After an entertaining opening round in Qatar less than a week ago, the World Superbike boys re-assemble for round two at Phillip Island in Australia this weekend eager to put on another good show.
While the Australian fans didn't get the domination that some had predicted from Troys Bayliss and Corser after pre-season testing, they can welcome their countrymen onto home soil as championship leaders, having duked it out for race two glory at Losail. Corser came out on top in that encounter, but Xerox Ducati rider Bayliss did enough across both races to ensure that he heads home as overall leader.
In all, it was a solid comeback for the 2001 WSBK champion, as he mounted the podium for the first time since Imola in 2002, and took the points lead for the first time since Assen that same year. Both he and Corser showed that experience still counts for a lot in World Superbikes, despite the influx of youth and
MotoGP stars in recent years, with the race two podium at Losail featuring the fifth highest average rider age on record. Corser, Bayliss and Nori Haga combined for an average 34 years and twelve days.
Neither Aussie, however, will be counting his chickens just yet, for there is a strange phenomenon that suggests that the winner of the opening round of the season has a better than average chance of going on to win the title - and both had to give best to a resurgent
James Toseland.
The Briton, now with Winston Ten Kate Honda, needed only one lap to secure victory, having not featured at the front for the rest of the race. However, with Haga and Corser's Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra team-mat
Yukio Kagayama colliding, Toseland was able to steal a morale-boosting success. It was his sixth win in the WSBK, and his second in an opening round - the last coming in his 2004 title-winning campaign.
Phillip Island is a circuit regarded highly by the riders, and always seems to produce spectacular racing, which bodes well after the opening round's antics. While the two Troys are currently defending the overall lead, however, there appears to be mounting competition ready to beat down the door.
