Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
By Glenn LeSanto
Another double for Bayliss
Troy Bayliss put on yet another perfect display of race craft in the second World Superbike race at Lausitzring. He resisted some fierce pressure from team mate Ruben Xaus to take his eleventh victory of the season and his fifth double!
It was Ben Bostrom on the L&M Ducati that made the early running, storming into the lead from the start. Although he looked strong in the first lap it soon became apparent that he just didn’t have the tyres for the job. Bayliss was the first rider to get past Bostrom. When Bostrom tried to fire it out of a turn on lap two his rear Dunlop cried foul and spun fiercely, sending his Ducati side-slipping across the Lausitzring tarmac. Bayliss, who was stalking Bostrom at the time, pounced. His Michelins gripped hard through the turn as he cut inside Bostrom to take the lead.
Xaus was able to catch up and momentarily pass his team mate Bayliss. But his riding was extreme, he was obviously on, or even over, the
limit. By contrast Bayliss looked smooth and controlled, and as we’ve seen so many times already this year, he just upped his pace enough to take yet another win.
In the latter stages of the race Colin Edwards exploited a mistake by Xaus to push his Honda into second place. Bostrom, struggling for grip,
slipped back to finish fourth behind Xaus.
James Toseland and Gregorio Lavilla were yet again involved in a scrap, but Lavilla crashed to leave seventh position for Toseland. Steve Martin
recovered from a near high side while battling for tenth with Neil Hodgson and clawed his way back up to finish the race in eleventh. He was again the highest finishing Pirelli rider after his DFX Ducati team mate Antonello crashed while trying to hold Martin off. Broc Parkes, the only other rider using Pirelli tyres in WSB, retired from the race.
Noriyuki Haga finished fifth on his Aprilia, just ahead of Frankie Chili.
It’s a credit to Colin Edwards that despite Bayliss’s incredible performance so far this season, he’s still only 39 points adrift. With
six meetings, twelve races and a maximum of 300 points still to score, the championship is definitely not over yet.
World Superbike Race Two Results:
1. Troy Bayliss, Ducati 998F02, 24 laps, 40:09.633
2. Colin Edwards, Honda RC51, -1.650
3. Ruben Xaus, Ducati 998F02, -5.065
4. Ben Bostrom, Ducati 998F02, -13.963
5. Noriyuki Haga, Aprilia RSV1000, -20.035
6. Pierfrancesco Chili, Ducati 998RS, -28.960
7. James Toseland, Ducati 998F01, -31.380
8. Neil Hodgson, Ducati 998F01, -38.343
9. Chris Walker, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, -54.252
10. Lucio Pedercini, Ducati 998RS, -62.251
11. Steve Martin, Ducati 998RS, -62.795
12. Marco Borciani, Ducati 998RS, -64.210
13. Alex Hofmann, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, -79.737
14. Mauro Sanchini, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, -83.765
15. Peter Goddard, Benelli Tornado 900, -84.325
16. Serafino Foti, Ducati 996RS, -95.748
17. Mark Heckles, Honda RC51, -101.574
18. Alessandro Antonello, Ducati 998RS, -5 laps
19. Broc Parkes, Ducati 998RS, -5 laps
20. Juan Borja, Ducati 998RS, -10 laps
21. Ivan Clementi, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, -16 laps
22. Thierry Mulot, Honda RC51, -17 laps
23. Gregorio Lavilla, Suzuki GSX-R750, -23 laps
24. Jiri Mrkyvka, Ducati 996RS, DNS
Superbike World Championship Point Standings:
1. Bayliss, 310 points
2. Edwards, 271 points
3. Hodgson, 165 points
4. Haga, 153 points
5. Xaus, 152 points
6. Bostrom, 143 points
7. Toseland, 99 points
8. Walker, 80 points
9. Lavilla, 68 points
10. Chili,58 points
More, from HM Plant Ducati:
The ups and down of EuroSpeedway
HM Plant Ducati/GSE Racing rider James Toseland put in yet another consistent performance to take his second seventh-placed finish of the weekend at EuroSpeedway Lausitz. Despite the best efforts of many more experienced competitors, the young Englishman was able to continue the strong points-scoring run that he has maintained right up to this mid-way point of the season. His team-mate Neil Hodgson completed the race in eighth place. The 28-year-old Lancastrian showed great determination as he fought his way back through the field, after a minor collision with Noriyuki Haga dropped him back from fifth to 11th place.
