The Corona Extra Superbike World Championship may only be reaching its 2005 halfway point at Misano this weekend, but it is already looking like mission impossible for some riders as they attempt to rein in runaway points leader
Troy Corser.
Even Alstare Suzuki team-mate
Yukio Kagayama, currently second in the championship, is 78 points behind the experienced Australian, and that sort of deficit has only been seen twice after ten races in the history of superbike racing, with Carl Fogarty enjoying a 95-point lead over Aaron Slight in 1995, and Neil Hodgson carrying 113 points over
James Toseland two years ago. In both cases, the championship went to the leader at that point.
The most amazing comeback after the tenth round happened in 2002, when
Colin Edwards was able to overcome a 38-point gap to
Troy Bayliss and go on to win the title with an eleven-point advantage. By contrast, the slightest tenth round advantage was recorded last year, when just two points separated Ducati Fila riders Toseland and
Regis Laconi, with the Briton going on to win the championship by only nine points.
If Corser manages to finish on the rostrum after both races at Misano this weekend, he will be able to boast 13 podiums on the Santamonica circuit, the second highest total of all time for any one circuit. The record holder for podium finishes per circuit is Fogarty, who managed to climb on the rostrum 15 times at Assen. Corser's quest will be aided by the fact that the Australian has a stunning record at Misano, where he is the only rider to have climbed onto the podium more than ten times. With fastest laps, pole positions and 262 points also to his credit at the Italian venue, the rest have been warned.
