Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Glenn LeSanto

Casoli wins it as Foret bins it!

Paolo Casoli was gifted a race win when Fabien Foret threw a sure race win away when he lost the front end on the penultimate lap.

Casoli was back in ninth at the start of the race, but barged his way up through the tightly-packed Supersport field to join the fun up front.

Chambon took the holeshot but couldn’t escape and the usual Supersport freight train developed with six riders fighting hard for the race. Fabien Foret, Stephane Chambon, Katsuaki Fujiwara, Karl Muggeridge and Christian Kellner had all been fighting up front early in the race. But both Muggeridge and Kellner crashed out in separate incidents.

Series leader Foret looked to be on for a win after riding to the front, dropping a few places and then fighting back hard to take the lead again with just two laps to go. Then he lost the front end of his Ten Kate Honda after trailing the front brake into a turn way too late on the penultimate lap. He remounted to finish in sixth place to minimize the points damage. His crash means that he is now only three points ahead of Fujiwara in the Championship with just two rounds to go.

Paolo Casoli couldn’t believe his luck when Foret gifted him back the lead. The Italian managed to hold off a determined charge by Chambon on the final lap to take the win. Fujiwara, on the second Suzuki, came home in third place.

Defending Champion Andrew Pitt finished in fourth place after a race-long battle with his countryman Chris Vermeulen that was only decided on the final lap when Vermeulen’s Honda expired with an engine failure.

Local boy Christian Kellner had looked a potential winner but made a mistake and crashed out to the disappointment of the German crowd. His teammate and fellow German Jorg Teuchert had crashed on the second turn on lap two, taking the unfortunate Iain MacPherson down with him.

Australian Kevin Curtain had a good result finishing in fifth place on his OPCM Yamaha.

World Supersport Race Results:

1. Paolo Casoli, Yamaha YZF-R6, 28 laps, 42:42.079
2. Stéphane Chambon, Suzuki GSX-R600, -0.085 seconds
3. Katsuaki Fujiwara, Suzuki GSX-R600, -0.921 seconds
4. Andrew Pitt, Kawasaki ZX-6R, -6.292 seconds
5. Kevin Curtain, Yamaha YZF-R6, -7.499 seconds
6. Fabien Foret, Honda CBR600, -25.076 seconds
7. Jan Hanson, Honda CBR600, -26.871 seconds
8. Alessio Corradi, Yamaha YZF-R6, -26.913 seconds
9. James Ellison, Kawasaki ZX-6R, -49.239 seconds
10. Jürgen Oelschläger, Honda CBR600, -49.512 seconds
11. Laurent Brian, Honda CBR600, -50.589 seconds
12. Matthieu Lagrive, Yamaha YZF-R6, -51.331 seconds
13. Sebastien Charpentier, Honda CBR600, -51.711 seconds
14. John McGuinness, Honda CBR600, -64.185 seconds
15. Gianluca Nannelli, Ducati 748R, -74.717 seconds
16. Claudio Cipriani, Yamaha YZF-R6, -86.608 seconds
17. Chris Vermeulen, Honda CBR600, -2 laps, DNF
18. Christian Kellner, Yamaha YZF-R6,-8 laps, DNF
19. Michael Schulten, Yamaha YZF-R6, -9 laps, DNF
20. Karl Muggeridge, Honda CBR600, -18 laps, DNF
21. Robert Ulm, Yamaha YZF-R6, -19 laps, DNF
22. Robert Frost, Yamaha YZF-R6, -23 laps, DNF
23. Werner Daemen, Honda CBR600, -25 laps, DNF
24. Antonio Carlacci, Yamaha YZF-R6, -25 laps, DNF
25. Piergiorgio Bontempi, Ducati 748R, -25 laps, DNF
26. Rico Penzkofer, Ducati 748R, -28 laps, DNF
27. Jörg Teuchert, Yamaha YZF-R6, -28 laps, DNF
28. Christophe Cogan, Honda CBR600, -28 laps, DNF
29. Iain MacPherson, Honda CBR600, -28 laps, DNF



More, from a press release issued by Team Ten Kate Honda:

Foret still ahead despite crash

Fabien Foret lost the front end of his Ten Kate Honda CBR600FS on the penultimate lap of the World Supersport race in Oschersleben, Germany. He remounted to finish sixth, winning ten points and just keeping hold of his championship lead.

Foret was leading the race when he crashed, having battled for most of the race with several other riders. Luckily for Foret, the leading six riders had built up such a big lead over the rest of the pack that Foret had time to remount without losing too many places. His sixth place finish earned him ten valuable championship points, keeping him just three points ahead of Fujiwara, who finished the race in third place.

“I want to win every race I ride in,” explained Foret. “Especially when I am leading the world championship with only a few races left in the season. So I always push to the limit, and when you do that sometimes you crash. There’s now only two races left this season and I’ll continue to give my maximum effort and try to win the Championship for Ten Kate Honda.”

Foret’s team mate Iain MacPherson had a very short race, he was punted off by Jorg Teuchert at the only the second turn of the first lap, ruining what had been a very promising weekend for the Scotsman.

“I’m obviously pretty disappointed,” said MacPherson, “I had no idea what was happening, one minute I was thinking that I had made a pretty good start, and then I was in the gravel trap!”

“I’m especially upset for Iain,” commented Team Manager Ronald ten Kate. “He has looked very strong all weekend and his performance in this morning’s warm up showed he was right on the pace.”

MacPherson had been second fastest in the morning warm up, just 0.024 seconds behind Foret.

“If he hadn’t been taken out in the first lap,” continued ten Kate, “I’m sure he would have had a brilliant race.

“As for Fabien Foret, what can I say? He was very lucky to be able to continue the race after his crash and salvage some points. I was very surprised that he managed to keep hold of his championship lead after crashing. All season his riding style has been able to get him to the front of a race, and to the front of the championship. But today I think the same style has cost him a race win, and almost cost him his championship lead. Now everything is wide open for the last two races!”


More, from a press release issued by Van Zon Honda TKR:

A promising weekend finishes in disappointment

The Van Zon Honda TKR World Supersport team left Oschersleben empty handed.

It had been a promising weekend, with championship points and podium finishes looking very likely. Chris Vermeulen qualified in fifth and got a great start in the race. Werner Daemen, only recently back from injury, lined up 16th on the grid. But it all ended with double disappointment for the team with Daemen crashing and Vermeulen failing to finish after his machine developed a mechanical problem on the final lap.

“I’m really disappointed about the last lap,” said Vermeulen after the race. “I had a great start but had a few problems in the race. We hadn’t got the bike set up absolutely right before the race and I’d opted for a front tyre that proved too soft in the race. It started to cause me trouble so I adapted my riding style, holding the bike upright more and trying to square off the turns. This worked and I started to make up places again. I reckon I could have got by Pitt again and was lining him up for a pass at the last turn. Then the bike stopped and I had no choice but to park it and walk back to the pits.”

Werner Daemen’s luck was similar. He was taken out early in the race in a three-bike pile up. “I got tangled up with two other riders and crashed,” explained Daemen. “Carlacci apologised to me after the race, as he had hit me from behind when we crashed. But to be honest I think by the time he hit me I had already lost the front end and so would have crashed anyway!”

The team now have to pack up for the trip to Assen for what is effectively the Belgium-based team’s home round, held at the historic Dutch track next weekend.