Even after this disappointing conclusion to the weekend, Hodgson’s third place in the Superbike World Championship remains safe.
“I had a bit of a coming together with Haga as we were dicing for fifth place,” explained the 2000 British Superbike Champion. “All of a sudden, Haga decided to stuff it up the inside when there wasn’t really space. He popped up on my line just as I turned in and we bumped fairings. I had to pick the bike up and couldn’t help running wide, then off down the slip road. I now had two choices. One was to carry straight on, go round the bowl and rejoin. The other was to turn around and get back on the circuit at the first possible opportunity. There was no clear rule regarding this situation and after the confusion of Monza, I figured that I’d better turn back rather than risk a penalty.
“The incident cost me six places and even when I was back in the race, I still had a load of muck stuck to my tyres. So I had to take it easy to start with. Once I was past Walker, I started get back on the pace but there was just no way that I was going to get any higher than eighth, without James pulling over and letting me past. It certainly hasn’t been a great round, but everybody has a weekend when things go a bit wrong, and I’m hoping that I’ve just got mine out of the way!”
James Toseland is now 19 points clear of his nearest challenger for seventh place in the Championship. Top eight finishes are now a regular occurrence for the rider of the #52 HM Plant Ducati, but it is clear that he still wants more.
“I was five seconds quicker in that race than in the first,” said Toseland. “There’s only one fast line around Lausitzring, so it’s really hard to pass people. My aim was to try and get on the back of Chili, and I was over two seconds closer to him this time. If I keep up this level of improvement throughout the rest of the season, I should be on the podium before the end of it.”
More, from Aprilia:
HAGA GAINS GROUND AT LAUSITZRING
Lausitz (Germany), Sunday 9 June 2002 – Noriyuki Haga made two excellent places in the German Superbike Grand Prix, coming in fourth and then fifth. A great overall result, considering that, unlike his rivals, the Playstation2 – FGF Aprilia Team rider from Japan had never raced at the Lausitzring before, and that most of the test sessions were affected by bad weather. Haga had experienced the same conditions he found in today’s race (when the track was completely dry) only during the Saturday afternoon warm-up, and then in the brief Superpole. In race 1, Haga was the fastest on Dunlop tyres.
NORIYUKI HAGA (Playstation2 – FGF Aprilia Team rider) said: “My aim is to win, so I’m only pleased up to a point with these positions. Even so, if I think back to where we were at the end of the sessions on Friday, I can only be satisfied. We had no references here, so things should go better at Misano, where we’ll be in a couple of weeks’ time – we did our tests there last month.”
GIACOMO GUIDOTTI (Technical Manager, Playstation2 – FGF Aprilia Team) commented: “I’m convinced we came home with as much as we could have hoped for. On Friday, Haga was only fourteenth, but he made two great places in today’s races. The ground temperature was higher in race 2, so we changed a few settings to get a better grip: Haga didn’t like it, but actually he took the same time over the long distance and moved up three seconds against the winner, Bayliss.”
More, from Benelli:
Goddard finishes Fifteenth at Lausitzring
Peter Goddard rode the Benelli Tornado to fifteenth place in race two at Lausitzring today. Goddard managed to improve upon his seventeenth place grid position during the race.
“It was fun out there in race two,” said Goddard, “I was having a race with a couple of other riders, using the Tornado’s abilities under
braking to try to keep me in touch with faster bikes.”
Race one was a disappointment for the Benelli Sport team after a small problem forced Goddard to retire on lap 19.
“The weekend has been a tough one,” admitted Goddard. “The team have never raced at Lausitzring before, and because it’s a nearly new track neither have I. Obviously we’ve still got some way to go with the development of the race bike to make it competetive with the established
factory teams. We always knew it would be tough and we’ll have to go back to the workshop to try to extract some more horsepower from the engine. The bike handles really well, and it’s good on the brakes, but I’m being out-dragged along the straights.”
The next World Superbike round at Misano marks the anniversary of Benelli’s return to racing. The Benelli Sport team re-entered the racing
world for the first time at Misano a year ago when they debuted in the World Superbike competition.
