Joy for home crowd as
Troy Bayliss wins first leg. Max Biaggi throws away second.
After scorching to a lap record in qualifying, Xerox Ducati star Troy Bayliss was helped by the in-fighting in his wake to sweep all before him in World Superbike race one at Phillip Island.
The race was restarted (
see separate story) after a startline crash involving
Michel Fabrizio's works Ducati, and Bayliss' similar bike led away into turn one as, behind him,
Noriyuki Haga shrugged off the pain from his Qatar injuries to steal third behind Yamaha team-mate
Troy Corser, the Japanese then nipping past Corser into turn one.
Fabrizio was unsurprisingly rather hesitant early on after his first start fright and, along with fellow front row man
Carlos Checa, was lower down the field after slow starts for both The pair soon started to make their way through the pack, however, joining the battle for serious points.
Bayliss was already looking comfortable as the group behind squabbled for position, however. Checa, though, was scything through the field on the new Honda, the former
MotoGP ace using his track knowledge well to force past his rivals into the tight, downhill Honda hairpin.
Another rider making moves was Max Neukirchner on the rocketship Alstare Suzuki. The German blasted past Corser on the start-finish straight, then Haga into turn one a lap later. Team-mate and Qatar round winner
Fonsi Nieto was also up with the leading pack but, sadly, the sensation of qualifying, Jakub Smrz, crashed out on lap two.
Checa was soon the fastest man on track - faster than Bayliss indeed – but, meanwhile, Haga was dropping away. A huge moment in turn one on lap three - just as Checa came past - left him outside the top seven and he would never get back on the pace with his Yamaha.
