Foggy PETRONAS Racing maintain progress in Germany
 Craig
Jones scored his first Superbike World Championship points
as Foggy PETRONAS Racing continued their late season progress
with team-mate Steve Martin securing points in both races
at EuroSpeedway Lausitz in Germany.
The young British rider held off a late charge by Troy Corser,
who was given a ride through penalty for a jump start, to
finish the second race in 13th place and secure three points.
Steve maintained an impressive recent string of results with
12th in race two, following his 14th place on the PETRONAS
FP1 in the opening race of the day.
Yukio Kagayama emerged victorious from a three-way battle
with Nori Haga and Troy Corser, after championship leader
Troy Bayliss threw away a commanding lead in race one. James
Toseland led from start to finish in a closely fought second
race.
Craig, who changed to a softer rear tyre in the afternoon
after finishing 18th in the opener, made an excellent start
to the second race and was just two places behind Steve in
16th place at the first split. The pair maintained consistent
lap times throughout the race and steadily picked up places
as other riders perished.
Craig said: “I am really chuffed to
score points against the odds - it’s what everyone in
the team deserves. I was aiming for one point and ended up
with three. It was a goal I needed to achieve before the end
of the season and the last two rounds are at circuits that
I don’t know. I was further back on the grid than I
expected to be, but Chili pulled off so that put us up to
the fifth row and I got a great start. I had no idea who was
catching me towards the end but I just pushed and pushed.
It was a tough race but, while there was not as much feel
from the softer rear tyre, the grip lasted a lot longer. I
had a reasonable start to the first race and was sensible
for the first couple of corners but then Clementi crashed
straight in front of me so I had to brake hard and lost the
tow off the group in front. I thought the hardest tyre would
come back at the end of the race, but it actually worsened.
I was catching the three Kawasakis in the first 10 laps and
I got into a good, comfortable rhythm until the tyre deteriorated.”
Steve said: “I am happy to come away
from the last four races in the points. It was unfortunate
that we changed to a harder front tyre for the second race
because it was chattering and I couldn’t push really
hard through the turns, or brake as late. So I more or less
had to circulate and maintain the gap behind me. But it just
goes to show that, with a little luck, we are capable of finishing
in the points. I was really aggressive and did everything
right at the start of race one but this is a power circuit
and the difference was soon obvious. But we now end up at
two of my strongest circuits so we are looking for a strong
finish to the season.”
Race two results, Superbike World Championship round
10, EuroSpeedway Lausitz, Germany: 1 Toseland; 2
Haga +0.210; 3 Bayliss +3.056; 4 Kagayama +7.396; 5 Muggeridge
+11.653; 6 Lanzi +21.386; 7 Nieto +26.620; 8 Fabrizio +26.736;
9 Xaus +29.428; 10 Walker +29.544; 11 Abe +29.779; 12 Martin
(Foggy PETRONAS Racing) +38.463; 13 Jones (Foggy PETRONAS
Racing) +45.259; 14 Corser +45.922; 15 Nakatomi +58.393
Race one results: 1 Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki
Corona Extra); 2 Haga (Yamaha Italia) +1.239; 3 Corser (Alstare
Suzuki Corona Extra) +1.436; 4 Pitt (Yamaha Italia) +8.725;
5 Barros (Klaffi Honda) +8.975; 6 Muggeridge (Winston Ten
Kate Honda) +13.804; 7 Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) +23.569; 8 Lanzi
(Ducati Xerox) +23.846; 9 Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda)
+27.127; 10 Nieto (PSG-1 Kawasaki) +28.712; 11 Walker (PSG-1
Kawasaki) +29.543; 12 Laconi (PSG-1 Kawasaki) +29.869; 13
Neukirchner (Alstare Engineering Corona Extra) +31.275; 14
Martin (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) +34.783; 15 Xaus (Sterilgarda
Berik) +37.010; 18 Jones (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) +59.299
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