2006 Superbike World Championship - Round 11 - Imola - October 1 - Coverage by MCNEWS.COM.AU

Newly crowned World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss took his pole position on the grid and kept that position up front when the lights went out with Troy Corser, Noriyuki Haga, Andrew Pitt and Yukio Kagayama in tow.  Corser tried to attack Bayliss for the lead but couldn't make a pass stick and early on lap two Haga decided it was his turn to have a crack and pushed the Suzuki man back to third place. Race one winner Alex Barros had come from as far back as 12th place to take victory earlier and again had his work cut out for him as the Honda man was running 10th after three laps.  Second place in race one went to James Toseland but he got a shocker of a start in this second encounter to be down in eighth place after four laps.

Andrew Pitt got the better of Corser on lap three to move up to third place and a few laps later went one better by slipping past his team-mate for second place. Corser then pushed Haga back to fourth place to make it an Aussie 1-2-3 at the front of the field. Kagayama then relegated Haga yet another position after slipping past his countryman to move up to fourth place on lap seven. Early on lap eight Kagayama them moved past Corser to take third place.

Lap 10 saw Xaus, Haga and then Toseland all slip past Corser to push the 2005 Champion back to seventh place where he was then being stalked by Alex Barros. It only took the Brazilian two laps to take that seventh place and then set his sights on Toseland, Haga and Xaus who were tightly bunched in front of him.

Yukio Kagayama had shadowed Andrew Pitt for a number of laps before making his move on lap 13 to take second place. Up front Troy Bayliss had a comfortable two second buffer over his pursuers. 

Barros got Toseland on lap 13, Xaus on lap 14 and Haga on lap 15 to move up to fourth place with six laps to run. The Brazilian easily pulled away from that trio and started to close down Pitt and Kagayama. Ruben Xaus went down on lap 17.

Barros stole third place from Pitt early on lap 18 and then took second place from Kagayama late on that same lap.  Bayliss had a 3.3 second lead with three laps to run but Barros was not giving up the chase as he sprinted away from Kagayama.

The Brazilian narrowed the gap to 2.7 seconds over the course of the next lap and when they got the last lap board the margin had been reduced to 2.1 seconds but that was too much of a gap to pull back in one lap and Bayliss celebrated his victory with a stylish mono and coming across the line right behind him in similar fashion was Barros.  Kagayama took third place and Andrew Pitt continued his great run of late season form with a strong fourth place finish but Barros' great results at Imola had put him in a position to challenge Pitt's fourth place in the championship with Pitt's buffer reduced to only 8 points.

 

Race Results

  1. Bayliss
  2. Barros 1.4secs
  3. Kagayama 4.3secs
  4. Pitt
  5. Toseland
  6. Haga
  7. Lanzi
  8. Muggeridge
  9. Corser
  10. Laconi
  11. Abe
  12. Nakatomi
  13. Nieto
  14. Walker
  15. Rolfo
  16. Martin
  17. Brookes
  18. Chili
  19. Goi

Championship Standings

  1. Bayliss 393
  2. Toseland 295
  3. Haga 293
  4. Pitt 239
  5. Barros 231
  6. Corser 218
  7. Kagayama 193
  8. Lanzi 152
  9. Walker 140
  10. Nieto 139
  11. Fabrizio 117
  12. Muggeridge 113

----    Day 3    ----
SBK R1 - SS Race - SBK R2 - Reports - Aussie - FG Sport - Ducati - Suzuki - HRC - FPR - Yamaha
----    Day 2    ----
SS FP2 - SBK QP2 - SS QP2 - Superpole - Reports - FG Sport - Ducati - Suzuki - HRC - FPR - Yamaha

----    Day 1    ----
SS FP1 - SBK FP1 - SS QP1 - SBK QP1

----    Previews    ----
Aussie - Statistical - FG Sport - Ducati - HRC- Suzuki - Yamaha - FPR

----   2006 Superbike World Championship Season Navigation   ----
----   Podcasts    ----    Late Braking News    ----    Classifieds   ----