Roadie Blog: 2006-04-23

Bayliss Takes a Double Win - Lanzi a Double Podium for Ducati in Valencia

Sunday, April 23, 2006

I just finished watching the WSBK races from SpeedTV on my Tivo. It was a very good day for Ducati.

From Ducati.com:

Troy Bayliss notched up the 24th and 25th victories of his World Superbike career with a double win at the Valencia circuit as the Ducati Xerox rider and his fellow Australian Troy Corser (Suzuki) put on a spectacular display of racing today. The Spanish Round saw two similar races and identical podiums with Bayliss's young Italian team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi grabbing third place on both occasions for his first podiums of the year.

"Everything went really well in both races," declared Troy. "We thought about changing the tyre for race 2 but we didn't and it was the right decision to stick with the hard tyre. I didn't think Corser was going to be as quick as he was in that second race, I thought it would be the same as the first but he went really well. I know that the limit of my tyre on the rear is exactly 35.7 or 35.8, but it stays good for the whole race and when I saw him pulling away it was disheartening. I just kept my eye on the board and did every lap like a qualifying lap, just hoping he was going to run into the same sort of problems as the first one and he did. Then once I got there it took me a long while to put it together and get past him. A big thanks to the Ducati Xerox squad, Shell Advance and all our other sponsors, they all did a great job to help us get this double win today!"

"Two fantastic podiums today!" declared Lorenzo. "I am pleased for Ducati Xerox and for me obviously because this podium in race 2 is worth the win at Lausitzring. It wasn't a victory but it was just as hard-fought. I pushed hard from the first to the last lap, never gave in, and to keep up with Abe I had to struggle because he had a superior pace at the mid-race distance. Then I caught Haga and managed to pass both of them, Haga on the penultimate lap and Abe on the last lap. It was incredible! Troy and I were the only ones to lap in 37.0 in the last few laps, so the choice of tyre was the right one to keep up the same pace until the very end. It is a perfect result for me in view of Monza in two weeks' time!"