Images from Thursday at Brands Hatch

WHO WILL BE THE FIRST? – Pierfrancesco Chili and Troy Corser ran respectively 4974 and 4977 laps during their career and both of them, even in race 1 in Brands Hatch, can be the first rider in WSBK™ history to reach the milestone of 5000 laps run in races.

The all-time Top-10 is as follows:
Rider Laps run
T.Corser 4977
P.Chili 4974
A.Slight 4968
C.Fogarty 4521
P.Bontempi 3832
C.Edwards 3775
F.Pirovano 3695
N.Haga 3455
N.Hodgson 3043
S.Mertens 2984

CHILI IN THE POINTS – Pierfrancesco Chili in race 1 in Brno reached Carl Fogarty at the third place all-time for races ended in the points, with just another race ended in the first 15 riders, the man from Bologna can claim the third spot all for himself.

These are the riders that during their career obtained the highest number of races ended in the points:
Rider Races in the points (*)
A.Slight 207
T.Corser 203
P.Chili 190
C.Fogarty 190
C.Edwards 161
F.Pirovano 147
P.Bontempi 139
N.Haga 136
N.Hodgson 119
S.Mertens 112
(*) not total points gained
James Toseland is just below this chart with 108 races in the points.

THE GAP SHRINKS – Troy Bayliss in the last three races collected one 12th, one retirement and an 8th. In this way his advantage over the second rider classified in the World Championship ranking went down from 101 points after race 1 in Misano to 73 points. Nevertheless, Troy’s advantage after 14 races is the fourth of all times.

Year Total races Leader after 14 races Points Second in the championship after 14 races Points Difference World Champion
1995 24 C.Fogarty 295 T.Corser 179 116 C.Fogarty
2003 24 N.Hodgson 315 R.Xaus 208 107 N.Hodgson
2005 23 T.Corser 299 C.Vermeulen 205 94 T.Corser
2006 24 T.Bayliss 262 N.Haga 189 73 ?
1991 26 D.Polen 217 R.Phillis 161 56 D.Polen
1999 26 C.Fogarty 293 T.Corser 238 55 C.Fogarty
2000 26 C.Edwards 208 T.Corser 167 41 C.Edwards
2002 26 T.Bayliss 310 C.Edwards 271 39 C.Edwards
2001 25 T.Bayliss 230 C.Edwards 198 32 T.Bayliss
1990 26 R.Roche 223 S.Mertens 195 28 R.Roche

ANNIVERSARIES OF THE WEEK
• Agust the 1st – 1999, Brands Hatch race 1, 200th race start for Aaron Slight. The aussie is the second in the history of WSBK™ to reach this goal, 8 races after Carl Fogarty, that reached it in Monza 1999. In race 2 is Troy Corser’s turn to celebrate his 100th start in the race that gives Colin Edwards his 25th podium place;
• August the 2nd – 1998, Brands Hatch race 2, first and only fastest lap of the career for Jamie Whitham;
• August the 3rd – 1997, Brands Hatch race 2, always in august and always in Brands Hatch, it’s a costant pattern for Aaron Slight, that reaches 150 race starts. In the same race Michael Rutter catches his only podium place of the career. In race 1 Niall McKenzie scores his only fastest lap of the career;
• August the 4th – 1996, Brands Hatch race 2, 50th race start for Troy Corser. 1991, Misano race 1, 50th race start for Davide Tardozzi;
• August the 6th – 2000, Brands Hatch race 1, 1st fastest lap for Neil Hodgson, in his career he will rack up 14 and he is now the 10th rider of all times in this ranking. 1995, Brands Hatch race 2, 1st fastest lap for Colin Edwards, in his career he will gain 23 fastest laps and now he is the 7th rider of all times in this ranking.


MILESTONES IN BRANDS HATCH

• 1993 – race 1, 1st pole position for Scott Russell. Race 2, 10th win for Giancarlo Falappa. The italian does it in style, winning with a 36”830 margin over Scott Russell. It’s the second gap between first and second classified in the whole history of WSBK™. The highest is the one between winner Peter Goddard and second Robert Phillis in Oran Park 1989 race 1. The gap then was 56”255;
• 2001 – race 2, 175th win for Ducati (Ben Bostrom);
• 2002 – race 2, 25th win for Colin Edwards;
• 2003 – race 1, 1st win and 1st fastest lap for Shane Byrne, first (and only) pole and first (and only) fastest lap (in race 2) for John Reynolds;
• 2005 – race 1, Pierfrancesco Chili is the first (and at the moment the only one) rider in WSBK™ history to reach 250 race starts.


HIGHS AND LOWS OF 2005 IN BRANDS HATCH

• Fonsi Nieto records one of the 2 double retirements of the season, the other one was always in Great Britain, in Silverstone. The spanish rider also records his worst qualifying performance of the career: 26th;
• Noriyuki Haga scores in race 2 one of his two wins of the season;
• Troy Corser wins in race 1, he will not win another race in the rest of the season. The aussie will win again in 2006 in race 2 in Losail. Corser scores also his last pole of the season, he will be back on pole in Valencia 2006;
• Best season qualifying result for Chris Walker: 5th, it was since Brands Hatch 2003 that Chris didn’t manalge to qualify that high;
• Best career result in qualifying for Karl Muggeridge: second. The aussie up to now hasn’t equalled that performance;
• Worst career result in qualifying for Pierfrancesco Chili: 19th;
• Worst career result in qualifying for Sebastien Gimbert: 22nd, the same place obtained in Brno only a few days earlier.


DUCATI’S WINS – The italian manufacturer is only one win short of the 250 wins milestone. Ducati leads the wins chart with a huge margin, followed by Honda at 87 wins, Yamaha at 37 and Kawasaki at 34.

These are the previous milestones in the history of Ducati:
Win # Race Rider Bike model
1 Donington 1988 race 2 Marco Lucchinelli 851
25 Misano 1991 race 1 Doug Polen 888
50 Mugello 1992 race 2 Raymond Roche 888
75 Assen 1993 race 1 Carl Fogarty 888
100 Salzburgring 1995 race 1 Carl Fogarty 916 R
125 Misano 1997 race 1 Pierfrancesco Chili 916 R
150 Monza 1999 race 2 Carl Fogarty 996 RS
175 Brands Hatch 2001 race 2 Ben Bostrom 996 R F01
200 Monza 2003 race 1 Neil Hodgson 999 F03
225 Monza 2004 race 2 Regis Laconi 999 F04

BAYLISS CLOSE TO EDWARDS – Troy Bayliss misses only one win to become the third rider all-time for races won, equalling Colin Edwards’ record.

This is the top-10:
Rider Wins
1 Carl Fogarty 59
2 Troy Corser 33
3 Colin Edwards 31
4 Troy Bayliss 30
5 Doug Polen 27
6 Raymond Roche 23
7 Noriyuki Haga 19
8 Pierfrancesco Chili 17
9 Giancarlo Falappa 16
10 Neil Hodgson 16