Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROADRACE World Championshi~_rb_ike_Se----,n,----'es_:R_o_un_d_lO ~ Doug Polen won the first race, but DNF the second race with engine troubles. Raymond Roche (2) beat Carl Fogarty (7) and Piergiorgio Bontempi (28) in both legs. Roche closes in on Polen By Gary Pinchin Photos by Johan Vandekerckhove ASSEN, HOLLAND, SEPT. 13 aymond Roche closed the points gap on Doug 'Polen during an incident-packed Diesel Jeans World Superbike Championship round at Assen. Polen won a four-rider, all-Ducati battle first race, beating Stephane Mertens, Roche and Carl Fogarty. But in a rain-interrupted second leg, Polen did not finish due to a broken rocker arm in his factory Ducati and Roche's second third place finish of the day means he has closed to within 16 points of the defending champ with three rounds left. Team Moving Kawasaki's Rob Phillis had been leading the second leg by 0.42 seconds from Giancarlo Falappa when rain brought out the red flag at the end of the 15th lap. In the restart, with the track dry again, Phillis was in the leading group but was taken out by Italian Kawasaki rider, Piergiorgio Bontempi on the third of the 10 laps. With Falappa .winning the second leg on aggregate time, Phillis's third place in the championship is now under threat. He has 234 points while the Team Police Ducati rider has 233. Fabrizio Pirovano had a disappointing day on the BYRD Yamaha, visiting the sand trap at the chicane in both races. His ninth and eighth place finishes added 15 points to his score for a total of 20 and his fifth place in the series is under threat from Aaron Slight. R 12 Kiwi Slight looked set for another good points payout, finishing fourth in the second race on his Moving Kawasaki. He would have finished sixth in, the first leg had Bontempi not played spoiler by forcing him off line several times with some outrageous maneuvers and he had to settle for seventh. Stephane Mertens could not back up his second place in the opening leg as his motor pumped out all its lubricant early in the second leg. Carl Fogarty, after missing the two Far East races, finished fourth in the first leg then fought with' Falappa in an exciting climax to the 1O-lap restart of the second leg to finish second. Mertens now has 137 points and Fogarty has moved up to eighth in the points, only 12 behind Mertens. Qualifying Qualifying was tight with the top six riders separated by just over seventenths of a second. Polen was on pole, setting his fast time with one lap remaining in the final 'A' group session. Polen's time of one-minute 23.28 seconds on the 2.42-mile short circuit was well inside Andy Hofmann's 1:25.32 lap record set back in 1990. Polen's qualifying was not without problems. During Friday's timed afternoon session his back-up bike, using the same engine he raced with in Japan, sprang a huge oil leak. Polen's closest rival in the points chase, Roche, topped the B group, 0.04 slower than Polen.. Roche's final session on the Joe Bar Ducati was interrupted when Adrien Morrilas' Yamaha blew up. and deposited oil on the exit of the DeBult left-hander. Italian Bontempi provided the big surprise by setting third fastest time. He had only cut two high 24s all session but in his final lap pumped in a 1:23.65 on the Dunlop~shod Bertocchi Kawasaki. Fourth fastest was Mertens with a 1:23.69, just 0.01 ahead of Falappa. The latter had been topping each group 'B' session until Saturday's final 50 minutes when he was slowed with electrical problems on both bikes. Slight was sixth quickest on the Team Moving Kawasaki. He ha<;l been plagued with carburetion problems all weekend. "The bike has been flat all weekend," said Slight. "It just doesn't come off the turns very good, and you need the bike to (do' that) here. The bike's been getting better all weekend, though, and I set my. best time on the very last lap." Fogarty was again complaining about a slow motor despite clocking a I :24.31. "I tried to get a tow off Roche in the last session but I couldn't keep' up with him down the back straight," joked the Englishman. Merkel was next up with a 1:24.42 and then came Phillis 0.05 seconds slower. "I could have gone quicker," Phillis said, "but it would have been getting a bit desperate." Phillis was hindered with several niggling problems during qualifying. He had crashed without injury during the Friday untimed session. Then on Saturday he stopped out on the course when a fuel line worked loose. The team also tried one of the electronic gear shifters but Phillis didn't like it. ''I'm sure it would be useful but we only fitted it for the last session," he said. "And because I've got a gamey ankle, I ride with my