riders to have a sw ift re-thin k .about tires , with one or tw o nas ty co nse - quences . Troy Corser. for example, was finally given the specific Dunlop he wanted for his Superpole lap, but only after his team had been tol d that there was none left on two occas ions. Hence he managed to ge t very litt le heat into the tire on the warmer before venturing off into Superpo le. " I only got the tire late for some rea son. and that stopped me setting a faster lap ," Corser said. " I know I could have gone faster than I did because I had Ben Bostrom , still st ruggling to repli cate his previou s AMA form in the big bad wo rld of World Superbike racing. is due to meet his Ducati bosses the W ednesday after Sugo . It is expec ted that they will re-affi rm their desire that he must push harder for good race pe rformances - or else. Y amaha . still deve lopi ng their c hampionship-lead ing R7 wi t h great frequency. had another new engine spec on show at Sugo. done the times in practice . " Things were eve n worse for Katsuaki Fujiw ara . who cra she d on the by then -intarn ou s turn three in S upe rpole . when his still-cold rear tire came around on him while he was leaning into the co me r. Having already suffered one sen ou s head-injury in his care er. Fujiwara wa s taken to the ho spital with more bottom end grunt to help it exit S ugo 's slower comers for chec ks. tire suppliers brigade on their home territory. Noriyusa N umat a' s finishing off the second row men . Akira Yanagawa wa s the next regula r rider dow n in 10th . Shinichi lt oh 's departu re from the scene a day early made a space for Gr egorio Lavilla to snatch a 13th place and move up to the fourth row . Despite the more -than-respectable pract ice perf ormanc es put in by Troy Ba y liss on the Infostrada Ducati. the Italian fact ory chose Friday even ing to announce tha t their new te st rider. Luca Cadalora. will take charge of Fogarty 's Ducati at Donington Park.. Team manager Davide Tardozzi was obvio usly not delig hted with C a rl Fogarty, reigning and four-time W orld Superbike Charnpion, was discharged fro m the Albert Hospital in M elbourne earlier than expec ted on Friday, M arch 28 . to recuperate from his arm injury before flying home to England. His left upper arm'. broke n in three places, has been pinned to speed recovery. but it is not expecte d that Fogarty w ill ret urn much before the Hoc kenheim race. According to his team manage r D avide Tardozz i. Fogarty is more efficiently. Haga used it to great effect to end up second in Superpole. Bridg estone became another membe r of the World Supersport Yamaha was the odd man out. swimming against a tide of Pirelli, M ichelin and Dunlop runners . V ittoriano Gua re schi had a disappointing qualifying in Ja pan. finishing ou t of the Superpole positio ns but only afte r encou ntering problem s with his fuel-injection system 's thro tt le res ponse. the decision . and his brimming praise for Bayliss was a clea r indi- cation of w hat he wo uld want to do . "Troy has done a great job here. " Tardozzi said. " He may be riding a Ducati . but that's w here Gregorio Lavilla requ ired st itches in a left elbo w wo und he the similarity ends . He has been using different tires, a differen t re ceived afte r crashing exiting turn one on his Eckl Kaw asaki. "I was very caref ul into turn one , but obviously not ca reful enough bike set up, a team that is new to him, and yet he is only half a out of it. - said the Spaniard. seco nd down on Edwards on the Honda after re gulation practice. I adamant that he will ret urn to racing soon er rather tha n later. think he has really done a good job . especially on such short notice. Also I think that he has helped to push Ben [Bos trom] a littie. I don't know w hy the factory prefers to use Cadalora rather than Troy again at Donington. I will not be so nice if Luca decided to ride like he likes to do somet imes. If he comes with the attitu de of a you ng rider then okay because I want him to come to the " Carl will co me back this year and will win races," Tardozzi said . " For sure. I will be going to visit Carl the week before Donington and we 'w ill plan togethe r how to f·& % everybody when he co mes back . Carl is like [Mi ckJ Doohan. [Kenny] Roberts Sr. and very few other riders that have ever been. He is a true competitor." World Superbik e Clinica Mob ile doct or . Dr . Massimo Carba sclo, paid a visit to Fogarty in his hospital roo m, and will monitor his positi on furth er at Donington. H o nda was fo rt unat e t hat Co l in Edw ard s w as in suc h sparkling Superpole form or they may have had to deal with the problem of their new RC51 wond erbik e being outperfo rmed by their old RC45 . Tamada is in fact leading the All -Japan Champi ons hip on the ve nerable V -fo ur ~ with one w in and a second place so far. race to win, Even if it is not possi ble to win. then every rider must try his best all the time. If that means he finishes 15th but tries his best then I will say well done to him. If he doesn 't I will kick his arse , .. Despite a general reduction in the number of Japanese riders allowed to co mpete in the Sugo round compared to last year , they wer e still promin ent . and disliked - by the majority of the World Superbike regulars who see them as an interference with the regular smooth running of the championship battl e. Even wi th titl e challenger s Colin Edward s and Nor iyuk i Haga topping the Superpole times, there we re five