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/128636
World Sup erb ik e Cha m p io n s h ip F in a l Round: Brands Hatch r id er , who fa lsely app e ar ed t o be ex peri encing problems with hi s bi ke or tires. It was Hodgson , however , who was swapp ing places on a regular basis beh ind him. Ch il i, in a w atching bri ef beh ind Corser, fin all y passed th e Austra lia n on the d ro p to Pad do c k Hill on la p 13 , a ltho ug h h i s sq u i r m in g tire s seemed to be holdin g back his further progress. Tired o f w a it in g behind the upstart Hodgson , Edw ard s passed at Paddoc k Bend o n l a p 16 , w ith Corser dropp ing b ac k i n t o the clutch es of Reyno lds . The little Englishman, flush ed with his race one success , shot past t he Aprilia seen gesticul at ing w ith his l eg fo r othe r r iders to pass h im , as an un sp ec ifi ed fau lt w ith his ma c hine m ad e i t sel f a p p are n t. C orser , n ot Reyn old s wh o was right beh ind him, wa s firs t t o do so , t ow ing Reynolds alo ng as he mo ved fr om fifth to a pod ium spot in a blink . Wa lk er , out of the pod ium p osi tions but fighting for his prid e, ove rhaul ed Lavilla on lap 20 , although his BRIEFLY. •• The inclement weather that was expect ed at Brands Hatch arrive d with a furious ve ngeance in the days running up to the event. with many surrounding areas being affec ted by flood ing. The nearest big town to Brands Hatch. Maidstone. found itse lf under three feet of water on Friday evening. although the paddock itself managed to escape the fate which befell it in 199B. when pitlane disappeared under water. One per son who was relieved above all others was D avide Tardozzi. whose Ducati team was positioned in the same pit garage as the one which the factory team were flooded out of three seasons ago . Wi th rain appearing before the end of the final timed Superbike sess ion on Saturday morning. few riders improved their best times and eventually the Superbike men were rewarded with a full one hour of wet untimed qualifying. before embarking on a 12 lap. 50 minute 'wet' Superpole session . The most depressing aspect of the whole Brands Hatch weekend was the weather news from Imola. While floods and miserably low temperatures surrounded Brands Hatch. lmoia - where the paddock circus should have originally decamped to this weeke nd - was enjoying 72°F sunshine - much to the chagrin of all. The last word on the subject went to Troy Corser. who threatened before the races to , - get Paolo out of his nice warm office and make him stand around in the cold with the rest of us for three hours ." Ch ili (7) and Corser (3 ) battle for second place In the second leg. The spot went to Ch ill , putting the Italian fourth In the series standings. The Italian will return next year for another crack at the title on the fa ctory Suzuki. own part , reckoned that whichever team he we nt with he would still have a factory motor to 2001 spec. The obvious Ducati move is to place Bostrom in either the GSE or Infostrada team. with Xaus filling in the other spot, but according to a source close to the Bostrom camp it is not that simple. This theory feeds fuel to aged a 19th position on his Virgin M obile Yamaha in qualifying. the fire that Bostrom will be running his ow n team next yea r. with Valencia. personnel and atmosphere dict ated by him. One rider who will not be in his current World Superbike line-up almost for sure is A a ro n S light , now ditched by Honda. The sixyear Cas trol Honda veteran is definitely out of that set -up. with t he fi rst con firma tion co ming fro m Ne il Tuxw ort h on Friday even ing. A Saturday-evening press conference confirmed this in public, with Slight receiving momentos of his career. plus plaudits from sponsors Cas trol and team boss Tuxworth . Hrs replacement is still expecte d to be Tadayuki Okada, who is one of the casualties of the cutback s in Honda's GP efforts. while Honda took the PR opportunity of confirming Colin Edwards' signature for 2001 at Brands Hatch. Possibly the biggest question of the moment is whether or not Yam a h a will eve n field a S uperbike team , with Yamaha Motor sports manager Laurens Klein Koerka mp stating that • nothing has been decided yet. it all depends on Yamaha in Japan." Tea m manager D avide Brivio was no more forthcoming on the subjec t. but has been much rumored to be in discussions w ith othe r tea ms a bo ut a jo b fo r next season . O ne thin g Kle in Koerkamp did con