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R ADR O ACE WR O LDSUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIPSER IES R und 7: K o ya/am i By J ohan Vandekerckh ove Photos by Gold & Goose KYAl.AMI.SOUTH AFRICA, JULY 5 uca ti, it see med, had a score to se ttle. At the last round of the . .. . . series in Misano - the Italia n ma rqu e's ho me track - Cas trol Ho nda's Aaron Sligh t dea lt a serious blow to the red brigad e's ego wit h his stunning double victory on the tight and technical circui t. Du cati hit back. Of the available six podium spots on a su nny day in South Africa, five of them were filled by Ducatis. And, as at the last round , one man stoo d ato p two times. That man was Pier-Francesco Chili. As much as the pri or round was a disaster for the Italian rider, this one was a conquest, as he rode smo othly, quickly and in control in both races to score the first dou ble w in of h is Worl d Sup erb ik e career. Both times out, England's Car l Fogarty was. the man he had to bea t. Fogar ty led most of race one, sli di ng wild ly as the race wo re on in his attemp t to hold the lead, bu t as his tires went off, so d id his pace, an d a calculating Chili moved bv for the win . Race two was better for Fogarty despite the fact that he was still s truggling wi th ha ndling, though the result was the same: second place. Spaniard Gregorio Lavilla filled the final podium place in race one with another flash of brilliant riding, though a racetwo engine seizure ended his day early. Taking the Spania rd's pla ce on the rostrum in race two was Yamaha 's Noriyuki Haga in an equally brill ia nt rid e to thi rd p lace to spoil th e Du cati p od iu m p art y . Haga at ti mes eve n look ed good fo r second as he fo ught tooth and na il wi th Foga r ty, bu t th e Briton held o n. For Ha ga , it marked a return to form after a cras h-ma rred midseason, a nd was a so lid im p ro ve men t ove r his race-on e seventh, the result of a slow start at this hard-to-pa ss-en circui t. Su zuki ' s World Sup erbike team im p ressed in th e first rac e, with both James Whitham and Peter Goddard fig-' uring stro ngly in the pack figh ting for third, and wit h God dard even hea ding it for a while. Ultimatelv Whitham's fourth bette red Goddard's fifth, an d while the Aus tralia n Go d d a rd was a ble to na il sixth in race tw o to show reasonable success on the weeke nd, Whitham ended up on the ground in race two after tangling with Aki ra Ya nagawa, who was trying to avoi d the seizi ng !.avilla. If there was any Du cat i rid er w ho probably felt lik e he had so me thi ng to prove in South Africa, it would have to have been Troy Cors er. He probably s till feel s like he d oes. The Au stralian had been leadi ng the cham p ions hip d espite the fact that he hadn't w on a race. He still hasn't. But neither is he leadi ng the cha m pio ns hi p anymore . Th e former Worl d C ha m pio n didn't even ge t a cha nce to try for a win in the first race as his machin e sp u tte red to a halt with a (Above) Ducati's Carl Fogarty (2) and PierFranc es co Chili (7) were the story of the first-ever World SLiperbike race held in South Africa. Chili won both legs, with Fogarty se cond In both. (Left) Troy Corse r saw his champions hip lead evapo rate when his Ducati failed him on the warmup lap In the first race. Corser ended up seventh in the second race and now trails Aaron Slight in the cha mpions hip. fuel-delivery problem on the warmup lap. Corser was quick off the line in race tw o and led the early going, but his tires lost grip and he finished seventh. By this point, you may be wondering about the Castrol Hondas. The best race result of the weekend for the team went to Texan Colin Edwards II and his racetw o fourt h - able to han g on to the spot despite running off in the chicane late in the race. It was a marked im provement over his ninth in the first race, as both team rid ers had stru ggled that time out. But though Edwards' overall resu lt was better th a n his team ma te Sli ght 's, the Kiwi' s week end turned ou t to be th e m or e success fu l.' As unlikel y as it so unds, Slight's two eighth-place finishes moved him into the cha m p io ns h ip lead, but he has Corser to thank for that. Slight now has 210 points to Corse r's 209, with the top four riders covered by only 16 points. Fogarty crept u p to third place on the strength of his weekend 's effo rt , w ith 203, while Chili moves to