Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Silver3rone, Englond Cir.uir WORLD SUPIERBIK€ Round 5 ,t,,dy 29, 2006 It was out with a bang, not a whimpe( and Walker's legions of fans gave it their all. Hill's bright start was swamped by lap four. The lap record was Soing down - first by Xaus and then Pitt. Pitt's best was a l:26.820. but that would soon be beaten. Corser and Toseland soon pursued the leading three, but upfront Bayliss scored a magnificent new lap record of l:26.299 on the sixth lap. Bayliss and Haga shot off to a I .9-second lead over Walker by lap seven, with walker holding up the proSress of Corser. Toseland and Pitt, who were in turn pursued by Muggeridge, Xaus and Barros. A brave attempt, born of fnrstration, from Toseland saw him run up the inside of both Corser and Walker at Abbey. but it was way too fa5r, and ir dropped almost behind Pift. On lap I l, Toseland was up on Corser, and looking to 8et past Walker, and start what looked like a vain attempt to make up six seconds on the leaders. Toseland finally went past Walker on the run into the bridge section, iust as Pitt took the chance to pass Corser as well. Barros was another man on the charge. fight- ing past Xaus and l4uSgeridge, and looking into the distance at the Toseland, Walker, Pitt Corser group. Pitt pr.rshed past Walker to go into fourth, and by lap 14 Barros was right on Corser's tail. On lap 16 Haga passed Bayliss, and one lap later Barros went up the inside of Corser at the hairpin- He made a similar move on Walker the next lap, but outbraked hinrselt Xaus was the next man to temporarily demor- alize Corser, pushing him to back to eighth. With only six laps remaininS, Toseland was look- ing safer in third, with Pitt 1.5 down, but the battle for the lead was still to be decided, iust at the point where Bayliss started his push to the front- "l enjoyed the battles with Troy today, and all weekend I had a good feelinS with the bike in both the wet and dry" Haga said. ''lt's a shame that we weren't able to test mr..rch in the dry, I had to make some suspension changes between the races and ir improved the bike, but still, ldid not have enough traction in the last laps. But I am happy with the results and to move up the cham- pionship. We have some more testing planned before the race in Misano- we have already had a Sood test at Misano, so I am looking forward to a good race there as well.'' Xaus made his pass on Walker stick, despite a huge rear slide on lap 23, exitinS the last corne( Wonld Superbik€ Championship and as Corser started to recover some pace, he was running right with Walker. Upfront Bayliss was 1.4 up on lap 24, with another tenth gained on lap 25. Corser gained a place on Walker on the approach to Bridge, and with two laps left, it looked as thouSh he could get Xaus, but he did it within a few corners. And engine blow-up for a backmarker caused some moments of worn/, but the flnishing order was as suspected: Bayliss, Haga, Toseland, Pitt, Barros, Corser, Xaus, \4hlker, Muggeridge and Nieto. Bayliss' win was his seventh in a row and he now has 225 points - 75 more than Corser. Haga is third with 133, with Toseland down to founh on 129. Cll Conrinued hom pose 23 summe( bywinninS the World Superbike penalty shootout contest at Silverstone before the racing go( under way. The 25-year-old rnade it to the final, aloflgside Aussie Steve Martin, and after a determined erfort in th€ penalty shoot out, Toseland took a home win. Shortly before the start ofthe Silver- stone weekend, Troy Bayliss and Lorenzo Lanzi stopped off in Lon- don to promote the launch of a new line of offlcial Ducati baggage, pro- duced by upscale suppliers Tumi. Pirelli broughr a new rear tire to Silverstone - one that was used in the 24 Hours Of Le Mans. lt is specifically designed for low-tem- pemture usage, suah a5 those of a French endurance raae in the spring- time - or a British racetrack at the star-t ofsummer. This being the UK, the tire wasn't used by quite at many riders as may have been plarlned, due to so much rain beint around in qualiting and practice- Aussie speedway racer lelson Crump wes art early visitor to Sil- verstone, a guest of the Yarnaha Motor Germarry team, before he had to head off to a retular league