SUPERBIKES: Carl Fogarty recorded the fastest lap at Kyalami in South Africa during the opening tests for the 1999 World Superbike championship yesterday.

Defending world champion Fogarty completed the three-day session marginally faster than Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight - runner-up to Fogarty in last year's exciting series.

Slight said: "At Kyalami last year we had a disastrous couple of races so it's great to leave here having made a lot of progress.

"By the time we get back here for the first race, at the end of March, we'll be in better shape and able to challenge Carl and Ducati."

Former champion Troy Corser escaped injury when he crashed his Ducati late in Wednesday's final session after the Australian had set the third quickest time. The fastest three riders were all inside the Kyalami lap record of 1m 43.970s.

Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards was fourth quickest, the 24-year-old Texan set his fastest time on Wednesday morning then opted to sit out the afternoon session.

"We'd tested all the parts and tyres we had to test so I decided it wasn't worth sticking my neck out for a fast lap," said Edwards.

"It's the first test of the year, we've all got to go to Phillip Island in Australia for a test next week so I put in a quick lap I was happy with and called it a day."

Pier-Francesco Chili - making his first appearance on a Suzuki since his winter switch from Ducati - was fifth quickest ahead of Yamaha's sensation of the 1998 season Noriyuki Haga.

Overall times from Kyalami test: 1 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 1m 43.111s, 2 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 1m 43.668s, 3 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 1m 43.801s, 4 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 1m 44.217s, 5 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Suzuki) 1m 44.459s, 6 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 1m 45.425s, 7 Vittoriano Guareschi, Italy (Yamaha) 1m 45.457s, 8 Katsuaki Fujiwara, Japan (Suzuki) 1m 45.656s, 9 Peter Goddard, Australia (Aprilia) 1m 46.146s, 10 Robert Ulm, Germany (Kawasaki) 1m 46.283s.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.