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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128622
a lbe it be ing d ropp ed o n accelera t ion o ut of th e slo we r c o rners . Thu s Cors e r w oul d ca t c h B o s t r o m o n t he bra k es an d in th e corn ers, o n ly to see t he Du c at i j um p aw a y b y a b ik e len g t h or so o n t he m ain st rai g ht, w it h E dwards alwa y s j u st ah ea d in h is own poc ket o f a ir. A larg e ly p roce ssional rac e in th e mi d d le laps saw th e run n in g o rder steady at H ag a , Edw ards , B o strom, C o rser, Chili , Yanagawa , Sl ig ht , Fuj iw ar a , Borj a , an d Buss e i , w ho w a s h avin g a n o th e r goo d p e r f orman ce afte r h is impressive practic e sessi o ns . B y h a lf d ista nce, B o s t r om a n d Corser h a d r e el e d i n E d w ard s , a s H aga h ad earned a 2 .2 -sec on d lead , r id in g o n th e p eri mete r of th e e d ge b ut lo o kin g unstoppable in h is q u est for gl o ry . B y l a p 21 H a g a w a s o ve r t h ree se conds ahea d o f Edward s, but C ors er was also t he o nly ot her m an m ak Edw ard s , a nd a furth er f i v e t o g et (Above) Troy Bayliss (2 1) has ha d bette r days. The Aus1ralian crashed out of race one and then fi nishe d seventh in ra ce two. Aklra Yanagawa (4) , meanwhile, was sixth and fi fth in the two races. (Leftl Ya nagawa t ri es t o run down Pie rFrancesco Chili , w ith t he Italian fin ishing fifth and sixth in the two legs. pas t e a rl y l e a d e r Ba yli ss , with th e Yamaha man usi ng h is favo red t ight lin e ex it ing th e Corkscrew . Bo strom w as o bvio us ly de te rmi ned to g et himself o n th e top ste p of th e ' p od ium , as he p a ssed f irs t Ed w ard s and th en B ayli ss on consecu tive la ps , with h is favo red po in t bei ng th e en try Godd a rd 's p rog re s s , dro pping f ro m 10 t h to 16 th as his rea r t ire w ent off to th e cor k sc rew. b ig t ime. the ci rc u it. " sa id Bostrom after. " I thin k that' s t h e n e at es t pa rt of H e c u t s ho r t Haga 's p lan n e d RACE TWO es cape , c los ing on h im as t he r e st faded in t h e firs t fi ve la p s. Th ird away fro m _ h e start, it on ly t t o o k Ha g a fo ur c o rn er s to overh au l B o st r o m sa ved 9 h i s deci sive . [fJCfJrzDD00 rPD!?011 {P@D@ in g inroad s, clos ing in t o t he ta i l o f Bostrom . With Edw a rd s ca ug ht o nc e ag ain , a nd Hag a hom e a nd cle a r , all th re e B y th at stage th er e we re o n ly 17 rid er s c a me o ut of th e C o rk screw as ru n ne rs l eft , afte r Ulm , Bl ora , an d one o n the fin a l l ap . Corser's pass up Isa ac s had crashed o ut , a nd Borc ia n i t he insid e at turn 10 wa s im m ed iately h ad retir ed . Ch il i w as hol d in g off t he attent io ns o f Akira Yanagawa , in a loo se b attle for f ift h and sixth . re p ulsed by B o strom as he d iv ed u p t he ins id e of th e fi nal t urn . H is b lo ck i ng m o v e de stro y ed h is l ine on t h e ex i t a n d C or s e r o ut- Corser c hos e the 2 5 th lap to make dragged him t o th e fl ag to t ak e t he a m o v e o n B o stro m , bu t t h e y o u ng fi nal p odiu m p lac e beh ind cl ea r w in - A m eri can fen d ed o ff h is att e m p t at ne r Hag a a nd Edw a rd s, w ho took hi s turn five , with h is defens ive ridin g lo s - fir st eve r L a gun a W or ld Sup e r b i k e i n g th em b oth a li t tle g ro u n d to pod ium fi nish . E dwards. Chili was .7 of a sec ond ah e ad of Co r se r tri ed t o pas s aro und th e h is race -long sh ad ow Yanag aw a , with o utside at turn two o n th e next la p , as Fujiwara , Sli gh t , B o rja a nd Buss e i he j ockey ed f or a g ood o ve rt a k i n g rounding -out th e top 10 . p osition in va in . Lady luck swung in several directions at once at Lagu na, with many of the men who had qualifi ed well after the final ti med sessions dropping down the order . Th e upshot was that Troy Bayli ss took his maiden Superpo le win. using the knowledge gleaned from a one day test in the winter , to set a tim e of 1:26 .273 , whi ch was j ust out side his best in regular qualifying. "Things aren't so bad so far," Bayli ss said. "I have done a single day of testing here in pre-season, with the Vance [, Hines team , and that' s proved to be pretty handy so far. The Corkscrew's strange. It's like the Cadwell Park m ountain secti on in England - only downhill instead of up." Colin Edwards , using the same spec of motor as he enjoyed in the pre-Hockenheim meetings, went second by the narr owest margin, .0 13 of a second. Pier-Francesco Chili. sixth after the second qualifying sessio n, j ump ed onto the fron t row, with th ird , being joi ned by another four -cylinder man , Nor iyuk i Haga, in fourth . " We've go ne back to the ol d motor now, and it has mad e the bike a lot bett er ," Edwards said. "It's not secret anymore that we had a new spec of motor fitted at the last couple of races, and it wasn't as good as this one." Th e times were uncommonly close , even in the cutthroat Superpole competition, with .192 of a second separat ing final Superpole man Bayliss from provisional pole ma n Ben Bostrom , who ended up fifth . "My Superpole lap wasn't perfect , but I still wanna win both races," Bostro m said. "I think I can do it." Aki ra Yanagawa, in sixth , was ma ki ng contin ual im provements in his ti mes, but a cou ple of mistakes from Troy Corser, saw him fail to repeat his usual Superpole win-a-w eek end. It also shot away any chance he had of taking six consecutive Superpo les, and scooping the $200 ,000 prize put up by the World Superbik e organizers. "I ran into turn thr ee a bit hot and ended up on the paint and then the dirt for a few m eters on the way out," said Corser. "I regained the track okay, but I couldn't push as hard into turn four as I wanted because of the dust on the tires. I made another little m istake at Corkscrew when I went over the paint at the apex, but that didn't really lose me any tim e from that . We've been really strong in Superpole all year, so I guess this j ust proves that you can't win it every time." A aron Slight took the last positi on on the Superpole second row, but arguably the per forman ce of the day came from Kawasaki pri vateer Giovanni Bussel, who was a great ninth , just ahead of Robert Ulm on the Gerin Ducati . Th e unlucki est man of the session was Juan Borja , who crashed 20 seconds into his . Superpole lap and was instantly relegated to 16th and last place, With only 24 entrants for the Laguna race, virtu ally the whole field had a turn at Superpole, but local man Larry Pegram had a harsh intro duction to the wh ole Superpole routine, fin ishing last of the Superpole finishers in 16th. S ev e r e t ire p r obl em s h amp ered c U c I e n e vv S • JULY 1 9 . 2000 9