foot resting on the gear shift - and that keeps cutting the ignition. In the end I turned the damn thing off." Phillis wasn't in confident spirits for the race. "It's going to be Ducatis up there," he said. "Maybe we can get in there if a couple of them DNF." Frenchman Morrilas was again impressive on his privateer Yamaha which still sports-stock forks and swing arm! While French champion Jean Yves Mounier struggled to get into the low 25s on his kitted Yamaha France aWOl, Morrilas clocked a 1:24.57 but then blew his best motor in the final session, just after fitting qualifying tires. "I was hoping for a low 24," he said, "but the engine blew up. It is wrecked and my spare engine is some five or six horsepower less. I don't think there is much chance of a good result tomorrow. I had been confident of finishing in the top six." Pirovano's best time was 1:24.59. He said there was no real problem, just getting psyched up for the fast laps. "It will be different tomorrow," he said. "And the start will be important." Local star, Jeffry de Vries had been into the 24s early in qualifying but missed out on a low 24 in the final session. "I waited too long to come in for tires," said the Henk de Vriesbacked Yamaha rider. "By the time I changed we only had three laps left." de Vries was 13th overall, behind Amatriain and Furlan, who had a motor let go Saturday afternoon. R",-ce one Bontempi, on the front row for the first time all year was really psyched ~ , up at the start, leading the field into turn one. Polen was right in his wheel tracks and was leading by the end of the lap. Bomtempi held second from Mertens, Fogarty, Merkel, Lindholm up from the fourth row, Slight and Falappa. Phillis made a bad start as did Roche and they were back in 12th and 13th respectively. Pirovano had been up in fourth place going into the chicane at the end of the first lap but missed his braking point and ended up in the sand trap and dropped right down the field. Polen, Mertens and Bontempi made the early running while Fogarty grimly clung to fourth place. Falappa was up to fifth leading a pack of eight riders which included the charging Phillis and Roche. By six laps, quarter distance, Polen and Mertens had the break as Bontempi faded and came under pressure from Fogarty. Falappa was still fifth with Roche, Phillis and Slight right with him. Polen said Mertens was slowing the pace. "Stephane seemed to go fast when he was behind me but when he led, the pace slackened off and my lap times were suffering. He could lead but I could pass him back easily enough," said Polen. Apart from Fogarty getting by Bontempi for third, the situation remained static until just after half distance when Falappa's bike started spewing oil. Roche had gotten by on the 12th lap, just before the trouble but the two Moving Kawasakis were held up - not willing to risk a pass as Falappa slid around wildly with oil getting onto his rear tire. "It kind of psyches you out to see oil coming out of,the bike in front of you," said Slight. "I just backed off a little in case he went down. It was too risky to chance passing him. I just couldn't believe it when there was no black flag." Tardozzi had a similar oil leak the lap previous and was black-flagged but officials failed to repeat the action for Falappa. Up front, Fogarty had joined the leading duo and on lap 18 Roche made it a leading quartet. Bontempi was now a lone fifth, the two Moving bikes ran sixth and seventh, then came Falappa. Ninth was disputed by Pirovano, Rymer, Merkel, Morrilas and Lindholm. Rymer had been leading the group and looked set to clear off but had a scary moment when he ran onto the grass. "There's a flat-out in the fifth (gear) kink out on the back of the course and I was right on the limit there and making up quite a bit of time. I'd just passed Merkel and tipped in there a little too early and went onto the grass a bit more than I wanted to. That dropped me back and it was hard work on this bike to catch up again." Mertens had led three laps but Roche took over on lap 19 only to see Polen assume control on the penultimate lap, outbraking his rival into the chicane. "When Roche and Carl came up on us," Polen said, "I decided to stick behind Stephane for a couple of laps and run consistent. Then Raymond came by us both and I figured it was time to speed up." Polen took the race with Mertens second and a very irate Roche in third, losing five more points to Polen in the point standings. Roche claimed backmarkers slowed his progress on the last couple of laps. Roche refused to go to the podium and the post-race press conference. "The blue flags were not waved,"

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