local riders nestling inside the top 10. Regular qualifying was an even bigger local-rider bene fit. with virtually all the locals ahead of the regular fact ory men. Bayliss himself was doing his usual tightrope wal k between his natural chirpy but feet-on-the-ground self, and reveling in being a w ork s rider for the we ekend. Bayliss, who only fo und out that Cadalora wou ld be riding at Donington instead of him afte r the o fficial announcement was made, was still just happy to be there . " It's great to be given this opportunity. but I don 't see it as my one big chance at the big-time or anything. The bike's pretty similar to my own one in the U.S.. but the tires are the main thing. Like everyone says . they don' t move around as much as the The growth in the scale of the World Superbike Championship was demon strated perfec tly at Sugo this weekend when the total weight of airfreight taken from Phillip Island to Sugo was published . In 1992 the total combined weight was 55.000 pounds. but this year the fig ure was 233 .200 poun ds. The average weight transported by on e of the top teams has proven to be in the region of 17.600 pounds. Dunlops. but they haven't made me alter my riding style or anything. It's more a case of allowing for that fact when selling up the suspensi on,.. Fr iday evening at S ugo saw a m e e t ing take place between W orld Sup erb ike ' s equivalent of the G PM A in order to dis - Andrew Pi". w ho was tak en out in no uncertain fa shion by Norlyasu Numat a, suffe red a bang on the head, but befo rehand had given his theory on why so many riders had crashed in turn t hree. " You just ca nno t get ag gressive w it h t hat co rner. yet everyone was trying to get round it as fast as they could . Better slowe r there and faster on all the others. " The we irdest aspec t. however. was that no one at all crashed in tum three last yea r when the Superbik es alone were at Sugo . Shin ichi Itoh was in the wars in a big way on the week end. crash ing his Cabin Honda RC5 1 ju st after passing Norlyuki Haga on Friday. His co mpressed vertebrae threatene d to rule him out of his home event . but the broken finger he suffered in final qualifying on Saturday finished the job in any case . The final regular qualifying session on Saturday was interrupted 15 minutes from the end aft er Haruchika Aoki cras hed and abraded a large part of his left little hnger. One of a few similar hiatus in procee dings. Suqo 's very nature dictates that all serio us cuss . among ma ny things , the new regulations tha t govern the The BBC , out in force at Sugo with their W orld Superbik e show staff at the event Itself , had a guest co mmentator sitti ng-in for regu lar co-commentator Steve Parrish . James Haydon , cur rently third in the British Superbike Champion ship standings . was flow n over to help out ancho r man Leigh Diffey - and in reco rd time to boot. " I got the phone call to get to the airport with five incidents halt the track ac tion because there is no service road co st o f en gine parts us ed in W o rl d Su p erbike com pe ti tion. A lso unde r di scussion. unofficially, was the introduction of the new four-st rok e GP rule s . and how they woul d affec t t he Superbike w o rld . M r . Lauren s Kle inkoe rka mp , mana ge r o f Yamaha' s racing e ffor ts. was quot ed as saying that : " W e at Yamaha are very piease d with the proposed GP rules . We are also confide nt t hat we co uld build a com pe t itiv e fou r-str ok e along the outs ide o f the track barriers. Ao ki was off the circ uit once more in mornin g warm up. lobbi ng himself and his Ducati over the frequently ineffec tive safety barriers when he ran off the trac k and dug the bike into the foam bloc ks. Anthony Gobert, a crasher on lap three of the seco nd race, has undergone a CAT scan that has proven to be clear. He has, hours notice . " Haydon said. "I wasn't even at hom e at the time. machin e if the rules allow for it. ~ Wh at the new rule s desi q- however , suffe re d a broken clavicle and a sus pec te d br oken and had one hour to get all my stuff ready when I eventually got back. Then the chauffe ured car they sent me dropped me off at the airport and a few hours later I was in Sugo. - nate as a protot ype is unkn own as o f ye t , but according the FIM handb ook , " A prot ot yp e is a ve hicle w hich must co nfor m to the safety requirement s as required by the FIM code app lic able to the ty pe of co mpetition for whi ch it is to be used . - That cou ld be anyth ing at all then . W orld Superbtkes main mover, hand. He is therefore doubt ful for the next co uple of races at least . at D onington and Monza. The cold wea the r conditions that have plagued N orthern Japan in rece nt week s co ntinued at Sugo, Wit h both practice days seeing therm al jackets and so ft tires doled out to all and sundry . The bizarre experience of the afternoon temperature be ing less than 22 MAY 10 . 2000 eye I e n e uv K ev in C urtain . the Aussie stand in for the BKM Yamaha team. has been disqualified from his seventh-place finish in the Super- M auriz io Flammini, wa s on hand a t Sugo and once more sta ted sport race at S ugo after the techn ical inspec tion. His Ya maha was that : " We will resist all t hreats to the W or ld Superbike series w ith all mean s possible . " found not to be able to be started by the button at the end of the race and therefore he has been excluded by the FIM . so:

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