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2011
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ASSEN - May 25th 2003 Qualifying for the 200 Miles of Assen was always going to be fun. The weather forecast for the area must have been data-trawled hundreds of times before the weekend with always the same result – just hope it didn’t rain in YOUR session. As it turned out, it was patchy damp during qualifying for session one and many team managers held back their riders in order to do faster times in the second session, hoping it would dry out. Bad move. It bucketed down. Still, the Assen track has a fabulously grippy surface and not one team I talked to had any kind of slide in the corners even in the pouring rain, though there were many instances of aquaplaning on the straights. Ronald Ten Kate was there with Karl Muggeridge, Chris Vermeulen, Michael Laverty and Dutchman Barry Veneman with their Supersport 600cc Honda entered in the race. Chris Vermeulen was sidelined because of his injured thumb (he’d snapped the tendon) and ex-GP veteran Barry Veneman – with his extensive knowledge of the Assen track – was in to take over. This was supposed to be a kind of track test for Ten Kate, as their Supersport-spec machine had to be entered on the “Open” class and therefore wouldn’t be eligible for points or even official placings – but Karl Muggeridge had gotten a taste of the World Endurance teams and wanted to make a fight of it…so much so, that at the end of qualifying, the 600 Honda had first place on the grid by 2/10ths of a second. Officially, though, Igor Jerman on the Zongshen No.2 held Pole position. In 2nd…ok, 3rd…Warwick Nowland and Stephane Mertens had at one time been down in 26th place, struggling with the Zongshen No.1’s Beringer brakes. Although also used by the Phase One team, who had no problems with them, Wokka’s set up always seemed to make the bike judder under braking, one un-named source outside of the team saying that the callipers may have been “bowing” under the stress, a problem which hasn’t been mentioned by any other team. Nonetheless, Zongshen had decided to change to Nissin brakes – but many of the components have to be specially made and with a lead-time of at least 3 weeks, they weren’t available to use at Assen…and maybe not even for the next round two weeks later at Brno. During the race, Phase One’s James Ellison would REALLY test Wokka’s brakes… In 3rd…ok, 4th place…were James Ellison and Jason Pridmore on the Phase One No.3 Suzuki. A screw-up with the initial qualifying timesheets put them in 9th place – and although that was quickly rectified, the news obviously hadn’t filtered down to the guys who place the little numbers on the start grid and Ellison came around on the sighting lap to find no place for him on the grid (except in 9th) – so he parked the big Suzuki on it’s own in the middle of the track while everybody else lined up at the side for the Endurance-style running start. The Assen organizers were quick to sort it all out – I bet it wouldn’t be the same in the UK! ☺ Yamaha Austria were trying
to build on their unexpected podium place at Imola and were in 4th…er…5th…you
sort it out. A rejuvenated French GMT94 were just behind them (5th…hmm…6th…)
with John Bakker on the Lowlands Racing Suzuki capitalizing on local track
knowledge in 6th…7th…ahem. Spike Edwards had qualified
the faster of the two Trackdaze bikes (totally standard, except with a
strengthened exhaust bracket!) in 7th place (the other was in 27th)
– this despite having been smashed in the jaw a day or two earlier when one of
the bike tie-downs he was tightening that very last notch slipped off, whipping
him cruelly under the chin, fracturing his lower mandible and chipping a few
teeth along the way. The “Bloke” had existed on baby food for the past
couple of days and was NOT to be trifled with. So, on to the race – and
what a thrilling one it was to watch! 83 laps, nearly 2 hours of racing on the
3.881km National circuit with a huge screen set up opposite the grandstand so
everyone could have a close up of the pit action as well as the race. Igor Jerman was first away, followed closely by the other Zongshen machine – but Karl Muggeridge (starting for Ten Kate) wanted to show what the fastest current 600cc bike in the world could do and started the chase for the lead. I won’t go into detail but Igor lead first on the Zongshen No.2, then Muggeridge had a go, then Bakker on the Lowlands Racing Suzuki and Ellison and Pridmore on the Phase One No.3 all lead the race at one time or another. Ten Kate were fast enough – but only just – to stay in the hunt with the bigger 1000cc machines but with the onset of pit stops were always going to be on a hiding to nothing. I timed the No.3 Phase One’s first pit stop – 15 seconds from stopping to rolling again – and the Zongshen stop was only 3 seconds longer (strange that, as Zongshen have a captive rear sprocket and don’t have to unhook and re-hook the chain when they swap the rear wheel). I tried to time Ten Kate’s pit-stop but fell asleep…ok, not quite, but it was painful watching them struggle to change the red-hot front bake pads, something they never have to do in World Supersport. The race was a disaster for GMT94. They had qualified well in 5th but from the start we never saw the bike – 6 laps into the race and then I saw the team dismantling their pit equipment. Their Suzuki had done something terminal to its clutch and it was parked out on the track, not even able to make it back for repairs. The French Police Nationale No.22 were doing well, fighting from 4th for a podium place – and if policeman (for that it was he is in ‘real life’) Gwen Giabbani tried any of his Assen moves on the road, charges of ‘driving in a manner to cause offence’ and possibly GBH could have been invoked – he was on a mission and looking good…that is until he took over for the third session from Paolo Blora and the bike died while he was pulling away. I’m not sure what the problem was, it didn’t take long to fix but with the race pace so hot, they couldn’t get back in contention to fight for the lead. Karl Truchsess was the most hyper I’ve ever seen him – he described his session on the Yamaha Austria Superbike R1 as the best he’s ever ridden…all for nothing when team-mate Horst Saiger lost the back wheel on the bump at the exit of the National Bocht corner – the bump that EVERYONE knows about – just after taking over the bike for the last session. So, all the pit stops had been done and again, Slovenian (not Slovakian as the circuit commentator kept calling him) Igor Jerman was in the lead. Behind him, Warwick Nowland and James Ellison were constantly swapping 2nd and 3rd places, both posting fastest laps of the race, Ellison finally got the better of Wokka and went for it in a big way to try to close the 1o second gap to Jerman – he would have done it, too, it there had been more that 10 laps left…it was when he set the fastest lap of the race. As it was, Igor controlled everything from the front and won by just over a second from the Phase One rider, the win putting the No.2 team right back in the running for the Championship in 3rd place, even after not scoring any points at Imola. The points gap at the top of the table was now down to only 1 point with the Zongshen No.1 leading…but at the end of the race with Zongshen Manager Michael Marqueton and Phase One Manager Russell Benny both facing each other, smiling and wagging fingers at each other, Russell was overheard to say: “Michael, your ass is mine at Brno...”
Fastest lap: James Ellison, Suzuki GB Phase - 1:23.376 on lap 78 |
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