Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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C Y C L E N E W S • JULY 5, 2006 27 Reigning Supersport Champion Sebastien Charpentier saw his championship lead shrink a little after he was forced to miss the Misano race, but his absence made for at least a frisson of expectancy. With his number-one rival Kevin Curtain qualifying poorly and then falling ill before the race itself on Sunday morning (temporarily fixed by the Clinica Mobile), the race had an air of unpredictability - even before it started - that it has not had for some time. It proved to be highly unpredictable, as the remaining Supersport riders served up a sizzling competition, with the top prize finally awarded to World Supersport rook- ie Massimo Roccoli of the Yamaha Team Italia squad. He won by only .2 of a second from Megabike Honda's Simone Sanna, who was standing in for the injured Kat- suaki Fujiwara. It was both Roccoli and his Yamaha R6's first world win. Yamaha Motor Germany's Broc Parkes took a new Supersport lap record and third place on the podium, promoting himself to overall third in the championship chase. Second in the table, but only sixth today, Curtain fought off pre-race illness and a far from ideal machine setup to take 10 points. "It's incredible, Roccoli said after the race. "My bike was perfect today. I went fast from the first lap and pushed hard for the whole race. I had no problems with arm pump like in previous races, and I knew from Friday that I could have a good race here. I hoped for a podium, but I did not expect to win. I was not sure if Sanna could pass me on the last lap so I just pushed as hard as I could. I'm very happy for the team and my fans and want to thank them for their support." Alex Barros did not use his new PI EFI unit at Misano, after having only an hour's set-up time on it. As the PI unit is a com- plete machine package, not just a traction control add-on, and Barros had only one hour to test it, he decided not to perse- vere with it at Misano. More bike-friendly accoutrements, such as buttons for on- bike adjustment close to the rider's fin- gers, have yet to be added to the Klaffi Honda. Ten Kate also decided not to use traction control or their PI system at Mis- ano, but will use the forthcoming Lausitzring test to give them a shakedown before a possible race ouuting at Brno for round seven. Barros confirmed that both he and Ten Kate were using the same PI system, but rumors, at Misano suggest that Barros will replace Muggeridge at Ten Kate in 2007, with the team keen to keep the services of Toseland, whom they now rate far more highly than they even did when they signed him. Ruben Xaus had some trouble in qualify- ing, and missed Superpole. Seen perform- ing some outrageous stoppies on his Steril- garda Berik Ducati, he was ironically underbraked for his own personal prefer- ences, as he only had the smaller of Ducati's two brake rotor sizes on his 999, not the usual dinner plates he would use at most tracks. Briefly... Continued on page 29 Andrew Pitt wins his first-ever World Superbike race BY GORDON RITCHIE PHOTOS BY GOLD & GOOSE World Superbike win in fine front-running style, after Corser's exit. "It feels incredible to get that first win," Pitt said. "I saw that Troy [Corser] was making some mistakes so I tried to keep the pressure on him. When he went down I saw that the lead was about 1.3 seconds over the next guy. For all I knew, there was a big line of guys behind me so I tried to concentrate, as there were a lot of laps to go. When I went past and saw 'six sec- onds' on my pit board, I thought the mechanics had made a mistake and it was 0.6 seconds. Then, when we got down to the last five laps, I knew that I could take it easier and enjoy things a bit more. It's a great feeling and I really have to thank my team. We did a lot of testing on used tires because we knew that it was important to be consistent throughout the race. In the first race the bike was running wide on a full fuel load, but for the second we com- pletely changed the front end and ran harder springs which made a big improvement." Klaffi Honda's Alex Barros was the best Honda rider in race two, the Brazilian fin- ishing second, despite an atrocious start - in contrast to his slick start in race one. "Haga could only pass me because the bike had a small, sporadic problem on one corner in race one," Barros said. "Race two was great. I enjoyed it very much and the team really set the stage for the podium today. The choice of tires, and especially the front tire was crucial for the race." Yamaha Motor Italia's Noriyuki Haga had to give his all to beat PSG-1 Kawasaki's Chris Walker to the final podi- um slot after a classic man-to-man battle in the latter stages. "Two very hard races," Haga said. "It was so hot and the tire was gone after about five laps. I pushed very hard and spent the last 20 laps of each race fighting with the bike, as well as with the other riders. I am very happy with the result though, as it moves me to second in the championship. We had a good test at Brno recently, so I am looking forward to riding there next month." With air temperatures into the low 90s for most of the day and 25-lap races to complete, all the riders knew that Misano would be a challenge, but this time around the "form book" was consumed by fire. Barros scored a fourth in race one, struggling with a bike that cut out occa- Corser (left) made a series of mistakes, allowing Pitt to get by. (Left) Corser was visibly disap- pointed with his performance. James Toseland had an up and down day in Italy, finishing on the podium in one race and in the gravel trap in the other.