Oz Racers around the World – June 2008

MotoGP, Assen

The second half of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship will start with Dani Pedrosa back on top of the standings, ahead of Valentino Rossi, and reigning title holder Casey Stoner just 29 points from the lead. Rossi began the Dutch TT at Assen eleven points clear of Pedrosa, but fell on the opening lap, while Stoner romped to his second victory in less than a week and third of the year so far.

Pole sitter Stoner lost the lead to Pedrosa at turn one, but calmly overtook the Spaniard into the final chicane at the end of the opening lap and rode into the distance thereafter - the Ducati star's official victory margin a huge 11.310secs by the time the chequered flag was waved 26 laps later.
Pedrosa and Repsol Honda team-mate Nicky Hayden maintained second and third positions almost to the finish - Hayden's pneumatic-valve RCV lost power on the exit of the very final turn, costing the American his first podium of the season.

Colin Edwards, who lost victory to Hayden during a final turn showdown at Assen 2006, was appropriately the rider to gain from Hayden's misfortune, the Texan concluding a hard fought race with his second podium of the season for Tech 3 Yamaha after dropping back as far as 12^th on the opening lap.

Rossi had made a slow start from third on the grid, and then lost the back of his M1 on the entry to a tight left hand hairpin, the rear wheel whipping around and swiping Randy de Puniet from his LCR Honda. De Puniet appeared to sustain a leg injury, but Rossi was eventually able to rejoin a distant last - albeit with a broken gear lever - and was soon on a charge to try and limit the championship damage.

Accidents for rookie Alex de Angelis and the lone Kawasaki of Anthony West put Rossi 13th and the seven time world champion finally caught twelfth placed Marco Melandri with eight laps to go. Rossi overtook his fellow Italian at the end of the lap, to roars of approval from the 95,000 fans, and then set about bridging the three second gap to Toni Elias. The Doctor demoted the Alice rider with four laps remaining, but eleventh was as high as the #46 could climb.

Chris Vermeulen held fourth in the early stages, but eventually brought the sole Rizla Suzuki home in seventh, with Shinya Nakano eighth and James Toseland ninth. Elias finished in twelfth, with Melandri 13^th and last. Rossi is now four points behind Pedrosa and 25 ahead of Stoner.

World Superbikes, Misano

Race 1: Max Neukirchner has won his second race of the season, and taken second place in the World Superbike Championship standings, during race one at Misano. The German, who had qualified just tenth on the grid, worked his way methodically forward to sit fourth behind Ruben Xaus, Troy Corser and Troy Bayliss by lap 11 of 24.

Home stars Max Biaggi and Michel Fabrizio were also leading contenders at that stage, but were eliminated soon after when Fabrizio made a misguided attempt to dive inside on a right hander but lost the front of his factory 1098, and then smashed into the side of Biaggi's satellite machine. Max, contained his frustration more than he might, while Fabrizio appeared to feel Biaggi was somehow to blame.

Meanwhile, Neukirchner made short work of Bayliss and was closing in on Corser and Xaus. Corser, aware of this new threat, responded by demoting future BMW rider (and team-mate?) Xaus from the lead with ten laps to go. But the Australian, winless since he left Alstare Suzuki at the end of 2006, couldn't escape and soon found Neukirchner's GSX-R back on his rear wheel after the young German worked his way quickly around Xaus. It took less than a lap for Neukirchner to neatly outbrake Corser for the lead and, although unable to break away, held firm under pressure from the double world champion right to the chequered flag. Championship leader Bayliss brought the sole remaining Ducati Xerox bike home in third position, while Xaus was left to collect fourth position after leading the first 16 laps.

Corser's Yamaha Italia team-mate Noriyuki Haga endured a disappointing race, the Japanese getting a poor start from 14^th on the grid and finishing just twelfth at the flag. A famous Yamaha rider was watching the WSBK action from trackside in the form of seven time grand prix world champion Valentino Rossi.

Race 2: Xaus had been leading the initial start when it was red flagged on lap three due to oil from a Karl Muggeridge engine failure, but was only fourth after the restart - behind world championship leader Troy Bayliss, Biaggi and pole sitter Troy Corser. A strong opening lap saw Ruben climb to second but Corser, runner-up to Max Neukirchner in race one, retaliated on the second lap and overtook Bayliss for the race lead on lap five.

The two Australians had built a 2.5secs advantage over Xaus, Biaggi and Noriyuki Haga by the halfway mark, but Bayliss - making his final Misano appearance - was starting to look impatient and dived for the lead inside Corser at the end of the back straight with ten laps to go.

