First Among Equals: Regis Laconi (Ducati Fila 999F04) added to his 2004 race wins score in perfect fashion at Monza, taking two front running wins on his Ducati Fila machine. He was untouchable and in each race he won by a margin that underlined why he is the only rider to have secured more than one win so far this year. His total now stands at four and he leads the World Championship by three points from Toseland, with a total of 120. In a day of much regulatory discussion, Chris Vermeulen (Ten Kate Honda) was excluded from second place after his engine cut-out switch, devised to kill the engine in the event of a fall, did not function when tested.
Race 1: With Pierfrancesco Chili (PSG-1 Ducati 998) experiencing an engine failure from his first choice machine, pulling out on the warm-up lap and swapping to his 999 machine in pitlane, the way was open for Chris Vermeulen to take an early advantage. He could not make his early speed stick for the entire race, as he dropped back to finish fourth. Regis Laconi ran away to a clear win, by 9.8 seconds over the hard charging James Toseland, his own team-mate. The Fila Ducati 1-2 was followed on by a third place for Aussie privateer Garry McCoy, on the first Xerox Scuderia Caracchi 999RS. Aussie Chris Vermeulen was fourth, in a race that was to deliver his only points scoring finish of the day.
Race 2: After Vermeulen was excluded from race two, having had a clear race in the vacuum of the disappearing Laconi (some 12 seconds ahead), James Toseland was promoted to second and Garry McCoy bagged himself a pair of third places - making each podium finish a carbon copy of the other. In fourth, Leon Haslam belatedly had his best ever SBK result, earning 13 additional points.
Chili Calamity: The beaten but unbowed figure of Pierfrancesco Chili left Monza with no race finishes to his name, the championship leader before Monza having two mechanical failures in race one and a crash in race two. A Monza crowd up 14,000 from last year - to a total of 86,000 - was behind Chili’s attack from the start, on a day when Superbike racing offered a feel good factor off the scale at the revamped Monza.
Petronas Perseverance: Despite a lack of power in comparison to the big twins and fours in SBK, the recently re-engineered Petronas machines of Chris Walker and Troy Corser battled around what will maybe be their worst circuit if the year. Each scored strong top ten finishes; Corser was ninth and fifth, with Walker eighth and seventh. Walker was especially combative, running all over the back tyre of Marco Borciani’s DFX Ducati in race one, with Borciani seventh and eighth.
Supersport Race: Karl Muggeridge (Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) once more bulldozed the Supersport competition, winning from Fabien Foret (Yamaha Italia) - another rider who was later excluded for a technical infringement - again a non-functioning engine cut-out switch. Muggeridge’s team-mate Broc Parkes was thus promoted to second and championship leader Jurgen van den Goorbergh to third. Sebastien Charpentier (Klaffi Honda) took fourth despite a time penalty for a jump-start. In the championship van den Goorbergh leads with 73, Muggeridge is second with 62. Retiree Kevin Curtain (Yamaha) is third, some way back with 47.
