Corser does the double

Troy Corser has won both races at the Valencia round of the World Superbike championship, with Brit Chris Walker taking third place in race two behind Chris Vermeulen.

Race 2:

For Corser race two followed much the same course as the first race. Go really fast for a few laps then just keep it consistent till the flag comes out.

And that approach let him take the second race by almost 5.3 seconds over second placed man Chris Vermeulen.

Vermeulen had a lot on his plate though with Chris Walker. Walker got held up by Pitt at the start of the race but once he got passed he quickly caught Vermeulen and look as though he might pass the Honda rider as well.

But Vermeulen is an expert at keeping people behind him. He showed it in Race one, keeping Abe behind him untill the Japanese rider crashed out, and then again in race two. Despite looking much quicker Walker just couldn’t find the gap he needed and eventually resigned himself to a well deserved third place.

Ben Bostrom managed to turn his weekend around. The american on the British based Renegade Honda started the weekend lapping the free practice session in last place but finished race two in sixth after fighting his way past Yukio Kagayama.

David Checa, world endurance rider and brother of Carlos Checa, put in an impressive wildcard ride to finish in ninth.

Max Neuchirner racovered uninjured from a viscious highside in race one to take 12th place in the second outing.

It was a bad weekend for Ducati though. Regis Laconi had a bad crash in the wamup session and had to be rushed to hospital for an MRI scan on his head, and after finishing eighth in race one James Toseland was caught up in a crash and had to come in to the pits to change his front wheel.

The current world champion eventually finished the race in last place over a lap down on Corser and the only Ducati rider to cross the finish line.

Read a full behind the scenes report on all the weekend’s racing action only in MCN, out Wednesday, April 27.

Official finishing positions, Race 2:

T. Corser

C. Vermeulen

C.Walker

N.Haga

N. Abe

B. Bostrom

Y. Kagayama

A. Pitt

D. Checa

P. Chili

S. Gimbert

M.Neukirchner

I. Clementi

G.Vizziello

L. Alfonsi

S. Fuertes

S. Martin

M.Sanchini

J. Toseland

DNF:

K. Muggeridge

F. Nieto

M.Borciani

J. Cardoso

M.Praia

I. Silva

M.Nickmans

G.Bussei

L. Pedercini

G.Mccoy

A. Velini

See the next page for Race 1 report

Race 1:

The Australian got a fantastic start in Race one and powered away from the pack to finish the race with almost a 10 second lead.

The real battle was for second place with Chris Vermeulen and Norick Abe spending most of the race trying to beat each other in to the corner. Vermeulen had the upper hand but going in to the final laps of the race his tyres looked to be almost completely worn out, sliding in to and out of every corner.

Abe looked as though he might take second place but on lap 21 of 23 he inexplicably lost the front wheel while following Vermeulen in to a corner, leaving him shaking his head in the gravel.

Yukio Kagayama, Chris Walker and Noriyuki Haga were all battling for third place and Abe’s crash happened just as Kagayama had managed to pull out a short lead on Walker handing him the final place on the podium.

Walker managed to hold of Haga till the flag to take a well deserved fourth place.

Franki Chili stormed through the pack up to sixth place despite riding with a broken collar bone, but the pace got too much for him towards the end and he eventually had to concede a place to Sebastien Gimbert and finish in seventh just ahead of current champion James Toseland.

Toseland’s team-mate Regis Laconi, the only man to threaten the Alstare Suzukis in the championship, crashed in the morning warmup session and had to be flown to hospital for an MRI scan, missing the race completely.

Official finishing positions, Race 1:

T. Corser

C. Vermeulen

Y. Kagayama

C.Walker

N.Haga

S. Gimbert

P. Chili

J. Toseland

S. Fuertes

D. Checa

I. Clementi

B. Bostrom

G.Bussei

L. Alfonsi

I. Silva

G.Vizziello

F. Nieto

M.Borciani

M.Nickmans

DNF:

N. Abe

K. Muggeridge

M.Sanchini

G.Mccoy

M.Praia

S. Martin

A. Velini

A. Pitt

L. Pedercini

J. Cardoso

L. Lanzi

M.Neukirchner

See the next page for Supersport results.

Supersport finishing positions:

S. Charpentier

K. Fujiwara

K. Curtain

M.Fabrizio

F. Foret

B. Parkes

B. Veneman

G.Nannelli

S. Chambon

J. Stigefelt

J. Fores

W.Daemen

S. Le Grelle

A. Tizon

T. Lauslehto

C.Cogan

J. Jansen

S. Penna

T. Miksovsky

DNF

P. Szkopek

J. Enjolras

P. Martins

A. Berta

R.Harms

A. Antonello

T. Haarala

M.Baiocco

V. Carrasco

D. Garcia

J. Vd Goorbergh

Superbike championship points:

Corser , 141

Kagayama , 110

Vermeulen , 90

Laconi , 54

Abe , 44

Neukirchner , 41

Haga , 40

Pitt , 39

Walker , 38

Toseland , 30

Chili , 26

Gimbert , 26

Bussei , 23

Bostrom , 19

Nieto , 17

Muggeridge , 15

Checa , 13

Sanchini , 11

Clementi , 11

Corradi , 10

Silva , 10

Fuertes , 7

Lanzi , 7

Stroud , 5

Borciani , 4

Alfonsi , 3

Vizziello , 2

Praia , 2

Martin , 1

Supersport Championship points:

Charpentier , 70

Fujiwara , 58

Curtain , 49

Foret , 38

Fabrizio , 29

Parkes , 29

Chambon , 24

Fores , 18

Stigefelt , 16

Nannelli , 15

Lauslehto , 14

Vd Goorbergh , 11

Veneman , 9

Miksovsky , 7

Cogan , 6

Berta , 5

Szkopek , 5

Daemen , 4

Garcia , 4

Le Grelle , 3

Tizon , 2

Baiocco , 2