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ROAD RACE WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES By Johan Vandekerckhove Photos by Gold & Goose ALBACETE, SPAIN, MAY 24 t was a Ducati triple play in Spain, the Italian brand wit:ming both races - one wet, one dry - and taking ove.r the top two spots in the World Superbike Championship befot:e a sparse crowd of 10,000 on a day of unsettled weather at the Grcuito de Albacete. Italian Pier-Francesco Chili led a Ducat; sweep of the wet first race, the Italian twins handling the rain-ind uced wheelspin better than the Japanese fours in a race which, prior to the start, was shortened by ~ix laps, 26 to 20, due to the rain. Chili's teammate Troy Corser was second, the top two using Michelin rain tires. Corser's second-place finish, alo~g with a 10th-place finish by Yamaha's Noriyuki Raga, vaulted Corser to the top of the championship after the first race. Re would extend his lead in the second race. "Both race results were good for me and Ducati and, as I am leading the points table now, things start getting serious from here onwards," the 1996 World Superbike Champion said. Spaniard Gregodo Lavilla, dding for De Cecco Racing, was the fastest qualifier in the dry and led from laps four to 12 of 20, giving up second to Corser on the final lap. It was Lavilla's first wet race on a Dunlop-shod Ducati. The second race was run on a mostly dry track, with the sun making a late appearance. It was led flag to flag by Ducati Performance's Carl Fogarty, the Englishman fending off the early advances of Yamaha's Raga to pull I 16 away to an easy victory, his second of the year and the 47th of his career. Raga would be passed by Castrol Ronda's Aaron Slight and Ducati's Corser, and end up fourth. A t the end of the day Corser led the points standings with 135, seven ahead of Fogarty, now second, with Haga third at 123. Raga said he never found a good wet setup and turned the first race, where he finished 10th, into a pointspaying exercise. He would also admit that, if the season continued to suffer changing weather, his meteodc rise was over. '1 was taking a lot of risks today and it's hard to do this and come home fourth, but I'll keep going," Haga said. Haga's teammate Scott Russell celebrated his 100th World Superbike race in the second leg by finishing a disappointing ninth, the victim of a faulty steering damper. After completing the first lap in fifth, and slowly fading, he was passed on the final lap by Suzuki's Peter Goddard. Russell was sixth in the (Above) Norlyuki Haga (41) leads the way at the start of rainy race one, ahead of Neil Hodgson (5), Colin Edwards II (45), Gregorio Lavilla (35), Alessandro Gramlgnl (partially hidden), Aaron Slight (111) and the rest. (Below) Hodgson leads Slight and PierFrancesco Chili. Hodgson had the lead briefly in race one but Ultimately finished seventh. Slight was fourth and second on the weekend, the only nonDucatl rider on the rostrum.