|
|
|
2011
| IMOLA 2003 A bright hot
sunny day for qualifying (and many complaints from the riders, as they only had
the single day) and an even brighter hotter day for the race. The
Yamaha Austria No.9 Superbike-class machine was in 6th (even though they
qualified with a standard engine after they blew the cam-cover because of weak
aluminium bolts on the superbike-spec engine in practice, meaning an overnight
rebuild by rider Erwin Wilding - he didn't finish the job until 3am Sunday
morning...and then he had to race!) The
Phase One Juniors on the No.6 machine didn't have a great qualifying, David Carr
crashing at high speed with another rider and being carted off to the Med Centre
suffering a right collarbone fracture, a closed thoracic trauma with lung contusion and rib fractures and displaced fragmented fracture of the left femur.
Henry Fincher was suffering from possibly a
small case of "Delhi-belly" which, in combination with the heat, caused
him to be sick in his helmet just after posting his fastest laps - although a
"moment" at one of the chicanes may have had something to do with it!
At any rate, himself, his leathers, his helmet and the bike had to be hosed down
when he came back to the pits. There
was a new bike on the World Endurance circuit this year, the Honda-engined
Modial Piega. Mondial have had a long relationship with Honda, a relationship so
good that the only non-Honda in the Honda Museum is a Mondial.
There was a fitting tribute on the No.7 machine to the late Barry Sheene, with
"Ciao Barry" written inside the number 7. The usually competitive French team GMT94 seemed pretty quiet in the pits, no usual smiles or banter...Christophe Guyot was riding with Sebastien Scarnato (usually a very strong pairing) but for the first time that I can remember they qualified outside the top ten - in 12th place. Something was obviously not right as, along with Endurance 38 in 8th, they get help from Yamaha France. 66 laps and 200 miles - doesn't really sound much against full 24 hour races...but the heat was intense and the track was blazing, a real stamina-sapping day. Igor Jerman on the Zongshen No.2 got the drop at the start but two corners later Olivier Four on the Phase One No.3 was in the lead, intending to make a break...which didn't happen. A wrong tyre choice, or a track unexpectedly hotter than planned meant that the Superproduction GSXR1000 was moving all over the place - Olivier said that it would have been ok for 15 laps or so but not the 50 minutes it was planned for him to be on the bike. In 3rd it was Mike Edwards on the TrackDaze No.11 - and again, I'll say it...except for a race can and shock, a totally standard GSXR1000, then Warwick Nowland on the Zongshen No.1 just watching and waiting... A couple of bikes were forced onto the grass at the Endurance-style start, no drama really, but the Mondial was caught up in it and lost time. Embarrassingly for Mark Kingston on the second TrackDaze bike No.10, he was the first to run off the track - on the first lap (Tosa, I think) - and had to pit almost immediately. Only a few more laps into the race and the Ducati Cuneo machine (998R with a standard engine) was also out, Marco Lucchinelli not even getting a ride this time. Still, there were others, the Ducati DRE team had two bikes running - both 999's It took Warwick Nowland until the 11th laps to get into the lead but when back-markers started coming into view he decided that he could make a break and proceeded to do precisely that, lapping a second faster than anyone else. On lap 14 Mike Edwards' TrackDaze No.11 bike broke one of it's only non-standard parts, the exhaust bracket...and the end-can promptly fell off. He went into the pits before any official could locate a black flag... Basically, that's how it stayed at the front until just 5 laps from the end - Zongshen No.1 leading, Warwick's team-mate Stephane Mertens extending their lead during his relay, even though he's never raced at Imola before - Zongshen No2 second with Piergiorgio Bontempi on board after taking over from Bruno Bonhuil, Phase One's Olivier Four after ex-World Supersport rider James Ellison took the middle session (by the way, James has a wonderful fiancee, nice girl and I'm too bloody old to steal her away, dammit J...good luck to you both!) ...and what happened 5 laps before the end?...in a safe 2nd, Bontempi fried the clutch - it was said that he was changing down to 1st gear in corners that needed 2nd gear even when backing it in. He came in and they adjusted the clutch (rules state that any such work has to be carried out inside the pit box, not out on the pit lane)...he got out again into third but was back with one lap to go...and so failed to finish! - If ONLY he'd just plodded around in one gear, at least he would have got points, as it is... Not only did Bontempi muck it up but so did the Endurance38 Superproduction Yamaha R1 team in a safe 4th after they'd caught and passed the Yamaha Austria R1 Superbike No.9. Guess what?...yup, they ran out of fuel one lap before the end and even after coming in for a "splash and dash", failed to finish - while they were exiting the pits the chequered flag was out and the race was over! So, Phase One No.3 got second, Yamaha Austria (hoping for about 5th before the race) were ecstatic about getting on the podium...and winners Zongshen No.1 finished more than 1 minute 20 seconds ahead of second place, with only Phase One finishing on the same lap Sad news for the Mondial...Team X-One No.7 suffered brake problems and Perselli crashed 15 laps from the finish - not a hint of a mechanical problem from the beautifully turned out bike, though. EVEN BETTER NEWS - there were some SERIOUS babes at Imola...and I think that it was Yamaha Austria's promo girl, Miss F1 Austria who was one of the main reasons for their success - pictures below.
|
|
