2007 SBK Corona Extra World SuperBike Championship Round Four, Valencia, Spain, April 14th Race Report
XAUS AND TOSELAND SHARE VALENCIA WINS
Spanish thrillers deliver popular victories after two very different 23-lap races at Valencia, local rider Ruben Xaus ( Sterilgarda Ducati ) and championship leader James Toseland ( Hannspree ten Kate Honda ) scored a race win apiece, with Xaus running clear in race one but Toseland having to fight for every inch of the track in race two. Both races were run in the dry, but the first race was a much trickier affair for all, as many damp patches off line caught out a lot of riders. In the championship standings , Toseland now leads Biaggi ( Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra ) by 13 points.
Race One. Eventual winner Ruben Xaus was involved in a four way fight for the win at one stage, but after he broke the challenge from Nori Haga ( Yamaha Motor Italia ) towards the end of the race in damp drying conditions, he was almost two seconds clear of Haga. Troy Bayliss ( Ducati Xerox ) was an impressive third, with early race leader Troy Corser ( Yamaha Motor Italia ) fourth and championship leader James Toseland fifth, fighting rear tyre vibrations which had spun on the rim. Xaus's win was he tenth in his SBK career and his first since Magny-Cours in 2003.
Race Two. The leading group in a classic race two sometimes featured seven riders, but it finally settled down into a three way fight with Toseland the victor over Max Biaggi and sometime race leader Nori Haga. A mere 0.3.75 seconds covered the top three outing, with another race leader, Xaus, slotting into fourth, some six seconds behind. Troy Corser experianced mechanical problems in race two and was forced from a possible podium to ninth, but he maintained some degree of pressure on the leading bunch, as he sits on 101 points, 23 behind team-mate Nori Haga. Bayliss, who had won superpole and had looked good for atleast one race win, made mistakes due to an inperfect race set-up, but he scored strongly in both races only two weeks after having his throttle hand little finger amputated. He is fifth in the championship chase on 90 points. The man only three points behind him is his own team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi ( Ducati Xerox ) with race one winner Ruben Xaus jumping up to seventh, on 83 points.
WORLD SUPERSPORT CHAMPIONSHIP. Kenan Sofuoglu ( Hannspree Ten Kate Honda ) scored his third race win of the year after another crash littered supersport contest, taking a powerfully confident win from his temporary team-mate Andrew Pitt. In third place was the aggressive presence of slow starting gianluca Nannelli ( Carrachi Ducati ) who rode most of the last lap with one boot hanging off. He hunted down Pitt in the later stages, but Pitt reasserted himself to keep his second place. Fourth was a slow starting, but rapidly closing, Fabien Foret ( Gil Kawasaki ). Three riders witha podium chance crashed out in the same incident, Pere Riba ( Gil Kawasaki ) and Kevin Kurtain ( Yamaha World SSP Team ) collided and took out Katsuaki Fujiwara ( Althea Honda ). Curtain sustained a long cut on his left thigh, in the groin area, and had to be taken to hospital for stitches. In the championship Sofuoglu is only five points from perfection with 95, while Foert's fourth place puts him in overall second again on 51. Fujiwara, who limped home18th is now third in the seris with an unchanged 41 points.
THE NEXT ROUND OF THE CORONA EXTRA WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP IS AT ASSEN IN HOLLAND ON 29TH APRIL.
