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/128626
we nt to go thr e e ge a rs down into th e lef t an d it j u st d id n 't shift. T hat dr o p ped me backwards kinda qu ick , I felt a ba d c ha tte r from the fron t en d of th e ma chine after I heard a b ig bang while bra king , It did n't get a ny worse , but it wa s e nough to s low me down to let the othe rs pa s t me ," Aa ro n Slight , having tire a nd gea rbox prob lem s with his RCS ] jumping o ut of gear, a nd Pier-Fra ncesco Chi li fa llin g b y th e wa y s id e o n a n o t h e r Br ands bog e y Dun lop t ire we re tw o m or e su ffer er s , "Afte r ha lf di stan c e, th e rea r tire was fin ish ed, " sp at Ch ili after race one. "I ha d no grip at all from the rea r after tha t and that' s why I dropped ba c k . I'm very un ha pp y about it. " His s lidi ng re a r ru b be r th is tim e was nothi ng co m pared to his co mp lete ly de st ro ye d rub ber la st season, but he wa s consoled to so me ex te nt by h is pod ium place in ra c e two , after (Above) Troy Bayliss (21) le d most of the laps in the re-started race one, w ith Neil Hodgson (48) pressuring Bayliss late in the race. World Superbike regulars Pier-Francesco Chili (7) and Noriyuki Haga (4 1) were factors earty in the race, before giving in to the pressure of the local Wild Card rid e rs . (Left) Troy Cors er le ads Co li n Edwards and Aa ron Slight in th e fi rst race. Edw a rd s had the holeshot in the restart, bu1 fa de d to 10th place with clu1ch problems. Corser fared the be st of the bunch as he finishe d sixth with Slight seventh. beating Ha g a fair and sq uare . T h e Japan es e rider was lucky to be at the races a t a ll to be perfectly plain , after cr a s hing heavily and spectacu larly in S upe rp o le , be ing yet another rider to esc a pe a te rrib le crash with on ly a bad sma c kin g , Bru ised all over, Ha g a no nethe less m anaged to pull himself to with in one po int of Tro y Cor se r. who had a sm all mechanic a l pr obl em in ra c e on e which m a nife s te d its elf a s a wisp of smo ke o n t he ove rr un an d the n a m a ss ive cr ash in race two . En ter ing the o n-ca m ber, but hea vily s lo pe d , S u rt ee s c orn er , h e got over-eager o n the thr ottl e and ha d a specta cula r h ighside , being follo wed into th e tir e ba rrie rs by not on ly his b ike , but th e Kawa s aki of Akir a Yana gawa , who bra ked har d to a vo id h im but had no cha nce , desp ite le a ving a b lack mark all th e way to the rum ple strip. With both r iders la nd ing and impacting heav il y . the acci d en t looked bad - s o bad tha t the unhurt Corser had the medics and marshals litera lly pinning him to the ground for mi nutes as they tr ied to fit him with a surgical ne c k bra c e an d an oxygen mask. "I got a bit gree dy with th e thr ott le a nd, bec aus e the tire is d igg ing into the hill, when it s lips and then gr ips , it' s alw ays gonna grip really hard ," Corser exp lained. "I k e pt tell in g t he m a rsha ls I was okay , but one of the m had a grip o n my cra s h helm et a nd the othe r was holding my chest do wn. I wa s with them so long th at I m iss e d th e re -sta rt. " It was debat able that Co rser would ha ve b e e n a llo we d t o sta rt in any case , h av in g b een b lame d for th e a cc id e nt that c a u s e d t he re-s ta rt. With Edwards ha ving his own woe s to suffer, the c hasing duo of Corser and S uzu ki's Kat s ua ki Fu jiwa ra contin ue d his s lide into the s hadows again with a DNF a nd a ninth , with J uan Borja e ve n wo rs e wi th o ne c ras h and a n ] Itho Haruchika Ao k i' s seaso n . wh ich commenced with so mu ch prom ise in South Africa . has a lso ta ken a bit of a nose dive. with the likeable Japanese suffering from a serious lac k of team back -up in the o bv io us ly im p o ve ris he d R&D outfit . Kya lam i m ust seem like a long time ago for him now. Privateer of the da y was undoubt edl y Andreas Me klau . wh o took his big Ducati to two fine finishes , ] 2th and then a great ninth - in ma rked contrast t o his t roubled tea mm ate Ro b e rt Ulm , who cras hed o ut in m orn ing wa rm -up . Witho ut a ctua lly fracturi ng his left fo ot , Ulm was s t ill in a bad wa y , unable to cha ng e g ears a n d so he had to w ithdraw . His latest c ra s h made it what the English c a ll a nice roun d do ze n , further k n o c k in g hi s confidence. Alessa ndro Antone llo ha d an upa nd -down day , s ma cki ng himse lf in ra c e tw o af te r scoring po ints in the ope ne r, s howing that he can run with the to p m en after o nly 70 percent of a Haga lost little ground to th e inte rm inably luckless and yet still c urious ly fortunate Edwa rds , who 's s eason is taking on all th e c haracteristics of a twisted Da vid Lync h mov ie. In the less rarefied atmosphere of the lower works orders, a special men tio n ha s to go to Greg o rio La villa , who des pite liv ing in the shadow of his tea m ma te Ak ira Yana g a wa , s till managed an ] ] th a nd a great eighthplace finish in his first race ba ck from a very painful pel vic fracture. Ben Bostrom , hero of the last few races , was subdued in everything but co lo r sc hem e th is weeke n d , ta k ing o nly a s ing le point afte r tire problems in ra c e tw o saw hi m in th e pi t to cha nge h is rear tire and he lo st a lap . Ano t her vic t im of Brand s Hat ch ' s h ea vily t e ch ni c a l nat u re , Bo st ro m was one of ma ny Bra nds virgin s wh o co uldn' t qu ite find the G-spot no matter how passionate thei r enthus ia sm. cue I e race season . In short , Anton ell o 's experie nce seemed to be that of most of h is peer g rou p , with all the top regular riders n e vv s • A UG UST 1 6, 2000 7