Foggy Petronas

Troy Corser completed the first top ten double for a Foggy Petronas Racing rider by following his seventh place in the morning race at Misano with tenth place in the afternoon. And after the races, both won by Spaniard Ruben Xaus from the third row, Troy flew by helicopter straight back to Monaco where fiancée Sam Davies was already in hospital expecting their first child.

Starting from eighth on the grid, Troy made two good starts and, in the first race, capitalised on mistakes by Neil Hodgson, Vittorio Iannuzzo and Frankie Chili to make progress through the field for his best finish since the second round at Phillip Island.

In the afternoon race Troy just lost out in a long battle with fellow-countryman Steve Martin for ninth place, despite a top speed difference of 15kph. Troy said: “I am very happy with these results, especially considering the problems we had on the first day here. I got a good start in both races but lost a few places when bikes came past me down the back straight in the early laps. The FP1’s chassis was ideal – it did everything I wanted and I reckon I was making up between half a second and a second in the corners. The bike was never struggling on the brakes, my difficulty was in powering out of the corners. My front Michelin tyres were great and the rears were very consistent. The races were physically very demanding but I guess the hard work starts now when the baby arrives!”

Team boss Nigel Bosworth said: “I think Troy rode even better in the second race than he did in the first. He has done a fantastic job this weekend and he has promised us he will win races on the FP1, if we can find him some extra power. These results have given everyone a big lift, at a time when it was needed. We feel like we are fighting again and hopefully we can maintain this progress for the rest of the season. We now have better reliability so the focus is on performance and Suter Racing Technology are working flat out to find more power.”

Chief engineer Steve Thompson said: “We have overcome major difficulties to run reliably in this heat so, after our start at Valencia, this has been our most satisfying weekend. The cooling efficiency was helped by increasing the pressure in the cylinder heads by putting restrictors in the outlets, thereby increasing the temperature at which the water boils. The wind tunnel work we have carried out has also helped and the Micron titanium cans have helped dissipate the heat in the exhausts. We are still running too hot, but nearly everyone was here.”

HM Plant

It was a tough second race for HM Plant Ducati team mates James Toseland and Chris Walker at Misano circuit in San Marino. After a fantastic first race performance where he finished in second place behind Ruben Xaus (who went on to win both races) Toseland was forced to retire from the second race after a fuel line split on his Ducati.

“It’s been an eventful weekend for lots of different reasons,” said Toseland. “I was so pleased with my podium finish in race one, especially as I was feeling pretty beaten up after yesterday’s crash, but to have to retire from race two is very disappointing. I came to Misano second in the championship and now I’m 23 points behind Ruben Xaus after his double victory. Apart from that it has been a positive weekend in many ways. I just hope that this is my bad luck over for the season and that now it’s out of the way!”

Toseland’s HM Plant Ducati team mate, Chris Walker finished race two in eighth place – a remarkable achievement considering the fact that he started from the fourth row of the grid, due to a missed gear in his all-important Superpole qualifying lap yesterday.

“I’m just glad to have secured points in each race and to keep my sixth place in the championship,” said Walker. “It was baking out there today and I knew fitness would play a part in the tremendous heat but I tried my best and made sure that I scored as many points as possible. Hopefully I’ll be completely free from injury for the next round at Laguna Seca where I’ll be determined to do my best for the HM Plant Ducati team.”

Steve Martin

Steve Martin secured the first ever-provisional pole position for DFX and Pirelli during Friday’s qualifying session. Martin made the most of a new rear qualifier to gain the provisional pole position with a 1:35.268.

“It was the first time I have used this tyre and it just seemed to work, it’s my first provisional pole so I am very happy for myself, the team and Pirelli”.

The first part of the second qualifying session on Saturday Martin was testing some new race tyres and had the same qualifier waiting for the final stages, so he could try and improve on his time.  “I put in the same tyre as yesterday but got caught behind some people riding slow on the racing line”.

Due to his tyre testing commitments and the restricted amount of tyres they are able to use over the course of the weekend, Martin had to watch the final stages of the second qualifying session from the garage, – “I was pretty happy to still be in 2nd position”.

