MCCOY MISSES FPR TEST AFTER BRNO CRASH CONTROVERSY
18 July 2005 - Foggy PETRONAS Racing

Garry McCoy had six stitches in a gashed elbow sustained in a controversial first race crash at the seventh round of the Superbike World Championship in Brno.

The injury forced the Australian rider to miss the day’s second race in the Czech Republic and he is also ruled out of Foggy PETRONAS Racing’s two-day test in Germany this week at the Lausitzring circuit.

Team-mate Steve Martin finished both races just out of the points at a circuit favouring higher-powered machines. Championship leader Troy Corser took the first race victory but was out-shone in the afternoon by Noriyuki Haga, who stormed to victory from 18th on the grid.

Garry also suffered minor concussion and an ankle injury in the fifth lap incident at the sweeping turn before the climb up the notorious Brno hill, which he blamed on Spanish rider Jose Luis Cardoso. Mauro Sanchini, who could not avoid a collision with Garry’s bike, suffered two fractures to his arm and Giovanni Bussei also crashed in attempting to avoid the carnage.

Garry, who had qualified in 12th place, said: “I had seen Nieto and Cardoso having a dice and Cardoso was running wide quite a bit, which allowed me to catch him up fairly quickly. He went into turn 15 very wide but I just braked and kept my line. I didn’t see him because he was so wide but at the last minute I caught this blue colour in the corner of my eye and then there was a big hit in the side of the bike. I thought I was going to save it but Sanchini couldn’t avoid hitting me from behind.

““I am not very happy about it. When you run wide it’s normal to look before coming back in. I know that Sanchini feels the same way and is considering making a protest to the FIM, which I would back. I am even more annoyed because I was having a pretty good weekend. People were starting to bunch in front of me and I thought that I would be able to make up some ground and start passing people in a couple more laps.”

Steve Martin finished two gruelling races in 17th and 16th places. He said: “It was a shame the second race was restarted after a couple of laps because I was behind a faster group of guys and felt comfortable in staying with them. In the restart I was shoved around a bit and got stuck behind Bostrom. When I got passed him I started to pull away but ran out of laps to catch Bussei. In the first race it took me a little while to get into a rhythm because we didn’t quite have enough power on the straights and I was getting passed. Halfway through the race the only person I could see was Borciani so I just dug in. I knew that if I pressurised him he would make a mistake and then I was able to pull away.

“The bike is handling even better, although the results do not show that this weekend. But we are now heading for some tracks where I feel we can get some forward momentum and finish in the points.”

Team manager Jack Valentine said: “I have been pleased with the way the team has worked this weekend, with the handling of the bike and the reliability. For Garry to out-qualify the likes of Haga in Superpole proves the potential of the package. But the undulating and long Brno circuit highlighted our lack of horsepower, which is something we are all working on. Garry’s crash was an unfortunate incident. It was a hard manoeuvre that Garry got the brunt of and one that could have been avoided.”

Race one, Superbike World Championship round 7, Brno, Czech Republic: 1 Corser; 2 Toseland +6.592; 3 Laconi +7.477; 4 Walker +9.060; 5 Chili +9.183; 6 Lanzi +10.778; 7 Haga +13.760; 8 Vermeulen +15.069; 9 Abe +16.320; 10 Pitt +19.676; 11 Kagayama +21.822; 12 Nieto +24.782; 13 Muggeridge +25.830; 14 Neukirchner +27.486; 15 Checa +31.003; 17 Martin +47.653

Race two results: 1 Haga; 2 Corser +3.233; 3 Vermeulen +11.012; 4 Abe +12.268; 5 Chili +12.361; 6 Lanzi +13.511; 7 Laconi +14.141; 8 Toseland +16.439; 9 Muggeridge +16.820; 10 Walker +19.737; 11 Kagayama +24.777; 12 Nieto +25.244; 13 Clementi +26.700; 14 Checa +28.119; 15 Bussei +42.082; 16 Martin +43.952

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