the above image shows Yukio Kagayama on the 2004 Rizla Suzuki

Ducati’s supremacy, throughout much of the seventeen year history of the championship, has been such that a majority of the privateer teams have opted for the Italian bikes in recent seasons. And the Japanese works teams have largely been absent in the same period. Of 21 full-time riders last year, twelve rode a Ducati V-twin. Four different makes were utilised by the other nine men. Eight of the top ten riders piloted a 998 or 999.

But the new four-cylinder revolution, foreshadowed by the odd contender in 2004, now seems to have arrived. This year there are seven Ducatis expected in competition, but twelve bikes from Yamaha. The Honda and Kawasaki ranks have been expanded, and a serious works-supported Suzuki team returns. With Carl Fogarty’s Petronas team, the variety of options is clear.

The 2000 season, which has to go down as a classic, saw an unprecedented seven makes of machine take victories. That clearly won’t happen this year, but the first race of 2005 provided evidence that Ducati’s top dog status is a thing of the past. Their riders will have to work for it this time, rather than just battle amongst themselves. And, so far, it is the Alstare Corona Suzuki team that looks likely to lead the way. No Suzuki rider has ever triumphed in the championship, and their bikes haven’t won a race in almost five years.

The Losail circuit hosted the maiden MotoGP of Qatar last year, but this was the first visit for the Superbike teams. That said, two of the riders - Norick Abe and Yukio Kagayama - had taken part in the Grand Prix. Qualifying was hit by unseasonal rain, and the Superpole session cancelled in favour of a traditional multi-lap approach (see separate report). Régis Laconi carried on from last year by taking another pole position on the works Ducati, just beating Troy Corser’s Alstare Suzuki. The second GSX-R of Yukio Kagayama was fourth, behind Yamaha France rider Sébastien Gimbert.

Race one saw Kagayama take the lead, with Yamaha Italia’s Andrew Pitt coming from row two to go second, ahead of Corser, Laconi, Noriyuki Haga, Chris Walker and Abe. Gimbert made a poor start and gave himself plenty to do, while Frankie Chili’s Honda début ended almost immediately with technical problems.

By the end of the first lap it was the Suzuki pair in front, after Corser passed Pitt. The two yellow and blue bikes swapped places through a left-hander, but Yukio got the best of it. Going into lap two, Troy passed his team-mate for the lead. The shuffle behind saw seventh placed Abe followed by Fonsi Nieto, Chris Vermeulen, James Toseland, Karl Muggeridge, Iván Silva, Giovanni Bussei, Gimbert, Gianluca Vizziello, Marco Borciani, Steve Martin and Lorenzo Lanzi.

It wasn’t too long before Corser had pulled a gap over Kagayama, who was now coming under pressure from Laconi. Troy stretched his advantage as the next two scrapped it out. Laconi’s momentum through a right-hander allowed him to pull to the inside of Kagayama for the next left. Although the Frenchman seemed to be running wide, he managed to hold off the Suzuki and secure second. The positions were almost reversed when Régis came close to running off the edge of the tarmac later, but he kept up the aggression to fend off Yukio as they came out of the corner.

Behind, Pitt had dropped away from the leaders, and Walker had now lost out to both Haga and Abe. The three blue Yamahas joined in combat for fourth position, with Abe taking it from Pitt by going around the outside of him in a left-hand corner. After Haga came Walker, Silva, Nieto, Vermeulen, Toseland, Muggeridge, Gimbert, Bussei and Borciani. Alessio Velini had already stopped with a very smoky engine failure.

Drama ensued as the next action saw Laconi trying to extricate his bike from a gravel trap. The cause was a sudden burst of rain, and the red flags came out to stop the race. The distance completed was not enough to declare a result, so this meant a two-part affair, to be decided on aggregate times. As is the normal practice, the positions were taken from a lap before the stoppage, and these would become grid positions for the eight-lap second race.

It had dried out by the time of the restart, but Abe’s bike would not start, and so he had to get underway from the pitlane. Corser had four seconds in hand over Kagayama, which meant he didn’t have to be first on the road to win the race. Yukio was again first man off the line, with Pitt next, and Laconi soon past Corser for third on the road. Haga, Walker, Toseland, Muggeridge, Vermeulen and Silva followed. Max Neukirchner, Gimbert and Lanzi came together in a three-man accident and would go no further.

