World Superbike News

Ryuichi Kiyonari

Troy Bayliss and Ryuichi Kiyonari took the victories at Donington for round eleven of the World Superbike Championship yesterday.

Race One

In atrocious weather conditions, Troy Bayliss took the chequered flag at the Leicestershire circuit for the first time in his World Superbike career.

Bayliss has been racing at the track since 1998, but after incidents and accidents throughout his career at Donington, including last year when he lost his finger, the victory has always eluded him.

On a drying track for race one, the Xerox Ducati rider took the race by aggregate followed by Tom Sykes, the Rizla Suzuki, British Superbike Wild-Card rider in second.

Ryuichi Kiyonari on the Hanspree Ten Kate Honda, took the lead at the start of the race until he crashed out on lap two handing the lead to Bayliss.

Tom Sykes followed Bayliss and then passed him putting a gap of 3.9 seconds between himself and  Bayliss until the red flag was waved after Noriyuki Haga’s Yamaha blew-up, dumping oil on the track.

A host of riders went down on the slippery surface including, Max Neukirchner, Carlos Checa and Troy Corser.

The race was restarted with 14 laps to run, at the end of which the times from both parts of the rece would be added together to determine the winner.

Sykes was in the lead for the restart on aggregate but both him and Leon Haslam mistook a rain flag for the safety car and slowed down while Bayliss shot off to claim his prize.

Leon Haslam was taken out by Roberto Rolfo when he tried to get past on the esses to take third place ending Haslam’s race.

There was a lot of confusion with the riders as to who had finished where as Ruben Xaus pulled into park ferme thinking he had scored third place when in fact it was Max Biaggi.

Cal Crutchlow, team-mate of Leon Haslam in the British Superbike series for HM Plant Honda, retired before the first red flag after developing a mechanical problem.

Race Two

Ryuichi Kiyonari took the win on a soaked track in torrential rain in which Troy Corser was seen several times waving his hands to get the race stopped.

Corser had an horrendous weekend in which he had crashed six times and then went on amazingly to spend most of the second race in third position.

Cal Crutchlow, however, was determined to get his foot on the podium and Corser was unable to hold him back.

Haslam was running in fourth until three laps before the end of the race he crashed out and couldn’t restart his machine.

Another British Superbike Wild-Card rider, James Ellison, finished in fourth place despite going off track at Coppice and rejoining to battle his way past Ruben Xaus, Michel Fabrizio and Max Biaggi.

Troy Bayliss crashed out on lap twelve while running in second place as Noriyuki Haga had to retire after being black flagged.

Haga was black flagged as he continued to ride while his bike was leaking oil and then he was caught speeding in the pit lane.

Chris Walker only completed five laps of the second race, but was lucky to have escape unscathed when he went straight on at Schwantz and nearly collided with other riders as he rejoined the race.

Here are the results;

1. Ryuichi Kiyonari JPN Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR 23 laps
2. Cal Crutchlow GBR HM Plant Honda CBR1000RR +2.261secs
3. Troy Corser AUS Yamaha Motor Italia YZF-R1 +9.727secs
4. James Ellison GBR Hydrex Bike Animal Honda CBR1000RR +20.227secs
5. Michel Fabrizio ITA Ducati Xerox 1098 F08 +27.475secs
6. Max Biaggi ITA Sterilgarda Go Eleven 1098 RS08 +28.051secs
7. Gregorio Lavilla SPA Ventaxia VK Honda CBR1000RR +30.922secs
8. Ruben Xaus SPA Sterilgarda Go Eleven 1098 RS08 +38.353secs
9. Carlos Checa SPA Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR +50.196secs
10. Tom Sykes GBR Rizla Suzuki GSX-R1000 +52.346secs
11. Lorenzo Lanzi ITA RG Racing 1098 RS08 +1min 03.093secs
12. Jakub Smrz CZE Guandalini Racing by Grifo’s 1098 RS08 +1min 06.697secs
13. Robert Rolfo ITA Hannspree Honda Althea CBR1000RR +1min 08.057secs
14. Max Neukirchner GER Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 +1min 15.276secs
15. Regis Laconi ITA PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse ZX-10R +1min 38.848secs

16 Makoto Tamada JPN PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse ZX-10R +1 lap
17. Shuhei Aoyama JPN Alto Evolution Honda CBR1000RR +1 lap
18. Shinichi Nakatomi JPN YZF Yamaha YZF-R1 +1 lap
19. Yukio Kagayama JPN Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 +1 lap
20. Karl Muggeridge AUS D.F. Racing CBR1000RR +2 laps
Did Not Finish

21. Leon Haslam GBR HM Plant Honda CBR1000RR 19 laps completed
22. David Checa ESP Yamaha France Ipone GMT 94 YZF-R1 17 laps completed
23. Fonsi Nieto SPA Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 17 laps completed
24. Matt Lynn USA Alto Evolution Honda CBR1000RR 17 laps completed
25. Chris Walker GBR Ventaxia VK Honda CBR1000RR 5 laps completed
26. Troy Bayliss AUS Ducati Xerox 1098 F08 12 laps completed
27. Christian Zaiser AUT Grillini PBR Team YZF-R1 7 laps completed
28. Ayrton Badovini ITA Team Pedercini ZX-10R 6 laps completed
29. Luca Morelli ITA D.F. Racing CBR1000RR 3 laps completed
30. Sebastien Gimbert FRA Yamaha France Ipone GMT 94 YZF-R1 2 laps completed
31. Vittorio Iannuzzo ITA Team Pedercini ZX-10R 2 laps completed