Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World S u p e r b ik e C hampions h ip R o u n d 1 0: Bra n d s H atch pro blems were fo rgotten. how ever . once the crowd arri ved every one of them with an air horn it see med. and made even the BRIEFLY•• • co mpressio n than its pre de ce ssor . the engine is hoped to pro- duce more torque. especially wit h an all-new Ak rapovic exhaust. also designed for more midrange oomph. Haga was also testing Saturday qualifying and Superpole sessions feel like a rowdy foot ball game, despi te their hero Fogarty only attending in a PR role, Fears that the 13th and final W orld Superb ike event of the year . at Imola in Oc tobe r. would be cancelled increased in the days leading up to Brands Hatch. When questioned abeut the problem . Paolo Flammtm. President of SB K Interna tional. confirmed that there were serious doubts about the race. and that the final decision wo uld be made on Saturday at Brands. "There will either be a race at Imola or the seaso n will finish in Septemb er at Oscherslebe n. " Ra mm ini said . " Even if we are forced to do that we w ill still have a good eve nt and a good fin ish to the sea son . w it h enhanced TV produc tion and so on. " Unfortu nately . noth ing was confirmed about Imola at Brands Hatch. but it is known that the event will not be held. Despite expressing his opinion on Friday that there would be no replacement. Flammini has been trying to arrange one (with Albacete and Mugell o the likely candidate s). but will not know the outcome until M onday, August 7, Even if we did , the FIM would not be able to co nf irm its new slot until a meeting of the FIM management council, again on Monday. With event s overtaking the supposed chain of command , a meeting with the top team s saw Flammini propo se Brands Hatch as the po ssible new venue. a rumor that grew until it wa s even annou nced over the trackside PA syste m. The final ruling on the infamous Nor iy u k i Haga doping in cid ent had not been delivered at Brands Hatch, neither had there been a date set for his judgme nt by the International Sports Arbitra tion co mmi ttee. Haga' 5 team manager Davide B rivio wa s keen to see the matter resolved as quic kly as possible. " I think it is possible for Noriyuki to win the title even without the points he lost at Kyalami, but certa inly we wo uld want to know the outcome of the hearing before Assen. If Imola is cancelled. then It become s even more important for us to know as soo n as poss ible." Much confu sion after the Suzuka a -H o u r race (held on the wee kend preceding Brands Hatch) had the effe ct that a story claiming that Colin Edwards was suffering from a concussion after his crash at Spoon C urve was ci rc ulated around the world ' s press . De spite a mass of news report s (a nd even an official Honda press release , at one stage ) saying that Edwards was suffering from a banged head, the Castrol Honda team claimed that. desp it e v omiting and und erg oing a CAT sc an after the race . Edwa rds had not been concu ssed at any time. with his crash helmet apparen tly unmarked . The full extent of his injurie s was given as a friction burn on his back , after sliding on his butt for so long (and across a tarmac helicopter pad to bootl. The rumor of his co ncussion was so widely believe d that Edwards was made to present himself for a medica l inspection at Brands on Thursday before being allowed to compete. " I know there's been a lot of talk abeut me being injured co ming into Brands. but I'm perfec tly okay , - Edwards said. " I went to the hospital in Suzuka. but that was just a precautionary thing. I'm fine. " The conspiracy theorist s new Nissm front brake cali pers , as used at the a-ho ur race at left without the chance to race . Suzuka the week before. Carl Foga rty ' s aut o bi o gra p hy, " Fog gy" we nt on sale the weekend of Brands Hatch , wit h the official launch taking place in London on Friday. Not quite knowing w hat to expect. Fogarty was bewle d over by the interes t in his life story. "There was a bea k signing in Holborn. and apparently there were peop le w ho arrived at five in the morning to queue up to be the firs t to get a signed copy," said Fogarty . "t had no idea that pecp le wou ld do something like that. I also set a new record for beak signing in that An offic ial press release from Ducati outlined C a rl Fogarty' s sto re. The previous be st was fro m M argaret Thatcher (ex Brit ish Prime M inister), who did 500 , but I did abeut 550 . - Early projections on the book 's sale predict it will be a top-ten entry in the British best -sellers list s . not leas t because it co ntains several co ntroversial comment s on his rival s and esp ecially one Mr. Barry medical cond it ion afte r an examination by Professor A ndrew Carr of Oxford University. As Fogarty himself was glad to tell, his fractured bo ne is now almost co mpletely healed , and the fourtim e champion has now go t to move on from the less strenuous exe rcises like sw immi ng to a mo re power-based rou tine . Fog arty has yet to make up his mind about wheth er or not he will be back in ac tio n next year. but now even Ducati has fallen into Fogarty's way of thinking and has admitt ed he will not be back befo re the end of the season. A test has been lined up for November , and from the tone of the press release , Ducati may possibly be getting a little testy at their superstar. Or so the word s" _ ..the rehabilitation programe that Carl Fogarty is carrying out in the swim - Sheene. Among the many banner s on