Superbike Race One
By, Trevor Hedge

The 2007 Superbike World Championship kicked off in sensational style in the sweaty climes of Qatar early in February and the big surprise of the season opener was the fact that defending World Champion Troy Bayliss and Factory Ducati teammate Lorenzo Lanzi not once played a leading role in either of the two Superbike bouts. Yamaha men Troy Corser and Noriyuki Haga started strongly in both races but faded badly as the race wore on. This left Honda’s James Toseland and Suzuki’s Max Biaggi to fight for the race wins. And fight they did.

Both Biaggi (Suzuki) and Toseland (Honda) were strong around the 5.4Km Losail circuit. Biaggi was a brave dynamo under brakes and into turns while Toseland was sublime at the apex of each corner and laid down better drive than the Italian. Toseland’s Fireblade appears to have gained a significant amount of horsepower during the off season and is now at least equal to the blindingly fast Suzuki. Both machines clearly had more power than the Yamaha machines of Haga and Corser. At one stage the Honda just about sucked the fairings off the R1 as it blew past them down the long main straight.

Biaggi proved the victor in race one after what was to be one of the best two man battles to the flag in the history of Superbike. Toseland got his revenge in race two where again the pairing proved the class of the field. Their tussle was reminiscent of the titanic war fought between Troy Bayliss (Ducati) and Colin Edwards (Honda) for the title in 2002. That time around it was a Honda that took the #1 plate at the end of the season. On opening form I suggest that could be the same case again this time around.

However defending Superbike World Champion Troy Bayliss (Ducati) bounced back in fine style from the disappointment of a lacklustre opening round at Qatar with a hard fought victory over Honda’s James Toseland at Phillip Island.

Yamaha men Troy Corser and Noriyuki Haga again chewed up their rear Pirelli slicks at a frightening rate. As a result they lost touch with Bayliss and Toseland as the laps progressed in both Phillip Island encounters.

This left Toseland and Bayliss to duke it out to the line and come away with a win each. Opening round star performer Max Biaggi (Suzuki) scored solid third and fourth place finishes at Phillip Island but never rose to the level of Bayliss and Toseland at the picturesque 4.45km Victorian circuit.

Toseland led Bayliss for the majority of the opening 22 lap bout before the Ducati man slipped through and made his break with only a couple of laps remaining.

25 year old Toseland learnt from that mistake in race two to ensure the snout of his Fireblade crossed the line ahead of the Ducati of Bayliss. Toseland was ecstatic with his victory.

“In race two, I tried to preserve the tyre and I managed to keep Bayliss behind me,” said Toseland. “I knew it would be hard but I just kept going and I got the win. It’s an honour to be riding with such great competition and to hear Bayliss complimenting me is very flattering. It’s a great feeling to be going to Donington as the Championship leader. I feel like I am getting better and better and I can’t wait to race at home. I controlled race one for the most part and I was waiting for the gap to go up as Troy developed traction problems, but it didn’t happen. I just kept getting plus zero on my board. I pushed 100 per cent to try and get away but just couldn’t manage it.”

The World Champ was gracious in defeat. "I was watching my board and the big screen all the time and I could see Nori (Haga) and Max (Biaggi) with me and James was preserving his tyres. I didn't want to get caught up behind anyone so I went into the lead but thought that this wasn't going to be any good because I'm going to destroy my tyre. Eventually when James put the hammer down we cleared off quite fast, the last three laps we were on the limit and my fastest lap was the last one. I threw everything at James but he still beat me in the second race so congratulations to him and his team."

Toseland's great run of form in the opening two rounds of the series meant that he arrived on his Donington Park home soil with a 16 point buffer over Biaggi. With Bayliss third and Haga fourth in the standings the level playing field of the series had been underlined with four different manufacturers represented at the top of the table.

Bayliss took the first victory of the Donington weekend with a brilliant Superpole lap while Corser was caught out by a gust of wind on his Superpole lap and thus was shuffled down to the back of the second row. No such dramas for Corser's Yamaha teammate however as Noriyuki Haga was quick enough to secure second place on the grid alongside Regis Laconi and James Toseland. The front row sporting a Ducati, a Yamaha, a Kawasaki and a Honda to once again underline the parity enjoyed by the series in 2007.

Come Sunday Bayliss scored the holeshot and led Regis Laconi down through Craner Curves for the first time with hometown favourite James Toseland on his tail.  Toseland didn't like looking at the back of the ZX-10R though and put an aggressive move on the Frenchman at McLeans which brought vocal approval from the partisan crowd. There is nothing the English like better than beating up on the French! And after the British put one over the French Ruben Xaus added insult to injury by putting Spanish pride in front of the Frenchman to take third place. Troy Corser then pushed Laconi further back to fifth place on lap three. Up front however the two form men of the season thus far were already breaking away from their pursuers.

Toseland and Bayliss were both in all out attack mode and started romping away from the field in the same form they showed at Phillip Island and it looked likely to again be a ding-dong battle to the line once again between the Ducati and Honda men but then on lap six Troy Bayliss put a huge rift in the script by highsiding himself out of Coppice Corner.

Troy Corser had worked his way past Xaus and was running in a clear second place after the demise of Bayliss while Toseland had of course been promoted to the race lead and enjoyed a three second buffer over the Yamaha man. Toseland maintained that lead with a brilliant display of controlled aggression.

Suzuki's Max Biaggi had been trading blows in the midpack for much of the first half of the race but then the Italian began to his straps and picked off Nieto, Haga, Haga, Lanzi, Xaus, before then pulling nearly half a second a lap back on Corser over laps 12, 13, 14 and 15 to close to within 2.5 seconds of the Yamaha man but then Corser started to respond to the threat and began to match the Suzuki mans laptimes to maintain his buffer. The battle over fourth place was starting to hot up with Haga and Xaus going hammer and tong all the way around the 4km Donington Park circuit.

Biaggi had got a sniff of Corser's Yamaha and with three laps to run the Suzuki man had narrowed the gap to just over 1.5 seconds. Out in front James Toseland was running his own race with the only people around him on the track being lapped riders.

With two laps to run Biaggi had only managed to narrow the gap to Corser to 1.2 seconds. A very encouraging sign that Yamaha may have solved the dreadful rear tyre wear dramas they had suffered with in the first two rounds of the 2007 season. Ruben Xaus had been putting in a great ride reminiscent of the hot form he showed some seasons ago but ended up in the kitty litter with two laps to run.

Biaggi was trying hard to chase down Corser and made a small mistake at the final turn on the penultimate lap which cost him his chance of getting within striking distance of the Yamaha man.

Toseland the winner by 1.4 seconds but the race was certainly not as close as that margin would suggest.  Toseland just managed that gap and looked to be riding with plenty in reserve and his pursuers were never in a position to contemplate making any sort of challenge.  Corser a strong second place and Biaggi rounded out the podium with a significant buffer over fourth placed Haga.

Toseland's win strengthened his championship lead to the tune of 25 points over Biaggi.  Corser's second place promoted him past Bayliss and into third place in the series. Corser however a significant 26 points behind Biaggi and a huge 51 points behind Toseland.

Privateer Honda riders with the Alto Evolution squad Karl Muggeridge and Josh Brookes finished 11th and 12th respectively while fellow Aussie Steve Martin went out of the race five laps before the chequered flag.

Bayliss' crash proved very costly for the defending world champion with the loss of a finger also costing him the chance of coming back in the afternoon to make amends.