Corser increases WSB lead, while Yamaha takes first win

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Corser increases WSB lead, while Yamaha takes first win

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July 17, 2005 The last time Troy Corser went to the Brno circuit in Czechoslovakia for a superbike round, he left with a superpole victory, fastest race lap and two wins and but for a small electronic problem in the second race history almost repeated itself today. In the end, he was not to repeat his 1996 glory, but he did have the satisfaction of increasing his lead in the championship. Without doubt the surprise of the round was the performance of Noriyuki Haga, who gave Yamaha its first victory with the R1-based superbike and brought to four the number of marques which have won so far this year - Suzuki, Honda, Ducati and now Yamaha. Kawasaki’s best so far is third with Chris Walker almost adding a podium on the weekend with a fourth in Leg One.

Unfortunately, the points don’t reflect this closeness as the incredible consistency of Troy Corser and his Team Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki GSX-R1000 have increased his Championship lead at every single race meeting so far this year and with just five rounds (ten races) to go, he is 94 points clear of second placed Chris Vermeulen - with 25 points for a win, that’s nearly two rounds or four races he could sit out and the chances are that if he did that, he would still have a sizeable lead because no-one else can string together any consistency and no-one is likely to put together the 100 points needed to bridge the gap.

Corser almost repeated his 1996 whitewash of the event. After his success in Superpole yesterday, Corser wanted to get back to winning ways and that’s exactly what he did. And, if it had not been for a technical problem in race two, he might have left with a double victory. As it was, he settled for a close second to the inexplicably rejuvenated Nori Haga.

Corser led the first race from start to finish and ran out the winner by over six seconds. Both Ducati Xerox factory riders rode storming races to put their 999F05 machines on the podium, with reigning champion Toseland finishing in second place ahead of team mate Regis Laconi after a terrific scrap with Chris Walker’ Kawasaki ZX10-based machine.

Toseland was not as elevated as one would expect: “It was a hard race, I had a problem with the clutch at the start and that spoiled my whole race, but when I was catching everyone I could see that their tyres were going off, so I had to catch them before mine did as well and so I rode really aggressively. I enjoyed the race but I’m a bit disappointed Troy won again because we just can’t afford to finish second.”

“I am so happy to be on the podium because being ninth in Superpole was not so good” declared Laconi. “I pushed very hard, I chose the softer tyre at the front and the last few laps were very difficult. I tried to follow James but he was faster than me at the finish and so I settled for third, but I am happy because I took some points from Vermeulen and that’s what I need for today.”

The ride of the race was that of perennial favourite Pierfrancesco Chili who took his Klaffi Honda CBR1000RR to fifth ahead of Lorenzo Lanzi’s Carachi Ducati 999RS, Haga, Chris Vermeulen’s Ten Kate Winston Honda CBR1000RR and the Yamaha’s of Norick Abe and Andrew Pitt.

Chili had good results from bad starts in both events, scoring fifth on two occasions after qualifying in 17th position and missing out on the Superpole shootout on Saturday afternoon. This made for two starts way behind the leading players and although he was carrying injuries from a practice crash, the 41-year-old rider even had time for a joke or two. “It is fun for me to make a push up from the middle of the pack,” Chili later laughed after two difficult races in warm conditions. “I am only a young rider so when I learn to start then the races may be different!”

The second race was red-flagged after two laps - due to an oil spillage - and Corser decided to use his number two bike as he had felt that his number one bike was running a bit slow. The number two bike had only completed a handful of laps all weekend, so it was a bit of a gamble but the team had set it up almost the same as his number one bike. He led from the restart but was passed by Noriyuki Haga after six laps. He kept in contention, but a slight electronic problem prevented him from catching and passing the Japanese rider, so he settled for runner-up spot and 20 valuable points instead. Third went to Chris Vermeulen (Honda), ahead of Norick Abe (Yamaha), Chili and Lanzi.

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