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O cto b er 21, 1992 333232023 ROAD RACE World Championship Superbike Series: Round 11 Fabrizio Pirovano (5) awaits the start of one of the rain-drenched races. The Italian won both rounds on his home track, moving closer to third place in the series point-standings. 16 Pirovano doubles at Monza By Gary Pinchin Photos by Johan Vandkerckhove MONZA, ITALY, OCT. 4 ocal hero Fabrizio Pirovano took his BYRD Yamaha to victory in both rain-lashed races at Monza. Pirovano scored his first wins of the season and the first this year for Yamaha — and he did it in style, winning the first leg by 27 seconds from Stephane Mertens and thwarting a Raymond Roche challenge in the second. · Pirovano won both races in almost identical conditions of the 1990 race, the last time the World Superbikes visited Monza. The weather was appal ling all weekend with virtually three days of non-stop rain producing two incident packed races — although thankfully no one was seriously hurt in the numerous crashes on what many riders described as the most dangerous track they had raced on this year. The points situation at the top of the table remains unchanged with Doug Polen still 16 points ahead of Roche. Polen chose the wrong rear tire in the first leg and struggled to finish 10th while Roche crashed out while chasing Pirovano. The Frenchman finished second in the second leg, but Polen maintained the points status quo with a steady fifth place, admitting his tire options were not quite what he needed in the conditions. Rob Phillis took a strong third place in the first race, but slid off in the first corner of race two and even though he gamely remounted, was too far behind to pick up any points. The Australian is still third in the championship point standings, two points ahead of Giancarlo Falappa, who also crashed and then got back on in the first leg. But the man to watch is Pirovano. His maximum point score puts him within five points of Falappa. Fred Merkel had a disastrous meet ing with his Merkel Racing/BYRD Yamaha after looking strong in the wet qualifying. He ran up front in both legs, but crashed out of both. In the first he was trying too hard and in the second he caught a neutral from top gear going into the Ascari chicane. He was unhurt after the resulting high speed get-off, but his Yamaha was damaged substantially. Thus, with the teams packing up for Australia the night after the race, Merkel is forced to go Down Under with no spare bike. Qualifying Monsoon weather hit Monza during qualifying, and the only real shot any of the riders had for setting a decent time came during the first timed session for the 'A' group on Friday. With the circuit damp from the first chicane right through to the end of the Lesmo curves, Polen took pole, almost two seconds quicker than Piergiorgio Bontempi, with a one- minute, 53.563-second lap. Bontempi was fortunate to draft Polen late in the session and set second fastest with a 1:55.142 on the Berlocchi Kawasaki. Bontempi might have gone even quicker, but had to stop when his ZXR sprung a minor oil leak. But the conditions were playing havoc, even in this early going. Next fastest was Pirovano, but his best of 1:57.072 indicated just how tricky the track was for the riders. Monza is in a park with certain corners located directly under trees; so in the autumn, wet leaves and growing moss make the surface almost impos sible to read. Adding to the problem was a variety of track surfacing, some grippy, some not. The grid had some different names up front with Italian Gatone Grassetti fourth fastest in the first times 'A' session, followed by Frenchman Jehan D'Oregeix, and Italian Supersport prospect Valerio Destafanis sixth quickest on a Ducati. Those struggling in the early session were Carl Fogarty, Phillis, Baldassarre Monti and Herve Moineau. The B' group, which were greeted by a thunderstorm, was not surpris ingly slower as the track flooded. Stephane Mertens set fast time with a 2:09.094, and next quickest was Falappa with a 2:15.218! It rained all day on Saturday but was marginally better than late Friday afternoon — at least the times sug gested such as riders softened up suspension for better traction and fitted narrower rims to clear the water better. No one, however, was going to improve on the 'A' group times of Friday. Phillis topped the early morn ing session with a 2:07.259 from Pirovano (2:07.541) and Polen. The Texan might have topped the leader board again, but ran out of gas in the final turn as he was on a hot lap. He had to be content with a 2:08.336. Jehan D'Oregeix was fourth quick est while Bontempi started pulling huge wheelies along the length of the front straight, even when the rain was falling hard. He clearly was enjoying himself if no one else was ... In the ،B' group, Merkel threw caution aside with a 2:06.541. He looked really aggressive pitching the bike sideways in the first chicane as he switched direction and then gassing it hard with plenty of wheelspin on the exit. Falappa wound up second overall —nearly getting flicked off the high side in the chicane — while Roche moved to third fastest after languish ing down in 11th on Friday. Phillis was to start from the fourth row. "I'm pissed off I didn't put in a bit more effort on Friday," Phillis said. "To be nearly six seconds slower than Polen is a bit wimpish, but I didn't want to bag it." Phillis did in fact crash during the final session on Saturday, on the exit of Lesmo One. "Everyone else was really slow through there. I'd told the boys (his pit crew) how slippery the corner was in the morning. I didn't think I was pushing that hard, but I lost the front. It tucked, I held it, then it tucked again." ii li III■■