World Superbike / Supersport 2005 - Round Six - Misano

MAKING CORSER OF MISANO – If the Wollongong rider manages to finish on the rostrum both races in Misano he could boast 13 podium finishes on the Santamonica circuit, the second highest value of all time. The record holder of podium finishes per circuit is Carl Fogarty, that managed to climb on the rostrum 15 times in Assen; second best is Colin Edwards, with 12 podium finishes in Monza. Troy has a stunning record in Misano, he is the only rider that has climbed on the podium more than 10 times, behind him Fogarty with 8 podium finishes and then Chili with 6. Troy was always on the podium in 1995 and 1996 (4 races) and in 6 races in a row between 1998 and 2000; in this time period he recorded 3 times the second fastest lap of the race and 3 times the fastest lap overall. Victories are more distributed than podiums, only 3 riders can boast a triple win, and they are all riders of the past: John Kocinski, Giancarlo Falappa and Troy Bayliss, the remaining ones didn’t manage to win more than twice. Looking at pole positions, as usual is Corser who is leading the charts, with 2 poles (1998 and 2000), together with Carl Fogarty (1995 and 1999) and Neil Hodgson (2001 and 2003). The fastest laps record shows Troy on top again with 4 fastest laps, one more than Aaron Slight and Giancarlo Falappa. Corser’s dominance is reflected also in the points gained, 262 in the Santamonica circuit, while Fogarty managed to gain only 224 and Chili 192.

PERFORMANCES IN MISANO – There are other riders that in the past performed well in Misano: Laconi above all, that in 2003 and 2004 always classified in the top four (third, fourth, first and second), then Haga, with 3 fourth places and a fourth in 2002 and 2004 and Chili, that apart from the six retirements (record for Misano) can boast two wins and four third places. The opposite can be said for Toseland: only a second place in race 1 in 2003, but before and after no finishes in the top 5. Walker too can count only a top 5 finish (a fifth in race 1 in 2003) out of 6 participations. For Borciani Santamonica is almost a nightmare: he hasn’t been able to finish better than tenth in qualifying and race.

DUCATI’S FEUD – The Italian manufacturer managed to fill the podium with its bikes for 7 times out of 26 races run in Misano Adriatico. It happened in 1995 in both races, in 1996 in both races, in 2003 in both races and in 2004 in race 2. In 1995 race 2 and 2003 race 1 this domination extended to the fourth place while in 1995 race 1 went further with 5 Ducatis in the first 5 places. 2004 race 2 saw the best performance from the Borgo Panigale squad: 6 bikes in the first 6 places with Chili, Laconi, Martin, Haga, Leon Haslam and the future world champion Toseland. Ducati gained a grand total of 50 podium places in Misano, the same number in Assen, an absolute record for a manufacturer on a single circuit. The same record applies to wins: 18 in Misano and Assen, Ducati set his record for pole position on Donington Park with 11 poles versus 9 in Santamonica. The Italian manufacturer has a running winning streak that begins in 2001, 8 races, the last non-Ducati win was posted by Corser with the Aprilia RSV 1000 in 2000. The same streak applies to poles, the last non-Ducati polesitter was Corser in 2000 and only 3 times Ducati’s rivals managed to conquer the pole position in Misano, the other two being Yanagawa in 1997 and Russell in 1994, both on Kawasaki machinery.

RECORD SPEEDS – Yanagawa’s 1997 pole position with the Kawasaki ZX-7RR averaged 156.331 km/h (1’33”494) and it is still the highest pole position average speed in the 4060 meters version of Misano. 2004 pole on the other hand was the slowest, averaging only 150.956 km/h, ran on wet superpole conditions. It was also the one with the slightest margin between polesitter and second in grid, only 25 thousands of a second, the opposite happened in 1998 when Corser beat Slight by 770 thousands, almost two tenths per kilometer. If the best average pole speed was made on 1997, we must go back another year to find the best average speed of the fastest race lap: 155.001 km/h recorded by John Kocinski in 1996 with the Ducati 916 R. Another step backwards – in 1995 – to find the best race average speed: 156.677 km/h made by Mauro Lucchiari in race 2 with the 916 R.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE? – It’s maybe the one that will face Corser’s rivals, that must overcome a 78 points deficit, the difference that separates Troy from his teammate Yukio Kagayama, second in the championship. In the history of Superbike it happened only twice that after the tenth race the leader had a larger advantage on the rider ranked second: in 1995 Fogarty had a 95 point lead over Slight and in 2003 Hodgson had 113 points on Toseland; in both cases the championship went to the leader after the tenth round. The most amazing comeback after the tenth round happened in 2002 when Edwards was able to overcome a 38 points gap on Bayliss and win the championship (a 26 races one) with an 11 points advantage. The thinnest advantage after the tenth round was recorded in 2004: only two points were separating the two Ducati Fila riders Toseland and Laconi, at the end it was James who won the championship by 9 points. A strange case happened in 1998, when Fogarty was only sixth and down by 26 points from the leader Corser, but he managed to win the championship with 4,5 points over Slight.

HOW LONG… - Noriyuki Haga set his last pole position 75 races ago (Sugo 2002) and recorded his last win 10 races ago (Magny Cours 2004 race 2), 30 races ago (Valencia 2004, race 2) Regis Laconi was stopped for the last time by a mechanical failure. One year ago in Santamonica Chili won for the last time (race 2) and Mauro Sanchini and Kawasaki led for the last time (race 2 from lap 3 to lap 5) and it was also the last time a Foggy-Petronas bike led a race and finished on the podium (Troy Corser, race 1, 14 laps in the lead). This weekend it will be 1000 days (Imola 2002, Colin Edwards) that an American rider doesn’t set a pole, a win, a fastest lap or climbs on the podium.