World Superbike 2004 - Round 1 - Valencia - Sunday

Chris Walker completed a great opening round of the 2004 World Superbike season for Foggy PETRONAS Racing by following up his third place finish in the opening race - the first podium position for the FP1 - with seventh place in the day's second race at Valencia, Spain.

The results left PETRONAS, Malaysia's oil and gas giant, in second place in the manufacturers' standings behind Ducati, who achieved two wins with James Toseland and Noriyuki Haga.

And the performance of his new rider thrilled team owner Carl Fogarty, the four-times World Superbike champion.

Carl said: "It has been a brilliant weekend for us and I never dreamed that we would be celebrating a podium position here. Maybe it will make a few people sit up and take notice and we will soon know exactly what this bike is capable of, with developments to the engine expected within a few rounds.

"It has been especially good for Chris and we were not a million miles off the pace in the second race in dry conditions. We can't argue with seventh place, and nearly having both riders in the top ten, at this stage of the development. Maybe Troy was a little too anxious to get to the front in the first race and it's strange to be saying that so early in the season."

The second race was less dramatic than the opening action, with the morning's rain having disappeared. Pre-race favourite Regis Laconi failed to complete the opening lap for the second time in the day when he suffered engine failure and Chris managed to fight off a late challenge from the Kawasaki of Marco Borciani to clinch nine more points and finish the first round fourth in the rider standings.

Chris said: "I don't think we could have done a better job this weekend and that's a credit to Petronas, to Carl and to the whole team. To be on the podium in the first race was more than I could have hoped for. In the second race I got a good start, which I was desperate to do, and although I was not as high as I wanted to be I was still in the pack. It took a while to get my head down and then I concentrated on consistent laps. The bike ran really well and the Pirelli tyres worked well."

It was a less pleasing story for team-mate Troy Corser, who crashed out of the first race while challenging for second place and finished the second race in 11th. The Australian said: "I was really pleased for Chris and the team in the first race but that was not an enjoyable day for me personally. I had overheating problems in the second race and the bike was losing power. So I had to try and make up time in the corners and ran wide on a couple of occasions."

The new USB Power Commander is already available for the ZX-10R, as is a powershifter