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/128615
heim, which will be very crucial as I need all the engine power I ca n get. " Haga's misery and Edw ard s' joy were compoun de d when he m ana ged a lowl y fifth in race two , with Edward s leaving Monza 23 points ahe ad - and wit h a smile as wide as a T e x a s prairie on his face . A lmost as happy was Chili, who looked li k e he h ad wo n th e Na tional Lottery after a tr u ly d et er mined pai r of rides, wh ich culmina ted in hi s by n o w traditio nal ga me of clo thes throwi ng, as once m or e at Monza his fu ll complimen t of rid ing gear went into t he crowd after rac e two. His 4 5 poi nts on the day ha v e m a d e the World Championship a three-horse race ag ain, with Edward s on 164, 23 points ahead of Ha g a ' s 141 - w ith Chili tantalizi ngly close with 140 points. J ust to m ak e hi m a millionai re of j oy all over again , he even m anag ed to t ak e the lap rec ord - to th e cleaners • on his 12 th tour of th e 3.5 -m il e track in race one , w ith a time of 1:4 5.4 70 . O v er one second better than T roy Co rs er 's 1999 figu re. Ka wasak i 's Akira Yanagawa was Tension once more as Superpole went off without a hitch, and built to a nail- biting elimax for two of World Superbike's main protagonists. Sadly for another, his climax was to remain unreached. Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight, right in contention throughout regular practice, crashed at the Parabolica, the very last comer, a mere few hundred meters from the line, "I lost the front because I didn't backshift down enough gears," Slight said. "There was no engine braking when I tipped it in so the front unloaded. I'm really pleased to come back so well after just a couple of races, butI'm really pissed-off about going from a possible pole position to the fourth row just because of some stupid rules. StiU, as long as I don't get black flagged· like I did last year· I should make up some places." Sli ght 's m eeting with the gravel trap caused a few nerv ous moments for PierFrancesco Chili when it was his tum to go. Up on Troy Corser on the split times right to the end, he played it a litt le too safe and lost out on the run to the flag. '" saw what happened to Aaron [Slight] so I eased off a little just to make sure I didn't crash," Chili said. "A front row start is always good enough." Kawasaki's Akira Yanagawa was another rider good enough for the front row, but the real story of Superpole was whom could beat Corser and his supernatural ability to make man and machine combine so beautifull y for one single lap. He devastated his previous best lap on the Aprilia by a full second, with a 1:46.528, And one by one, all of Corser's challengers failed - until Edwards waltzed in and stole the show with bl isteringl :46.227, inside the lap record of 1:46.4 , but slower tha n the 1:46.004 he had posted in the regular session. Californian Ben Bostrom ended the Superpole session 10th. "I crashed in the Superpole warm-up with my favorite bike and ruined it," Bostrom said. '" had to get onto the second bike to do the Superpole and it' s not easy to get to the top immediately with one lap on your second bike. After a fall, it's not easy psychologically either. It's a pity , even though it's not that bad starting from the third row, especially on a track like this where the drafting can give you a lot of help." another man on a fast b ik e and hi s pair of thirds was impressive from a rider who has not had the best start to a season in terms of injury. "I had a very poor start in race one, but my Kawasaki was very fast," Yanagawa said . " [Troy] Bayliss was always good on t he b rakes , but I could easily pass him at the exit every time . T he only problem I really had was a bi g hi g hsi der towards the end of the race, where I rammed the footrest into my leg, It 's i n a lot of pain right no w . I must have used the tires up too m uch in rac e two when I tried t o b reak away in to the lead, because they felt really sca ry at the end. My bike was very fast today • ask Colin [Edwards]!" Yanagawa 's teammate , Gregorio Lavilla , has had his share of broken and beaten body parts this year, and Monza proved to be another backward step for the otherwise upwardly mob ile Lavilla, who's slid ing figure was flipped up into the air by the infamous Monza rumple strips and sent tumbling into the gravel at the Ascari Chicane. A broken pelvis was the result, j ust as he had shaken off the worst effects of his fractured scaphoid, picked up at Valenc ia. "I was trapped behind a few guys in race one a nd it took m e a lo n g time to pass th e m , " Lavilla said. " Once I fou n d m y rhyt h m it wa s okay, but the leader s wer e lo ng gone. , don't kno w wh at happen ed in r ace two, but the rear end lock ed up an d I tried to still ma ke it into t he Ascari Ch i c a ne , b ut I went into the gravel cycle Both races came down to a battle be tween two m e n: Edwards (2) and Ch ili (7). The two split w in s o n the day. and then over the handlebars. T h e next thing I felt was a terrib le pain in my hips." A luckier man, this t ime around anyway , was Troy Bay liss the Ca rl F og art y substitute rem a in ing un molested by h is peer group to fin ish both races, and in fourth place as well , "It was a pity to get pu nis hed fo r a small mistake I made at Asc a ri i n race one, " Bayliss said . "I was too slow in changing direction and Yanagawa was close enough behind me to draft past me on the straight. I'm really happy with the results though, and it almost makes up for the dis ap pointment at Sugo. " W ith Ben Bostrom aggressive but otherwise i ne ff e c t i v e as a podium gathering dev ice , Ducat i may just surprise us all and send Bostrom West and Bayliss into the their factory stratosphere , whether or not the tests scheduled for Tuesday after the race prove that Ne il Hodgson or J uan Borja (or even John Kocinski) wo uld be just as handy - even after Fogarty returns , Aaron Slight was j ust as p uqna cious as ever, just like he had neve r been away from th e world of racing fo r a m inute, in fifth and sevent h, wit h Lav illa a strong sixth in ra c e one be fore his ca tastrophe in race two . '" had a pretty good pair of race s, but I just lost the to w from the lead ers ," said Sli g ht. "T he only problem s ' > n e _ S • MAY 3 1 ,2000 7