Bayliss extends unbeaten run to eight

Before taking a tumble in Race 2 at Misano
Troy Bayliss extended his unbeaten run to eight at Misano Adriatico as the first race saw the Ducati Xerox Team rider take a superb win from seventh on the grid. With clinical efficiency Bayliss picked off the six riders ahead of him on the track one by one to take the lead on lap 11 and power to the 25 points.

The second race of the day could have produced a similar result until Bayliss slid onto the grass on lap 17 while challenging for second place and then remounted to finish twelfth as Andrew Pitt (Yamaha) headed for his maiden WSBK win.

With championship contender Troy Corser (Suzuki) crashing out twice, Bayliss now has a 94 point lead over Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) as the World Superbike Championship enters the second half of the season.

"We are all very happy with the result but a dampener has been put on things because the Team's warehouse guy Lorenzo Ghiselli lost his life in a road accident on Friday night so I'd like to dedicate this win to Lollo who will be sadly missed by everybody," declared Troy after race 1. "To be honest I really wanted to win the second race and after a mixed start it took me a long while to get into the rhythm. Then finally when I caught the guys the bike just didn't feel as good as in the first race at the front and I stepped over the edge a bit. Maybe I should have settled for third, but I'm a racer and I wanted to keep the winning streak going. Now it's broken but we increased our points lead from 76 to 94 so I'm happy for everyone and now we move on.
"

Lorenzo Lanzi had a difficult race 1 to finish seventh after starting from eighth on the grid. The result was the same in race two, seventh place, but the Italian's performance was much improved as he put in a surge on the final lap to pass Toseland.

"It was a great battle with James, but I really wanted to finish ahead of Fabrizio as I was constantly quicker than him," commented Lorenzo. "The last few laps I was one of the fastest guys out there but I got bogged down a bit because the bike wasn't quite right in certain parts of the track. I really have to get better starts because I know I can stay up there with the guys in front as I proved last year. But I've got a great team around me; hopefully we can improve as quickly as possible because I want to get back to winning again."

"Pity, Troy was going very well and the crash happened when he wasn't pushing that hard," declared Ducati Corse Director General Filippo Preziosi. "With his race 1 win he demonstrated to be the best rider out there and for this we are very proud of him and what he is doing in the championship. Lorenzo also contributed to the good result because he managed to pass Toseland on the last lap and take points away from a tough rival so a big thanks to him as well."

Nightmare for Troy Corser!

He left Misano bruised and without any points
The sixth round of this year's Superbike World Championship will not be remembered with any affection by Troy and his team."
Chasing runaway series leader Bayliss (Ducati), Troy need a pair of strong finishes to keep up the pressure, but instead he left the track bruised and without any points! Two crashes, fortunately without any serious injury, ruined Troy's day and leaves him fourth place in the title race.

In race one, Troy Bayliss stormed though from seventh on the grid to take his eighth win in a row, with James Toseland (Honda) second and Troy's team mate Yukio Kagayama third. Race two was one of the most exciting and action-packed of the season, with thrills galore. Troy led the first seven laps and looked in command, but then fell off at the final chicane when he ran wide trying to avoid some cement dust.

Andrew Pitt (Yamaha) won the race - his first ever victory in World Superbikes - with Alex Barros (Honda) second and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) third.

"Well that was a day to forget, for sure! And it probably all stemmed from me having to miss the Brno test recently. Today, in the first race, the bike jumped out of first gear at La Querca corner and I was thrown off the bike. There was no warning, one minute I was in gear and OK and the next minute - bang! I made a good start in race two, but I'm not sure how because I had virtually no feeling what the bike was doing off the line! I managed to get the lead and held it for seven laps I guess. It felt pretty comfortable and I could see that nobody was catching me, so I didn't push hard. I didn't want to screw up the tyres by pushing too hard, too soon.
"

"All seemed OK, but then there were a few niggly gearshifts and I began to wonder if the bike was going to jump out of gear again and that made me a bit nervous exiting the turns. There was cement dust in the final chicane from a crash earlier in the day and unfortunately it was right on my racing line. I had to run wider then I wanted to make sure I avoided it and one lap I ran a bit too wide. I tried to change direction, but the tyre wouldn't grip and bang - down I went again."

"I picked the bike up to get going again, but I could see it was full of stones and gravel, so I knew it was a waste of time. What a day! As I said, at the beginning, the problems we had this weekend would have surfaced at the Brno tests and we would've solved them before we started practice this weekend. But, I wasn't at the tests and the problems happened in a race situation and we lost out. That's how racing is sometimes. Wish me better luck in Brno."

