Ducati Sporting Club UK > Sport > Race > Ducati Press Release - WSB - 2006 Final Round

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Sunday Oct 8 2006 - Raceday

BAYLISS TAKES MASTERPIECE WIN AT MAGNY-COURS FOR DUCATI XEROX - FOURTEENTH MANUFACTURERS' TITLE FOR DUCATI

Magny-Cours (France), Sunday 8th October: Just one week after Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) clinched a twelfth Rider's title for Ducati at Imola, the Italian manufacturer concluded a perfect season by wrapping up the Manufacturers' crown at the Magny-Cours circuit in France.

The fourteenth Manufacturers' title in nineteen editions of the World Superbike Championship came with Troy Bayliss's fourth place at the end of a fantastic race-long battle in race 1 between the Ducati Xerox rider, Troy Corser (Suzuki), Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) and eventual winner James Toseland (Honda). Bayliss then produced an astonishing performance in race 2 to take his twelfth win of the year after getting the better of Corser, Toseland and Haga.in another extraordinary battle.

"Actually it was a great race, probably my best race of the year" declared Troy. "It was my first time here at Magny-Cours and slowly we've been making progress throughout the weekend. We made another little change before the second race and it gave me that extra feel in the middle of the corners. It was nice but it didn't really come on until half-way through the race when I started to get a better feeling. You learn something as the race goes on and in the end I just pulled the pin and went for the win! These guys did a really good race today, it could have gone either way and I just haven't been in a race like that for a long time but I feel great and I've had a great year!"

Lorenzo Lanzi finished the final two races of the year in eighth and seventh place after starting from the front row of the grid.
"In race 1 I had problems with the rear tyre that began to slip early on and it was not possible to get away with the leading guys. Things went a bit better in race 2 if we look at the lap times, but then I was passed by Pitt and Muggeridge towards the end. It's been a difficult year for me, but we worked better in the second half of the season. I wanted to finish it off with a good result but it wasn't possible today"

RACE 1: 1. Toseland (Honda); 2. Haga (Yamaha); 3. Corser (Suzuki); 4. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox); 5. Kagayama (Suzuki); 6. Walker (Kawasaki); 7. Barros (Honda); 8. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox); etc.

RACE 2. 1. Bayliss; 2. Corser; 3. Toseland; 4. Haga; 5. Pitt (Yamaha); 6. Muggeridge (Honda); 7. Lanzi; 8. Walker; etc.

FINAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS Riders - 1. Bayliss 431; 2. Toseland 336; 3. Haga 326; 4. Corser 254; 5. Pitt 250; 6. Barros 246; 7. Kagayama 211; 8. Lanzi 169; etc. Manufacturers - 1. Ducati 450; 2. Honda 414; 3. Yamaha 401; 4. Suzuki 372; 5. Kawasaki 229; 6. Petronas 19.

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Sorry - no apologies for link to large sized photo's next!

With an interest in cycling I think Troy's leathers are superb and fully deserved by a worthy world champion....

All photo's are Copyright of Ducati Corse Press:

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OK....maybe the photos ARE too big - resized.