display at Brands, the one ming pool is not yet su ff icie nt to see him taking part in the next wh ich raised most chuckles from the for eig n visitors was th e o ne rounds of the championship. " sugges ts. whic h procl aimed that - British Beef is Best ," and was followed by a list of all the names of the UK rider s on display. The reason for all the hilarit y is, of co urse, the fact that until rece ntly . foreign sales of British beef were banned due to feared contamination by the disease BSE: or - M ad Cow" disease . After the usual concentration of all the Japanese factories on their Suzuka 8-Hour machines. new part s were filte ring their way into t he B rands paddoc k . Fo r Suzu ki th is wa s a w ho le new engine. tested by Ryo at the 8-Hour to overco me the recen t spat o f e ng ine fa ilu re s t hat have a ffected Pie r-F r anc e sc o Chili ' s result s. Eleventh in qualifying , Chili had a great Superpole to go fourth . Chili fell foul of o ffic ialdom at Brands when he attempted to ride a scoo ter through the paddock acce ss tunnel with his Wife and child aboard . Told to stop by a paddock security guard. a brief argument ensued , before Chili had to make two trips to get his family home safely. Called up before the FIM jury. his orig inal 400 Swiss Franc fine was raised to 5000 after he report edly lost his temper and threatened to perf orm a sit-down strike to stop the races. The fame of C a rl Fogarty has spread so far into the mainstream of Britis h society that the four-time Wo rld Champion was a guest intervi ewee on the nationa lfy network ed morning TV news program on Friday before the race . An everyday event for riders in so me count rie s . it is big news fo r bike rac ing in Eng land - Ano ther b itter injury blow struc k another British rider, this time J ames Haydon being the man to suffer . Having qualified fift h in Superpo le and being fully co mpetitive all weekend, Haydon has finally had to recognize that an injury he picked up in a car crash earlier in the year has · at the very least - ended his chances of impress ing the W orld Superb ike padd ock again t his yea r. His injury is a worsening prolapsed inte r-ve rte bral disc . w hich is causing him grea t pain and inte rfe rence with nerves running dow n to · his arm. Having stru ggled with his injury for a long time - a close ly guarded secret from the beginning of the year - Haydon has been advised to rest until the next Bntish Superbike round (at Knockhill. in Scotland next weekend) which both he and his team still believe he can win. If rest and recuperation do not help then there is no alterna tive but to put the 25 -year-old under the knife and remove part of the disc and then endu re eig ht weeks of rec overy. "I'm gutted not to be able to shine this wee kend . But BSB has to be put first. I have felt my injury worsen all season to the point whereby after the last round of the champion ship at Oulton Park. when I couldn't walk for two days afterwards . I'm still fourt h in the Brit ish Championship. and w on some races. de spite not being at the peak of my fitne ss. " Gregorio Lavilla , back in act ion for the first time since breaking his pelvis in M onza, had a low ·key re-introdu ction to the Worl d Superbike hurly-burly. M ostly healed , the Spaniard was determined to get back to the fray as early as pos sible and did better than many had expected, qualifying for Superpole when others like Vitto Guareschi did not. - I am very sore and stiff but it was great to get back onto a bike again. Especially today [Saturday! the pain was incredible and I' m very tired now . The bike looks good but I feel slow . I'm just sitti ng on the bike and I don 't move we re c on vi nced that Edw ard s w as in dire danger o f missing much . w hich yo u have to do here to get anywhere fast. There are so many strange corners here tha t yo u have to move across the Brands all together , which wou ld have thrown the W orld Championship race wide open. as opposed to being Edwards vers us the bike while halfway round one co rner. I hope that I can relax a bit and that the pain will just go away! " rest. Ha r u c h ika Aoki, languishing down in 28th position after qualifying . wa s reported to have a stomach bug . and therefore missed out on the second time d sess ion. B ut the real reaso n is that his team is missing a com pute r engineer and is experienc ing many set up prob - A p hoto s h o ot fo r the Nati onal Tires Suzu ki team on Friday almost blocked off the narrow stri p of tarmac that was Paddock 1's main thorou ghfare . The reaso n for the intere st was the obligatory glamor model, posing wi th Chris W alker for publicity pictures. lems with the engine. The sum of all their troubles meant that Aoki did not start the races . Robert Ulm. suffering his 12th crash of his The twis t in a well -wo rn tale was that the PR s tunt w as to launch the fact that National Tires (a large network of car and bike tire fitting bays) would be giving away free condoms at the British NEC bik e show in Birmi ngham later in the year - an appropriate gift from a rubber company. Aprilia , chasing the W orld Ch ampion ship in only their secon d season of W orl d Superbike rac ing , had a pre-Bran ds tes t at M ugello . According to reports . Corser's outings on the exis ting machine were prog ress ing well enough, but w hen a new engine designed by a former Ferrari and Alp ha eng ineer - wa s tried. he reportedly went a full sec ond faster, in no small part due to gaining looo-rumored extra revs at the top end . "The tests went really