Despite falling in the rain of race one at Assen last weekend,
Troy Bayliss arrives at Eurospeedway Lausitz in Germany with an increased 100 point advantage over
James Toseland as the 2006 Corona Extra title creeps inevitably towards the Australian.
The hunt for Bayliss may have got all the harder after most of his immediate championship rivals endured tough weekends at Assen, but in the war for other championship positions, Assen's results have pushed even more riders into the frame for top three finishes come season end, at Magny-Cours in France, on October 8.
Bayliss' race two win at Assen was his tenth of the season, but came after PSG-1 Kawasaki's Chris Walker scored the first race win of his entire WSBK career in race one, making the Englishman the seventh rider in the top eight of the championship to have taken at least one race win in the 2006 season.
At Lausitz, the possibilities of other riders notching up a victory are very much alive, despite Bayliss' impressive record of scoring three wins in four attempts at the German track. The only other currently active WSBK rider to win a race at Lausitz is none other than his 2006 Ducati Xerox team-mate
Lorenzo Lanzi, who took his first ever WSBK victory at Lausitz in race two last year.
No one involved in WSBK racing expects any drop off in the personal points battle between second placed Toseland - set to spend a second season with Ten Kate in WSBK next season - and Yamaha's perennial title challenger
Noriyuki Haga. Each has scored one race win, eight podiums in total and are only separated by two points - with 150 still up for grabs for any rider who can win every remaining race.
Haga's team-mate Andrew Pitt was the top points scorer in the previous round at Assen and now sits fourth place in the title chase, 33 points behind his team-mate Haga, but with a high confidence level being pushed along by the momentum of three podium finishes in a row, including two second places at Assen, each in vastly different conditions.
