Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World Superbike C h a m p io n s h ip Round 7: M isano. Italy Chili crashed out of the second race and suffered a broken collarbone. BRIEFLY••• The latest wrink les in the Noriyuki Haga saga were ironed-out at Misano , when the FIM finally accept ed the lodgment of an official appeal against his one-month ban and loss of points from Kyalami. afte r the Yamaha man was found with illegal levels of ephedrine in a post-race urine sample. The FIM had rejected the original appeal against their sentence on Haga, due to it appearing in an incor rect format when presented to the FIM. It is understood that Yamaha and Haga were not officially notified of Haqa' s punishment by the FIM until shortly before the Misano race, although the FIM made a press release to the rest of the world during the World Superbike race we ekend at Hockenheim. Yamaha took no chances with their second atte mpt to submit the appeal, sending one version by fax, one in person and one by special courier and was accepted by the FIM as appearing in "t he due form." Having lodged an appeal. Haqa's suspensions are auto matically lifted, pending the outcome . According to a Yamaha spokesman. the FIM now has six wee ks maximum to make their final decision on Haqa's punishment. but pending the appeal. he has still lost the points from Kyalami in all championship calculations . Peter Godd a rd . former Suzuki and Aprilia factory Superbike rider, made a short retum at Misano, deputizing for the still-injured Gregorio Lavilla on the Fuchs Kawasaki works team. Hockenh eim replacement Simon Crafar. who was not part icularly impressive in any case . has been dropped from the team , apparently due to his inte ntio n to com pete for Yamaha in the all-important Suzuka 8-hour race. Goddard. struggling badly in the British Superbike Series with an uncompetit ive bike and an inexperienced team . was an instant hit on his retum to the factory Superbike fold, going eighth in regular qualifying and seventh afte r Superpole. "This bike is everything I had expected my UK bike to be - a we llsorted five-year-old design which is still competttive. I think there is still a little to come from t he World Superbike machine. and I'd love to come back to World Superbike next year . That's what I wanted to do this year anyway." Goddard was originally signed to ride for one race, and even on Saturday at M isano he was unsure if he wou ld be riding one week later at Valencia. M arty Craggill. former Aussie Superbike Champion on a Kawasaki, was seen tes ting God dard's bike in the U.K. the wee k previous to Mi sano , fueling rumors that Goddard may be draft ed into the World Superbik e squad. as he eventually was after race two was completed . C a rl Foga rty , present at Mi sano after attendi ng the World Ducati weekend the week end befo re, has finally said what many believed - that he is "99% certain to miss the rest of the seaso n. - During a filmed BBC inte rview. he admitt ed that his head had only cleared a week or so befo re Misano and that, although he feels he could beat every one of the riders still active in Superbike. he has seriously considered retirement for the first time. He expects to make his mind up by mid-August , assuming his recovery from his arm injury goe s as planned. min e so I w ill be trying to ra c e a t Val encia ." A poor tire choice in race one did for Alessandro Antonello's chances t o em u late hi s more illust rious partner in Apr ili a c r ime , al though his second race sev enth wa s another vindication of hi s ab ilities . Ba c k in to the fray, after missing th e Hockenheim rac e, was Haruchika A ok i, sa llying forth on th e good ship R&D B ieffe now that they we re solvent and flo ating in parts once more. Ninth and 11th wasn 't bad, but it was not m uch to boast abo ut . But possibly the biggest stories of the who le World Supe rbike weekend in Ita ly were the atrocious t a les of misfortune and misery wh ic h affect ed th e Castrol Hon d a sq uad , in both Superbi ke an d Supersport g ui ses. It was Don ington '99 all ov er again whe n Coli n Edward s an d Aaron Sli gh t cam e together in ra ce one, crashi ng into the kitty li tte r in a sp ray of gravel after Edwards ce nte r- punched Slight. " I was knocked off by somebody beh i nd . I t hink it was Co lin, so yo u better ask him what hap pened ," said t he rue fu lly sm iling Kiwi. A nd Ed war d s rep lied - " I guess I knocked Aaron off in race o ne . It was m y fault but Yanagawa in front of m e pulled to the side of the tr ack to hit t he brakes wa y too earl y and I I couldn 't shut the throttle, so I had to dive up the ins ide . I was carrying too much speed and cou ldn 't avoid hit - , ting Aaron . Bu t th e m ain thi ng is th at we ' re w a lkin g ou t of h er e a nd I' m I' focuse d on Valencia already ." Race two was near ly as bad , with Slight ninth and Edwa rds 10th, fighting se t up p r o b l em s on th ei r spa re m ach in es . It was a g rim day for th e red and green m ach ines. the safety of the machine we w ill not be racing .