Unlucky race for Scuderia SC Caracchi

Rolfo: “I leave Misano with just a couple of points”
Not a lucky race day at Misano for Scuderia SC Caracchi. During Race 1 the bike of Roberto Rolfo had jolt on the starting line and the Italian rider has been penalized for jumping start, this penalty consists that the rider is requested to ride trough the pit lane during the race respecting the speed limit, and then rejoin the start. Despite that Roby achieved a 15th place, the same position that he recorded in Race 2.

"Race 1 has been a good race, despite the starting trouble when I've lost the clutch," related Roberto Rolfo. "After the ride trough penalty I had a good pace and recover to 15th place, with a point for the world championship. I must say that has been a positive race, because I rode always with a pace that could allowed me to stay just behind the leaders."

"On the contrary during Race 2 everything was wrong, since the start because I remained in the group and at the first passage I was 4,5 seconds behind as well at the second I lost 3 seconds more. The bike was difficult to manage at the beginning, then improved but passing the Curvone Muggeridge went out in the grass and shot hardly some gravel on me," added Roberto Rolfo. "I suffered a hard pain that forced me to slow down, then passed, but I had anymore the concentration and the pace to recover positions. That's a pity because I would get a good result on this home race and on the contrary I leave Misano with just a couple of points for the standing."

Luka Nedog had a good start, the during the early laps earned several positions, but after eleventh laps he rejoined the pits because the bike became difficult to manage.


"We decided to start with a tyre with a good grip and in which I was more confident," said Luka Nedog. "But with such hot track this tyre deteriorated quickly and the bike started to slide too much, so I preferred to stop. It's a pity because in the early laps I was riding well, recording the same lap time as during the qualifying and I recovered some position too."

Stuart Easton decided to renounce to start for Friday's crash consequences. "At the moment I had any pain," said Stuart Easton. "But last night I had a hard pain at the right hip that didn't allow me to slip so, agree with the team, I preferred renounce to start."

Scuderia Caracchi

Toseland on the podium and the gravel

After dramatic Misano race
James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) added to his Misano Superpole win with a second place finish in the first 25-lap race of the afternoon, before misfortune struck on lap 18 of race two, and he ran onto the gravel while attempting to take the lead.

Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) had two tough races, starting from way down the field in the high temperatures experienced on raceday.

In the first race Toseland led in the early laps, and despite being passed by eventual winner Bayliss, he held off the challenge of Corser, until Corser fell. A fine ride on an overheated track surface gave James his sixth podium finish of the year. Muggeridge was less fortunate in race one finishing 11th but fighting hard throughout, from a lowly 20th place start position.

In race two Toseland ran on during one of the fastest sections of the track, and skilfully rejoined the race, despite dropping from second place to sixth. He would eventually finish eighth, after experiencing a problem with his tyres after running through the gravel. Muggeridge again had to contend with a packed midfield, but made progress from his start placing to finish 14th.

Ronald Ten Kate – Team Manager: "In race one James did very, very well, but we are all obviously a bit disappointed for race two, because we saw James riding well again for most of the race. He looked like he was going to battle for the win until he ran off the track. Luckily he didn't crash it, because at that point of the circuit it is very fast. He managed to hold on and get it back on track. He brought it back in with some points, but I think that we could all see that a win would be possible.
With the way James has been riding, with the way the bike has been behaving around here, we have to be happy, but we are just a little bit less happy with the final result of race two. On Karl's side we have had quite a bad weekend, we did not get the bike to work well and we didn't have grip at all. Luckily we go testing so we can get him back on track here."

James Toseland (Race 1: 2nd– Race 2: 8th– Championship: 3rd)
"I was slowly catching the leader Andrew Pitt and going round the hairpin and I was going to line him up to pass down the back straight. As I accelerated out of the hairpin, into third, then fourth, the track kinks left and the rear just came round and didn't stop. So I went off into the gravel. After that the bike started to vibrate, like the tyre had moved on the rim, so the left-handers were very difficult. I am disappointed for the team and myself, because there was a possible race win. Pitt was riding very well, but if I didn't run on we could have been second in the championship, not just third. I gave it my all this weekend, got pole position, second place in race one, and I am just going to try like this until the end."
Karl Muggeridge (Race 1: 11th – Race 2: 14th – Championship: 14th)
"Off the start coming around for the first lap I was already something like ten seconds down, and just got boxed everywhere, every time, and then you have to ride with the crazies at that point. So they just try and ram up the inside every time. It was very hard and I had to use up my tyre to try and avoid them, so in the end I had no tyre left. We have a test at Lausitz now for three days and that will be very important for us."

Winston Ten Kate Honda