firm is that Haga will be a Yamaha rider next B e n Bo s trom , once more prov ing to be as much show man as race r, year. in whate ver class he or Yamaha decide to run in. And that is by no mea ns certain yet. as Kle in Koe rka mp con firme d once again. "Yamaha will have a four-stroke to meet the new GP reg u- appeared in yet ano ther outla ndis h set of leather s, his latest haute couture is better to go into G Ps with his most recent experie nce being in four-stroke racing or in GP racing." lations in 2002, so part of the thinking for Haga may be whether it Only one of the top teams has officially announced their full 2001 line-up, with the Kawasaki Racing Team confirming that its entire creation featuring a squad will re main as this year. with Gregori~ Lavi lla re-joining set of cowboy style le ath e r c haps o n t he bottom o f t he legs, complete with fake spurs and huge Akira Yanagawa , and Andrew Pitt staying on board With lain M acpherson in Supersport . A new engine is promised for the new Superbike season, according to comments made by team manager, Harald Eckl. "This season didn't go like we hoped or expecte d, but you can be sure we will have an even better engine next year . KHI already has something in their pocket that we are keen to test as soon as possib le." ' Sen B o s tro m ' mon ogramm ed si l- ve r buckl e log o . Bostrom was one of Suzuki has already committed to Pier-F ran c e sco C hili and S tep hane C ha mbon in the Alstare official team, but the Cres - t he ma ny riders link ed to a change of team in 2000. althoug h in his case it is p art ly because his NC R team may cen t Racing Suzuki team is still awai ting news on whether its attempt to move into World Superbike will be sanctioned by Suzuki or not. having otherwise report edly secured the budget and manpower to take Chris Walker (and probably James Haydon) into World Superbike. not exis t nex t sea- son. W ith the arrival o f the big- budge t double British Championship winning GSE concern in 2001 . NC R looks to be suffering something of a squeeze. having already suppos edly lost the sponsorship from the circuit of Valencia. W it h the end of season upon us. the question of who will fill the vacant saddles in W orld Superbike is still to be resolved in all the important cases. The D ucat i Infost rada bert h alongsi de Troy Bayliss is still nominally up for grabs. with no one shaping up as favorite ove r any other . Ruben Xaus is fancied to be the man by many observe rs, not least his number-one fan Carl Fogarty . Infostrada team manger Davide Tardozzi claimed that there wo uld be an announcement shortly after the Brands Hatch race. but that Xaus would definitely be on a Ducati and definitely on a Ducati Superbike - of some kind. As a side note . Tardozzi confirmed that only the two full factory rider s would have the new 200 1-spec rnachines. with the satellite tea m or teams being given this yea r's factory equipment. The other spare Ducat i ride will be with the GSE team. who are looking fo r a partner to join Neil Hodgson. The near-vet eran John Reynolds has been linked with the ride, as has Xaus - as a method of breaking him into the Superbike fold in a gentle manner, rat her than under the harsh spo tlig ht whic h shriveled Bostrom for a wh ile in the early season. Xaus, for his 20 O CTO B ER 25. 2000 ' cue • "" n The official W orld Su perbike winter t e st s have now been scheduled. wit h Kyalami and Valencia the venues. in late January and early February for Kyalami and the middle of February for The Bimota facto ry , teetering on the edge of insolvency afte r its much-publicized problems thro ugh the summer, have apparent Iy been given until the end of November to make a business plan for the future - and find the money to continue . There are. however , rumored to be Americans waiting in the wings to bale out and then re-invest in the company. The racing effort has not been a complete washout this year as Alessandro Tomasoni has taken an SBB-R to the European Supertwins title. Any re-involvement of Bimota in a higher level of racing in the future will probably take place in the Superstock class . where the SBB-R may we ll be a competitive option in the right hands. Former Bimota tuner and long-term Ducati legend . Franco Fame . wa s in atten danc e at Brands Hatch. although his presence in the NC R pit was revealed to be on a social. not professional, level. Anthony Gobert revealed at Brands Hatch that he would be Troy