meeting- Crump intends to be a track-day addict when he finalt retires from speedway, and enter- tained Kevin Cunain with tales of how sp€edway bikes have their wheels deliberately or.tt of line, and steering heads offset, to allovy easier turning. Crump has the bike all sort- ed out for his impendinttrack days, as he was Siven a Suzuki GSX-R600 at a recent testimonial race, Top celebrig/ chef Giortio Lo.at€lli was a guest of Ducati at Silverstone. It was only fair, as key members of the team had been tuests of Locatel- li's at his "Locanda Locatelli" restau- rant (double-starred in the l4ichelin Red Guide) near Marble Arch in Lon- don, earlier in the week. Locatelli is one ofthe most popular TV chefs in the UK, and despite his many years in England, he $ill possesses an incredibly strong ltalian accent, mixed in with barrow-boy cockney. Ruben Xaus had his usual double- decker kne€sliders in place at Silver- stone, and as one ofthe early lap- pers in Superpole, he needed them to help stay upright. He uses them to allow him to get his knee down earlier, to help with feel on the limit. Fellow Berik'supplied rider James Toseland also resorted to them. Xaus, who was followed in the early pan o{ the Superpole session, had a killer oneJiner about eventual pole man Tommy Hill- "l must be tettint old. because when I looked behind me I saw this r€d Yamaha being rid- den by a wild man. I thought it was lNoriyuki] Hata gone nuts." losh Brookes' moYe out of the SC Caracchi Ducati team. and subse- quent unemployment, lasted a single race, as he replaced the plainly unh+- py Franco Battaini in the Bertocchi Kawasaki squad. He finished 2 I st on the lirst day and 25th in warmup. james Toseland was at Silverstone with his newest acquisition, a motodEme with a list price of $360,000. According to Ducati Xerox team boss Davide Tardozzi, one of the reasons that Lorenzo Lanzi is fight- ing for pac€ on occasion is the dreaded traction control, "Some- times Lorenzo has too much dialed in, and that hurts his pace in race conditions," said Tardozzi. Tominy llill was simply blown away by his Superpole performance. When the W interviewi were con- ducted in the media center, as Troy Bayliss was introduced as the sec- ond-plac€ llnish€r, Hill said, "That's Troy Bayliss that is, and l'm in front o, him.-." As Hillwent in front of camera his team boss, Rob McElnea, no rtranger to podiums in British and World Championship ra(int, shouted out, "Go on Tommy!" only to hushed by FGSport staff- Before the Silverstone weekehd, only two makes of rnachine - Du(ati and Honda - had won races at any ver- sion ofthe Sikerstone rrack;and prior to Hill! Superpole win, onty Ducati and Suzuki had taken pole positions. Should Bayliss or Corser (or wen Pirt or Brookes) win the first race then it would extend the Aursie- winning run in World Superbike from seven (aiready a record) to eight in a row. One more after that would tie Aurtralia with America, but the Aussies would have to set l2 in a row to equal all-time national winning record holders Neil Hodg- son andJames Toseland for the UK. VlroRrD SuPrRSrxr CHAr ProNsHrP SrLvERsroNE CtRcutT SrLVERsroNE, ENGLAND REsuLrs: MaY 2A, 2006 QUALIfYING. L Tommy Hilr (l:18.001)i 2. Troy Bayliss (118.254): l. chns whlker (l:18.265)i 4. Norir!kl I'ia8a (l:38.546)j 5. l',li.hel Fabnz'o (l:38899)r 6. Alex Baros (1,39.082)i 7. RubEn I€ur (l:39.188)i I Karl l'lusgeridge (l:40.023)r 9 RegE L:.oni (l :,10.042): l0. Troy CoEer (l:40.1€l)r I L AndEw Pitr (l:40.552)j ll Sebdtien Gmben (l:40.574J: 13. Fonn Nieto (l:40.729): 14- laftr lorerand (':al 00.41. l5 Non.[ Abe (l 42.069): 16. Yulio rasaFn. (t:!2.26t). I 7. Lorelzo Laz, ( I 28 290). l8 lBn Clemen,i (l:28.492): 19. l'l Nekrchrer (l:28.492); 20. Shinichi N.katomi (l:28.503): 21. losh Brookes (l:28.561)i 2?. GianLo N nelli (r:28 766): 2l Robeno Polfo (l:28.815):2,4. CEElon6 (l:28.866)i 25. Fabien Foret (l:28.t09)i 26. vittorio lannuzo (l:28.980): 27. sGve Mafrh ( l:29.1t9)i 28. flaEo Borciani (l:10.513). RACE ONE: I Trcy Bayliss (Duoi 2. No yukiHaea (Yffi)i 3. James Tosel&d (Hon)ia. Ruben vws (ou.)is. Andrew Pitt (Ys):5. chris walker (Kaw); 7- ReSi' Llconi (Kaw)i L Karl l'lu8$rid8e (Hon): 9. Alex srros (Hon)r I0. Non

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