Oz Racers around the World
- August 2005
Anthony West improved 14 positions on the opening lap on the way
to finishing 12th in the race. The Red Bull KTM rider started the 10th round of
this year's 250cc world championship from 23rd position on the grid. He was
ninth at the end of a dramatic first lap where Aprilia-mounted
Italian Simone Corsi, and Honda riders Yuki Takahashi of
The
race on the 5.4km
Ant West quotes: "I was diving
under people everywhere on the first lap. There was a little bit of rain on the
track and a few of them crashed out. Some of the others were being cautious, so
I got under as many of them as I could while they sorted themselves out. Since
I started so far back I needed to pass as many as I could in the first lap or
two. I got off the line better than in the last race (German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring on July 31). I was racing (Jakub)
Smrz for a long time. He was passing me on the
straight, and then I would get him back under brakes. On the last lap he got me
coming up the back hill. We made some changes to the front to try and make the
bike steer better than in qualifying, but I still had problems in the long
corners. My team knows what needs to be done to fix things. This is a new bike
and we are learning more with every race. It's good the bike has finished all
these first three races we've done because we've been able to look at the way
it works on different tracks and in the wet and dry."
MotoGP: Sete Gibernau capitalized
on his pole position to lead the field through the first turns from his arch
nemesis Valentino Rossi but only half a lap later Rossi had nosed his way to
the front and instantly pulled a couple of bike lengths over the Spaniard who
was closely trailed by Marco Melandri and just when
it looked as though once again Rossi might disappear into the distance Gibernau came back at him to nose in front but he wasn't
there for long before the Italian superstar took the lead back but once again
it was only a couple of corners before Gibernau nosed
in front once again to recommence their long running psychological
battle. But Rossi then made a mistake and ran wide which gave the
Spaniard a breather of a few bike lengths. Meanwhile Melandri,
Hayden and Capirossi were waging a heady battle for
third place.
With ten laps to run Rossi hit the lead again after putting an inside under brakes move on the Spaniard. A couple of laps later Alex Barros pulled away from Hayden and started to close the gap down a little to the leading duo. Rossi slowed the race pace a little while out in front and seemingly baited Gibernau to go back past and the Spaniard watched and waited for some time before again taking his turn in front. The slowed pace had allowed Barros to close and in a big surprise Capirossi had worked his way back through Melandri and Hayden to move up onto the rear wheel of Barros with four laps to run. As they approached the last lap board Rossi decided to stick his nose in front once again meanwhile Capirossi had got within striking distance and if the leading duo tripped each other up the Ducati man was there ready to capitalize...
But Rossi pulled away and then unbelievably Gibernau seemingly ran out of juice and coasted to a stop to give Valentino yet another win and Capirossi inherited second place thanks to the Spaniards misfortune while Max Biaggi had fought his way forward to a valiant third place. Gibernau is seemingly a religious man but he will be thinking that his god has forsaken him once again as the Spaniard just can't seem to be able to take a trick this year.
Troy Bayliss (Camel Honda RC211V) said, “Things pretty much went as I expected today. I honestly don’t know what I have to do to go as fast as the front group, because I’m not saving myself, both in practice and the race I’m giving my all, just as my team do too. It felt like I didn’t have grip on the front and so staying ahead of Tamada, who I had a good duel with, was a slight piece of satisfaction. Ninth is better than in the last two races, but we’re not here for that.”
World Superbike
Round Eight - Brands Hatch -August 4th
Corser capitalized on his pole position to blast off the line and lead the field through the first turns closely chased by Karl Muggeridge and Noriyuki Haga, Regis Laconi, Chris Walker, James Toseland and Chris Vermeulen in seventh. Haga quickly started looking for a way through on Muggeridge and the Yamaha man made his move into turn one as they started lap two and then switched his sights towards getting the better of Troy Corser.
Haga was all over the back of Corser
throughout lap two and he looked to possibly have the pace to get Corser as he
seemed to be able to change his line mid-corner at will. He did exactly
that on lap three to put his Yamaha out in front while Karl Muggeridge was also still right in
the hunt and climbing all over the back of Corser.
