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http://www.smh.com.au/news/Motorspo...ut-cops-warning/2005/05/09/1115584909757.html
It was an all-Australian affair at Monza on Sunday, with Troy Corser increasing his lead in the World Superbike Championship and promising 22-year-old Chris Vermeulen snatching victory in the second of the two heats.
Corser won the first after fending off a challenge from Alstare Suzuki teammate Yukio Kagayama and took third in the second race before 93,000 fans.
Kagayama fell in the second race, damaging his title hopes; Corser emerged from Monza with 182 points in the series to Kagayama's 130, while Vermeulen has closed in with 115.
But as good as the racing was, Vermeulen needs to head in another direction if he wants to reach the top of his profession, says fellow Australian Jeremy Burgess, who ran the Honda team that won world titles with Wayne Gardner, Mick Doohan and Italian Valentino Rossi. (He and his core group of Australians moved to Yamaha with Rossi last year.)
Burgess recently told the Herald that if Vermeulen had aspirations to reach the top of bike racing, he was in "a very awkward spot". He doesn't regard superbikes as a successful stepping stone to MotoGP, and points to the lack of success of superbike riders in the category - Australians Garry McCoy and Bayliss and Americans Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden - as demonstrating the gulf between the two categories.
Not only that but many of the riders against whom Vermeulen is competing failed to reach the top level in GP racing, including Regis Laconi (who led for much of Sunday's second race), Norick Abe, Pierfrancesco Chili, Fonsi Nieto and Noriyuki Haga.
"We have seen some of the guys he's racing with, and if Chris is going to make it into MotoGP, we would like to see him winning races in this company by 15 seconds or so," Burgess said bluntly. "Superbike racing is out there on the fringe; he's in there with a bunch of losers and if he's not a big winner, nobody is going to say, 'Come over here to MotoGP'. The entry to MotoGP is not through superbikes."
Burgess reflects the disdain held for the class by many in GP racing but the action at Monza was nevertheless close and exciting and had the crowd on its toes.
In contrast, Burgess points cautiously to Casey Stoner as a possible winner in MotoGP, especially after his two convincing wins from three races in this year's 250cc world championship. He reckons Stoner is young enough, at 19, keen enough and focused enough to move onwards and upwards, saying: "People are watching to see whether he is just capable of winning a few GPs or whether he is a champion."
He added that if Stoner can build on his upper-body strength, he is "certainly a candidate for MotoGP".
Vermeulen's teammate, Karl Muggeridge, had a change in fortunes on Sunday. After running in the leading group in the second race, he was pipped by Corser for third on the last lap. Australian Andrew Pitt finished fifth and sixth on his Yamaha.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Motorspo...ut-cops-warning/2005/05/09/1115584909757.html
It was an all-Australian affair at Monza on Sunday, with Troy Corser increasing his lead in the World Superbike Championship and promising 22-year-old Chris Vermeulen snatching victory in the second of the two heats.
Corser won the first after fending off a challenge from Alstare Suzuki teammate Yukio Kagayama and took third in the second race before 93,000 fans.
Kagayama fell in the second race, damaging his title hopes; Corser emerged from Monza with 182 points in the series to Kagayama's 130, while Vermeulen has closed in with 115.
But as good as the racing was, Vermeulen needs to head in another direction if he wants to reach the top of his profession, says fellow Australian Jeremy Burgess, who ran the Honda team that won world titles with Wayne Gardner, Mick Doohan and Italian Valentino Rossi. (He and his core group of Australians moved to Yamaha with Rossi last year.)
Burgess recently told the Herald that if Vermeulen had aspirations to reach the top of bike racing, he was in "a very awkward spot". He doesn't regard superbikes as a successful stepping stone to MotoGP, and points to the lack of success of superbike riders in the category - Australians Garry McCoy and Bayliss and Americans Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden - as demonstrating the gulf between the two categories.
Not only that but many of the riders against whom Vermeulen is competing failed to reach the top level in GP racing, including Regis Laconi (who led for much of Sunday's second race), Norick Abe, Pierfrancesco Chili, Fonsi Nieto and Noriyuki Haga.
"We have seen some of the guys he's racing with, and if Chris is going to make it into MotoGP, we would like to see him winning races in this company by 15 seconds or so," Burgess said bluntly. "Superbike racing is out there on the fringe; he's in there with a bunch of losers and if he's not a big winner, nobody is going to say, 'Come over here to MotoGP'. The entry to MotoGP is not through superbikes."
Burgess reflects the disdain held for the class by many in GP racing but the action at Monza was nevertheless close and exciting and had the crowd on its toes.
In contrast, Burgess points cautiously to Casey Stoner as a possible winner in MotoGP, especially after his two convincing wins from three races in this year's 250cc world championship. He reckons Stoner is young enough, at 19, keen enough and focused enough to move onwards and upwards, saying: "People are watching to see whether he is just capable of winning a few GPs or whether he is a champion."
He added that if Stoner can build on his upper-body strength, he is "certainly a candidate for MotoGP".
Vermeulen's teammate, Karl Muggeridge, had a change in fortunes on Sunday. After running in the leading group in the second race, he was pipped by Corser for third on the last lap. Australian Andrew Pitt finished fifth and sixth on his Yamaha.
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