At the same time, Xaus seemed to find a second wind and marched quickly up to Corser's rear wheel, leaving the top three covered by less than one second with eight laps remaining.

Xaus elbowed inside Corser one lap later - then waved a quick apology to a man rumoured to be his BMW team-mate next season - before setting his sights on factory rider Bayliss. The #111 made his victory pass under braking at the end of the back straight with five laps go - while Corser also squeezed past the Ducati Xerox star a few turns later, only to spear wide at the final turn after a sudden slide.

That marked the end of Corser's challenge and he rejoined the track in fifth, Bayliss then found himself back under attack from Biaggi, and the Roman was handed the runner-up position when Bayliss made an identical mistake to Corser through the final turn next time around. Bayliss was able to slot back into third, while Biaggi tried all he could to bridge the gap to Xaus but Ruben held firm and collected his first ever 1098 win, and first WSBK victory since Valencia 2007. Bayliss settled for his second third place of the day ahead of R1 team-mates Haga and Corser. In the world championship standings, Bayliss is now 49 points in front of Neukirchner, with Checa three points further back and Haga 68 from the top.

World Supersport

Andrew Pitt won Sunday's World Supersport race at Misano after early race leader Broc Parkes fell just moments after waving Pitt into the lead. Parkes had overtaken fellow Australian Pitt on the opening lap, but was unable to shake off the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider and waved Pitt past with his foot on lap 9 of 22, presumable to see what he had. But it backfired badly when Parkes, rather embarrassingly, lowsided off the hot and slippery track just a few turns later. That left Pitt with a comfortable lead over Craig Jones, while Parkes eventually recovered to tenth.

Pitt held a 5.347secs lead over Jones by the time he crossed the finish line, standing on the footpegs and with his fists in the air, while Ten Kate team-mate Jonathan Rea held a safe third for much of the event.

In the world championship standings, Pitt is now 16 points ahead of Parkes' Yamaha team-mate Fabien Foret, who finished in fourth.

AMA Race 1

Ben Spies notched up another historic achievement in his brief, yet remarkable AMA Superbike career, establishing a new all-time record with a seventh consecutive race win this afternoon at Road America. Riding under threatening conditions as the skies darkened and winds picked up while the Superbike stars lined the grid, the Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki superstar stormed to the holeshot from pole with his rival/teammate Mat Mladin right in tow.

Mladin looked very racy over the race's opening four laps, regularly showing Spies a wheel and looking for a way into the lead on numerous occasions. The Texan held strong at the front, however, and finally broke Mladin's challenge by slicing under his pole time with a 2:12.133 lap on lap 5 of 16. From there Spies steadily worked his advantage up to 8.786 seconds, claiming his seventh straight AMA Superbike race win from pole. Mladin was a solid second, some 10.5 seconds clear of third-ranked Jamie Hacking, who scored his fifth podium in succession. American Honda's Neil Hodgson provided Hacking with a stiff challenge over the race's opening half before settling into fourth. On Sunday, Spies will look to his extend his new record to eight as he now turns his attention to Mladin's all-time record of 12 wins in a single season.

AMA Race 2

Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin ended teammate Ben Spies' AMA Superbike win streak at seven with a brilliant performance on Sunday afternoon at Road America. The win is the 67^th of Mladin's illustrious career and his fourth of the season after opening the year three-for-three.

Sunday's race was one of the more stirring of the season as Mladin, Spies, and Kawasaki's Jamie Hacking settled into a three-way scrap for the lead over the racing's opening several laps. Mladin and Spies traded the top spot repeatedly while Hacking used every last mph of his ZX-10R to cling onto the fight for first.

The British pilot lost the draft after hitting a damp spot following lap five and slowly fell into another lonely ride to his sixth straight podium result while Mladin took command of the race as Spies formation flew his works GSX-R1000 right behind.

The Australian slowly worked up a small advantage with five to go, gradually opening the gap up to just over a half-second as they took the white flag. Spies gave up the pursuit when he ran with in Turn 5 and it became obvious Mladin wouldn't be beaten on this day and fell close to three seconds off the win at the checkered flag.

Hacking finished third some 21 seconds back while American Honda's Neil Hodgson was once again the fourth fastest man on track, finishing another eight plus seconds behind his countryman. Spies will carry a 40-point advantage (378 vs. 338) into the combined MotoGP/AMA Superbike round at Laguna Seca on July 16-18.