2007 Corona Extra World SuperBike Championship Round Twelve, Vallelunga, Italy 30th September Race Report
BAYLISS BREAKS RECORD, BIAGGI SOARS, TOSELAND CRASHES
Round twelve of the Corona Extra World Superbike Championship came to Vallelunga, which is 40 miles north of Rome in Italy, blessed with hot sunny conditions on race day, the strong 120,000 Biaggi cheering crowd would settle for nothing less than a double win from the Roman Emperor
In saturday's Superpole session it was the Xerox Ducati of Troy Bayliss that stormed to pole position ahead of his fellow countryman Troy Corser who guide the Yamaha Motor Italia machine into second spot on the grid ahead of the Sterilgarda ducati of Spain's Ruben Xaus while local hero Max Biaggi made it onto the final spot on the front row in fourth. Britian's James Toseland lost the front end of the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda machine going into the Esses section of the circuit and will have to start from eighth on the grid for both races.
In race one it was the Xerox Ducati of Troy Bayliss that charge into the lead ahead of Biaggi, Corser, Toseland and Haga, but it was not to long before Max Biaggi took the from Bayliss and started edging out a lead. In the first few laps two of the top runers Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus crashed out, but Xaus managed to remount and continue for two laps but had to retire to damage to his machine. While up at the front Biaggi was pulling a healthly from Troy Bayliss who was riding the wheels off the Ducati trying to catch Biaggi who seemed to have the race under control, while further down the field Nori Haga and James Toseland were locked in a battle for third place as Toseland he had to beat Haga to get closer to his dream of a second world title. In the end Max Biaggi won the race by five second from Bayliss, but it was the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda of James Toseland that pipped Yamaha's Nori Haga for the final place on the podium. In race two Troy Bayliss would not settle for anything less than a win as he would like nothing less than beating Max Biaggi on home soil, and that what happened as Bayliss rode the wheels of the Xerox Ducati denying Max his double win at Vallelunga. Max Biaggi rode hard, but he was not match for Bayliss in race two as minor adjustments to Troy's machine seemed to do the job in making his bike more suited to the tight twisty circuit. Yamaha's Nori Haga went one better by making it into third place while James Toseland crashed early on, but managed to rejoin the race to finish eleventh. Its now certain that the title race is still on as Toseland's points gap has massively been reduced as Biaggi's performances have pushed just tweny nine points and into second place in the championship. Toseland now sits on 396, Biaggi 367, Haga 363, Bayliss 341 and Corser on 267.
THE FINAL ROUND OF THE 2007 CORONA WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP GOES TO MAGNY-COURS IN FRANCE FROM THE 5TH-7TH OCTOBER.
