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/128619
\!ll@[]'OcfJ @C!J[jJ@D'0[jJ@[]'(J ©DDfi][JiJi)[jJ5@[Ji)0DD5[jJ [j{Jg]0rJ !X1@C!J[Ji)@ @8 !liJ50fi][Ji)@fJ By the norm al standards · uneventful to the point of sleep, with only a few, but highly significant, upsets throughout the race itself: One of the most telling was that reigning Cham pion Stephane Cham bon brok e his coll arbone badly afte r bei ng hit from behind by Christophe Cogan on the second lap, at what was to become the infamous Curva del Tra- ma nto. M ore success, in a rel ativ e fas hio n, Fujiwara (9) leads Ha9a (41) and accrue d fo r And y M ekla u, A lessan d ro Corser (3) ea rly in ra ce two . Gram ig ni , Lu c io Pederci ni, F red eric Pro t at and Lan ce Isa acs, w ho score d w as clear fro m th e very st art th at o n ly p oint s in tha t o rd er in race o n e, w it h Gio v anni Bus se i slotti ng in fr ont of t he sa m e r u n ni ng ord e r fo r 12 t h in the second. RA C E O NE E d w ard s' t opsy - turvy seaso n to o k a n o t h e r n os e - dive wh en h e c ra sh ed o n the second lap at M isan o , aft er he ba d lu c k co ul d m ug Co rser o f hi s win . Bayl iss, join ing Hag a an d Bo rj a o n l a p e ig h t , lo o k ed su r e a n d st ea dy , a nd p ass ed bot h at Tramonto corner , w ith an aud ac io u s m o v e u p t he ins id e after o ut brak i ng th em with ya rds t o spare . Pull ing a sma ll ga p w ithin a sing le a nd hi s t eam mate S l ig ht c o lli de d as t hey m oved o ut to pa ss Yanaga w a. la p , he set ab out ch asing Corser , but t o n o ava il as h e w at ch ed t h e Au s tra lia n's g a p at t he fron t gro w lap by His ex it , w h i le tr y ing to m ak e up lap to beco m e 5 .672 seconds b y lap g ro u nd fro m th e fo u rt h- ro w start , le ft 10 . th e wa y ope n fo r p o le m an Co rse r , w h o s e t a 3 . 8 - s e co nd gap b y l a p sev e n as h e us e d h is untou c h ab l e B o s tr om , s t a r ti ng well d o w n , o v e rh a u led Ya n ag aw a i n h is p ursu it o f Fuj iw a r a, u ntil h is o bject of pu r - practic e sp eed to g ood effec t. su i t eve n tual l y b ec a m e Bo rja . On l ap 12, Chi l i ' s va lve dro p ped, a n d so did t h e t em p er at u r e of h is mood , as h e sc o w led h i s wa y b a ck t o th e B ut Ed w ards wa s by no m ean s th e o n ly c ra sher, with Ulm o ut at th e en d of t h e fi r s t l a p , tu m b l i ng a t hi gh speed , bu t without inj u ry . In th e earl y laps , a fiv e -rider b attl e fo r second dev el o p ed bet w een Borja , Ha g a, a rej u ve na ted Fuj iwara a nd late sta rte rs Bayli ss an d C h il i , al t houg h it pits . Sh o rtl y afterward , Bo strom passed Yana g aw a, a nd the Califo rn ian loo k ed to b e podium bound as he closed in o n th e leading group w it h an abando ned BRIEFL Y• •• Mu ch play wa s made by the World Sup e ribike o rganizers that they now use 16 TV c ameras to reco rd the weekend 's racing action . plus four hiqh-spee d digital cameras that can be run at supe r slow speeds w ithout loss of pic ture quality . Despite thi s, the TV coverage at M isano con spired to miss all the day 's mo st contentiou s eve nt s. Ho hum... A ki ra Ya n a gawa. o ff fo rm during t he early part of the weekend . just managed to scrape into Super pol e, finishing 16t h afte r tw o t imed sess io ns. He saved his pride wit h a fifth in S upe rpole. " Now I'm happy again , " he said. "We had a problem w ith bike o ne and th e second machine was not set up the way I like it. I simply ran o ut of tim e to make improvements during regu lar qualifying . " Ben Bostrom . o ut of his Vance & Hines leather s and into a new set made spec ifically to suit his NC R D ucati privateer squad . was spo rting so me thi ng of a pat rioti c de sign . Heavily black . just like his mach ine 's sedate co lor sc heme . his loo k was jazzed up wi th the addit ion of Elvis/Evel Kinev el style stars and stri pes running down fro m his to rso like a rive r of red w hite and blue . His new leathers and an obv iously more aggressive attitude had him we ll up in the off icial practice sheets. kic king Juan Borja' s butt once mo re to tag thi rd-fastest time in reg ulation qualify ing . His impressive perfo rmance was partly due to an obv iously enhanced level of machinery - but mostly the man. His answer to the que st ion of wh at happened to his supposed move bac k to Dunlop tires was met by the smiling respon se of . " I do n't care w hich t ires I have, I wa nt to prove to people that I can win no matte r w hat the tires are . The next three t rack s. here in M isano, Va lenc ia and Lagu na, I've ridden befo re so I'm really look ing forward to them . " C o lin Edw a r ds may be eve ryone 's person al bet for the W o rld Championship , eve n at t he halfw ay stage of proceedings, but his ultimate destination- W orld Sup erb ike o r G rand '. Lying trackside it appeared that the race would be stopped, but enough steps were tak en to get Chambo n clear for the ma ssed pack of 600 and 748 