well, and we concentrated on engine parts rather than the chassis, " Corser said without delvi ng deeper. The use of the new engine at Brands Hatch was denied by Giuseppe Bernicchia, the RSV project manager. who claime d that the main change s for Brands Hatch were to the engine mapping, wi th a new form of Brembe radial calipers being used as wel l, It was considered to be too risky to try out the new engine at Brands Hatch. as the reliability has still not been fully tested, but it is expec ted to make an appearance at Assen, one month after Brands. And wit h the Aprilia and Co rse r co mbination struggling hard at Brands in qualifying, and with a smoky trail on the ove rrun towards the end of race one, maybe they will need it. Although one of the most atmospheric and easily the best-attended races on the Superbike calendar. Brands Hatch got itself a bad reputation from the paddock regulars in many diff erent ways this year. A curio us mix of familiarly mode rn yet plainly inadequate facilities. Brands is now loved and hated by all the W orld Superbike regu lars in equal measure. Ov erz ealous security guards on gates. bans on giving lift s on a scooter to more than one passen- ger (at a circ uit with one paddoc k a real 10-minute walk away from the other) and any number of petty rules for no reaso n nearly spoiled w hat is the best Superbike party of the season. All the 10 A UGUST 16.2000 ' cu e I lit n e vv which. despite a strongly burgeoning bunch of armchair fans now that British Superbike, World Superbike and GP s are all on network TV - is still seen as so mething of a minority spo rt . Repeatedly as ked about his co meback, Fogarty proclaimed himse lf still unsure whether or not he will be able to return in 200 1, although his broken arm is now almost fully healed in an ortho pedic sense. To the great relief of the visi ting privateers, only five local rid· ers were allowed to co mpe te in the Supe rbike class at B rands: British C hampionship leader. Neil Hodgson (winner of race two at D onington earl ier in the yea r), C hris Wa lker, J ohn Reynold s, James Haydon and Steve Hislop. Their pre sence had an immediate effect on first qualifying, with Colin Edwards and Troy Cor ser relegated to the second row as Hodgson. Reynolds and Hislop all finished inside the top five. The limite d number of locals did, how ever . mean that former British Ch ampion Niall M ackenz ie, plus W alk er' s t eam mat e John C rawfo rd , had their applica tions refused . Aaron S lig ht, having missed out on a lot of testing due to his pre-sea son brain operat ion. made a small breakth ro ugh in lea rning to love his big Honda RC5 1 twin . Speaking on Friday aft er the first timed sess ion. Slight revealed that , " We changed the offse t on the machine, and it's made a world of difference. Obviously , I wo uld have liked to have found this out earlier. but since I came Du cati season, missed the sta rt of the race after sufferi ng a sus- pected broken ankle in the Sunday moming warm up. A gen uine cor ke r, w hich w ould have do ne the whole sport of sid e car racing - ofte n marginalized and vilified . as it is - no end of fav ors. A rea l fi gh t off th e sta rt line saw S tev e W eb ster squeeze into the lead, holding off Klaus Klaffenboc k. The Englishman's att empt to break free from the rest was short lived as the race developed into a fo ur-way fight for the lead. with four crews Webster . K1affenbeck , Jorg Steinhausen and Steve Abbe tt - covered by a mere. 7 of a second. K1affen bock had his first shot at leading on the sixth lap, as things got a little spread out . With still only 1.41 second s in it between the top four on lap seven . it was looki ng like a battle between the old rivals W ebster and Klaffe nbec k for ultimate hono rs. On lap 11 the gap was 2.0 17 secon ds to Abbet , riding well enough to put in a fastest lap of the race, but unable to get on co nsiste nt terms wi th the top two . Tired o f the waiting game, W ebster we nt past the Aust rian for two laps before being relegated once more to second. Leading ove r the line on every lap until the end, K1affy was destine d to win but only afte r a grea t scrap wi th W eb st er and he swap ping ove rta king maneuvers. With t he spec tators thinking that W ebst er had blown it after a puff of blue smoke from the rear of his bike the final time out of Druids, the alarm proved to be false. as the warri ng partners jostled their way to Clearwa ys for the final time. W ith a better line and a few meters advantage, Klaffy was t riumphant. back aft er th e o peratio n w e haven 't do ne a lot of te sti ng - so there hasn' t been time to try out new things. " Slight has been a busy man rece ntly , having flow n fro m James Whith am' s wed ding ce re mo ny in Hudd ers f ie ld , Yo rksh ire . t o co mp e t e in a n endu rance-style go-kart race and then undergo a touring car test A ras h o f c ras hes in qualifying made t he Supe rsport class something of a battleground for some of the main competitors. A suspec ted fractu red pelvis for Shinya Takeishi was bad enough, but a broken collarbone for the W orld Ch ampionship leader Jorg for Honda as well. Te uch ert mad e his w eek end a disast er . His cras h looked even Nori yuki Haga had yet another new spec of engine at Brands worse than it turned out to be, with the tall Bavarian hitting his head on the tarmac twice as he slid dow n the road and the session being halted while they broug ht in an ambulance . Hatch. with revi sed head, pisto ns and port ing. Running at a higher s

• Cover