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2005 WORLD SUPERBIKE: SAN MARINO

CIRCUIT

• Brno, Czech Republic
• Track length: 5.403 km ; the longest circuit in the championship
• Circuit opened: 1987
• Superbike lap record: 2'04.019 (Troy Corser, 1996)

RACE RESULT

• CORSER: "I'm pretty happy with how the day worked out, especially after the problems we had in the first day and a half. Once we found a good set- up, I knew a win or two was possible. I made a good start and had clear track ahead of me and that's what you need at Brno if you are to have a good race. Although no race is ever easy, that was one of the more comfortable races I've had this year and it was good to get back to winning ways. My bike's engine felt a bit slow at the start of the second race, so I guess I was fortunate that it was red- flagged and I was able to jump on my spare for the restart. The set- up was very close - and I have to thank the team for doing such a good job - but there was a bit of an electronic problem and I feel that stopped me from catching and passing Nori. But we came here to increase our points and that's what we did, so I'm pretty wrapped."
• VERMEULEN: "I didn't get off the line too badly but the front wheel started to lift and I had to roll off a bit. I came together with Nori (Haga) in the first turn and got a big wobble on and then found myself with a lot of fast riders who were difficult to pass. A couple of incidents cost me places that I'd worked hard to get but eventually I got into a good rhythm and put in some good laps towards the end of the race. We'd lifted the front a little between the races and that helped me to hold lines a lot better. But we also had a bit of a voltage problem and I was getting some weird signals from the dash. I'm happy with the podium though, considering this was our first time here - it's a good reward for all the team's hard work."
• LACONI: "I am so happy to be on the podium because being ninth in Superpole was not so good ... I pushed very hard, I chose the softer tyre at the front and the last few laps were very difficult. I tried to follow James but he was faster than me at the finish and so I settled for third, but I am happy because I took some points from Vermeulen and that's what I need for today ... I struggled a bit with the gearing over the weekend, that was my fault but we made a change and it was a lot better. After two laps I found myself in the lead and that was fantastic but on the restart after half distance the front started to slide a lot. I was trying my best just to stay on the bike, because it was so hard. I finished seventh, which means I'm disappointed for myself and Ducati because they've done a good job. Now I'm already thinking about the next race, I will take my fight to Brands and do much better"

SUPERBIKE RACE 1, BRNO

• 1 Troy Corser , Suzuki GSXR1000
• 2 Toseland Ducati 999 F05 +6.5s
• 3 Laconi Ducati 999 F05 +7.4s
• 4 Walker, Kawasaki Corse Kawasaki ZX10
• 5 Chili
• 6 Lanzi
• 7 Haga
• 8 Vermeulen
• 9 Abe
• 10 Pitt
• 11 Kagayama 12 Nieto 13 Muggeridge 14 Neukirchner 15 Checa
• 16 Cardoso 17 Martin 18 Borciani 19 Gimbert 20 Bostrom

SUPERBIKE RACE 2, BRNO

• 1. Noriyuki Haga, Japan, Yamaha
  "I am very happy for this win. I had some problem in the first laps when I touched Chris (Vermeulen) and this made my brake lever go up in the air. I had to hit it to put it back in place and this cost me some time but I was able to make some very good lap times. All season I have been asking for more engine power and I think that we will have a new engine with more power for Brands Hatch. I won twice there last year so now I am very much looking forward to going there."
  2. Troy Corser , Suzuki GSXR1000
  3. Chris Vermeulen, Australia
  4. Norick Abe, Japan, Yamaha
  5. Pierfranco Chili, Italy, Honda
  6. Lorenzo Lanzi, Italy, Ducati
  7. Regis Laconi, France, Ducati
  8. James Toseland, Britain, Ducat
  9. Karl Muggeridge, Australia
  10. Chris Walker, Britain, Kawasaki

SUPERSPORT RACE RESULT

• 1 Sebastien Charpentier Honda FRA
  2 M. Fabrizio Honda ITA +4.4
  3 G. Nannelli Ducati ITA +5.3
  4 R. Harms Honda DNK +7.973
  5 X. Fores Suzuki ESP +9.589
  6 C. Jones Honda GBR +9.782
  7 S. Chambon Honda FRA
  8 A. Corradi Ducati ITA
  9 W. Daemen Honda BEL
  10 B. Veneman Suzuki NED

YAMAHA RACE REPORT:

