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2002
World SuperBike Championship - Round 11 - Oschersleben Fuchs Kawasaki Report September 1st, 2002 |
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The Fuchs Kawasaki pairing of Chris Walker and Hitoyasu Izutsu put in
strong performances in race one at Oschersleben this afternoon, before
both falling victim to bad luck in the second 28-lap outing of the day. For Izutsu, still suffering with the wrist he fractured during qualifying for the Sugo round of the World Superbike Championship back in April, eleventh place in the first race was an impressive result. Keen to repeat his success in the second race, the former Japanese Superbike Champion was disappointed when forced to pull out with a cracked exhaust whilst lying in twelfth place. 'Racing here has been hard, because there is never a moment to rest my injured wrist,' said Izutsu. 'It was really painful yesterday, but I had a series of painkilling injections today and they definitely helped me to ignore the injury and focus on my racing. It was good to be back and racing for points again, but I will be looking to improve further next weekend at Assen, as the circuit will not make the same demands on my wrist that Oschersleben has.' After battling with James Toseland and Noriyuki Haga during the early part of the first race, Chris Walker eventually brought his Fuchs Kawasaki ZX-7RR home in ninth place, after being pipped on the line for eighth, as he tried to ride around problems caused by a deteriorating front tyre. 'We've been using a soft front tyre all weekend with no problems, but it's been a bit cooler today and that led to a few problems for me in race one,' commented Walker. 'I couldn't carry the corner speed, so I had to get on the gas a lot earlier in order to hold Lavilla off. Unfortunately, I got on it a bit too early out of turn six on the last lap and the resulting near highside was just enough to allow Lavilla to out drag me on the run to the line. So, although I'd obviously have preferred to have finished as the top four-cylinder rider again, it was still a solid result for the team.' Walker looked set to score another ninth place finish in race two, but a clutch problem in the closing stages forced the 30-year-old British rider to slow, dropping him back to fifteenth at the line. 'I got into a battle with Lavilla again in the second race, and I thought I'd be able to put in a pass to take ninth place in the last couple of laps. But then the clutch started slipping and I had no option but to knock it off and just make sure I finished. It was a close run thing, but the bike got me to the line for one more championship point, and they all count at the end of the day,' he added.
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