Regis Laconi (Ducati Fila 999F04) shook off the ghosts that haunted him in the first round at Valencia and secured a fine win in the first 22-lap Superbike race, streaking to a clear 7.145 margin of victory over his closest challengers. With Superpole winner Laconi in a class of his own after an early race dust up with his team-mate James Toseland and Steve Martin (DFX Ducati), a superb four-way battle for second place supremacy was played out on the final circuits of the first race. The home crowd and Honda fans could hardly contain their delight when Chris Vermeulen (Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) pounced to secure his first podium finish in Superbike, and in second place to boot. Behind him, the hard charging James Toseland, who was leaving huge plumes of tyre smoke in his wake as he attacked the throttle, despite with an imperfect bike set-up, ended his first race in third place.
The second 22-lap event was held in different conditions, still dry and warm, but each of the factory Ducati runners was to find ill fortune awaiting in the gravel, traps, as first early leader Laconi and then Toseland fell. The battle for second between Steve Martin (Ducati DFX) and Garry McCoy (Xerox NCR Ducati) was thus eventually a battle for the win, and was decided in McCoy’s favour when Martin’s bike blew up. Despite the second place finish enjoyed once more by Vermeulen, the second race itself proved to be a completely different animal to the opener, as Pierfrancesco Chili (PSG-1) Ducati ripped to third place, having jumped from his first race 999 machine to his more familiar 998. Outside the podium places the Phillip Island race proved to be a fascinating contest, with many and various participants writing their names on the scoreboard. The first race sort-out for second place saw Martin fourth and Garry McCoy fifth.
It was a satisfying event for the all-new Kawasaki Bertocchi machine of Mauro Sanchini, who held off the determined challenge of Marco Borciani and Valencia race winner Noriyuki Haga to take sixth. Borciani’s own luck, thanks to the crashes up the front in race two, just got better and he finished race two in fourth place, an excellent result for a rider maturing into a real force to be reckoned with. Chili, riding his 999 with a single sided swingarm in race one was a lowly ninth, while Chris Walker once more was the fastest Petronas rider in tenth. Four non-finishers included the flying Leon Haslam, the early lap leader in the opener. The minor places in race two were as closely contested as any others, with Troy Corser beating the out-of-sorts Haga to take fifth. Sanchini, Walker and Ivan Clementi (Kawasaki Bertocchi ZX-10) battled for seventh, the Italian taking the upper hand. Tenth place went to Haslam, a poor reward for his front row starts.
In the World Championship itself, Toseland is still the leader, although his race two DNF allowed Pierfrancesco Chili to creep up to within five points of his leading total of 61. One point behind, race winner McCoy shares his 55 points with Chris Vermeulen, but leads in the table because of his single race win.
SUPERSPORT: Wildcard Wildchild Rocks The Old Guard at Home - After another dramatic and unpredictable measure of Supersport racing a raw rookie, 20-year-old Aussie wild card rider Josh Brookes (Castrol Honda) stole the limelight from the WSS establishment, winning his first ever World Supersport race. An Aussie championship regular, Brookes, diced for the lead throughout, finishing off WSS regular Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) on the last sector of the last lap. It was a close run thing, with the gap at the end only 0.025 as Curtain attempted to slipstream on Phillip Island’s long front straight.
Jurgen van den Goorbergh, the Valencia race winner, extended his championship advantage by mounting a steady charge to third, as the challenge of the Ten Kate Honda riders, Broc Parkes and Karl Muggeridge faded. Parkes was an eventual fourth, but engine problems for Muggeridge put him down in 12th, losing a seemingly certain podium finish. Sebastien Charpentier (Klaffi Honda) roared to a fifth place finish, with van den Goorbergh’s team-mate Fabien Foret in sixth. Lorenzo Lanzi, the only Ducati finisher, rode through problems with the front to finish ninth. The top Suzuki was that of Stephane Chambon (Alstare Suzuki) with Katsuaki Fujiwara, in 11th. Van den Goorbergh now leads the table on 41 points, with Foret second on 30 and Curtain third, on 27.
The next round for both championships takes place at Misano on Sunday April 18.
