Two More for Bayliss

Troy Bayliss pulled off another double, winning two races at Assen in the Netherlands on April 27.

The Xerox Ducati rider widened his lead in the World Superbike championship standings to 70 points with the two victories. Bayliss also swept the double at the Philip Island race and now has five wins in eight races.

Weve been going well all weekend and were able to take pole and then I made a really good start in both races, says Bayliss. I think Im riding for the best team in the paddock at the moment so I thank my guys, the Ducati Xerox Team, again for their hard work, and we go to Monza with 50 extra points in the bag.

Bayliss was dominant on his 1098 F08 in the first race, winning by a hair over two seconds over Carlos Checa. The Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider ran a courageous race, overcoming a start on the third row to finish on the podium. He followed it up with a third place finish in the second race.

Team Alstare Suzukis Max Neukirchner scooped up his first podium spot since 2005 by finishing 0.047 seconds behind Checa in the first race.

Two of the top contenders were knocked out early in the first race. Noriyuki Haga of Yamaha Motor Italia rider had a short first race, colliding with Sterilgarda Go Elevens Ruben Xaus on the second lap.

Haga made up for his disappointing first race by finishing second in the second. Haga hounded Bayliss from start to finish, but was 0.082 seconds short of victory.

In race two I pushed hard all through the race and when I was following Bayliss he tried to get away near the end. But I could stay with him and even caught back up with him, says Haga. I was following, waiting to see where I could pass but in the last few laps he rode the corners on a tight line and had good acceleration. I am disappointed with the first race and satisfied with the second, but not satisfied enough.

In the Supersport race, the top six riders were separated by less than half a second as Andrew Pitt of Hannspree Ten Kate Honda led the group a hair ahead of teammate Jonathan Rea. Series leader Joan Lascorz of Glaner Motocard.com came in third to complete a 1-2-3 sweep for Honda.

In other Assen action, Maxime Berger won the Superstock 1000 race, earning another podium for Honda while Dan Linfoot rode a Yamaha YZF-R6 to victory in the Superstock 600.

WSBK: Assen Race 1 Results