With 9 laps to run Haga again hit the lead as the duel continued unabated with Laconi watching on only a couple of bike lengths behind and certainly still in with a good chance for the win should Haga and Corser trip each other up. Vermeulen promoted himself to 5th place after getting the better of his team-mate and then started climbing all over the back of Chris Walker to mount a challenge for 4th place. That battle was taking place 3 seconds behind the leading trio. Andrew Pitt was closing on 6th placed Karl Muggeridge as the race started winding down with 5 laps to run.
Corser put his nose in front just before they started the final lap and managed to hold the advantage to the line for his eighth race win of the season to draw level second in the list of all time race winners with Texan Colin Edwards.
Troy Corser – championship position 1st “Brands Hatch is a great circuit and the atmosphere there is usually tremendous. It is one of the few tracks where we can actually feel the presence of the spectators because they are very close to the action. “I am particularly happy that Sam gave birth last week to a beautiful baby girl because at one time it might have happened during the Brands Hatch weekend! That might have caused me a little less then 100 per cent focus, but now I don’t have to worry about that at all.
Chris Vermeulen – championship position 2nd “I'm feeling pretty pumped
after the good result for me and Kats (Fujiwara) at the Suzuka
8-hour. Now I have to make the switch back to my Ten Kate Honda, which is a
completely different machine to the full HRC bike I rode in
Garry McCoy – championship position
30th - 3 pts “I
would say it’s probably the most dangerous circuit of the season because of the
lack of run-off in certain areas. But, if you can forget the safety issues, I
enjoy it in a way. It’s quite good fun, with a few up and down sections and
fast turns here and there. It’s a circuit where you can carry a bit more corner
speed and you go downhill out of the slowest corner, so that should help us. It
has been a shame to miss a few days’ testing through my injury but I am hoping
we can qualify well and have two good races. I had the stitches out on Monday
and my back and neck injuries are much better so I am hoping to be nearly fully
fit for Friday.”
Karl Muggeridge – championship position 11th “Our test at Lausitzring after the last round at Brno gave us the chance to do some more work at finding grip and durability from the tyres in a race situation and that should help us to move forward at Brands Hatch. “I got my first World Supersport win at Brands Hatch after racing in the UK for a couple of years and I won again there last year on my way to the title, so I have good memories of the place.
Andrew Pitt – championship position 10th – 76pts “At Brno we were up there in practice but the races didn’t turn out as well as expected. On the positive side, we were more competitive than at the previous two races. Noriyuki (Haga) showed the potential of the bike and I just want to get out there and aim for a podium this weekend.”
Steve Martin –
championships position 20th – 14 pts Steve
was on pole position at Brands last year and was third in the first race, said:
“I am really looking forward to this round. It’s a track that I like and the
bike obviously goes well here. It’s pretty similar to
World Supersport
Charpentier capitalized on pole position to get away out in front from Fabrizio, Chambon and local boy Craig Jones. Kevin Curtain was running in sixth place and trying to fight his way through the traffic after failing to make the best of his front row starting position. Curtain got Foret for third place on lap seven and managed to pull a couple of bike lengths over his pursuer. The leading duo were 2 seconds ahead of Curtain but the Yamaha man was running a good pace and managed to pull back a little time at certain points around the circuit. He put in a great consistent run of fast laps to narrow the gap to the race leaders down to just over a second as they passed the halfway point of the race. Craig Jones had drifted back to seventh place while Broc Parkes was running ninth. With five laps to run Curtain had the gap down to only half a second as Charpentier and Fabrizio continued to fight over the lead then Charpentier upped the game in the final couple of laps though and Fabrizio had no answer and in turn Curtain could not mount a challenge to steal second place so when the show was done and dusted it was Charpentier that took the top step on the podium with Fabrizio and Curtain taking steps two and three respectively.
Kevin Curtain – championship
position third – 93pts “It was a shame to come away from
Broc Parkes – championship position sixth – 60pts “Since the last race we’ve
been testing at Lausitz and I’m going to Brands Hatch
feeling pretty confident. The result at