2006 Australian Superbike Championship (YMF Loan) - Round Four - Queensland Raceway

250 Race

Roberto Locatelli got the jump from pole position to lead the field in the opening laps. Hector Barbera's day ended in tears when he lost the front on lap three. Andrea Dovizioso upped his pace as the laps progressed and had closed onto the tail of Locatelli by lap four of the 26 lap race. De Angelis was close by in third place while Hiroshi Aoyama was giving championship leader Jorge Lorenzo a headache in what was a heady battle for fourth place. Lorenzo could wrap up the championship in Portugal so was not wanting to risk any clash with the Japanese KTM pilot.

As the race entered its second half a leading quartet had been firmly established with Locatelli leading Dovizioso, Aoyama and De Angelis. Lorenzo was much further back in fifth place and had Takahashi and Simoncelli nipping at his heels.

Andrea Dovizioso took the lead with ten laps to run. Shuhei Aoyama's Repsol Honda rolled to a stop but that would have no impact on the race as he was nowhere near the leading group. Lorenzo had been pushed back to sixth by Takahashi. Hiroshi Aoyama took the lead from Dovizioso on lap 19 and that pair started to pull away from Locatelli and De Angelis. Dovizioso regained the lead on lap 20 but was not going to shake the KTM man and De Angelis joined the party on lap 22 to make it into a three way fight while Locatelli watched on from only a few bike lengths further behind. Dovizioso had the most to fight for in that group as every point he could claw back on series leader Lorenzo would be of vital importance in the lead up to the final round at Valencia. Lorenzo also new that and promoted himself back Takahashi back into fifth place with three laps to run.

Dovizioso had his nose in front of De Angelis and Aoyama as they started the last lap. Halfway around that last circuit Aoyama squeezed under De Angelis and then immediately attacked Dovizioso but the Honda man held on to the flag to take a very important win ahead of Aoyama and De Angelis. Dovizioso's win narrowed fifth placed finisher Lorenzo's championship lead to only 13 points. De Angelis' third place made it his ninth podium from the last ten races.

The 250cc class now heads for the final showdown at Valencia with 13 points separating the leading two contenders, Lorenzo for Aprilia enjoying that slender upper hand over the Honda mounted Italian.

Australian Anthony West finished 34.8 seconds behind the race winner in ninth position on his privateer level Aprilia.