Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

EHm World Superbike ChamplonshiP ll tr t.r tr t Corser and Haga in race two, before stretching the legs of his loping Ducati tlvin to secure his second win of the day, and his fifth World Superbike race in a row. "Today. like at Valencia, I rode as hard as I could and when you do that and don't win, you iust have to reach out and shake the hand of the winner." Corser said. ''ln race one, I had some front-brake prob- lems. The lever was inconsistent and sometimes it'd be okay and sometimes it would come nearly allthe way back to the bar. That made it a bit entertaininS, I can tell you! I nearly crashed a couple of times, so in the end, I was happy to get on the podium. There were no real prob- lems in race two, and there was iust no way I could've ridden any harder. The Ducati can accelerate out ofthe turns like no other bike - especially the four-cylin- der ones - and their traction control allows Bayliss to get on the 8as hard when the bike is still leaned over. We cannot do that, and that is where we lose ground and time. lt's a little fnJstrating to ride so hard and not win, so we'll have to figure out what to do and try and get gur own back in Silverstone." A slower-startinS Barros claimed fourth place. when a battle between him- self and Toseland was terminated by the Brit slowins as his bike ran out of fuel. ''ln the first corner I had a problem because there was too much traffic," Barros said. "The worst moment in the race was when ffukiol Kagayama crashed right in front of me. I really had to strug- gle to miss him. After that things went well for me and the slipstreamin8 Sames were great. The machine was also great this weekend. Because of my start in race two, it took me a lot of time to 8et to the leading positions, which probably stopped me challenging for another Podium." Toseland wasn't happy at all, thou8h he was clear of the following pack when trouble struck, and still took fifth. "l'm not happy with the crash in race one, and not happy with the conclusion of the race in race Nvo," Toseland said. "We ran out of fuel and that allowed Barros to come by. Enough said about that. But we've got some work to do, to try and get the power down, This €ircuit was bet- ter for us, for sure, but we have a lot more work to do." On another relatively positive meetinS for Australian riders, Yamaha Motor Italia's Andrew Pitt scored a lifth and a sixth, putting smiles on the faces of his team, which is based only acouple of kilo- meters from Monza. He has a habit of being not the most visible rider on track, but racking up results in any case. Winston Ten Kate Honda's Karl lYuggeridge finished one place behind Pitt in each race, an encouraSing pair of Tesults for a rider recovering from recent spinal in,uries. "We had a pretty good weekend, all things considered," Muggeridge said. "l'm iust a bit disappointed that I am not a bit fitte( and I had quite low energy. I had good speed, so that was a positive thing after being out for a while- We have a good break to Silverstone now, so I can work on myself. All in all, l'm satisfied with my comeback rides." PSG-I Kawasaki Corse's Regis Laconi ran with the leading bunch in each l8Jap race and enioyed his team's best individ- ual finish of the weekend. with seventh in race one. He was forced out of race ftvo with an "electrical" problem, which caused his bike to stop trackide, and his teammate Fonsi Nleto scored the toP Kawasaki slot in that race, in eiShth, one place up on Chris Walker, who chose the wronS rear in race two, and had his chain iump the back sprocket in the oPener, fin- ishing I lth. Another unhappy Englishman, Nieto was. of course, one of the unlucky seven who crashed in the first chicane of race one. Ducati SC Caracchi's Robby Rolfo scored an eighth and a loth Place at Monza, in front of his home fans, and was the best-scoring home rider of the week- end. That was somewhat of a surprise with Lorenzo lanzi in the mix, maYbe even for Michel Fabrizio on a supposedly fast Honda, but it was to be Rolfo the chief home gladiator. Bayliss' teammate Lanzi did not have his best home week- end, running to a ninth and I lth-place fin- ish. A miserable Monza for Fabrizio only gave him two points for l4th in race two, after playinS gravel tag in race one. Abe raced on Sunday despite his huge crash of Friday, and also missinS all of Saturday's practice. Taken out by the melee on lap one of race one, he rode to l6th for pride's sake in ra.e two, earning huge praise from his team manager. Martial Garcia. His teammate, Shinichi Nakatomi, had two Bood rookie rides at l''lonza, aking loth and l2th places. "We had very bad luck this weekend," Abe said. "My big crash on Friday was my mistake, but also caused by the rainy con- ditions. So in first race I made a good start, but somebody made a big mistake and many riders went out. That one was not my fault. ln race two my right hand was in more pain than the first race, and I 34 MAY 17,2006 . CYCLE NEWS WORLD SUPIERBIKC ,l^.,y 7,2l)06 i* f,Y I a \ \ / ,I I \l N aa I ^t t: - ] (Abovc) Andrew Pilt (88) hod o ;olid doy or Monto, finirhing fffth ond sixth on hir loctory Yomoho. uP on with q finish. ln roce lwo he wos Rollo ended the doy rvirh on 8"lO rolly. I Korl Muggeridge leods Fonri Nielo ond Pilt on to onc of Monzo's fost slroighls. .t \1 -\ --4

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