Preview Of Next World Superbike Race, At Oschersleben

Preview Of Next World Superbike Race, At Oschersleben

© 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

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From a press release issued by FGSport:

World Superbike Championship
Round 5
Oschersleben, Germany
28 -30 May 2004

PREVIEW

WORLD SUPERBIKE TAKES IT TO THE FIFTH DIMENSION

Spectator Spectacle: The fifth round of the World Superbike championship gets underway on 28 May at the multipurpose motorsports park of Oschersleben, situated some 35km west of Magdeburg. Nestling within the heartland of German motorcycle sport, Oschersleben was in the vanguard of the 1990s revolution in circuit design, its magnificently appointed facilities deliberately created in a stadium-style layout. Thanks to the raised spectator grandstands Oschersleben affords excellent viewing facilities for the enthusiastic German crowd, a fact which makes Oschersleben one of the more popular European based races for foreign visitors from East and West of the German border.

The Möbius Strip: After the impossibly high speeds of Monza, where some teams’ speed sensors clocked into the 200mph plus band and 300kmph top speeds were commonplace, Oschersleben could not be a more different challenge. With seven left and seven right hand corners in a short 3.667km lap distance, the riders have no chance for respite from their rhythmic trinity of braking, cornering and accelerating. The corners at Oschersleben are also peculiar in that many feature tightening exits, a factor which challenges each rider’s self discipline to not run in towards the apex too fast. As technical as they come, Oschersleben is a tough stop for the World Superbike Express, and one that particularly rewards a good grasp of machine set-up and tyre choice.

Previous Oschersleben Highlights: Of the competing powers at Oschersleben in 2004, only one has taken a win on a previous visit, James Toseland, who secured a race two victory last year when riding for a private Ducati team. As a full member of the official factory Ducati Fila squad this year, Toseland currently lies second in the championship, only three points from the lead.

Laconi The Leader: Having taken the lead in the championship for the first time at the preceding Monza event, four time 2004 race winner Regis Laconi enters the Oschersleben race in a better position than he could ever have expected after two no-scores in round one at Valencia. Having scored a total of three non-finishes so far Laconi nonetheless leads his team-mate James Toseland by a mere three points. Given Toseland’s pedigree at Oschersleben, and that Laconi has never previously finished on the Oschers podium, the battle in Germany may verge on the internecine.

Chili Determined: Before the desperate disappointment of a double DNF at the previous Monza round, Ducati privateer Pierfrancesco Chili led the world on his 998R-based Ducati machine. Even after two no scores at Monza, he still sits in third place overall, safe in the knowledge that he had an outstanding second place in race one last year. Looking for payback from lady luck, Chili approaches his 40th birthday in June with as much speed and aggression as riders half his age, ensuring his continued popularity to a global audience.

Privates Progress: With all riders in SBK 2004-style having the same choice of a range of Pirelli control tyres, the championship fight has closed up to a huge degree, as Ducati privateer riders Garry McCoy (Xerox Ducati Nortel Networks 999RS) and Noriyuki Haga (Renegade Ducati 999RS) have duly both scored a race win apiece. With two third places earned at Monza, McCoy approaches Oschersleben on a roll – and with third place Chili only ten points ahead of him.

Flying Four: The recent disappointment of being excluded from the results of race two at Monza will be banished well behind the fastest of the four-cylinder entries to the SBK Championship by the time Oschersleben rolls around. The Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade of Chris Vermeulen has already given the 21-year-old reigning World Supersport Champion podium success in any case. Although Vermeulen may have lost some ground in the championship battle his ability to deal with new situations as they arise, and the speed of progress of the new Honda’s development, means Oschers may still hold much for the Dutch-based team. Other top-level four-cylinder entries come from the Bertocchi Kawasaki, MIR Suzuki and UnionBike Yamaha teams, as they ride to the challenge of toppling the twin cylinder machines from the leading positions.

Martin Marches On: If there was an award for meritorious effort in the face of adversity this season then Aussie privateer Steve Martin would surely take it for his efforts on the fast Ducati DFX 999RS machine. Teamed with another talented trier, Marco Borciani, Martin is 11th, and would be much higher if he had not suffered some outrageous misfortunes, including an elbow injury at Monza. With two podiums to his credit nonetheless, Martin will be out for a personal hat-trick of champagne ceremonies on Sunday 30th at Oschersleben.

Three Huggers: The Foggy Petronas team, running the unique three-cylinder Petronas FP-1 machine, came away from Monza with real hopes of another few shots at the podium in the later stages of the year. Chris Walker and Troy Corser have both taken podiums but despite a new engine team looking after the development and maintenance of the reverse head three-cylinder 900cc engine, the team acknowledge that the twins and bigger fours may have the edge on corner exiting grunt at the convoluted Oschersleben. SBK has, however, offered up a world of surprises this year so far, and another good weekend could be on the cards for one of the most unique teams in the paddock.

Supersport: With both Karl Muggeridge and Broc Parkes on the podium at Monza and Muggeridge having taken the Monza and San Marino race wins, the team of the moment in WSS is the Ten Kate Honda crew. The fact that Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Yamaha Italia YZF-R6) still leads the title chase is testimony to his and his team’s acknowledged prowess while the shadowing figure of Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) has shown it’s not going to just be a two-rider fight for the title just yet. In amongst a strong line up of Honda and Yamaha teams there is a three-man Suzuki effort, currently headed by fourth place Katsuaki Fujiwara (Alstare Suzuki) while Italian hot-shot from the Breil Ducati 749 team, Lorenzo Lanzi, fills sixth place overall, still looking for his first podium.


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