Troy Corser commanded proceedings at the third round of the World Superbikes Championship in Valencia on Sunday. The Australian celebrated a double victory on his Alstare Corona Suzuki at the famous Spanish circuit.
Troy Corser commanded proceedings at the third round of the World Superbikes Championship in Valencia on Sunday. The Australian celebrated a double victory on his Alstare Corona Suzuki at the famous Spanish circuit.
Virtually unchallenged in both races, Corser finished eight seconds ahead of compatriot Chris Vermeulen in the first race and 5,361 seconds ahead in the second race. Winston Ten Kate Honda rider Vermeulen finished both races in second position.
Chris Walker finished third in the second round with his PSG-1 Kawasaki after he had narrowly missed out on the final podium position in the earlier race. Corser’s Japanese team-mate, Yukio Kagayama, finished the first race in third position after Yamaha France rider Norick Abe (who had been racing in third for most of the race) crashed out with two laps to go.
Veteran WSBK rider, Regis Laconi caused a minor medical scare when he went off during the warm up lap. Due to start the first race from third place on the grid, the Xerox Ducati rider sustained a gash inside his helmet and was knocked unconscious for a few moments. As a precaution, Laconi was sent to a Valencia hospital for an MRI scan and though the results returned were negative, he was advised to sit out the second race.
His team-mate and race favourite James Toseland, also experienced a run of bad luck when Foggy Petronas’ Garry McCoy crashed out in the second race, forcing Toseland and Silva into the gravel pit. Though Toseland avoided a crash, the trip through the gravel completely damaged his tyres, requiring him to get a fresh set, with which he eventually finished in nineteenth spot.
Toseland had finished the first race in eighth place.
Ben Bostrom on the Renegade Koji Honda raced superbly to work his way from sixteenth on the grid to finish sixth after he had finished the first race in twelfth place.
Promising rookie, Max Neukirchner (Klaffi Honda) came away unscathed from a huge crash on lap one of the first race. Lorenzo Lanzi who crashed while avoiding Neukirchner was not as lucky and sustained a broken collarbone. Karl Muggeridge was able to restart his bike after he went careening into the gravel after the crash.
Neukirchner recovered enough by the start of the second race, where he went on to record a twelfth place finish.