Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB) scored a fantastic double win at the Nurburgring on World Superbike’s return to the German track for the first time in ten years. Just two weeks after breaking his collarbone in the USA, Haga fought off Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) to win race 1, and then got the better of his team-mate Troy Corser in a rain-shortened second encounter to take the double. Max Neukirchner (Alstare Suzuki) took two thirds in front of his home crowd. Despite unfavourable weather conditions, the German Round of the HANNspree FIM Superbike World Championship, reached a satisfactory overall attendance of 41,000 over the 3 days.
The classic Dutch TT circuit at Assen plays host to the fourth round of the HANNspree FIM Superbike World Championship this weekend, after a gap of three weeks from the Spanish Round. With two second places at Valencia, Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) increased his lead over his closest rivals to 48 points but the Australian is now coming under threat from a number of adversaries, mainly on four-cylinder machines. Regulation-wise, there will be no extra handicap applied to the twin-cylinder 1200s for the next three rounds, as the event average difference between the two types of machines – twins and fours - has so far proved to be insufficient to warrant a change.