CHANGEABLE WEATHER CONDITIONS BRING MIXED FORTUNES FOR DUCATI XEROX
TEAM AT PHILLIP ISLAND

Phillip Island (Australia), Sunday 3 April: Ducati Xerox Team riders Régis
Laconi and James Toseland came away from the second round of the World Superbike
Championship at Phillip Island with mixed results as they were hampered by a
lack of grip in race 1 and then had to deal with changeable weather conditions
in a rain-affected two-part second race.

Seventh and fourteenth respectively were all Régis and James could manage in a
windy race 1 after starting from rows 2 and 3 of the grid as Corser (Suzuki)
took the win. “I never had to ride so hard to stay on the bike because the front
was just going away all the time” declared Laconi. “I lost it five times at the
same place at 220 kph because of the wind or the tyres, I don’t know which. It
was so crazy that I couldn’t even stay on the bike and I just did the best I
could do. I passed everyone to move up to fourth and thought I was OK but then
it was so difficult because after 6 or 7 laps the bike was just so hard to
ride”. Toseland instead had problems with his rear tyre, which prevented him
from making an impact on the race after just a few laps. “I got a bad start and
almost went off at the first corner and that dropped me down to fifteenth. After
that I just started to lose grip very early on and that was it for my race” he
declared.

Race 2 was red-flagged for rain after just over half-distance, with Laconi four
seconds behind Corser in second place. In the final ten laps, which were run on
full wets, Laconi did his best to maintain that position but had a nasty moment
when he lost control of the rear of his 999 at Lukey Heights and crashed. The
Frenchman was able to restart but eventually finished seventh overall. “I made a
good start and had a good first lap to be immediately up with the leaders. Troy
was a bit faster than me but I kept second place well. I was happy because we
changed the bike totally from the first race and now it was so good, so thanks
to my team for giving me something different for the second race. I started to
ride it in the wet but the rear shock was too hard and after three laps the rear
tyre was finished. When I crashed, the rear went away and I made a big highside.
I restarted the bike with the starter and got back in the race to finish seventh”.

Toseland meanwhile was already out of his one-hundredth world superbike race on
lap 6 after being taken out from behind by Muggeridge (Honda) at Honda Corner.
“I’m going away from here with two points after working so hard this weekend. I
was up there in top 5 in every practice on race tyres, so it wasn’t a
coincidence. In Superpole the time I did would have put me second in every other
session and I was tenth, then we had problems with the rear in race 1 and with
Muggeridge who cut me up in race 2. What more can I say?”.

RACE 1:

 1. Corser (Suzuki)
 2. Kagayama (Suzuki)
 3. Vermeulen (Honda)
 4. Neukirchner (Honda)
 5. Pitt (Yamaha)
 6. Abe (Yamaha)
 7. Laconi (Ducati Xerox)

RACE 2 :

 1. Corser
 2. Kagayama
 3. Neukirchner
 4. Vermeulen
 5. Nieto (Ducati)
 6. Corradi (Ducati)
 7. Laconi

POINTS:

Riders
 Corser       91
 Kagayama     85
 Laconi       54
 Vermeulen    50
 Neukirchner  37
 Abe          33

Manufacturers
 Suzuki      100
 Ducati       56
 Honda        53
 Yamaha       41
 Kawasaki     21
 Petronas      1