• Noriyuki Haga rode a sensational race two at Brno today to give Yamaha's YZF-R1 its first victory in the Superbike World Championship, the brand's first since officially returning to the series this season.
• The Japanese Yamaha Motor Italia star gave a magical display to charge through from 16th place on the grid to take a lead he would never lose on lap seven, overtaking series leader Troy Corser (Suzuki) and establishing more than a three second lead at the chequered flag.
• Haga's win, Yamaha's first in the class since the same rider won race two at Assen in September 2000 on the YZF-R7, came after a troubled weekend in qualifying that saw him starting way down the grid. However, even despite missing out on superpole the 29-year-old maintained that the settings of his R1 were ideal for race conditions. A lack of grip held him back as he raced to a still impressive seventh in the opening race, before using exactly the same set-up and tyre combination to blast to victory in the second.
• Yamaha Motor Italia team-mate Andrew Pitt had a troubled weekend. Struggling for front end grip he came home 10th in race one, before a clutch problem forced him out of a points scoring position in the second, which had been restarted due to an oil spill in the opening laps of the initial running.
• Yamaha Motor France's Norick Abe almost made it two R1s on the podium in race two, narrowly missing out on third when passed by Chris Vermeulen (Honda) with two laps remaining. It was the Japanese rider's best finish of his short superbike career and equaled his best result at the Czech circuit, matching his fourth place finish in the 2001 500cc Czech Grand Prix. Earlier in the day Abe finished ninth while team-mate Sebastien Gimbert, still struggling with an injured leg from a crash at Silverstone, was 19th and 17th.
• Despite his win, Haga remains sixth in the championship - albeit with a reduced gap to defending world champion James Toseland (Ducati) in fifth place. Abe moved up to ninth, one place ahead of Pitt. Corser continues to lead the championship with an extended advantage over second placed Vermeulen.
• Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia)
  "I am very happy for this win. I had some problem in the first laps when I touched Chris (Vermeulen) and this made my brake lever go up in the air. I had to hit it to put it back in place and this cost me some time but I was able to make some very good lap times. All season I have been asking for more engine power and I think that we will have a new engine with more power for Brands Hatch. I won twice there last year so now I am very much looking forward to going there."
• Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia)
  "We had the same problem in race two as we did at Misano. The clutch was slipping so I was losing drive and although I was able to make some time going into the corners the acceleration was not strong enough and eventually I had to retire. I also didn't have enough grip from the front in either race which made for a tough weekend."
• Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "It certainly helped that I have been here before but the main difference between race one and race two was not even the start but the fact that we put more weight on the back of the bike to improve traction and a harder front tyre. The changes almost allowed us to take a podium, but in the last five laps the performance of my front tyre went down, and I could not push it any harder. I still had a lot of spinning from the rear but we made the bike much better in race two."
• Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France)
  "In race two my brakes were not working properly and I discovered that it was the adjuster on the left handlebar which was reducing our braking power. I stopped, adjusted it back then jammed the adjuster by hitting it, so that the brake would work. After that I was a second a lap faster."
• Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia)
  "You have to ask Noriyuki about this race because I have no idea how he did it! Maybe the temperature change had something to do with it because he had the same set up on the machine from race one to race two. Obviously this is a huge morale boost for the whole team and we will go back to Italy tonight very happy and motivated for the next race."
• Martial Garcia (Team Manager - Yamaha Motor France)
  "The secret with our bike is to manage the lap times of the bike even when the tyre is not brand new. Abe did this better in the second race and we almost got a podium. This shows our level of potential performance."
  

QUALIFYING

GRID, SUPERPOLE:

