2006 SBK World Championship
Round 11 - Imola (Italy) - Race Result
TOSELAND SECOND IN IMOLA RACE AND CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) scored a hard-fought
second place in the first race of the Imola weekend, and followed
it up with an even tougher fifth place in race two. His race
performances mean that he is now two points ahead of his rival
for second place overall, Noriyuki Haga. Karl Muggeridge (Winston
Ten Kate Honda) scored eighth on two occasions, and sits 12th
overall. Troy Bayliss was crowned champion after race one,
and went on to win race two.
In the first 21-lap race of the day, held in glorious sunshine,
Toseland was leading for a time, but could not hold back the
challenge of first time race winner Alex Barros after his
machine developed an electronics glitch. Toseland's 20 points
for second place propelled him back to second in the championship,
however. Muggeridge was eventually eighth but in a fight for
sixth for most of the race.
Not enjoying a great start on his spare bike in race two,
Toseland battled on and improved to an eventual fifth, one
place ahead of Haga. In the title fight Bayliss has 393 points,
Toseland 295 and Haga 293.
Ronald Ten Kate - Team Manager
“Race one was OK, and we had quite a good pace from
James, until we had an electronics problem on the machine
and that cost us quite a bit of time; but still a podium was
OK. We swapped to the other bike for the second race but the
start was pretty bad and we didn't manage to catch up any
ground. On Karl's side I was a bit sorry because I thought
he could make up a bit more ground today, but in the first
race he got cramp in his arms, and the second race was not
too bad, to be honest. But all in all, the results have been
a bit disappointing.”
James Toseland - Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(2nd and 5th – 2nd in the world championship with 295
points)
“I didn't get a perfect start in race one but it was
OK. The second one we used the spare bike and it started off
OK but then the clutch released and started to grab and I
went back to eighth or ninth and lost a lot of time. I wanted
to pull some good points back to Haga today, not just a couple.
The battle for me after race one was for second in the championship,
and I beat Haga in both races. I need to go to Magny Cours
now and make sure I finish the job to finish runner-up in
this championship.”
Karl Muggeridge - Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider
(8th and 8th - 12th in the world championship with 113 points)
“In the last lap I started to run out of fuel, so I
lost another two seconds to the leader, but I had a better
ride in race two, and a better start. I got held up by Neukirchner,
and he held me up for ages. Then Corser as well. It meant
I lost the small gap I had back from James, which I knew I
could have bridged. I had a very bad start in race one - 19th
at the start because someone knocked me off the track. We
made the bike better in race two, and we were close, but not
quite there.”
WORLD STANDING:
1. Bayliss - Ducati - 393 points
2. Toseland - Winston Ten Kate Honda - 295 points
3. Haga - Yamaha - 293 points
4. Pitt - Yamaha - 239 points
5. Barros - Honda - 231 points
12. Muggeridge - Winston Ten Kate Honda - 113 points
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