Aussies share superbike spoils

Bayliss, 37, stormed to yet another clinical victory in race one, before his chance of equaling the all-time record of nine successive World Superbike wins was gazumped when he put down his 999F06 in race two.

Bayliss remounted to finish 12th, although it's doubtful he would have bested the pugnacious Pitt (YZF-R1), who had clear air in front of him from the moment world champion Troy Corser (Suzuki GSX-R1000) crashed out of the lead on lap nine - his second spill for the day.

Pitt won his first-ever World Superbike race by 2.717sec over Brazilian Alex Barros (Honda CBR1000RR) and his teammate Noriyuki Haga (YZF-R1). And just to complete the swashbuckling performance, Pitt also set the fast lap of the day in race two - 1:35.123.

"It feels incredible to get that first win," said an elated Pitt, who crashed in race one after an altercation with another rider. "I saw that Troy (Corser) was making some mistakes so I tried to keep the pressure on him. When he went down I saw that the lead was about 1.3sec over the next guy. For all I knew there was a big line of guys behind me so I tried to concentrate as there were a lot of laps to go.

"When I went past and saw 'six seconds' on my pit board I thought the mechanics had made a mistake and it was 0.6sec. Then, when we got down to the last five laps I knew that I could take it easier and enjoy things a bit more.

"It's a great feeling and I really have to thank my team. We did a lot of testing on used tyres because we knew that it was important to be consistent throughout the race. In the first race the bike was running wide on a full fuel load but for the second we completely changed the front-end and run harder springs which made a big improvement."

Pitt is now the 11th Australian to win a World Superbike race since 1988, and the fourth winner in 2006 behind James Toseland (CBR1000RR), Corser and Bayliss. Moreover, it was Yamaha's first-ever win at Misano in 15 years of trying.

Pitt (128pts) maintains sixth place in the standings after his breakthrough, behind Bayliss (254), Haga (160), Toseland (157), Corser (149) and Barros (146).

Corser, in recovery mode from a recent bout of chicken pox, lost two spots at Misano after his double DNF - the first one caused when his bike jumped out of gear - with his title defence now seemingly reliant on the misfortune of others.

Meanwhile, Bayliss extended his lead from 76 to 94pts, although the margin could have been greater had his raw instincts not got the better of him in race two.

"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," said Bayliss." 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... so I'm happy for everyone and now we move on."

Three hours earlier, Bayliss' victory in race one was methodical, passing polesitter Toseland on lap 11 before stretching his lead out to nearly eight seconds.

Despite playing it cool in the final few laps, Bayliss' final winning margin was still 6.943sec, while Yukio Kagayama (GSX-R1000) inherited - and held - onto third position after the demise of Corser on lap 16.

Barros and Haga were fourth and fifth after a tense struggle, while Karl Muggeridge (CBR1000RR) was the next best Australian in 11th, ahead of Pitt (16th) and Josh Brookes (Kawasaki ZX-10R, 18th). Steve Martin (Petronas FP1), who started from the front row of the grid alongside Toseland, Corser and Pitt, again failed to finish.

In race two, Corser (lap nine), Bayliss (17) and Toseland (18) all pushed the self-destruction buttons, leaving Pitt to go it alone out front.

 (14 Muggeridge 52,_24 Martin 4)

(Pic: Yamaha-racing.com, Story: IRPR)