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2008 | VALLELUNGA
I
arrived at Vallelunga on the Friday to do the prize presentation to the teams
– I know it was before the last race of the season but that’s just
part of the charm of Italy – besides, all of the teams would be actually there,
not halfway up the autostrada on the way home.
They
had laid on an Italian rock band…er…ok, let’s face it, the Italians
can’t do rock…glamour, fashion, style, bikes and cars…but ROCK’N ROLL?
Still,
everyone agreed it was a great evening and nobody got TOO drunk; after all,
qualifying was on Saturday.
With
20 wild-card Italian teams in the mix including Serafino Foti for Team Pedercini,
Dario Marchetti with Piazza Corse Ducati and Bruno and Vittorio Scatola on the
Biassono Racing “open class” Yamaha R1 - and with Vallelunga only 3.24km long, it
was always going to be a crowded track. You
may remember Vittorio used to pilot the Paton
500cc 2-stroke in GP’s a few years ago – you couldn’t miss it, it was
painted bright green and it was right at the back...
Free
practice was basically a chance for most of the permanent teams to have their
first blast at the track and it was Zongshen2 who topped the first practice
session. Warwick Nowland had been put on the No.9 machine with Stephane Mertens
for the final round so that the team would maximize their chances of getting 1st
and 2nd in the Championship, therefore Bruno Bonhuil and Igor Jerman
were on the No. 2 bike. The
Ducati that was making all the waves, though, was the Ducati France 998 entry of
David Muscat and Frederic Protat, second in the first session but ahead by the
second free practice.
The Trackdaze No. 54 machine (in Roundstone orange & silver colours) of Chris Burns and Craig Jones (Junior Superstock Champion this year) started 6th in first free practice and 8th after the second free session and strong qualifying sessions put them 8th on the grid...but they were faster than anybody else in warm-up!
(Interesting
aside: Trackdaze seemed to have brought enough machines for 4 teams –
Trackdaze No. 55 Yamaha R1 had Jim Agombar and Jeff Collins (in his last ever race),
Trackdaze No. 59 Yamaha R1 with Mark Kingston and Colin Young (both bikes R1's
in yellow & blue colours) Chris and Craig on the No.
54 GSXR1000 and then there was Dave Trigg, the Roundstone Manager got a ride with Nik
Carlberg, the Swedish Team Fagersjo-El rider who had somehow lost his usual
team-mate Andi Notman AND the bike - and who only had a Fagersjo-El - painted GSXR
tank with him when he turned up…it got more than a little confusing on
track, even the final grid listing had Dave and Nik on a Yamaha R1 but it was
another GSXR1000 with orange & silver Roundstone bodywork, blue & white
Fagersjo tank and Trackdaze graphics…Trackdaze will be going for an entry into World Supersport next year
with a view to moving on to the new GP2 series – great news for their sponsors
Origin Finance, 4Everycar.com and Alpine)
Qualifying
saw both Ducati France’s David Muscat and GMT94’s William Costes go under
the 1’20” barrier but pole position is calculated as an average of riders’
times, so GMT94 got second with QB Phase One in third, Zongshen2 fourth, Piazza
Corse fifth, Zongshen9 sixth, Herman Verboven No.6 in seventh (with
riders Jehan D’Orgeix and Didier Van Keymeulen…for my money, Van Keymeulen
is the find of the year) and Trackdaze No.54 Burns and Jones in eighth.
The
fancied Herman Verboven No. 5 of Mike Cicotto and Mike Barnes didn’t qualify
too well, as Cicotto dropped the bike and smacked his left hand too badly to
race – his knuckles had swollen up to the size of golf balls – Zongshen
reserve rider Frenchman Pierrot Lerat stepped in to replace him…and watch out
for Lerat in future, he’s my second tip for stardom.
Sadly,
the No. 36 Israeli IRT Flic Michelin team were out after damaging their Yamaha
R6 in qualifying – rider Eliyan Chen put up a notice asking for a ride but he
wasn’t on the grid at the start – I went to their pit box 3 times to
interview the team but couldn’t find anybody…
The
entire grid of 53 teams was covered by 6.3 seconds…it was going to be a real
traffic-jam out there.
