World Superbikes Rd 4: Suzuki & Honda share spoils

Muggeridge’s pace in riding through the field from near-tolast place was to be one of the highlights of the event. On the start line he got away slowly and tangled with another rider, losing his clutch lever. He battled through the early stages of lap one accounting for close to a dozen backmarkers to climb to eighteenth, another six on lap two to cross the start line in twelfth, then on consecutive laps he was eleventh, tenth, ninth, and eighth. From that point onwards, the going got a lot tougher because by the time he slotted into eighth on lap six, the leading pack had cleared out and though he reached sixth place on lap eight, he was to climb no higher.

After several attempts, both Regis Laconi and Yukio Kagayama made passes on Pitt stick on the first lap, with Toseland finally getting past on lap five and setting out after the leading group. Slowly but surely, as Laconi and Kagayama caught Corser, Toseland caught them all, and with two laps to go, all four riders were line astern and the drafting that makes Monza such a spectacular circuit for motorcycle racing began to come into play.

In the end it was Corser who was lucky – he was in front leading into the last lap, was passed by Kagayama, dived back underneath him almost immediately and was then fortunate as the three riders behind him began to swap places, letting him grab a break on the last lap which extended to almost a second at the flag with Kagayama grabbing second spot by jst six one hundredths of a second from Toseland.

Laconi led off the line in the second race, with Troy right in his wheeltracks followed by Kagayama and Pitt (Yamaha). But Troy’s front brakes started to vibrate a little and after that he found it impossible to brake as hard as he had done in the first race. Vermeulen (Honda) came past and then set about Laconi, catching and passing the Frenchman on the last lap before charging to his first win (and the first non-Alstare Suzuki win) of the season. Laconi took runner-up spot and Troy beat off Muggeridge’s (Honda) challenge to claim third spot.

Corser has withstood the challenge seemingly so easily in the first race that many people thought he’d done it with plenty to spare. For the seond race the money was all for Corser and by the time the race started, Corser was being quoted by the bookies at 1.3 with Kagayama at 5.5 ahead of Toseland (10.0) who had been installed third favourite due to his excellent first race pace. Then followed Laconi (11.0), Muggeridge (12.0), Vermeulen (26.0), Pitt (26.0), Walker (34.0), Haga (34.0), Chili (41.0) and Abe (51.0).

Laconi led off the line in the second race, with Corser right in his wheeltracks followed by Kagayama and Pitt. But Corser’s front brake started to vibrate and he couldn’t brake as hard as he had done in the first race, making it difficult to stay with the hard charging Frenchman intent on putting up a show in Ducati’s important home race.

Corser stuck as close as he could to Laconi until Kagayama blew past on lap 10 only to run off the track later that lap and although he held it upright in the gravel for as long as he could, getting going again was too difficult and the diminutive Jalanese rider had blown his chance to get back on even terms with Corser.

From that point forward, Corser began riding for the championshipo, aware that his closest rival had fallen and that a good finish would extend his lead by the number of points he would score.

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