World Superbike Championship
Round 2: Phillip Island, Australia
By GORDON RITCHIE
PHOTOS BY GOLD £, GOOSE
PHIWP ISLAND, AOSTRAUA, MAR. 24
roy Bayliss, the reigning World
Superbike Champion, underlined
his early-season brilliance with a
record-breaking display at Phillip
Island. His double win was not only a
first for him on home tarmac, but up
to this point no rider in the history of
the Superbike World Championship
had won the first four races of the
season.
Bayliss may make the wins look
easy, but he knew he had put in a
full shift, especially in his own back
yard.
"The home round of the championship is so difficult, as I've hardly
had a minute to myself: he acknowledged. "To come away with two wins
from the weekend has been such an
incredible experience, especially in
front of a huge crowd who have
been right behind me. I knew even
before we came here that Colin
[Edwards] would be the guy to beat.
He is very consistent and is also on
the same Michelin tires as we are, so
we know what to expect. I chose the
same tire for both races today. One
that we call a safety tire that could
stand up to the hot conditions and it
worked. A few of the other guys had
problems, but we still had a good tire
at the end of each race."
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In both 22-lap Phillip Island legs,
the Ducati Infostrada rider had to
really fight off the close attentions of
Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards, who
eventually had to settle for a brace of
second places after Bayliss turned up
the pace in the final laps.
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Edwards was fancied for at least
one win, considering his pace in
practice and his assertion that all
would be well with his bike setup
when it mattered. He was right, but
not right enough, as Bayliss capitalized on Edwards' mistake in race one
(a missed gear) and then simply drew
away from the despairing Edwards in
the last few laps of race two, just to
underline he could.
Edwards described his first race
experience thus; "In race one, I was
happy just to sit there behind Troy,
