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/1542345
before, but somethinS strange happened. Anyway, we put that behind us and we decided to use the hardest tire Pirelli brought along. Then I made my move on Toseland at twg-thirds race distance and alrhough I was nearly in the same situation with the tires with three laps to go, I still managed to pull a good enough gap to win. We're leading the championship again, so that's a bonus. Now we move on to Valencia and lYonza, which are places we like, so I hope to keep the momentum going." ln third place, Barros had the best of a three-rider fight for much of the race. having survived a scary moment when Corser crashed in front of him on the founh lap. Barros couldn't avoid hifting the luckless Aussie as he sprawled on the track in front of him. Fonunately, Corser escaped without iniury despite sufferinS a heavy impact on his helmet and neck area, plus his torso. Corser nonetheless opted ro go for funher checks in Melboume, given his history of internal iniuries- He was Siven a merciful all-clear Iate on Sunday evening. "They are all tough races here, but you have to pace yourself," Corser said at the end of the de,,. "l wasn't really paying too much attention when Troy [Bayliss] was pulling away, but I don't think the Pirellis will last that long at that kind of pace. I iust tried to use the tires the best I could in the race. I've seen Alex [Barros] do los of laps around here in GPs, so I just covered my lines on the last lap. I lost the reir in race two and it pitched me off over the front. The X-rays they did here shows l'm okay, but I am Soing to Melbourne for another scan iust for my own peace of mind. lt's a precautionar/ scan, just because of the staples on my spleen from my accident many years ago [the Sugo round in 1998]. I feel A-Okay, but I just want to check." ln race two, Haga took his second founh-place finish of the day, beating his teammate Andrew Pitt, who had finished race one rn a slowly fading ninrh, having fitted a too hard a back tire, Corser's teammate Yukio Kagayama slotted his Suzuki into sixth place in race two, Si after an unhappy race one in l2th. Rolfo slipped to seventh in the second race, after his outstanding flfth in race one. At one stage of race two, there were l3 riders in one group, battlinS for supremacy behind the leading ranks, with a bewrldering number of overtakes being put in throughout the duration of each 22Jap race. On a good day for the 2005- spec Ducati 999 riders, Ruben Xaus once more overcame the need to use crutches when walking to boom his Sterilgarda Berik Ducati to seventh in race one and eighth in race two. His Spanish country- man Fonsi Nieto was one place behind each rime, with PSG- I Kawasaki's Chris Walker twice flnishin8 loth. Third PSG- l rider Regis Laconi struggled hard through the day to flnish l3th and l6th. Pier-Francesco Chili and his DFX Honda narrowly missed out on a point in race one, but scored two in the second race, despite feeling the aftereffeqts of two hard races. His teammate Plichel Fabrizio had a better start to iace two than the first, and duly finished I lth, making up for a dis- appointing lSth in the opener. Lorenzo Lanzi was to have another eventful day in Australia, as he had to start race one from the pit lane afrer returninS to the pits for machine changes during the sighting lap. He battled ro llth, but in race two he suffered a crash, which left race-one retiree Karl MugSeridge out the poinrs entirely, after Lanzi's crashing machine took out the Aussie star. Only one Yamaha l4otor France rider scored points on the lsland as Norick Abe fought to l2th in race rvvo, one place better than Max Neukirchner's Pedercini Ducati. A front-row start for local boy Steve Manin and the Petrcnas FP-l led to a l4th place in race one, then a I sth in race two. His teammate Craig Jones crashed out of race one, but took a 2lst-place fln- ish in race two - his first finish of the year. There was drama at the start aSain as the new sighting-lap rules got unfurled for the second weekend in succession - with Lanzi staftinS off Ehe back of the grid after pulling in for clutch adiustment during the siShting procedures. His I second bike had fuel-feed problems, so he went back out on his number-one bike - clutch problems or not. Martin, who qualified on the front row and went marginally faster in warmup than he had in Superpole, got swamped twice in the starts of both races. lf the competition keeps pushing as it is, we should see a couple of main things