The Italian Women Championship, Stage V
The fifth final stretch of the Italian Women Road Race Championship is over. The fearless representatives of not at all the weaker sex demonstrated to their supporters and competition referees again what real woman’s will to win actually means and showed their ability to ride an iron horse under extreme conditions. On the whole sixteen sportswomen took part in the Championship but only thirteen of them registered themselves for the final stretch. Ten girls were citizens of Italy, one competitor was from Poland and of course Russia’s honour was being defended again by “Yakhnich Motorsport” representatives Nadia Yakhnich and Nataliya Lyubimova.
Difficulties arose on the pre-race training stage. Our sportswomen arrived at the international motor-racing circuit Misano being absolutely sure that the weather would be dry and warm. So without hesitation they had taken only summer clothes. But usually sunny Rimini met the sportswomen with absolutely unexpected cold and rainy weather. The proximity of the sea makes the local climate very capricious and changeable. It couldn’t help influencing the track condition. Raised air humidity and rain are suddenly followed by the brightest sunlight which makes asphalt surface get absolutely dry for about two hours. Besides the track dries out unevenly and, in fact, it can be divided into sunny and shady parts which have different asphalt temperature and different surface dampness. Under such conditions it is very easy to make a mistake while choosing the proper tyres. Falls didn’t keep waiting for long. Valery Gola and Manuela La Licata fell at the first training session.
In the first qualification race taking into consideration that the track was wet Russian sportswomen decided to use the following method: they installed a rain wheel in the front and a rifled tyre in the back. But, unfortunately, the mechanics and pilots were not lucky with the weather: the track had got absolutely dry by the time of coming to the marks. As a result neither Nadezda nor Nataliya showed the time they had expected. Nataliya Lyubimova took the sixth position in the qualifier and Nadia Yahknich wasn’t able to continue the race because of two unpleasant falls and rather serious damage of the motorbike which had taken place during the practice on the eve of the competition. In spite of high professionalism of the team mechanics there were still a lot of worries: it took several hours to fix the bike. Emotions may also have taken their part in the final results of the preliminary race. The annoying fall happened on the shady part of the track. Good fortune seems to have decided to spare its attention to Nadezda for the sake of the future competitions.
Nataliya Lyubimova faced some problems during the second qualification race too. The matter is that, as usual, at that weekend several competitions took place in Misano at the same time: The Cup of the Italian Motorcycle Federation (Coppa F.M.I), Mototemporada and the Women Championship of Italy. Races were following one another and were going all they long (from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.) An oil spot had been left by the preceding racers on some length of the track before the sportswomen started the second qualifier. Beware of falling on this slippery spot none of the racers, except Sharon Mermet, was able to improve the time considerably. As a result she relegated Nataliya from the sixth to the seventh place in the standings.
Our sportswoman took the fast start in the main race: having begun the seventh she was the fifth to enter the first turn. But more experienced pilots Sara Zaghini and Manuela La Licata managed to pull out in front of her. The second lap made the spectators worry because of collision and fall of two favourites of the race – a Pole Monika Jaworsky and Alessia Falzoni. However their sport courage and fortitude were just praiseworthy: finally they were able to finish successfully and showed the best time of the race. Falzoni from the twelfth position finished fifth being inferior to the forth place not more than a second. And Jaworska was even luckier. She managed to find herself on the podium with a bronze medal. As for Nataliya Lyubimova she managed to overtake Zaghini after the fall of Jaworsky and Falzoni and was able to gain good speed. Finally our pilot improved her preliminary time for six seconds and finished sixth. She also took the fourth place in the maximum speed rating table.
The results of the Women Championship of Italy have been reckoned up. And they are definitely positive for our pilots Nadezda Yachnich and Nataliya Lyubimova. Their progress is evident! Last year the Russian racers couldn’t overcome the qualifier difficulties but in the frames of this championship they took the seventh and the thirteenth places among the sixteen participants. The Russian sportswomen also took the second and the fourth positions in the group “New entry”. Our pilots are gradually improving their sport achievements and are strengthening their positions in the Italian championship demonstrating better results from year to year.
Nataliya Lyubimova: “We are going on with our training and we mustn’t stop! The results are good but we still have a lot to learn from our more successful rivals. It is important for us to get used to adapting ourselves to changeable weather conditions more quickly – that’s the main lesson of the race. But on the other hand I can say that the thrilling wait for the start which falls on the very end of the competition day for the second time was perceived a bit easier by us. It is undoubtedly a positive moment. I would like to thank all our team members. There were seven people with us who gave all their support and helped us feel more confident. As for my time I have improved it only for six seconds. That means there is definitely something to strive for. At the minimum I must be one second faster!”
More detailed information about the Championship of Italy can be found in the site of the team “Yakhnich Motorsport”: www.yakhnichmotorsport.ru