• 1 Troy Corser , Suzuki GSXR1000 2'03.083
  "I am happy because we finally found a decent bike set-up this afternoon after struggling a bit for the past two days. We changed the swinging arm pivot point and also made some adjustments to the front and rear suspension and that made a big difference. Normally, we only make small changes one at a time but, because this track is so long and time spent in the garage is time not spent on the track, we made some big changes and they worked out pretty good. There was never a problem on qualifying tyres - only race rubber, but now we are more or less sorted on that. I nearly had a disaster in Superpole when I found myself without any brakes going into the first turn on my out lap. I had to spend nearly a third of a lap turning the adjuster to get the brakes to work OK and by the time I had done all that it was time to get my head down and attack the line for the start of the Superpole lap. It went like a breeze and I ended up quickest. The key to this track is to be smooth and fast. If you are too aggressive and charge into the turns, you end up going slower. Brno is a technical track and to do well here you have to use your head. I think the races are going to be very close and I don’t think anybody will pull away - if they do, I’d like it to be me! The temperature could play an important part in the proceedings because we’ve found that the Pirellis don’t work as well when the track temperature is very hot. So I’m hoping that it will be a bit cooler then this afternoon and stay dry. If that happens, I should be on course for a couple of podiums, and that’s what I’m chasing."
• 2 Toseland Ducati 999 F05 2'03.941
  "It's my first front row of the year and I'm overjoyed! I 've been close a number of times on the second row but not quite there. Pole position would have been nice but Troy pulled out a fantastic lap. The team's worked really well this weekend, I had a good test one month ago and I knew that we could be competitive. It's going to be a difficult race but I've got a good set-up and I'm confident for tomorrow. This place is really strange, when it's cool in the morning the times are really good and the tyres work well but as soon as the temperature goes up, everyone starts to have problems and not many people went faster in the afternoon. We just worked with that, I've done a lot of laps this weekend to get used to how it's going to be in the races tomorrow and I think we've got as good a package as anyone out there."
• 3 Neukirchner Honda CBR 1000RR 2'03.398
• 4 Vermeulen C. Winston Ten Kate Honda Honda CBR 1000RR
• 5 Muggeridge K. Winston Ten Kate Honda Honda CBR 1000RR
• 6 Walker C. PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse Kawasaki ZX10
• 7 Kagayama Y. Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra Suzuki GSXR1000 K5
• 8 Cardoso J. D.F.X. Treme Yamaha YZF R1
• 9 Laconi R. Ducati Xerox Ducati 999F05
• 10 Checa Carrera D. Yamaha GMT 94 Yamaha YZF R1
• 11 Abe 12 McCoy 13 Pitt 14 Sanchini 15 Clementi 16 Lanzi

SUPERSPORT GRID

1. Charpentier S. Winston Ten Kate Honda Honda CBR 600RR 2'06.283
2. Curtain K. Yamaha Motor Germany Yamaha YZF R6 2'06.703
3. Fabrizio M. Italia Megabike Honda CBR 600RR 2'07.153
4. Parkes B. Yamaha Motor Germany Yamaha YZF R6
5. Foret F. Team Megabike Honda CBR 600RR
6. Harms R. Stiggy Motorsports Honda CBR 600RR
7. Fores J. Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra Suzuki GSX 600R
8. Nannelli G. Ducati SC Caracchi Ducati 749 R
9. Daemen W. Van Zon Honda Honda CBR 600RR
10. Corradi A. Ducati Selmat Ducati 749 R

RACE PREVIEW:

FOGGY RACING

• Foggy PETRONAS Racing venture into unknown territory for the seventh round of the Superbike World Championship at Brno in the Czech Republic this weekend.
• World Superbike action returns to scenic setting for the first time since 1996 and, although Garry McCoy has a wealth of Grand Prix experience at the circuit, this is a new venue for Carl Fogarty's team.
• But team manager Jack Valentine is hoping to build on the progress made at the previous round, when Steve Martin recorded the best result of the season with an eighth place in the second Misano race.
• Jack said: "We have been spending most of our time developing the new engine management system and I think there is still plenty to come from that. The Brno circuit may not suit us because there are some steep climbs, particularly coming out the chicane. However, there are also a lot of fast flowing corners so, until we get there, we do not really know what to expect. It will be critical to get the gear ratios correct quickly so that we can maximise the potential of the bike."
• Garry said: "We used to test there in my Red Bull days so I know the circuit pretty well and have had some pretty good results there. I have won in the 125cc GPs there and also clinched the German championship at Brno on a 125cc. I was also third in the 500cc GP in 2001, behind Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi. It's a big and wide track with a couple of hills, a couple of tight lefts and some blind corners, so it is a bit tricky. The key corner is the one running onto the main hill. If you come out of there a bit untidy you will lose all momentum before that huge hill. I always look forward to going to Brno and I hope our bike is going to be relatively competitive."
• Steve said: "I think I will be one of the very few riders never to have seen the track before, but if the bike is handling well it shouldn't be too difficult to learn. I am not going to have any pre-conceived ideas and I just want to do as many laps as I can with my settings from Misano so that I can get an idea about the gearing. It looks as though the weekend might be wet and I would actually look forward to a wet race. The team have been making a few modifications to the weight distribution which should help improve my lap time consistency with full and empty fuel tanks."
• Foggy was a winner at Brno in 1993 and narrowly missed out on a double victory when his bike broke down on the penultimate lap while leading, although he managed to nurse it home in second place.

