A
ll three of the riders who
ha ve scored ra ce wi ns i n
2006 underwent some
degree of self-mutilation of
their point scores at a blis-
tering Misano, the halfway point of the
championship season. First of all it was
Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra's Troy Cors-
er who proved that two cuts are deeper
than one, where your championship
totals are concerned. He fell in race one
when his machine jumped out of gear
while chasing Winston Ten Kate Honda's
James Toseland and eventual first-race
winner Troy Bayliss and the Ducati. The
win was Bayliss' eighth straight, but he
wouldn't get the chance to tie both
C o l i n E d w a r d s a n d N e i l H o d g s o n' s
mark of nine.
In the second 25-lapper, held in even
hotter conditions, another right-hander
caught Corser again, but this time around
it was merely a precursor for even
greater carnage from the winner's club -
now extended to four riders.
Corser was to fall while leading, and
dropped from second in the table to
fourth. Bayliss was next to go down,
while lying third, and he scored only four
points for 12th in race two - but still com-
Misano Circuit
Misano Adriatico, Italy
Round 6
June 25, 2006
World Superbike Championship
mands a monumental lead of 96 points.
Toseland ran off track a lap later (on
18) and partially recovered, but finished
only eighth.
Bayliss' winning margin of race one was
almost seven seconds over Toseland with
Yukio earning his first podium of the sea-
son on the Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra
machine.
"We are all very happy with the result,
but a damper has been put on things
because the team's warehouse guy,
Lorenzo Ghiselli, lost his life in a road acci-
dent on Friday night so I'd like to dedicate
this win to "Lollo," who will be sadly
missed by everybody," Bayliss said. "To be
honest I really wanted to win the second
race and after a mixed start it took me a
long while to get into the rhythm. Then
finally when I caught the guys, the bike just
didn't feel as good as in the first race at the
front, and I stepped over the edge a bit.
Maybe I should have settled for third, but
I'm a racer and I wanted to keep the win-
ning streak going. Now it's broken, but
we increased our points lead from 76 to
94 so I'm happy for everyone and now we
move on."
In the second race, Yamaha Motor
Italia's Andrew Pitt scored his first-ever
Troy Corser (1) and Andrew Pitt (88) lead the field into
turn one at the start of race two.
JULY 5, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S
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