riders to pass with relative impunity . Eric Mahe, once more deputizing for the injured Christer Lindholm in the Dee Cee Jeans team crashed hard enough at the Curva de Quercia on the opening lap to break one rib and set his machine on fire. Early leader Christian Kellner was well stam ped-on by Paolo Casoli on lap one, with the Italian operating his usual gam e of front runnin g, with Kellner and soon Jo rg Teuchert on his tail. Casoli and Teuchert , sworn enemies after their cl ash at the Hockenheimring, pulled away from the chasers, as Kellner lost confidence in the feel of his brakes and tires; for a while until he lit a fire under his butt in the later stages of the event. Another significant event happened on lap three, when James Whith am crashed out at Tramonto, losing the championship lead and finishing off what had become a miserable weekend in sad style. lain Macp herson, once more .fightin q the effects of influen za, crashed on lap seven, blaming the action of a rider in front of him: "He went wide and I tried to go under him. I lost the front and couldn' t avoid the crash." In a good fourth plac e, Pere Riba looked to be on course for his best finish of the year until he was finally disqualified for not having an engine that started with the start butt on at race end - because of a flat battery. Th ere was some raci ng left in wh at wa s an otherw ise almost procession al co m peti tion when Teuchert had Casali at Tramonto, where Casoli was to re-take him right away. On lap 17 it became Kellner's tum to do the passing, as he took his startled teammate Teuchert , who was stunned to be caught by anyo ne, such was the early lead he and Casoli had built up. Not quite so stunned as Casoli on lap 20, who was almost block passed at turn three: the Curva del Carro, when Kellner swept around and on a wide line and then stuffed it past the Italian , causing him to lift up or crash, but giving Kellner a lead he would never prop erly reli nquish. On the sam e lap, Karl Muggeridge and Fabrizio Pirovano had a clash together, the net result of. which was to let Itali an wild card Antoni o Carlacci through to fifth (o r a real fourth, with the as-yet unknown excl usion of Riba) . The combined might of the young pri vateer and the old ma ster were to right things at the flag, with Carla cci an eventual sixth, with Muggeridge fourth and Piro fift h. At the front , a late attempt to earn second by Teuchert was abandoned in the interests of keeping the cham pio nship lead he had won (o r inher ited ) when Whit ha m went by the wayside. His third pushed him from equal second to an eight- pcint -clear first , with Whitham secand and Casali in th ird. Th e battle fo r the championship has now split three ways, with Casoli the lone Ducati gunman fighting off the Yam aha ho rdes of Whi t, Teuchert and now Kell ner, who is a mere 22 points behind his teamm ate. Gordon Ritc hie Prix · is still unknown . Always adamant unti l last year t hat he wante d to go to G Ps, he is now not so sure. "When I was younge r all I wanted to do was be the W orld C hampion in the best class of racing, and that was 500 G Ps. N ow . w ith [M ickl Do oha n gone and suc h a co mpet itive W o rld S upe rbike Cha mpionship - we ll· it wouldn't be the end of th e wo rld if I never went to G Ps. I guess we' ll talk to Honda at the end of the season and see w hat their plans are . " Andy M eklau , reported to have tested a new version Bitubo rear shock on his Gerin Ducati machine the week befo re M isano . opted to use it in the final untimed qualifying se ss io n. in a back -to -back tes t with his normal Ohl ins unit. Dr. W o lfgang Pert ner. the Ger in team manager. co nfirmed his experiment: "We spo ke w ith the O hlins guys, w ho weren 't c razy abo ut the idea but they let us try them anyway. We wi ll see if they offer siqnificant advantages ove r the o nes we use now and then make a decision abo ut con ti nuing w ith them . " Val entino Rossi , due to be a Sunday visito r at Mi sano, wa s rumored to have refu sed to co me because of his fears that he would be mobbed so much he wo uldn't have the chance to even move aro und the paddock. His fear s co uld be justified · such is his teen ido l popularity . Confirme d as riding the S uzuka 8-hou r alongs ide Cas tro I Ho nda's Colin Edwards, there is a dispute goi ng on between his spo nso rs N ast ro Azzuro and the Castro l bos ses abou t how th e bike should be painted at Suzu ka. But the yo ung G P hero did indeed tum up and was last seen givi ng vocal suppo rt to the Sup er sport boys . In the Sidecar race , Steve Webster took his fo urth win of the year , wh ich extended his lead in the championship to 18 point s, 135-117 , over his arch-rival Klaus Klaff enbock, wh o finished second. Klaffe nboc k had the personal bes t pe rformance of Stuart M uldoon and C hris Gu sman to fig ht of all the way. wh ich even included a nudge in the rear fro m the flying Scot sman at the final chicane. cue I e n e _ S • JUNE 28 , 2 0 0 0 29