Troy rode two hard-fought 24-lappers at Vallelunga today and left the Roman circuit with a superb pair of podiums. He finished third in the first race, behind winner (and team mate) Noriyuki Haga and Max Biaggi (Ducati) and followed that up with another third in race two. Haga also won this race, but this time, it was local hero Michel Fabrizio who took runner-up spot. Series leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) finished sixth in race one and crashed in the second and now leads Troy in the championship by 79 points.
Troy - Race 1: 3rd,
Race 2: 3rd
"It’s always good to get on the podium, especially when you’ve worked hard to get there and this weekend has been a tough one, not helped by losing a day’s dry track time on Friday. I had some front end grip problem in race one, so we made some small changes to the bike for race two and although the bike felt better, we still used the tyre up. It was hard holding on the two guys up front and I could catch them on the brakes, but they would pull away from me exiting the turns.
The rear tyre went off sooner in race two, than race one and from then it was just a case of hanging on as best I could. I want say a big thank you to the team for all their hard work this weekend, congratulations to my team mate for winning both races and also congratulations to Michel Fabrizio for getting on the podium. He’s young and I’m sure there’ll be many more podiums to come from him."
RACES -
Race 1: 1. Haga (J-Yamaha)
2. Biaggi (I-Ducati)
3. Troy Corser (Aus-Yamaha Motor Italia)4. Neukirchner (D-Suzuki), 5 Checa (E-Honda)
6. Bayliss (Aus-Ducati), 7 Fabrizio (I-Ducati)
8. Rolfo (I-Honda)
9. Kagayama (J-Suzuki)
10. Nakatomi (J-Yamaha)
Race 2: 1. Haga
2. Fabrizio
3. Troy Corser (Aus-Yamaha Motor Italia)4. Neukirchner
5. Checa
6. Nieto (E-Suzuki)
7. Kagayama
8. Nakatomi
9. Laconi (F-Kawasaki)
10. Rolfo
POINTS -1. Bayliss 369
3. Troy Corser (Aus-Yamaha Motor Italia)290 3. Haga 280
4. Neukirchner 280
5. Checa 262
6. Biaggi 212
7. Nieto 206
8. Fabrizio 210
9. Kiyonari 193
10. Xaus 160
