Oz Racers around the World
- September 2006
Moto GP –
Ducati maestro Loris Capirossi dominated Sunday's Czech Republic Grand Prix at Brno, leading every inch of the 22 laps to crush the opposition into submission right from the word go. Obviously incensed at losing out on pole position to Valentino Rossi on Saturday, Capirossi put in a performance that drew congratulations from 'The Doctor' himself as he opened a one second gap on the first tour of the 5.4-kilometre Brno circuit while the rest sorted themselves out and never looked back. Consistently pulling out a couple of tenths every lap Capirossi was the only rider capable of lapping in the 1 min 58 secs bracket and had built up an eight second lead before easing off considerably on the final lap to eventually cross the line four seconds ahead of his nearest competition.
Riding with supreme
confidence throughout, Capirossi's second win of the 2006 campaign was arguably
sweeter than his season-opening win in
While Capirossi's master class at the head of the field meant that the battle for victory was a non-event, the race was by no means dull behind the red #65 machine.
Pole sitter Rossi and Dani Pedrosa had emerged from a ten bike battle for second place to run a clear second and third for the balance of the race. In an eagerly awaited duel neither rider disappointed with Pedrosa discovering just how ruthless Rossi can be when he saw several passing attempts blocked at the very last minute.
Pedrosa also discovered how difficult Rossi is to keep behind him for after making two sensational moves in the two uphill chicanes Pedrosa found Rossi retaking the position immediately after on both occasions. Rossi's lap 18 turn one move seemed to break Pedrosa's challenge slightly and by the time the chequered flag waved Rossi was four seconds to the good over the young Spaniard, who undoubtedly learned many more valuable lessons during the course of their battle.
The fight for fourth place also went down to the last lap with Kenny Roberts holding off a train of six bikes all the way back to Colin Edwards in tenth place.
From the front row of the grid Roberts initially slid backwards in the early stages, swamped by a plethora of fast-starting Hondas but as the race wore on he was able to pick his way past a struggling Hayden, Marco Melandri and Casey Stoner to regain fourth spot on the final corner of the 18th lap.
The 2000 World Champion then kept the Honda swarm at bay over the final couple of tours to cross the line two tenths of a second clear of Melandri with Stoner a further half second back in sixth and Suzuki's John Hopkins taking advantage of a last lap banging match between Hayden and the Kawasaki of Shinya Nakano to take seventh.
Hayden's worst race of the year was completed when Nakano got the better of him for eighth place on the final corner although with Capirossi and Rossi claiming the top two spots, Pedrosa only gained nine points on his fellow Repsol Honda rider in the overall standings to minimize the damage. With five races remaining Hayden leads Pedrosa by 25 points with Rossi 38 back, Melandri 40 back and Capirossi 50 in arrears.
Rossi's teammate Edwards
ran as high as fifth in the early stages but slipped back during the mid
portion of the race and found himself struggling to
stay on the rear of the fourth place battle during the closing laps. Toni Elias
finished eleventh, leading home another close battle between himself, Chris Vermeulen and Makoto Tamada while
Randy De Puniet on the second
World Superbikes
– Assen 3-9-06
Chris Walker (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) drove the strong British contingent in the Assen crowd wild after taking his first career victory in SBK. Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) may have crashed in the first race at Assen but after an assured display of riding to win in race two, he left with an increased championship advantage, with three rounds still to run. His main championship rivals had virtual disasters in the wet first and largely dry second, races but despite only finishing with a tenth and ninth place James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) regained overall second in the title hunt. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) and Troy Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) both fell in both races and scored no points. In the championship battle, Bayliss now leads Toseland by 100 points, 332 to 232, with Haga third on an unchanged 230. A fuel and oil spill in the wet morning warm-up led to some delays in the race schedule, but the 22-lap Superbike races themselves went ahead as planned and on time.
RACE ONE: An astonishing 22-lap contest gave Chris Walker his first ever
World Superbike race win, as the Nottinghamshire rider overcame the atrocious
weather and slippery track to go from dead last (and on the gravel at the first
corner on lap one) to victor in front of a drenched Assen crowd. It was
In second place came Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia), with Michel Fabrizio taking his Honda DFX Treme Honda to third, after moving forward confidently from a 14th place start.
RACE TWO: In the second race, on a dry track with damp patches around, Bayliss took another of his assured
race wins, after an early fight with eventual fourth place rider, Yukio
Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra). He was almost ten seconds ahead of
second place rider Pitt, who now
sits fourth overall, on 197 points after two runner-up rides. In a strong day
for PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse rider Fonsi Nieto, a fourth in race one was followed
up but his first career SBK podium of third in race two.
