Race 1

Colin Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards powered to victory in the opening race of today's 11th round of the World Superbike championship here at Oschersleben in Germany.

Edwards took a start to finish victory in the 28-lap race to record his sixth race win of the year and his fourth in succession. The victory was also the 50th World Superbike win for his Castrol Honda team.

Armed with a new Honda SP-2 engine, Edwards was in determined mood as he took the lead into the first corner of the 2.27-mile circuit, starting from second place on the front row of the grid. He went on to set a new lap record three times in the first five laps.

"I knew the race for me was going to be all about the start," explained Edwards. "I made the start I wanted then tried to open up a big enough gap to be able to control the race.

"I've felt confident here all weekend but a 28-lap race seems to last forever so I was intent on not losing my concentration. I can't do any more than win races and look behind to see who's second ­ even though I know Troy's always going to be there!"

Victory for Edwards, the 26th of his World Superbike career, reduced the points deficit to championship leader and first race runner-up Troy Bayliss to 34 points.

Race 2

Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards blitzed to victory in today's second race of the 11th round of the World Superbike championship here at Oschersleben in Germany.

Edwards led from start to finish in the 28-lap race to reduce the points deficit to 29 points as he bids to overhaul championship leader Troy Bayliss.

Victory for Edwards was his seventh of the year and his fifth in succession, it also extended his record run of successive podium finishes to 21. It takes Edwards' career tally of World Superbike wins to 27 ­ in his five years with Castrol Honda.

"All I can do is keep winning and keep the pressure on Troy," said Edwards. "Honda, Michelin and Castrol are all playing their part with technical improvements and making my life easy. It's Assen next Sunday and I'm ready to keep my run going."

He continued: "I got the signal after the first lap that Troy was in second so I had to just try that bit harder and open a bigger gap at the front. After that I was just concentrating on counting down the laps. It's great to get the win and I'm pleased for the team, when Troy was winning every race at the start of the year it was no fun for us."

Edwards set a new lap record on the fifth lap of the race with an incredible time of 1m 26.549s, faster than his Superpole time of 1m 26.595s.

Colin Edwards also took advantage of a new, four-stroke development oil.  The oil contains an anti-friction system, unique to Castrol, which offers increased power and improved clutch efficiency.

Following extensive tests at the Honda Racing Corporation in Japan and at Castrol's own laboratories in the UK, the oil made its debut at the gruelling Suzuka 8 hours race on August 3, sharing success with technical partner Honda.

"We now hope that this technical contribution from Castrol will be able to further assist Colin Edwards's efforts to regain the World Superbike title," said Castrol's Motorsport Technical Manager Lee Morton.

He added: "The Castrol Motorsport team constantly look for areas of improvement which could deliver that extra performance required for success. It is through these advances in technology that Castrol can provide maximum performance for road machines with its R4 Superbike product."

Castrol Honda's Edwards commented: "For the past few years Castrol has been testing with us and developing product and the performance of that product can only be judged by race results ­ it doesn't get better than two wins with this new oil's first World Superbike races."

Edwards collected a surprise award on Sunday evening after his double win at the Oschersleben circuit in Germany.

The Castrol Honda rider was presented with a commemorative decanter by team manager Neil Tuxworth for notching up the team's 50th World Superbike win ­ in the day's opening race.

Edwards also set a number of new records and reached a number of milestones with his performance in Germany, his achievements included:

His fifth successive win of the year
The 50th (and 51st) win for Castrol Honda
The 99th and 100th win in World Superbike for the USA
A record 21st consecutive podium finish (previous record = 12)
Equalling a record 21 podiums in one year (set by Doug Polen in 1991)
Moving to joint second in the all time wins tally for World Superbike (sharing 27 wins with Doug Polen)

The decanter presented to Edwards was engraved with details of Castrol Honda's 50 wins, it read:

Colin Edwards 26 (1998 - 2002)
Aaron Slight 11 (1995 - 1998)
John Kocinski 9 (1997)
Carl Fogarty 4 (1996)

Edwards said: "I'm not big on statistics but this made me realise what we've achieved in my five years with Castrol Honda. It's great for me that I get all the glory but without the team behind me I'm going absolutely nowhere so it's them I have to thank."