Here's the press release from Castrol on the WSC.--Dean
Media Information
Issued: Sunday October 4 1998
WINS FOR KITIGAWA AND HAGA AS FOGARTY TAKES TITLE
Keiichi Kitigawa and Noriyuki Haga won a race each in Sunday's 12th and
final round of the World Superbike championship at Sugo in Japan as Carl
Fogarty clinched the title in a nail-biting finish.On a dramatic day at the Japanese track championship leader Troy Corser was
ruled out of the races after breaking three ribs in a Sunday morning
warm-up crash.That left Fogarty and Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight as potential winners of
the championship with 5.5 points separating the pair before the two 25-lap
races.After Haga crashed out of the opening race with a five-second lead,
Kitigawa went on to take victory. He held off team-mate Akira Ryo to give
Suzuki its first win in the series for nine years. Fogarty took third while
Slight, who qualified in 10th place, took a seventh place finish. That left
Fogarty 1.5 points ahead of Slight before the thrilling 24th and final race
of the year.Haga made no mistake in race two with a comfortable victory from Ryo and
Kawasaki's Akira Yanagawa as the attention turned to the battle for the
title with Fogarty in fourth place and Slight in fifth. Kitigawa eventually
got ahead of Slight with a lap to go and Fogarty took the title by a
slender 4.5 points.Slight said: "I gave it everything I had but on the day we didn't have the
package to win the title. Ten laps into the second race I knew the
championship was over. I feel drained, it's been a hard season and I feel
like I could sleep for a month."First race result: 1 Keiichi Kitigawa, Japan (Suzuki) 38m 03.718s, 2 Akira
Ryo, Japan (Suzuki) 38m 04.025s, 3 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 38m 04.791s, 4
Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 38m 05.402s, 5 Scott Russell, USA (Yamaha)
38m 15.623s, 6 Neil Hodgson, GB (Kawasaki) 38m 17.051s, 7 Aaron Slight, New
Zealand (Castrol Honda) 38m 18.460s, 8 Shinichi Itoh, Japan (Honda) 38m
18.690s, 9 Wataru Yoshikawa, Japan (Yamaha) 38m 10.045s, 10 Peter Goddard,
Australia (Suzuki) 38m 19.273s.
Second race result: 1 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 38m 00.953s, 2 Akira
Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 38m 02.335s, 3 Akira Ryo, Japan (Suzuki) 38m
02.519s, 4 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 38m 08.812s, 5 Keiichi Kitigawa, Japan
(Kawasaki) 38m 11.702s, 6 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 38m
12.838s, 7 Wataru Yoshikawa, Japan (Yamaha) 38m 13.080s, 8 Kensuke Haga,
Japan (Yamaha) 38m 22.372s, 9 Jamie Whitham, GB (Suzuki) 38m 25.146s, 10
Peter Goddard, Australia (Suzuki) 38m 25.164s.
Final championship points: 1 Fogarty 351.5, 2 Slight 347, 3 Troy Corser,
Australia (Ducati) 328.5, 4 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati) 293.5, 5
Edwards 279.5, 6 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 258, 7 Yanagawa 210, 8 Jamie
Whitham, GB (Suzuki) 173, 9 Goddard 155, 10 Russell 130.5.Castrol Honda Press & PR Officer: Mr Chris Herring
Castrol Honda Team at Sugo: Tel/fax: + 81 224 83 5104
Sugo hotel: Metropolitan Hotel, Sendai: Tel: + 81 22 268 2525; Fax: +81 22
268 2521
E-mail: cherring@castrol-honda.com Mobile: +44 (0) 421 935351 (GMT + 8 hrs)