CORSER AND HAGA WIN SPECTACULAR BRNO RACES - CORSER AND HAGA SHARE PEERLESS STATUS: Troy Corser (Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki) and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) scored stunning individual race wins at Brno with Haga providing Yamaha with its first race win of the year. The warm and sunny weather at the Brno track provided relatively consistent conditions for the riders to perform on, but each race delivered very different results, with race two in particular providing thrills throughout the field.

RACE ONE: After Troy Corser had broken away to an immediate lead he continued to stretch his advantage to the breaking point for all his competitors. After a dreadful start James Toseland (Ducati Xerox) fought through from the outer reaches of the top ten to score second, with his team-mate Regis Laconi third. A magnificent fight from PSG-1 Kawasaki rider Chris Walker saw him fourth.

RACE TWO: Race two was halted and a restart declared after oil on the track surface had to be cleaned up for safety reasons. The restarted race, run over the full 20 laps, was headed by Corser initially, but Noriyuki Haga summoned up the magic which we have seen so often in World Superbike to take an outstanding win. He had not even qualified in the top 16 for Superpole after practice, and had finished race one only seventh. This is the first time in Superbike history that a rider has won a race and not qualified in the top 16 in practice. Corser was a clear second, from disappointing first race eighth place finisher Chris Vermeulen (Winston Ten Kate Honda).

CHAMPIONSHIP CONTINUES TO BE CORSER’S: In the overall championship battle, the changeable results behind Corser saw him extend his championship lead to an impressive 94 points, with Vermeulen second on 205 and Laconi third on 187.

TOP RIDERS BATTLE FOR TOP PLACES: The off podium battles were tough in both races, the undulations and fast corners of Brno allowing lots of overtaking action to change the race order frequently, from first lap to almost last. The main benefactor of the long race track was Pierfrancesco Chili (Klaffi Honda), who had to work hard in both races to come through the pack after a poor qualifying and so-so starts. His brace of fifth places were impressive to watch, although the large German contingent in the crowd was disappointed with the fortunes of his team-mate Max Neukirchner. He was only 14th in race one, and a retiree in race two, fighting front tyre push in each contest.
A superb start in race two, to second place, almost allowed experienced Brno runner Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) a podium, but he lost out to determined Vermeulen on the last two laps.

DUCATI’S RACES OF TWO HALVES: With such a positive first race result from Laconi and Toseland race two proved not so successful, as they could only finish seventh and eighth respectively. SC Caracchi Ducati rider Lorenzo Lanzi repeated his fine first race finish of sixth in race two, and thus beat both Ducati factory runners.

HONDA RIDERS FIGHT HARD: Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda), showed strongly in the early parts of both races, but his ultimate results of 13th and ninth were disappointments for him and his team. For Ben Bostrom (Renegade Honda Koji) each race was a torment, as he finished 20th and 18th, well out of the points.

CHANGING MEN: The contrast of results between the races was perfectly summed up by Walker, as his near podium race in the opener dissolved to a tenth in race two, as he was slowly dropped from the freight train of riders fighting for the podium at one stage. Andrew Pitt had two tough races again, with little front grip making him a lonely tenth in the opener and then a slipping clutch putting him out of race two altogether.

PETRONAS CONTINUES HARD WORK: The Petronas triples found the challenge of Brno another tough one, and in race one Superpole qualifier Garry McCoy was involved in a collision with Jose Luis Cardoso, injuring his neck and elbow sufficiently to stop him competing in race two. Steve Martin took his three-cylinder machine to 17th and 16th places.

SUPERSPORT: A dramatic 18-lap Supersport event had one high profile crash and two high profile retirements, all conducted in front of a backdrop of another race win for championship leader Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda). He soared to a points total of 165, and is now 59 points ahead of his nearest rival Katsuaki Fujiwara (Winston Ten Kate Honda) who missed this event through injury. Michel Fabrizio ended his run of bad luck with a superb second place for his Team Italia Megabike Honda squad. Gianluca Nannelli (SC Ducati 749R) scored third, in a race in which top championship runners Kevin Curtain (crash) plus Broc Parkes and Fabien Foret (both retirements for technical reasons) failed to finish and thus score any points. Fujiwara’s replacement Craig Jones (Winston Ten Kate Honda) was eventually sixth.

Next up for World Superbike and Supersport riders is Brands Hatch, on August 7th.