round eight - race one
Brands Hatch, GB - Sunday, 7 August 2005

VERMEULEN FOURTH IN BRANDS HATCH OPENER

Chris Vermeulen finished fourth in today's opening eighth round World Superbike
championship race at Brands Hatch in the UK. The race was won by fellow
Australian, Troy Corser, with Vermeulen's Winston Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Karl
Muggeridge, sixth.

Starting from eighth place on the grid for the 25-lap race around the 4.2km
Brands Hatch circuit, Vermeulen overcame first his team-mate and then friend and
training partner, Chris Walker, to take fourth with two laps to go. Muggeridge,
meanwhile, started strongly, running in second place in the early stages, but a
loss of rear grip dropped him eventually to sixth.

Ronald ten Kate - team manager:

"The results are a little disappointing, for sure, but Chris's lap times prove
he can be up there with the leaders if he can get a good start in race two. Karl
was doing very well in the first part of the race and underlining his qualifying
position but his rear grip started to drop off five or six laps before the
leading bunch. I'm sure that a couple of changes for the second race will see
Chris and Karl move up in the results."

Chris Vermeulen - fourth

"I was struggling with grip in the early stages and dropped two and a half
seconds off the front runners on the first lap. From there on it was difficult
because it's so hard to pass here. It's hard enough on a Supersport bike but on
a Superbike it's even tougher. I touched Karl when I passed him and Chris
(Walker) once as well; and I was right on the kerb a couple of times too. Chris
was always going to be tough in front of his home crowd but if I can get a
better start, then race two can be better."

Karl Muggeridge - sixth

"We haven't quite got the rear setting right and that's what caused the grip to
drop off after around 15 laps. I was running pretty comfortably at the start but
it's so difficult to pass anyone here and when I got passed by Laconi coming out
of Clearways, it was hard to put a move back on him. I think we can make a
little change to the rear to improve things for race two just to stop the rear
spinning up so much."

World Superbike, Brands Hatch - race one results (25 laps, 104.925km):

 1 Troy Corser AUS (Suzuki)                   36m45.074s
 2 Noriyuki Haga JPN (Yamaha)                    +0.186s
 3 Regis Laconi FRA (Ducati)                     +1.976
 4 Chris Vermeulen AUS (Winston Ten Kate Honda)  +4.590
 5 Chris Walker GBR (Kawasaki)                   +5.746
 6 Karl Muggeridge AUS (Winston Ten Kate Honda)  +8.428
 7 Andrew Pitt AUS (Yamaha)                      +8.598
 8 Lorenzo Lanzi ITA (Ducati)                   +15.628
 9 Yukio Kagayama JPN (Suzuki)                  +15.671
10 Max Neukirchner GER (Honda)                  +28.250