Race
day dawned clear with no hint of rain and a full race card to get through…good
crowd as well!
Come
the race start and both GMT94 with Sebastien Scarnato and the Herman Verboven
No.6 with Didier Van Keymeulen got great starts – GMT94 leading, Protat on the
Ducati France 998 2nd, Van Keymeulen/Herman Verboven6 3rd, Jerman/Zongshen9
4th, Bruno Scatola/Biassono 5th, Nowland/Zongshen9 6th,
Ilario Dionisi on the Axo Delmo Aprilia No. 42 7th, Burns/Trackdaze54
8th, Kellenberger/Bollinger8 in 9th and Edwards/QB Phase
One 10th.
Poor
old Richard Baker on the Ducateam No. 7 had the bike in neutral at the start and
lost time trying to find a gear…
Warwick
Nowland was pushing hard and although the Ducati France machine got to the front
on the second lap, raising a cheer from the spectators (it’s Italy, after
all), it wasn’t long before the Zongshen No.9 was in the lead – being
baulked by a SERT Italia backmarker meant he had to take avoiding action down
the Trincea chicane but it didn’t hold him up that much.
First
bike to have a crash, Thomas Roth on the Rookie Endurance No. 11 GSXR1000 – he
came in to the pits and kicked the door in frustration.
Jeff
Collins (in his last-ever race, he's been on the big bikes since 1976) also went down after not seeing Dave Trigg who
had his hand up to pit - but he was ok and got back to the pits to repair the
damage.
Just
after the first change-over, the Ducati France No. 37 was in the gravel – Fred
Protat said that team-mate David Muscat had crashed on oil, though the camera
showed no bike damage…had the Ducati Superbike “failed to proceed”, as
Rolls Royce used to say?
By
this time Warwick on the Zongshen9 bike was leading but Trackdaze54 and Chris
Burns had fired the R1 up to second place – and Craig Jones came out for his
session like his pants were on fire – but with new and slightly harder tyres
than he used in qualifying, the back end stepped out at the banked Cimini 180º
corner and the bike and rider were down. Craig got
the bike back to the pits for repairs and out again (even though he had a broken
wrist!) while the pace cars and
medical car were on track for another crash that I still haven’t got any
information about; I only know that a rider was taken off on a stretcher.
Meanwhile,
after the change-overs, Stephane Mertens was on the Zongshen9 bike and William
Costes on the GMT94 Suzuki set about making up for time lost behind the
pace cars.
Mike
Edwards’ team-mate 19yr old Aussie Damian Cudlin was having a great ride and when it
came time for “Bloke” to take over again they were not far behind the
leaders in 4th behind the Zongshen No.2 bike – check Mike
Edwards’ site and Phase
One for all the details. Jehan D’Orgeix on the Herman Verboven No.6
came in lying 5th for Van Keymeulen to take over for the final stint
– they were just in front of the Bollinger No. 8 Kawasaki which was having a
single-make battle with the Police Nationale No. 22 Kwak.
Gwen
Giabbani on the Police
Nationale bike then proceeded to have the biggest crash of the race.
Somehow, the Kawasaki was going end-over-end down the start-finish straight,
just missing Gwen all the way down. Gwen was shaken but ok but I’ve never seen
a bike in such a mess – I think the wiring loom was the only thing holding it
together. The crash must have happened when the bike was doing at least 150mph.
During
the last five laps, Warwick Nowland was a second a lap faster than leader
Sebastien Scarnato on the GMT94 Suzuki and it was at this at this time that
Warwick put in the fastest lap of the race, dipping down into the 1’19’s.
Shortly after he posted the fastest lap, he passed Scarnato and there was
nothing that the French rider could do about it.
Job
done, the No. 9 Zongshen Suzuki took the win and cemented 2nd place
in the World Championship – that’s one and two for Michel Marqueton’s
Chinese team.
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