With temperatures continuing to soar it was a very hot Superpole. Although Martin was able to improve his time from the Friday qualifying session it was an eventful Superpole lap with the rear sliding in the hot conditions. “I am a bit disappointed because I really wanted a front row start and to miss out by a few thousands of a second was pretty frustrating”.

Race One Martin started well in sixth position holding on to the leading group for the first stages of the race. Loosing touch with the leading group Martin had his own battle for fifth and sixth position with Walker, before finally having to settle for sixth position.

“I was able to hang with the main group for a few laps but the hot conditions were really hard on my tyres. I tried my hardest to hold off Walker for as long as I could but in the end I had to settle for sixth position”.

Race Two Martin again was able to hold sixth position off the start but was unable to stay with the main group of riders eventually ending up in ninth position where he had a battle to the end to fend off Corser in tenth position.

“I tried a harder rear tyre to hopefully last a bit longer in the hot temperatures, and although it was a bit more consistent throughout the race I wasn’t able to run with the front guys”.

Octagon

A magnificent double win from Ruben Xaus (Ducati Fila 999 F03) put his season firmly back on the rails after the Spanish star overcame some set-up issues in qualifying, ending a run of results which did not accurately reflect his full talents. Starting from the third row in each race, Xaus proved to be a guided red white and blue missile on race day, capitalising on a mistake from his team-mate Neil Hodgson in race one and doing enough to head him off by 0.244 seconds in race two.

Hodgson, still a clear leader on points even after his Misano mishaps, went out of the opening race after crashing on lap two. In second place James Toseland (HM Plant Ducati) rode hard to secure second, with Pierfrancesco Chili (PSG-1) falling on the very last lap, just in front of the Englishman. French ace Regis Laconi (NCR Ducati 998RS) was the first privateer rider home in third place.

In the second 25-lap outing, Xaus and Hodgson shook off the attentions of Chili on the final few laps, and enjoyed a dogfight to the line. Making a pass at the favoured overtaking spot of Tramonto corner, on the final lap, Xaus made himself fast and wide enough for Hodgson to be just unable to pass, and thus Xaus doubled up his tally of 2003 race wins in one day.

The intense 31°C heat and relatively high humidity on race day was a factory for most riders, the two-race format of SBK proving to be particularly demanding.

Many thought that Toseland’s retirement from race two was down to tiredness and pain after his big crash in free qualifying on Saturday but unspecified mechanical problems were the real cause.

Laconi followed up his race one win with a fourth place, mainly due to lowering tyre pressures between races, to try and improve traction, only to find it counter-productive.

Gregorio Lavilla (Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000) was fourth and then fifth, after a tough day in the Suzuki office, thanks to a practice crash.

Chris Walker recovered well from a bad start in race one to finish sixth, and followed it up with a fatigue affected ninth in race two, losing grip from his front tyre on right hand corners, having changed rubber on the startline.

Lucio Pedercini scored an eighth and a sixth on races one and two respectively, but the ‘alternative’ Italian star of race two was undoubtedly Vittorio Iannuzzo, running a kitted Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 to seventh, ahead of some big names – a pleasing recovery from a crash in race one.

Steve Martin rode almost as well in race conditions as he did in the majority of the qualifying sessions, and finished his day with a sixth and a ninth, on both occasions just place ahead of one of his own countrymen.

Troy Corser put in an excellent display on the Foggy Petronas FP-1, taking seventh place despite the intense heat, and even tenth in race two was a degree of success in a race with far fewer top name retirees than the opener – Toseland excepted.

The top ten in race one was completed by Mauro Sanchini (Kawasaki Bertocchi), just ahead of his team-mate Ivan Clementi.

In the championship table overall, Hodgson is still handsomely ahead of all his rivals, with his total of 315 points fully 107 points more than new second place rider Xaus’ 208. Toseland slips to third overall, with 185, Laconi is on 174 and Lavilla has secured a grand total of 155.