Cors er and Al essandro Antonello shocke d the entire paddock and pit lane when they roared out for Superpole with their machines painted predominantly yellow and black. not the usual matt black with orange flashes. The move, a PR stunt to promote the 200 1 RSV-R machine. which comes with a yellow paint option. was hardly in the league of Valentino Rossi's previous best. but it certai nly brightened up an otherwise miserable Superpole. Aaron Sli9ht' S gentle sa c k ing from the Castrol Honda team pleased the tough Kiwi not at all, and even before the news was made official (but after he was asked if it made him sad to leave on such a note) he responded in typical fashion . - Sad, yes a littl e - and angry as we ll. If they had to get rid of me to bring on some younger up and coming ride r then fair enough . but ITadayu kil Okada? He's reputed to not even want to be racinq anymore. so why go for him? I've been talking to quite a few people in the paddock about next year but there's nothing concrete yet . At the moment. I want to stay in this championship. " A s a ne w W orld Superbi ke C hampi on was crowned. so the Daddy of them - Ca rl Fogarty - signed off in a blaze of publicity, with a we ll-a tte nde d press confe rence throw n in his honor on Thursday. When asked about his main regret regarding his racing career . he pondered hard before responding: " If I have one regret it is taking a set of five-year-old - but never been used - slicks out the back of my Dad's van all them years ago, putt ing them on my 250 and then crashing so badly it took month s for me to get fit again. That injury still bothers me now. so that would probably be the first thing I would change." W hen questioned about the reasons why he was so succes sful, he had a simple reply - which is similar to many of the mantras quoted by top riders in the GP world . ' 1wanted to win more than anyone else. Other riders said they loved racing mot orbike s. but all I was ever interes ted in was winning." " My best moments? Were winning my first title back in 1994 and then winning again in 199B at Sugo. That was something special. • A bizarre twis t in the final chapter of the B rit ish Superbike tit le saw swo rn enemies Crescent Suzuki and GSE Ducati. who raced for the British Championship crown the wee kend before Brands. allocated into the same pit garage. Short on space, and with only one of their two riders present . each team operated out of a tiny narrow co rrido r. wi th the antipathy felt between the teams seeping through the flimsy . temporary divider. Late news at Brands H atch ca me from the organiz e rs of the B rit ish Superbike C hampionship - BMP . A press release conf irmed that both they and SBK International would be assistin g the GSE team in their bid for World glory next year. The move, seen as a way of keeping interes t in the World Superbike Championship high on 'Superbike Island.' is unique in British racing. GSE team chief Darrell Healey described the assistance as "si gnificant. .. A serious accident involving the Peter Founds' outfit halted the Sidecar race afte r nine laps. making for an aggregate event. with the times from each race added toget her to give a final race position. The incident. at Druids, loo ked to be very serious at first for the passenger Founds, but his condit ion was later said to be not that serious. No further medical news was forth coming. Desperate to beat his old rival Steve Webster, Klaus Klaffenbock took riding for Yamaha in the AMA se ries ne xt season. part ner ing over five seconds out of the Englishman on aggregate times. but Tommy Hayden in both Superbike and Supersport classes. "That will be a day' s wo rk at each meeting ," said Gobert, " but I'm looking fo rward to going back to America. I'll be co ncentrating my effo rts on getti ng fully fit and focuse d on the jo b over the winter and I should be going over there soon to test. It will be hard to get used to a fo ur-cylinder again, because I haven't been riding one of them - until recently in Britain - since 1996." Gobert only man- because of the nature of W ebster 's title lead , only mec hanical mayhem or a crash would prevent him from winning his eighth title. Thus W ebster tailed Klafly home , and despite winning five races to W ebster's three. Webster took his crown in fron t of the small but enthusiastic crow d that had stayed behind to watch the race. " It was some thing specia l to win my eighth W orld title: Webster said. aVY's