Superbike Race Two
By, Trevor Hedge

A highside out of Coppice Corner ejected Troy Bayliss out of race one and the resulting impact resulted in the loss of a finger which ruled him out of a start in race two.  Toseland's dominant win over Corser in race one suggested that again it would be the Briton on top in race two however Biaggi's great turn of speed in the second half of the race suggests that if the Suzuki man can get away well he might be the one to threaten the dominant Honda man.

It was Noriyuki Haga though that scored the holeshot ahead of Toseland, Laconi and Biaggi.  Toseland was soon up the inside of Laconi to take second place and then immediately started to hound Haga for the lead. The Brit soon shot to the lead and again set about pulling an escape act but Haga was determined to not let the Honda get away this time around but then four laps into the race Toseland's Honda rolled to a stop with some sort of mechanical gremlin, presumably electrical considering the lack of smoke or debris. That technical glitch robbed Toseland of the chance to really pull away to a great lead in the series. Plenty of riders were in line to take advantage of the Briton's misfortune with Haga, Corser and Biaggi the chief protagonists.

Corser took the lead from Haga on lap six and Biaggi's Suzuki was looming large on the tail of the Yamaha men. Haga slotted his #41 Yamaha ahead of Corser on lap seven and Biaggi immediately attacked Corser also but cost himself some time in the process.  Xaus, Laconi and Lanzi were a few seconds behind the leading trio and busily engaged in their own battle for position

Lap 10 saw Haga really put the hammer down and he started to pull away from his pursuers. Biaggi saw that Haga was breaking away so took his chance to force his way past Corser and the Suzuki man then closed on Haga and soon slotted his Suzuki into the lead but Haga was not letting him get away and Corser was in no way out of the hunt either.

As they started the last lap Biaggi and Haga pulled some ground out on Corser and the Italian-Japanese duo set about having their own battle for the win all the way to the line. Biaggi had the win in the bag with a great last lap apart from the final turn where he got in a little too deep which allowed Haga to simply drive up the inside to take the win.  Corser brought home a strong third place.

All in all a tumultuous weekend for the series. Three of the top Supersport runners all out of that race on Friday with various injuries. Bayliss falling in the first Superbike race and missing the second Superbike race due to hand injuries and race one winner Toseland suffering technical dramas in the second race and thus being robbed of a certain high points scoring finish if not another win. Especially consider the race time in the first bout was appreciably faster than what Haga ran to win the second race. The benefactors of those misfortunes were the Yamaha men and Suzuki's Max Biaggi who all managed to creep closer to Toseland in the race for the title. When the Superbike World Championship reconvenes in a fortnights time at Valencia Toseland will lead Biaggi by only five points.