2008 Hannspree World SuperBike Championship Round 3, Valencia, Spain, April 6th Race Report
LANZI AND HAGA TAKE A WIN EACH AT VALENCIA IN SPAIN
Round three of the 2008 Hannspree World Superbike Championship came to Valencia in Spain and with a host of local talent from the likes of Carlos Checa, Ruben Xaus and Fonsi Nieto, the Spainish crowd of over 65,000 would expect to see a Spaniard on the podium this weekend.
Race One. Pole sitter Max Neukirchner wanted to go one better than his pole position this weekend by winning race one, and that is exactly how the raced panned out as the Alstare Suzuki of Max Neukirchner was on for his first win of the season until the final turn on the last lap when local hero Carlos Checa tried to dive his Hannspree Ten Kate Honda under neath Neukirchner resulting in both riders crashing out. This gifted third place rider RG Team Ducati's Lorenzo Lanzi his first victory of 2008 with Xerox Ducati's Troy Bayliss in second and Yamaha Motor Italia's Troy Corser in third. It was not a good day for the Spainish riders as Sterilgarda Go-Eleven rider Ruben Xaus also failed to finish race one along with Alstare Suzuki's Yukio Kagayama and Yamaha Motor Italia's Nori Haga.
Race Two. After being taken out of race one Alstare Suzuki's Max Neukirchner stustained a broken collarbone ruling him out of race two and possibly the next round at Assen in Holland in three weeks time. After crashing out of race one Yamaha Motor Italia's Nori Haga took the lead from Xerox Ducati's Troy Bayliss early on and looked set to take his first win of the season, but while he and Bayliss were dicing for the lead Hannspree Ten Kate Honda's Carlos Checa quickly caught and passed the duo and seemed to gap them, but after Checa could not shake the Yamaha of Haga off, he waved Nori through giving him a clear track ahead of him, but it was'nt long before Bayliss passed Checa and went after the Yamaha rider but the Japanese star was in a class of his own as he was able to win race two by over two seconds from Bayliss. Third place was eventually taken by Carlos Checa who slipped into the grasps of Alstare Suzuki's Yukio Kagayama and former BSB champion and team-mate Ryuichi Kiyonari, but the Spaniard managed to keep it together to take the final place on the podium on home soil. Fourth place went to a brilliant Ryuichi Kiyonari who managed to beat the likes of Yukio Kagayama, Troy Corser, Ruben Xaus and Max Biaggi. After taking two second place finishes this weekend Xerox Ducati's Troy Bayliss now leads the championship with 128 points, which is 48 points clear of second place rider Alstare Suzuki's Fonsi nieto, Troy corser is in third on 72 points as is Carlos Checa, fifth Ruben Xaus 68 points, Sixth Nori Haga 47 points, seventh Max Biaggi 44 points, eighth Lorenzo Lanzi 42 points, ninth Max Neukirchner 39 points and tenth Michel Fabrizio 37 points.
WORLD SUPERSPORT CHAMPIONSHIP. Home hero Joan Lascorz scored his first victory of the season ahead of Yamaha's Fabien Foret and Britains Craig Jones. Lascorz won by over five seconds as Foret and Jones battles it out for second place, but Jone's Honda CBR600RR was no match for Foret Yamaha as it pulled away from Jones down the straights. Both British riders Johnny Rea and Chris Walker finished respectfully in sixth and ninth.
