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/128617
mate Alessandro Anto nello , who is rapidly be com ing o n e of the bette r seco nd riders on the grid - and has fra nkly m ade some of t he othe r men , like Fu jiwa ra , look a littl e less than sharp. O nly 2 .7 s ec ond s down on the 1996 c ha m pio n in ra ce two , Antone l1 im pressed on ce a ga in. 0 "T his is easily the be st Superbike ra c e I have had ," Antonello s aid . "But I just c ouldn 't qu ite make up th e gap to Tr oy a nd S lig ht be c au s e I didn 't ha ve a slipstream from a nyo ne ." For th e best of th e privatee r men , invariably the on es with Duca tis a nd big -eng in e po wer t o p rope l th em along in the wa ke of th e works boys , it was a d e liriously happy weekend . Mekla u ' s s ixt h a n d eight and his team mate Robert Ulm ' s ei g h th and ni nth we re m ore than s olid p erfor mances, espe cially as Ulm started from 16th on th e gr id. A 10th a nd an II th for Bostrom were nothing spe (L eft) Australian Troy Bayliss (21 ) made his debut ride at Hockenhelm a memorable one, nabbing the w in in the c l o se - f o ug ht f irst race. (Below) Noriyuki Haga (left)) and Co lin Edwards (2 ) were this c lose f or much of the second race, w ith Ha g a eventually getting the pop u lar win . Substance charges, h owever, will likely eliminate h is hopes f o r the title. having , and I'm glad that all together we made a very good race ," Aki ra Yanagawa , after putting in a 2000-season persona l best of second in ra c e on e , had a terminal engine b lowup o n the fast est part o f the track in th e follow -up , on the ramrod stra ight run down to the sta d ium sec tion', Too much horsepower and not e n o ug h e nduran c e , m aybe . Or as Troy Corser later put it, "Ma ybe that's wh y he could do 3 18 kph [197 mph] in race o ne!" Ba yl iss , loo k ing eve ry in ch th e WSB ve te ra n, wa s all over th e le aders like a red rash , stuffing his new st eed into any s pace which dev eloped du ring e a c h 14 -lap ra c e a nd riding with no fea r or awe in thi s illustriou s com pany . "I a lway s start ev e ry ra ce co nfid ent that I ca n at leas t get o n th e podi um , and this wa s no diffe re nt, but to win was a b it specia l. I knew from a tactica l poi nt of vie w that I had to be leading going into th e Motod rom o n th e la st la p , a nd I m an aged it." Follo wing up his win with a t ireaffected fourth p la ce, Ba yliss is a genuine s t a r in th e making , a nd h e has s ing le-handed ly giv en the Duca ti Infostrada team a life -s a ving inje ction of ta le n t - unlike h is ex-500cc GP te amma te Jua n Bo rja , whose results m a tc h ed his troub le d d eme anou r as he s tum b led to a 13 th a nd a 12 t h , bl ami n g a la c k of co n fide nce a nd feel. Ha rdl y the stuff of dr eam s with h is ho m e ra ce a t Va len c ia on ly th ree weeks a way. "Ag ain, I had the sa me d ifficul tie s I e n c o u n t er ed d u r in g q u a lifyi ng, because I wa s unable to pu sh hard on the straights, " Borja said . "I think I have a p ro bl e m w ith t ur bulence b e c au se of my b ro ad sho ulders at s peeds over 27 0 kph [16 7 m ph ]." Aa ron Sl ight , s t ill a littl e off t he fas test of the fa st men , was non ethe less quick and consistent with a pair of fifth p laces, underlining his abilities as he gets used t o a whole new pros pe ct of rac ing a twin. Troy Cors er had anoth er gooda nd-bad meeti ng (d e pe nd ing on you r viewpoi nt) , with his Aprilia suffe ring me cha n ic al pr ob lems in ra ce o ne to put him ninth , and no problem s a t a ll in race two to gi ve him six th . Th e m a in o bs tacle he had was the s peed of An dy Mek lau a nd his 9 96RS in race one, a nd the we lco me a nd yet u n we lc o m e a tt ent io n s of his team eye I e cial in terms of results , but as the ex Duc a t i Infostra da works rid e r s ai d , "The bikes are qui te a bit d iffe rent," in a bout o f post -ra ce -on e dip lom acy wh ich d id h im p rou d , s eething a s he wa s at b e in g d ro pped o nto one o f Bo rja 's cast-offs. Not tha t it made m uch d iffere nce , as h e b e a t the he ll o ut of Borja in both races, as did hal f the finishe rs in n e _ S • JUNE 14, 2000 17