Bayliss bounces back

Aussie Troy Bayliss has recovered his form and shared the winnings with Japanese rider Haga during last weekend's superbike round in East Germany. Here's the report from the organisers.

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) and Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) took turns to score full points in the 24-lap Lausitz races, with Haga overhauling Bayliss in race one, then a man-to-man duel in race two was taken by Bayliss, as his best pace returned in the latter stages. With Max Biaggi (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) scoring second and third in the Lausitz races, in his first competitive visit to the track, world championship leader James Toseland (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) left Germany with a much reduced championship lead of 41, 25 points less than he arrived with.

RACE ONE
Despite a massive surge in the first few laps it was clear at half race distance that Bayliss would not win the first race of the day, and in the final analysis Noriyuki Haga secured a massive 11-second margin of victory over Max Biaggi and Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia). Bayliss was a slowing fourth, having used up his grip in the early laps, but of most importance to the championship Toseland had rear traction problems which held him down in ninth place, despite starting the first lap on the tail of the leading bunch.

RACE TWO
In the second 24-lap contest, Bayliss was once more a convincing early leader, until Haga caught and passed him with ease. Thereafter Bayliss hung on in, and even re-passed Haga, then stretched out a lead of 1.353 seconds at the end. Biaggi had a largely lonely race to third, while Toseland regained rear push and control on his spare bike to secure fourth place, and only lose a handful of points in race two. Corser was fifth, unable to keep up his forward push once he got on the tail of a defensive Toseland.

"These wins are hard to get but when you do take one they are very enjoyable, so I'm very happy with that second race today" declared Troy. "I've been racing against Nori since year 2000 and we've had some great battles over the past, they've all been very memorable. Sometimes he takes the win or I do but I love having a dice with Nori. Honestly there wasn't much difference between the bikes in the two races, sometimes you have a problem and it goes like that. We weren't happy with the first race and you could tell the difference in the second race because the bike was better to ride. It did look like the same was going to happen as I opened out a lead of 2 and a half seconds, and I did wonder that but it didn't and I could push the whole race. I did make one mistake and that allowed Nori to come past. I was on the limit trying to gap Nori and it wasn't easy. It was nice to have my electronics engineer Alessandra on the podium with me, she does all the stuff with the computer and she did a great job as always!"

In the championship table, Toseland has 375 points, Haga 334, Biaggi 322, Bayliss 296 and Corser 254.

WORLD SUPERSPORT - PARKES WINS AGAIN
Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport Team) scored his second win of the 2007 season, after a race-long fight with World Champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda). The win puts Parkes third in the championship fight, now within striking distance of second, held by Lausitz race retiree, Fabien Foret (GIL Kawasaki). The final podium place at Lausitz went to Matthieu Lagrive (Intermoto Czech Honda CBR600RR). British riders Craig Jones (Reve Ekerold Honda) and Tommy Hill (Yamaha World SSP Racing) were fourth and fifth respectively.

Parkes: "It's grins all round! It was an awesome race today between Sofuoglu and me. I knew I couldn't break him from in front so I decided to let him past and watch him for a while. In the end I just got my head down and decided to have another go at breaking him, and it worked. The bike was great today; the chassis has been working well and everything just came together on the day. I'm now just 26 points behind Foret, who is in second. I'm now thinking that if I can keep up this momentum I can catch him and take second in the championship this year."

SUPERBIKE RESULTS

Race 1:
1 Haga (J-Yamaha)
2 Max Biaggi (I-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra)
3 Corser (Aus-Yamaha)
4 Bayliss (Aus-Ducati)
5 Rolfo (I-Honda)
6 Laconi (F-Kawasaki)
7 Nieto (E-Kawasaki)
8 Lanzi (I-Ducati)
9 Toseland (GB-Honda)
10 Muggeridge (Aus-Honda)

Race 2:
1 Bayliss
2 Haga
3 Max Biaggi (I-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra)
4 Toseland
5 Corser
6 Xaus (E-Ducati)
7 Rolfo
8 Nieto
9 Neukirchner (D-Suzuki)
10 Muggeridge

Championship Points:
1 Toseland 375
2 Haga 334
3  Max Biaggi (I-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 322
4 Bayliss 296
5 Corser 254
6 Xaus 177
7 Lanzi 173
8 Rolfo 166
9 Neukirchner 130
10 Yukio Kagayama (J-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 116