YAMAHA PREVIEW:

• The Superbike World Championship welcomes back the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic to its calendar, with the 2005 series passing the halfway point there this weekend.
• The long and flowing circuit is a firm fixture in the MotoGP calendar, but has been visited just twice by the superbikers - in 1993 and 1996. Yamaha Motor Italia riders Noriyuki Haga and Andrew Pitt will not be strangers to the circuit however. The pair spent two days testing at Brno last month and found good base settings ahead of Friday's first qualifying. Having gone into the last two rounds with no set-up data, Haga and Pitt are confident of continuing the R1's development during the race weekend. Haga goes to Brno as the top Yamaha runner in the championship, with a brace of hard fought sixth places at Misano moving him up to sixth in the standings. "Misano was very tough but I think we did a good job to take two sixth places after qualifying down in 21st," said the Japanese rider. "We've already spent two days at Brno, working on the chassis settings and finding a race set-up. That was all we did during the test there - working on the race set-up and not using qualifyin
  g tyres - so I am confident that we have a good base that won't see me starting from the sixth row again!"
• Team-mate Pitt goes to Brno after a Misano nightmare that saw him fail to finish either race and slip back to ninth in the championship. However the resilient Australian feels that testing at Brno will give them a head start this weekend. He said: "After two tough weekends at new tracks for our R1 it will be good to get to a circuit where we at least have some data ahead of the race weekend. We're going to Brno with a base setting and we should be able to spend Friday improving them rather than just trying to find something that works like we did in Misano and Silverstone."
• Also looking for improved fortunes are the Yamaha Motor France team. Misano saw the team's Norick Abe score just one point in "one of the worst weekends of my career" while team-mate Sebastien Gimbert looks to return to action after missing Misano with a leg injury. "The last three races have been tough," admitted Abe. "The first three were held on courses of which I had experience from Grands Prix and I am looking forward to Brno, which is a circuit I know well. It is a course which I enjoy riding, although I have never finished on the podium there. Maybe that is something I can change this weekend."
• Brno technical guide
  Although a new track for most of the superbike teams and riders, Brno is a popular stop on the MotoGP calendar. At 5.4km, Brno is the longest circuit the superbikers will race at this year. Combined with the wide, smooth, track surface, it's a venue which also allows a variety of competitive racing lines and passing opportunities - majority of the time this takes place under brakes. Far from being a flat circuit the elevation changes are quite varied in the second half, while the corners themselves often feature a typically positive camber. The Brno tarmac also offers good grip, without the reputation for tearing up tyres. With this in mind, recent tests at the venue focused almost exclusively on chassis settings. By altering the height of the rear swingarm pivot, both Haga and Pitt were able to improve the steering characteristics of their machines, while Pirelli's new, wider, 200 section rear tyres, introduced for the first time in Misano, should offer improved side grip an
  d drive out of the many long radius corners. Brno features no really hard braking zones but, with so many constant radius corners, throttle connection and a linear power delivery are important, another key development area for the Yamaha Motor Italia team this year and an area where the machines have been transformed throughout the season.
• Supersport World Championship
  Yamaha Motor Germany riders Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes go to Brno on a high after a hectic June that has seen them improve the settings of their YZF-R6 machines dramatically. Both joined their superbike colleagues to test at the circuit a few weeks ago and were delighted with the results: finding good suspension settings for the race and testing tyres for championship supplier Pirelli. This work was continued last weekend when the squad stayed on at Misano to compete in a national championship round at the Italian venue. Parkes won the race, his first victory on a Yamaha, but more importantly both riders reported improved front end suspension set-up. With six of the 12 rounds gone, Curtain lies third in the championship with Parkes in fifth.
• FIM Superstock 1000 Cup
  Occupying the top three positions in the Superstock FIM 1000 Cup, the internal battle between Yamaha's officially-supported superstock riders should provide a fascinating appetiser in Brno. Just 10 points separate the R1 riders, with Italian class rookie Massimo Roccoli taking the championship lead at his home race in Misano three weeks ago. Early season pace setter Kenan Sofuoglu is set to return to action after missing out on Misano, albeit not yet 100 percent recovered from his a broken hand. The Turkish rider remains second in the series, eight points behind Roccoli but just two ahead of Yamaha Motor Germany team-mate Didier van Keymeulen. Van Keymeulen scored another second in Misano and goes to Brno with the advantage of a day's testing at the venue last month. Another Yamaha youngster to look out for is Italian starlet Claudio Corti, who leads the European Superstock 600 Championship after winning three of the first four rounds on his YZF-R6.

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