Ducati narrowly leads Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha in World Superbike title chase

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March 6, 2005 World-class racing on machinery closely related to that on the showroom floor is what continues to drive the success of the World Superbike and Supersport Championships. With four races now complete in the World Superbike Championship, it now seems certain that Honda, Ducati, Yamaha and Suzuki all have realistic chances of taking the title, with as many as ten potential race-winning riders on the grid. Realistically though, championship leader TroyBayliss (Ducati 999, 75 pts), James Toseland (Honda CBR1000RR, 74 pts), Troy Corser (Suzuki GSXR1000, 63 pts), MotoGP veteran Alex Barros (Honda CBR1000RR, 55 pts) and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha YZF R1, 42 pts) will be the key players with both Barros and Haga set for significant machinery improvements in the coming weeks. In the Supersport championship, the title already looks to be a race between the Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR of reigning champ Sebastien Charpentier and the Yamaha Germany YZF-R6 of Kevin Curtain.

March 6, 2005 Troy Bayliss put a first race disappointment behind him to take the Ducati Xerox Team’s first win of the season and the Australian’s 23rd World Superbike career victory at Phillip Island today. It was the former world champion’s first win since Laguna Seca in 2002 and helps to maintain a slim one-point lead in this year’s championship. Bayliss set a storming pace in the first race, but excessive tyre wear in the final stages dropped him down to sixth behind eventual winner Troy Corser (Suzuki). Bayliss made amends in the second race when he fitted a harder rear tyre compound on his Ducati 999 and rode a more defensive race. He out-braked Toseland (Honda) into Honda corner on lap 16 to take the lead for the first time, eventually taking the chequered flag quite comfortably in front of an ecstatic home crowd. First race winner Corser crashed out on lap four and was very fortunate to escape serious injury when he was hit by Alex Barros’ Honda. Barros finished the round as the highest scorer with a second and third place, indicating he will become one of the major challengers for the title as he becomes accustomed to his Honda.

“It’s been a really good weekend, obviously I was on a bit of a downer after race 1, but that’s racing”, declared Troy. “It all went well because we’ve got a smart team and they know what to do. We obviously did a race distance on the tyre before but something strange happened. Anyway we put that behind us and we decided to use the hardest tyre Pirelli brought along. Then I made my move on Toseland at two-thirds race distance and although I was nearly in the same situation with the tyres with three laps to go, I still managed to pull a good enough gap to win. We’re leading the championship again, so that’s a bonus. Now we move on to Valencia and Monza which are places we like so I hope to keep the momentum going.”

Lanzi, who had to start from the pit-lane after encountering a clutch problem during the warm-up lap, powered up the field to eleventh place, but was unable to make further progress as he struggled to maintain the pace. In the second race he was attempting to move up amongst the mid-field runners when he high-sided on lap 11. “It has been a pretty tough weekend, we didn’t find the right direction immediately with the team and I made a few errors” commented Lorenzo. “This morning in the warm-up finally we found a good set-up to race maybe for the podium, but then we had bad luck with the clutch in race 1 and I had to start last. In race 2 I was recuperating places but I made a mistake and crashed. Muggeridge was ahead of me, and I brought him down when I high-sided. Now we’ve got a month and a half before the next race, so I can get back to 100% fitness, because here I was still in a bit of pain with my ankle and knee from the crash in Qatar.”

Yamaha Race Report

Yamaha Motor Italia rider Noriyuki Haga battled traction problems to grab a brace of fourth places at round two of the Superbike World Championship at the Phillip Island circuit in Australia.

The popular Japanese rider rode hard in the day’s two 22-lap races to score 26 valuable points over the two races. Haga had run at the front of the day’s opening race but faded when his rear traction reduced at around half-distance. Despite running a somewhat lonely fifth for most of the race, the 31-year-old continued to ride hard to pass a fading Troy Bayliss (Ducati) and fend off a late charge from Roberto Rolfo (Ducati). Race two saw Haga make some further suspension changes to lead a thrilling battle at the front with Bayliss, James Toseland (Honda), Alex Barros (Honda), Troy Corser (Suzuki) and Yamaha Motor Italia team-mate Andrew Pitt. A nasty crash for Corser saw the Yamaha riders take avoiding action and let Bayliss and Toseland build a gap. The Yamaha pair was able to stay in touch with Barros in the battle for third but the lack of traction saw them settle for fourth and fifth place at the flag.

Pitt was made to pay for an incorrect tyre choice in race one. The Australian chose a harder compound Pirelli tyre, which stopped him running at the same pace as the leaders in the opening laps. Stuck in a thrilling mid-pack battle for most of the race, he ended the race a subdued ninth. For race two he chose the same softer compound tyre as his rivals and was able to run with the leaders, eventually finishing fifth, just behind Haga.

The Yamaha Motor France squad had a difficult weekend in Australia. Still running their 2005-specification engines, the team’s only points came from former MotoGP rider Norick Abe, who took 12th in race two. Fellow Japanese rider Shinichi Nakatomi crashed out of race one, before continuing his world superbike education with 19th in race two. The team’s third rider, Frenchman Sebastien Gimbert, retired from the opener with set-up problems before following home Nakatomi in 20th place in race two.

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