Garry McCoy produced two battling rides to finish in the points in both races of the ninth round of the Superbike World Championship at Assen.

Team-mate Steve Martin almost made it a full complement of points finishes for Foggy PETRONAS Racing, as fellow Australian Chris Vermeulen claimed both race wins.

Garry, starting from 21st on the grid, capitalised on a stunning start to the second race to climb up to 11th although he was overtaken by Yukio Kagayama on the final lap. That followed an equally impressive first race ride when a mistake by his team-mate on the final lap allowed Garry to snatch 13th place.

Steve had been in 11th place going into the final sector but, when trying to pass Ivan Clementi, he ran off the track and dropped back to 14th. Technical problems midway trough the second race left him hanging on to 15th spot, although he was unable to hold off the challenge of Bussei on the final lap and slipped back to 16th.

Garry said: “I am wrapped to get some points and to have solved the problem we had on Friday. If I could have been in Superpole and started from a higher grid position then I could probably have finished a few places higher, so that’s a bit disappointing. I got a great start in the second race. I actually couldn’t find neutral on the line so I just had to stay in first, hold the clutch in and, luckily enough, I got away well! If you get stuck behind someone here it’s hard to pass so I just had to pick them off one at a time without making any desperate moves. Even when Kagayama passed me on the final lap he was holding me up in the corners and I was right on his back wheel going through the final chicane. In the first race I got a really bad start. I don’t know if I revved it too hard but I had a couple of cuts when the lights went out. Then I just had to fit in wherever I could and by the end of the race the tyres had dropped off so I just wanted to bring it home. Then, on the last lap Steve ran wide and Clementi also slowed at that point and I was able to make two places.”

Steve said: “In the first race I had no grip at the front and had two moments when the front completely folded, so I lost confidence in pushing the front. I was riding defensively in the last few laps but Clementi nipped underneath on the last lap and I ran wide when I tried to get back past him at the fast kink. I should maybe have looked behind to see how many people were in that group. If I had accepted that Clementi was past I would have finished 12th. In the second race I had to switch to my number two bike because of an electrical problem. I seemed to be going all right in the first half of the race before the bike started to run funnily and wasn’t accelerating the same. I was tying hard to finish in the points but it wasn’t to be so I am now looking forward to one of my favourite circuits, Lausitzring, next week.”