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(Left) Colin Edwards (2) leads Troy Corser (3), Noriyuki Haga (41) and Cart Fogarty (1) in the first Wortd Superbike race of the season. IAbove) The first race came down to an Edwards, Haga, Fogarty duel, with Edwards scoring the victory. have eased away and won with a bit of a margin to spare," Edwards said. "I knew Fogarty would be around but I never counted on Haga. Haga and I won the 8-hour a few years ago and because of that I think we maybe give each other a little bit more room. I needed it. We didn't allow for the temperature increase in the second race, but one and two ... I'm just happy to be leaving here with the joint championship lead." Pier-Francesco Chili was the only other man able to storm his way onto the podium, after experiencing tire problems in the later stages of each race. "I am amazed to finish on the podium in race two with all the problems we had with tire choice and setup here," Chili said. Arguably the performance of the day came from Troy Corser, who proved a lot of points to the world in general and the Ducati management in particular when he demonstrated that his fast Superpole ride was no fluke with a pair of distant, but otherwise strong, fourth places. "I was in second place for a while, but on my first race on this machine I didn't want to go too hard too early and maybe wreck the tires," Corser said. "I haven't raced on Dunlops for years, but the tires lasted very well. My lap times were consistent and I'm pleased about that. Fourth is a good result for us in our first race. The rear tire went off quite early in the second race so it was harder work than the first one. I'm happy with the results though, because I never expected two who's broken wrist proved to be a painful encumbrance. But even this season's injured Lavilla still impressed at the first time of asking more than the fully fit incarnation did last year. "I tried to race against Aoki when he went past me in race two, but the pain in my hand was even worse in than in the first," Lavilla said. "I almost crashed twice so I had to let Aoki go. I hope I will have time to recover before Australia, but it should be a lot better." The other Spanish star, Juan Borja, was workmanlike in his first taste of real World Superb ike action, taking two top 10 finishes after a couple of practice crashes. A rejuvenated Katsuaki Fujiwara was in relatively sparkling form in his second season in Alstare Corona Extra colors, taking eighth and ninth after hard fights in both races. Ben Bostrom's introduction to the rough and tumble of World Superbike racing left him very disappointed in his own performances, although many thought that he acquitted himself very well for a man with so little International race experience on a track he had never seen before. "I'm not riding like the Ben top four finishes at the first meeting. I'm really looking forward to Phillip Island now." So good was his performance in the first race that he deposed the might of Chili and his Suzuki, while Chili was merely relieved to score a podium finish after many setup problems in practice. The newest star in the World Superbike firmament turned out - at Kyalami at least - to be Haruchika Aoki, with the ex-GP rider roundly outperforming the more fancied Juan Borja. "I am very happy with my result from this weekend," Aoki said. "I had a big slide in front of Fogarty in the second race. Before today I had no idea what it was like to set up a Superbike for a full race distance, so we had to guess a bit with some of the settings." The Japanese rider's seventh place f~nish in race one was impressive enough, but his fifth (to overcome the injured but still-fast Gregorio Lavilla on the Fuchs Kawasaki) was a wonderful ride from a man who has only had two proper pre-season tests under his belt. Some sort of bravery award should go to Lavilla in any case, a man cue I e n e _ S • APRIL 12, 2000 7