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/128614
Wor ld Superbike C hampionship
Rou nd 4: Donington Park , E n gland
BRIEFLY•• •
The nu mbe r one ta lk ing po int of th e w ho le w ee kend wa s
Noriyuki Haga' s anti-doping test re sults - or rath er th e
lac k of th e same. Rumor s of t he J apanese rider' s alleged po sitiv e test fo r th e banned subs tance Ephedrin e had been floating
around since the Australian round. but until an article appeared
in a Br iti sh mot orcycl e pub licati on leaking th e conte nts of a let ter sen t from t he FIM to Haga' s te am , there had been an off icial veil of silence thrown ove r proceedings. A petition, signed
by several jou rnali st s at Doningt on. put th e FIM (cle arly emba rrasse d by the entire episode) in an even more uncomfortable
positi on by demandin g th at w hate ve r was know n abo ut the test
be made pub lic to th e w hole paddock. and not jus t t he one pub lication wh o had been leaked the original letter. Thus. a press
rele ase app eared o n Saturday t hat confir med t he fo llo w ing .
"Anti -dopin g co ntrols we re carrie d out at the Sup erbik e W orld
Ch am pion ship held in Kya lami S outh Afri ca. o n April 2 last.
Among the urine samples taken, one was found not in accordance with th e anti -dop ing rules of the FIM M edical C od e. The
sample not in acco rdance with the rules is from N onyuk! Haga .
The sample contains a concentration of 12 micrograms per milliliter of ephedrine . Wh en informed of these results, M r. Haga
asked for a co unte r test with the B sample in a laborat ory of his
choice. The re sult s of this co unte r tes t are expec te d with in a
few days. " The current limit is 5 micrograms per milliliter. O nce
co nfro nte d w ith the article in M ot or Cy cle N ews, Yamaha' s
Racin g pu bli c relati on s fi rm sen t out an e -mail informing th e
wo rld at large of what had happened , eve n if the FIM had not.
Th e offic ial Ya ma ha stan dpoin t ca n be enca ps ulated in th e
phrase 'wa it and see' but , Yamaha Europe racing bo ss , Laurens
Kl ein Ko oerkamp , p ut his co mpany 's po si tion at D oningto n.
"We must wait for the re sults of the second sample. because
de pe nding on how the te st s we re ca rried ou t ther e ca n be
room for error. A lso , anyo ne w ho has taken any kind of col d
cure in this paddock rece nt ly will prob ably have unusual leve ls
of ep hedrine in the ir bloods tream . If the re was any question of
abuse of ce rtain other illegal substance s, then we wo uld have
an ent irely different view on things, but as it is, we w ill wa it for
the results of the second sample befor e we make any more
statem e nts. "
ti me s , and I' m find ing it hard to ch oo se the right ti re, espe cially
on the front. " Fourt h aft er regu lar qu alify ing, (lea der in untimed
qualify ing ), C orser plummeted to ninth in Su perpole , and was
cl early dist ressed in doing so . "I got a litt le out of shape in th e
chicane and on th e exit o f th e hairpin the tire j ust spun up and
didn't give me any dr ive forw ard," said Corse r. " Up until the n I
had been well in contentio n on the split ti mes. but sometimes
so met hing sm all like that is eno ugh to lo se yo u a lot. " C or ser
wa s joined at D onington by th e man he credited wi th a lot of
the success he e njoyed during his Australian race win . factory
te ster and 2000 wo rks rider Ale ssand ro Ant onello. w ho had a
sto rmy first couple o f day s. cras hing ' on Friday morn ing at th e
fast doub le-rig ht at C opp ice (just like C orser did in th e aft ernoon) and finishi ng 26 th on the grid. " I have had some problem s t ry ing to fi nd a rac e se t up . Th e track is very tec hnical
here, mor e th an any o ther I have been to. "
Noriyuki H aga . out to repea t th e do uble World S uperbike
wins he achieved at Don ington in 1998, was among those who
co nfirmed that they only use five gears around D onington. such
is its twi sty . ye t flowing nat ure. whe re mom entum mea ns as
much as outright acce leration .
D uc a t i Corse may have some of the oldest -designed rnach inery in the W orl d Superbike padd ock but in cy be rspace te rms,
they are we ll up the re , and instigate d a new on-line service at
D on ington. A chatroo m with Luca Cadalora was trump et ed as a
new benefit for a lucky few who log on to www.cucattcorse.corn.
Future additio ns are ex pec ted to run to a live pit garage web ca m, an interactive World S upe rbike co mputer games area
and th e us ual live video feed s and downl oadabl e ph oto s .
Luca C ada lo ra . rep ut ed to have be en pa id $ 100,000 t o
dep uti se for Fo gart y at Doningt on, proved to be poor value for
money in pract ice at least. chanting a familiar mantra after failing to quali fy for S uperpol e. " The prob lem I have is that I am
finding it very difficult to set the bike up to suit my ridi n9 s ty le . I
am co mfortable on th e bike. but on ly w hen go ing abo ut a secon d and a half slower than t he po le ti mes . Also there is a lot
less adjustability on a S uperbike than a G P bike . I'm disappoin ted to miss out on Sup erp ole of co urse . " C adalora has opted to
use the piggyback sty le Oh lins rear shoc k absorb er, w ith more
adj ustability, inste ad of t he mor e co nve nt ional unit favored by
Fogart y.
C arl F ogarty , recupe rating from his broken upper arm at
ho me in Black burn , has made it clear that he will be running in
W orl d Supe rbike competition th is season. And , depen ding on
how things go fo r him , he may eve n be back fo r another go
next sea son - espe cia lly as he rec kons tha t so far he has been
irrep laceable . " M aybe Du cat i need to ge t a long -te rm plan to
keep someone on the bike for half a season until I come back .
M aybe all the troubles they' re having now may make them rea lize w hat a go od thing they had w ith me ! D ucati might ju st rea lize how much they ne ed me now. I need to hav e a bit of a
break fro m the whole rac ing thing . ge t my self really fit , and
come back at th e end o f th e year really strong . I'll show th em
wha t I can do and then decid e on wh at I'll do in 2001 . U ntil I
ride a bike again I do n't wan t to make a de ci sion on what I'll do
next year . If I can't regain my co nfide nce. t hen there ' s obvio us Iy no poi nt in me goi ng to race again next ye ar. If I co me back
really motivated and really stro ng. then I'll be back ." The acc ident it self is still a my st ery to Fogarty. " I rememb er absolute ly
nothin g about th e acc ident. I've liste ned to w hat peopl e have
said and I've seen it on TV , but sti ll I've got absolute ly nothing co mpletely blank ."
Aa ro n S li g ht ' s m is ·
ery ended at D oningt on
when he wa s cleared to
ra ce afte r mi s s ing a
mere three rounds of the
championship recover ing
fr om hi s arte riove no us
malformati on sur gery at
the start of the season.
Hi s
re c o rd - b re ak ing
re c overy was rub be r
sta m pe d a fter bei n g
allowe d to ride in Friday
m o rni ng ' s
uno ffic ia l
practice sessio n. having
p rov ed his worth during
a one- hour try out on his
RC5 t at D o nin gt o n o n
th e M on d ay p reced i ng
th e race . C leared by all
t he neur o sur g e o ns he
had se e n up to t he
beginning of race weeke nd