- Said team manager V irginio Ferrari. aft er finally turning up at M isano. The clo se proximity of Misano to the independent city-state of San Ma rino has long offered a flag of convenience to event organizers who want to run another race in Italy. A publicity stunt to launch this particu lar race was boycott ed by most of the top riders after a dispute between W orld Superbike' s number one politico Pier-Francesco Chili and the SBK organization. The roo t cause was a disagreement about who should pay for a report ed 150 guest passes Chili wanted from Flamrnini, all of which are subject to an Italian tax of around $45 a throw, Happy to give them if Chili paid the taxes. Flammini refused to give them to him for free , and Chili went around the paddock, urging his fellow Superbikers not to go, M ost agreed with him, with only Haga and Yanagawa, plus nume rou s Supersport s men. in att endance at San M arino for the launch. Aft er Chi li's acc ide nt last yea r and a co uple of mor e serio us incide nts , the fina l chi cane at M isano has been modified - by t he simple move of redu cing the ove rall length of th e chica ne (squa shing it effecti ve ly) to make the entry and exit speeds slower, Feelings amo ng th e ride rs w ere mixed, wi th the mo st voci fero us detra ctor being Troy C or ser. - I thin k the new chicane is more dangerou s than the old o ne, bec au se now the re is a pot enti al 'dirty' passi ng po int in the middle of it. If yo u were in the lead on the last lap, you have to move out to the right in t he midd le of th e chicane to ge t on line again for th e blast to the flag. But now someone could stick it up the insi de before yo u t urn . B ut it wo ul d be a bloc k pas s . pu re an d simp le mot ocro ss style. A s far as single-ride r safe ty is co ncerned , the fact t hat you exit on a different line fro m t he previous fast er. more flo wi ng chicane mea ns not hing. You would ju st crash into a differ ent part of the track bar rie r. - C ol in Edwards was less scat hing but acknow ledged that th e sho rte r, slower chicane had an adve rse effec t on th e lap times to an unexpe cted amo unt. "Yo u wo uld mayb e lose a bit o n the run to the flag , but it see ms that the new layout is adding a big chunk to th e lap time . I th ink beca use it 's slowe r t hen it'll be safe r. " In t he final st opwa tc h analy sis, the tr ack is now runnin g around 1 to 1.5 seco nds slower than t he previous layout wi th th e to p speed a little do wn on the sta rt -finish st raigh t. Colin Edwards' very occasiona l but nonetheless curious lapses in concen tratio n and to some extent motivation - now t hat his main rivals. and especially Carl Fogarty, have left the championship race - were summed up by no less an expert authority than his own team manager, Ne il Tuxw o rth, who could be accused by cynic s as damning his number-one rider with faint praise in an offic ial press release. "As far as the riders go , Colin is doing almost what a lot of people expected of him, altho ugh I know he's st ruggling for a bit of motivation followi ng the Fogarty and Haga troubles." Later, during a short interview, Tuxworth confirmed that " I think Frankie Chili is the main threat now, because whatever happens with Haga in term s of bans or suspens ions, the Yamaha doesn't seem to wor k at all tracks and the Dunlops are the same." Co lin Ed w a r d s ' lat e s t minor but signific ant s lip-up happened during SuperThe fact ory B im o t a team made an official announc ement at Mi sano that , due to the uncompetitive natu re of thei r machine, they would be making a temp orary halt to their pole, when he crashed going for his fifth -successive Superpole prize, a feat which wou ld W orld S uper bi ke campaig n, Unreliable and a lo ng way fro m the shar p end of the have taken him only one more Superpole win away from the $300,000 prize offered by act ion . thei r reasons we re perfectly plausible as an excu se to stop racing . The t rue . the SBK organizers for six in a row. Edwards, tho ugh unhappy to crash (his second of t he story, however, is reputed to be that Prince Malik - one of the tea m's co-founders - day in fact. after falling in Saturday morning's final timed qualifying session) was nonet hehas not co me up w ith his pro mise d spo nsorship mon ey, w hich w hen piled on top of less fired up by his mishap, saying that " I don't need the money, but I need the two wins t he fact that the '501 ' numbered machine has also lost out on any chance of Levis tomorrow a lot more." sponsorship, means that the team has simply run out of money. A st rong rumo r t hat the Bim ota fact ory it self may be being wound up did t he roun ds at Mi sano . but with Bert Poensgen, father of Katjia and the German Suzuki importe r, congratulated Katsuat he co mpany's Rimin i headqu art ers only a stone' s th row away from M isano. and a ki Fujiwa ra on his excellent Superpole performance by giving him a large bundle of fireno rmally high level of presence expec ted from t he local fact ory. even the loss of the works. According to unconfirmed reports, the Japane se rider let them off all at once, with race team itself would be seen as a major embarrass ment. Anthony Gobert was in the rockets flying gloriously upwards, until they came zoom ing back down ingloriously, on atte ndance at Mi sano , but had been effe ctive ly banned from talking about any of the top of the CastroI Honda hosp itality tent. backstage goings on , and conte nted himself to hang around the hospitality unit s in a A blow-up from Frederic Protat 's Ducati engine delayed Friday practice w hen it laid a s igparty mood . Rumo rs suggest that he has not been paid his entire wages to this point, nificant oil leak. Halted for a short while, practic e resumed with new gusto, with Troy and it is known that other Bimot a sta ff has not rece ived their full remun eration fo r wo rk done. " Of cou rse the lack of money doe s not help. but until we can guarant ee Corser taking provisional po le. 28 JUNE 28, 2000' cue I e neVlls I I I I

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