WSBK Wet Silverstone
Bayliss proves the rain master at soggy Silverstone.
English summer weather was no joke to the riders in the Silverstone round of the World Superbike championships, with rain causing the cancellation of race two.
Troy Bayliss’s victory in the race one showed why he is a dual WSBK world Champion. Persistent rain formed deep puddles in place on the flat Silverstone layout, as the water had nowhere to go.
In the difficult conditions, Bayliss on Ducati, and Troy Corser and Noriyuki Haga on Yamahas still managed to put on a close race at the front. The slippery conditions added to the excitement as there was always the chance they could crash at any moment.
Other riders failed to manage the conditions with only 13 finishers, leaving two lots of championship points unearned. One rider who tried to keep up with leading trio was Championship leader, James Toseland. He could not match their pace in the slippery conditions and crashed early on. Toseland then performed an acrobatic roll in the sand as he got to his feet and chased after his Ten Kate Honda. Toseland rejoined the race and managed to fight his way up to eighth place and score valuable points. It did appear that the crash had damaged a pipe in the bike’s cooling system, but in the cold and wet the Honda’s engine survived, there was probably enough water coming off the track to keep the engine cool.
Corser and Bayliss diced for lead in the early laps before Bayliss asserted his authority as reigning World Champion established a race winning gap, while Haga lurked in third. The margins between the riders varied as each bike and rider combination were faster in different spots around the shorter International track at Silverstone.
Towards the race’s end, Haga made a move on Corser and took second place, but he could not challenge the leading Ducati. Second place moved Haga up a spot on the points table and he is now in second spot, only 23 points adrift of leader Toseland. Bayliss had the pleasure of lapping the struggling Toseland in the closing stages of the race. Toseland’s result closed up the point’s table as the top riders finished well ahead of him.
The rain continued and despite the efforts of officials with brooms and machinery, they could not clear the water to make the track safe for racing, and they cancelled the second Superbike race.
Four time 250cc World Champion, Suzuki rider Max Biaggi, struggled in the wet but managed to keep it upright and finished sixth, losing second spot in the championship to Haga. Biaggi was not sorry to see the race cancellation. "I think it was the right decision to cancel the second race because there was a lot of standing water on the track and the spray made it very hard to see where you were going,” said Biaggi.
Even Bayliss, with a big points gap to pull back on Toseland, was not that disappointed to see the race called off. “It's a shame about the second one, it looked as if it was easing off a bit but the track's got a lot of water in some of the corners, mud and everything. They pushed it off but the water keeps coming back,” said Bayliss.
However, the one rider in the top group not to have won a world motorcycling championship, Noriyuki Haga, wanted to race. Haga felt that he could go well again the wet and pick up more points on Toseland.
“I’m a bit disappointed the race has been cancelled because I have lost out on the chance to take away even more points. The conditions out there are bad but I still would’ve wanted to race – that’s my job and I know the risks. At least no championship points have gone elsewhere,” said Haga.
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