ETCETARA: Yukio Kagayama (Alstare
Suzuki Corona Extra) recovered from his first race crash to secure an
impressive fourth in race two, although being passed twice by eventual podium
rider Nieto in the process. Troy Corser
(Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) lost the front while in the leading group in race
one. In race two a collision between Corser
and Haga on the start line broke the wheel and dented the front disk on Corser's Suzuki, and when he went into
the first corner he had no brakes, taking out James Toseland as a result,
before he remounted to finish a brave ninth. In race one Toseland ran off the
wet track while with the leading group, but battled on to finish tenth. Chris
Walker (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) had to contend with the wrong choice of rear
tyre, fitted in error, in race two, and after a few laps started a charge to
the back that saw him finish an eventual 14th. He nonetheless moves from ninth
to eighth overall in the series, thanks to his race one win.
With so many riders falling in the opening race, including potential podium rider Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Berik Ducati) the privateer machines of Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France Ipone) and Max Neukirchner (Alstare Engineering Suzuki) ran out fifth and sixth, with the factory Ducati of Lorenzo Lanzi the top twin cylinder rider on show, seventh. He was followed by the private machine of Roberto Rolfo (Ducati SC Caracchi) and also Karl Muggeridge, who was in a podium scoring place before running off track in race one and then losing traction to finish 13th in race two. There were only 15 finishers in race one, but Steve Martin (Petronas FP-1) obtained the first of two points scoring results, with 12th in the wet opener, 11th in the dry second race.
World Supersport
Kenan Sofuoglu (Winston Ten Kate Honda) rode the race of his life in wet conditions in a two-part aggregate Supersport race to secure the race win from new clear championship leader, Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany). After 21-laps of high-risk racing, another new star was born, Kai Borre Andersen (Hoegee Suzuki), who gave his team its first podium in WSS, finishing third, ahead of Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda). Local rider Arie Vos (J&E Sport Ten Kate Racing Honda) went fifth, with the Hoegee Suzuki team having a successful day, as Barry Veneman scored sixth. In the championship chase itself, Curtain has 151 points, Charpentier 144 and Broc Parkes 119. Parkes, running to a clear early lead in the wet track conditions of race one, fell heavily, and has suffered what initial test have concluded to be three broken ribs, a possibly fractured shoulder and a punctured lung. After his Assen race win, Kenan Sofuoglu now sits fifth overall, only two points behind Robbin Harms (Stiggy Motorsports Honda).
AMA (American Superbike)
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin reached another milestone in his record-smashing career on Sunday at Road Atlanta, clearing off at the front to record his 50th AMA Superbike victory.
The race was a virtual duplicate of Saturday’s 25-lap affair. Title-leading teammate Ben Spies grabbed the early led while Mladin set off on one of his typical ‘less than ideal’ starts from the front row, dropping to seventh on the opening circulation, just like yesterday.
And again, the Australian ace made a rapid charge through the factory stars standing in his way, dropping third Yosh runner Aaron Yates, Parts Unlimited Ducati’s Neil Hodgson, Team Kawasaki’s Roger Hayden, and the American Honda duo of Jake Zemke and Miguel DuHamel in a matter of four lap’s time.
Just two more laps were needed for Mladin to swing past Spies, who had no desire to dogfight with the defending champ on this day, and take control of first on the back straight on lap six. Once through, Mladin set off to a double-digit margin of victory, ultimately claiming the checkered flag with 10.500 seconds to spare.
The win was Mladin’s fourth straight as he’s gained momentum just at the same time that Spies has been forced into conservative mode by his strong championship position and still-mending broken right hand. Mladin, who’s anxiously awaiting another shot at Spies in ’07, clearly feels that while those two realities may be related to some degree, they are not 100% tied together.
He commented, “I’ve come on pretty strong at the end of the year and a few things have come together. Ben’s doing what he has do. Only Ben knows how hard he’s riding and I’m looking forward to next year.”
He continued, reflecting
on his epic career to date, remarking “Six championships, 50 wins, and 50 poles
-- if I decided to stop after
While Spies didn’t push Mladin at the front, no one else had anything for the 22-year-old Texan, who apparently is, even when riding hurt and safely, a good six seconds a race better than the third best rider on the track.
And just like in Saturday’s race, third Yoshimura man Yates came from behind to complete a Suzuki sweep of the podium. Systematically working past Hayden and the Honda pilots, Yates was only in a position to steal third place away from former World Superbike champ Hodgson in the race’s final stages.
Unable to find a way past in the more conventional passing zones, such as Turn 1, the back straight, or on the brakes in 10, Yates saved it until the final trip down the hill to go driving past the Englishman in one of the scariest corners in the world.
Yates later explained that while others may shy away from it, Turn 12 is his money section on the Road Atlanta circuit. “It was just an area I’ve been strong at all day. I tried to chase Neil down. He was going really good. I just kept my head down trying to chase him down. I smelled something burning down the back straight. I didn’t know if it was my motorcycle or something was on fire…
“Once I got close up to Neil I realized what it was. On the last lap there were parts falling off his bike all over the place out there. Coming onto the back straight at the kink I was real close to him and a big ‘ole piece of insulation flew out of the daggum muffler. My bike stepped out real big sideways!
Spies will look to tie up his first career AMA Superbike title at the 2006 series finale, which will take place at Mid-Ohio on September 29-October 1.