James Toseland made up for the disappointment of qualifying on the fourth row of the Silverstone grid with a sensational pair of race finishes, scoring third in each of the 28-lap Silverstone races. Karl Muggeridge raced hard to secure eighth and ninth place finishes, with both riders suffering from a relative lack of dry pre-race practice.
Fighting to seventh place on the first lap of each race Toseland chased home and identical pairing of Troy Bayliss and Noriyuki Haga in each outing, putting James fourth in the championship, behind Bayliss, Corser and Haga. Muggeridge is 13th overall, having now scored points in the last four races.
In the first race Toseland rode his heart out to take an astonishing result of third and with another lap or two could well have made an even better result. Having started from 14th on the grid his recovery was an immense effort of will, as much as a display of riding and passing prowess. Muggeridge took a strong eighth place ride, half a second behind the rider in front.
In the second race Toseland celebrated his double podium by throwing his riding gear into his home crowd, having held off the late challenge of Andrew Pitt. Muggeridge’s ninth in race two saw him finish within a second of the two other riders he was closing in on, Chris Walker and Ruben Xaus, after making set-up changes between races.
Ronald Ten Kate – Team Manager“With two podiums I almost feel relieved. My depression of yesterday has gone so much that this almost feels like winning, because we had to come from so far back with James. In the first race we could see him catching the leaders and at the end he was the quickest man on track. In race two he got stuck inside a group, and took longer to overtake. But big compliments to him for all his riding on the weekend and the best way to get a bad qualifying result out of the way is to have good race results. So I am happy with that. I am happy for Karl, especially in the second race, where we made some adjustments to his bike, from the first race, and he almost caught the group in front, which was battling for sixth. Even though he finished only ninth, it was a very good race, because it was the first time he has kept his lap times constant over a full race distance. He was also catching up so I think we are in good shape. I am even happier now because we are going testing now in Brno, and also with some new electronic systems on the machine, so we will see if we can carry them onwards to the next race at Misano. It went well for us there last year so we could be in good shape there again.”
James Toseland – Race 1: 3rd – Race 2: 3rd – Championship Position: 4th with 129 points:“I was really disappointed with myself yesterday and I knew I had made it difficult for myself today. It was just a shame that Troy and Haga got into their rhythm so quickly, because it took me a bit of time to get through the field, and other riders were riding very well, which made it even harder. When Corser and Walker were battling it was the hardest part. From 14th to two podium places, I have to be happy. I wasn’t aware of the crowd on race one but in race two I knew I had earned a good podium place and good points, so thanks to everyone for the support. It was just a shame about the weather this weekend.”
Karl Muggeridge – Race 1: 8th – Race 2: 9th: – Championship Position: 13th with 45 points:“I actually had a good ride but the settings were not so good in race one. I couldn’t hold the line in the faster corners, so we changed the bike between races and improved it. We gained about half a second a lap but we needed the next step up. We needed just another few tenths to let us run up there, certainly to run closer to my team-mate. I almost caught up with the riders in front in race two, I really thought I would get them, but I just ran out of laps.”
Championship Standing:
1. Bayliss 225
2. Corser 149
3. Haga 133
4. Toseland 129
5. Barros 113
13. Muggeridge 45
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