very soon. One is Barros on the winner's step. Another is Toseland being the white- painted dark horse throughout, as his consistency on an alien engine conflgura- tion puts the doubters firmly in shadow, "l had a bit of problem with traction at half-race distance in race one. We had quite a bit of wheelspin out there," Toseland said. "We were losing a bit com- in8 onto the start-finish strai8ht, so I was losing out there to Alex [Barros] and Troy [Corser]. lt was a shame for Bayliss, but I'm over the moon for the team and myself to be on the podium again. When I saw Bayliss heading off, I thought, '\/Vell, there is the first-race win gone.' ln race two I kept gening a plus zero on my pit- board, because Troy [Bayliss] was right behind. ldidn't make a mistake, but he just outbraked me into the hairpin and then he pulled away at the end there. lt was a great .ace, though, and I made sure I rode well in the places where it would be difficult for him to get past me. ln the first race Troy [Bayliss] was unlucky not to win. ln race tlvo I waited to see if he would have similar problems as race one, but when it was obvious he was fast and I had to settle for second. But I'm happy; we had a good, consistent weekend again. We're pushing them hard and we're only one point from the lead right now." There are many things about to hap- pen in World Superbike it seems, and Troy Corler (l ) wos ero(dy whene he needed to be - when Boyliss rcn inlo tire problems in roce one - roking the win over Alex Borros (portiolly hidden) ond Iorelond (52). A i Z Having broken the Superpole record with a 1r32. 159 on Saturday, shonly after taking the seven-year-old Superbike track record with a I :32.081 , Troy Bay'ir5 defied the gray overhead conditions to set anothe. new track best - I :3 I .908 - in Sunday mominS warmup. Just to widen the Srins all around, he set it on a race tire - in an amaz- ing display of ultra-agSression. lt compares reasonably wellwith the MotoGP class, with Nicky Hayden holdint that t6ck record at l:29.337 on Hichelin qualifiers. Troy Cors€r, affected by an inconsistent clutch performance from his GSX-RS 2006 unit at Qatar, tried it once more at Phillip lsland, before revening back to his 2005 unit. Andrew Pitt and Wayne Gardner gar- nered some pre-race publiciry for them- selves at Phillip lsland, as Pift, a sponsored Suomy rider, and Gardner, the Aussie Suonry importer. made a deal for Pitt to run in Gardner's old-helmet color scheme, A photo call on the starr line announced i! !o the world, for everyone to get used to Pitt's unusual appqrance during his home race. A drnmatic sea rescue on the day before the start of qualirying at Phillip lsland involved Supersport riders Andrea Berta and Javier Fores. SpendinStime on the beach at surfing hotspot Woolamai, they spotted an Asian youth in trouble in the water. The quickly plunged in and brought the boy to safety. A mini-f,u epidemi< affected a wide range of people in the World Superbike paddock at Phillip lsland, the blame being put on a bug that hitched a ride (no doubt in econo- rny class) from last week's Qatar round. Rid€rs hit included Andrew Pitr and Regis Laconi, the latter so badly that it even affected his normal aflable Latin tempera- ment somewhat adversel,,. lt cena'nly did- n't help his on-rack perlormances as he battled through the ef{ects of a tight chest and fever. He nonetheless qualified for Superpole, more than what he was able to do in Qatar. With the seven-year-old Superbike track recond finally falling to Troy Bayliss in the last action of Saturday's Superpole, and then only lust, Pir€lli was iustifiably proud of its achievement. Back in the day of the all-powerful Michelin factory iupported teams, dual compounds in Australia were a mandatory part of the tire fitter's stock. The lefr-handed rrack. with two major rec- tions with the tire on ils left-hand iide for significant leogths of time, build up heat from a normal 90- 120 C to over l40C- especialt if the track temperature gets over 50 C, like it did on Saturday. Pirelli's mass-production techniques for even iti most advdnced race tires now preclude this, so it has to strike a balance whh one kind of rubber. The treck record has lasted so long for one main reason, and that was its re-surfacin8 in th€ winter of 1999 - which mad€ it incredlbb/ grippy for the ,irst few montlB of its life. Optimum weather on that weekend, plus the llght berween con in,Jed on pdge 29 Brief [y... t ,rsf I f t\ l,r jr o n /.7 ;/ {-. t, \ \\ L cYcLE NEWS MARCH 15. 2006 27