At Brands Hatch over 100,000 spectators enjoyed a superb show in sun-kissed conditions. They enjoyed, among other things, two beautiful 25-lap Superbike races and whole weekend of good results for Pirelli. The many and various solutions that Pirelli brought seems worked well from the first session to the last race, with riders improving on last year’s performances throughout. The English weather only spoiled things in the first day, deciding to rain before action got underway. The special tarmac of Brands Hatch - smooth in many areas - meant that Pirelli brought a soft range of tyres for the hard and polished tarmac.
After the two Superbike races on Sunday Troy Corser extended his lead in the championship but he was truly one of the stars of the show. Sunday’s races also underline the competitiveness of Haga and the Yamaha, as they took victory so soon after their breakthrough wins at Brno.

Superbike Race1
TRACK CONDITION Asciutto HUMIDITY 47%
TRACK TEMPERATURE 25° AIR TEMPERATURE 19°

A superb show, won by Corser after a race-long battle with Haga, one that will go down as an all-time classic. Laconi was on the podium but only capable of following them home today. With Vermeulen fourth and Walker fifth there were five different machines in the top five positions.

Superbike Race 2
TRACK CONDITION Dry HUMIDITY 33%
TRACK TEMPERATURE 33° AIR TEMPERATURE 22°

In the beginning it looked like a double for Corser, maybe with a Honda shadow in the shape of Karl Muggeridge, but Haga won after Muggeridge fell on the second lap. Once more Haga and Corser offered up a magnificent race, shifting positions and advantage seemingly corner by corner. They even touched each other on occasion but always with consideration for each other’s safety. It was a fantastic performance especially from Mr Number 41, at the modern day spiritual home of World Superbike racing.
He and Corser made a break from the others once more with three riders following in a tight battle for a time.
They forced the pace, pushing until the very last lap, when Corser ran wide and off the tarmac trying to get back ahead of Haga. The spirit of competition was so strong that even though Corser is leading the championship by a huge margin he still battled right to the end for yet another race win. Once more, just like race one, there were five different manufacturers in the top five places, Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda (with Vermeulen), Kawasaki (Walker) and Ducati (Laconi).

At the Brands Hatch race the total number of tyre solutions provided by Pirelli reached 36 since the start of the 2005 season. This has shown that that the research and development programmes undertaken by Pirelli have been a success. All of the manufacturers have the same tyres and thus the same chance for their riders to succeed on track, as all solutions offer the chance of good results.
The last three rounds have been exciting, not only for the racing but also in regard to the use of the new tyres. In Misano Pirelli showed, for the first time, the new 200 mm rear tyre. Most of the riders liked and used it. In Brno there was a new compound for high temperature use and the result was that in race two, run in higher temperatures than race one, it worked even better.
At Brands the new development was for softer tyres than usual, and compared to last year’s products there was a great improvement in the performance in race conditions. The best Superbike race time was reduced by 26 seconds. Also the best race lap time was improved by 8/10ths, thanks to Haga’s 1'27.272.

Supersport Race
TRACK CONDITION Dry HUMIDITY 36%
TRACK TEMPERATURE 33° AIR TEMPERATURE 20°

Pirelli are also developing product in Supersport. At this race all the manufacturers had a good level of performance proving that the product works on all possible machines. In Supersport the 2005 race was 11 seconds faster than the previous Pirelli best. The race lap time was 0.5 seconds better than the 2004 race lap time, and we even reduced the qualifying times using real-world race tyres, instead of specialist qualifying tyres. The rear tyre Charpentier used to win the race was the same as the one he set the new record pole lap. Our end users in WSS were also happy with the newest front tyres - especially Yamaha. Third placed rider Kevin Curtain was still able to push hard at the end of the race, and he even went as far as stating that if the race was longer he would have been able to make a move towards the leading duo.