ROAD RACE REALITY COLIN FRASER
Razgatlioglu on the Rise
R
ecently, I watched Donington’s fourth round of the Motul FIM World Superbike Championship, available in Canada via cable through the REVS network, or by a reasonably priced internet subscription straight from WSBK. The UK event featured typical weather for the Midlands – I’ve been to Donington Park many times, and it has rained at least a little, and often a lot, during every visit. The first race of the three-event feature program started on a partially dry track, not ideal for tire choice decisions or rider confidence. With series king Jonathan Rea on pole at his sorta-home track for the first time on the works Kawasaki, a walk-away win was expected. However, no one told Pata Yamaha with Brixx YZF-R1 mounted Toprak Razgatlioglu, starting from a distant 13th on the grid, leading the fifth row. Razgatlioglu was an incredible fifth into the first turn and muscled past the works BMWs of local lad and former series champ Tom Sykes, as well as Michael van der Mark, after half a lap. From there, Razgatlioglu piled on the pressure, and Rea suddenly looked in trouble – a rare site. Razgatlioglu was visibly
Pata Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu put on a wet-weather master class at Donnington. PHOTO COURTESY OF YAMAHA RACING. 46 Inside Motorcycles
on the ragged edge, something you don’t see much anymore in the modern electronic era. Anyone who has pushed hard on a sport bike in iffy traction conditions will tell you that if it looks at all hairy, it is in fact completely crazy. Rea continued to ride on the ragged edge as the confidently sliding Razgatlioglu hunted him down. On lap 3, Rea ran off through the fast, downhill Hollywood Corner, and was lucky to stay upright at full speed on the wet grass. Razgatlioglu was through, into a lead he would not relinquish. Rea closed at the finish, as Razgatlioglu ran out of gas heading for the finish line. He was lucky the opening laps were so wet... As the weekend progressed, Razgatlioglu proved he might just have something for Rea in 2021, forcing the works Ninja rider to take chances, leading to a big fall by Rea in race 2. Razgatlioglu headed for the next weekend at Assen with 183 points to Rea’s 181. Watching Razgatlioglu in the damp conditions sent me to YouTube to search out a famous lap at the same circuit by legendary Japanese ace Ryuichi Kiyonari. During 2009 WSBK qualifying on a recently repaved, soaking wet and slick Donington aboard the works Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR, 25-yearold Kiyonari is at one with his machine, Razgatlioglu style – maybe even more so. Both riders show a willingness to push into a slide, even at full lean, a very risky practice in the wet. Rear-wheel steering, backing it in, wheelies and front-end tucks are all handled with little delay or loss of line. Achievements such as these, living on via the web, are almost as important as traditional success markers such as wins, poles and championship titles. “It helps to do something memorable once in a while,” deadpanned Canada’s first Superbike champion, George Morin, describing the career of Michel Mercier as the former flat track racer climbed the Superbike ladder. When he retired from active competition, Morin opted to help Mercier in 1984, moving some sponsors over to Su-
zuki’s newest signing. Then Morin became Mercier’s manager with the move to the top class and the arrival of the game-changing Suzuki GSX-R750 the next season. Mercier generated many memorable rides, and lots of good television, while marketing the GSX-R750 in the mid-1980s. However Mercier came under pressure from several other quick Canadian-based Suzuki pilots, including former Kiwi Gary Goodfellow from Vancouver. In a career blighted by injury, ex-MXer Goodfellow was occasionally devastatingly fast. He and Mercier made the Match Race Team and travelled to the UK to race in 1987, where Goodfellow famously chased the legendary Kevin Schwantz at Donington before a popular video clip calamity. On a damp track, Goodfellow was hard on the heels of the leading factory Suzuki star, looking for a way past heading into turn 1, Redgate. Then “Goodie’s” back end comes around, the diminutive Goodfellow catches it, then loses the front end, and winds up surfing on top of the “Boutique Suzuki” Gixxer into the gravel trap. Clearly, Donington is a good place to show the world your maximum commitment level! In the fall of 1987, Yamaha Canada hosted an annual dealer event that included sponsoring the final Shannonville event of the season, “The Yamaha Ride to Win Weekend.” The feature race on Saturday was a WERA national six-hour endurance round, where the beleaguered regulars were looking to stay in front of a bunch of hastily former local squads. The WERA Series had run the weekend before at Pocono in Pennsylvania, and that sixhour was waterlogged, dominated by rising start Scott Russell on the Solmax Yamaha. A week later, conditions were worse at Shannonville, and Russell rode for more than five hours to walk away yet again. We didn’t know he was a world Superbike champ in the making, but clearly, Russell was something special. IM