As the race progressed, Kagayama pulled out a gap over the next two, with Laconi staying close behind Corser. Pitt and the rest began to fall back. With three laps remaining, Corser’s aggregate advantage was shown at 3.4s, but Kagayama’s on track lead had him in a secure second. Laconi couldn’t do anything about this from behind Corser, so he found a way to squeeze through on the inside of the Suzuki man through a right-hander.

With Laconi now working to catch Kagayama, the Japanese rider pushed himself on further. Approaching the race’s conclusion, this pair were starting to get away from Corser, and his advantage fell under the three seconds. But he kept them in sight, and duly secured his 24th WSBK win. He hadn’t had one since racing for Aprilia in 2001.

Pitt was a slightly distant fourth on the round, and in the results, with Toseland, in the aftermath of recent injuries, the next over the line. Débutant Silva was sixth home, with Vermeulen, Muggeridge and Haga in hot pursuit. When the timings were calculated, this put Haga in fifth overall, then Toseland, Silva, Vermeulen and Muggeridge. Abe recovered sufficiently for tenth, with Bussei, Borciani, Nieto, Walker and Martin the other scorers.

Race two was fully dry, and the initial leader was Pitt, from Corser, Haga, Laconi and Kagayama. The order quickly shuffled so that Haga and Kagayama led Laconi and Corser, then Neukirchner, Abe, Walker and Vermeulen. Toseland took tenth from Bussei, then came Chili, Lanzi, Martin, Borciani, Nieto, Clementi and Sanchini. Gimbert ran wide and dropped places, and first race non-finisher Cardoso got caught up in a crash.

The order at the front seemed to change frequently, with Corser quickly making up the three places he’d lost on lap one. However, he then felt he’d hit some oil, as he stuck a hand up, losing second to Haga as he backed off briefly. Noriyuki’s progress was short lived, and the other four left him back in fifth, with Pitt first, then Corser, Kagayama and Laconi. Troy took over the lead with a pass in a right-hand corner, and Yukio also passed the Yamaha, at turn one.

The pace of the Suzukis began to take them clear of the other two, and this seemed to reflect Pitt’s slower lap times. Laconi forced his way past and, sure enough, was able to close in on the GSX-R pair. Meanwhile, Pitt found the next group of riders closing in. Corser was looking good out front, but oil at turn one gave him a worrying moment, and let Kagayama through.

From there the race belonged to Yukio, and he pulled a lead of two seconds and more. Corser was unable to hold station ahead of Laconi, who got by at turn one and was able to get clear of the Australian. They finished in this order, and with a gap of over four seconds to the next man. Fourth place was hard fought over, as one by one the rest caught up to Pitt.

Neukirchner was impressive with the Honda, running in a solitary fifth until he caught the Yamaha ahead. Abe, who had followed the German past Haga at turn one, was the next to join the group, having gone on to pass Max at the same place, almost collecting his countryman in the process. Noriyuki was only going backwards from here, though, and so Toseland and Chili were the next to line up behind Pitt. The recovering Gimbert set fastest lap as he sped up to join them. Muggeridge and Walker had gone out, when the Honda man braked late on the inside and they both ended up off the circuit.

The group for fourth shuffled back and forth, with Pitt re-passing Neukirchner, Chili going from eighth to sixth, and Vermeulen from ninth to eighth. These two Honda men were going strongly, with Chili now passing team-mate Neukirchner for fifth, and Vermeulen fighting off Toseland and then getting by Abe and Neukirchner. In fact, Pitt was their next victim, as the pair got into a race of their own for P4. Chris passed Frankie at turn one to win this battle, staying ahead to the finish.

Chili had Toseland to look out for on the final lap, but stayed ahead, with Abe next, from Neukirchner, Pitt, Gimbert, and then Haga, Lanzi, Nieto, Bussei and Sanchini. Silva was a non-finisher after an engine failure, joined in retirement by his relatively slow team-mate, local rider Talal Al Nauami. Borciani also failed to get to the flag, as he was unceremoniously bundled off track by the aggressive Nieto.

The day belonged to Alstare Suzuki, with Yukio Kagayama marginally ahead of Troy Corser. It was a return to familiar heights for the Australian, albeit after a lengthy interlude with Foggy Petronas, but represented Yukio’s first WSBK victory. Régis Laconi and Ducati were certainly not disgraced, but will need to keep an eye on some of the Yamaha and Honda men looming behind them.

Standings after two races: Kagayama 45; Corser 41; Laconi 36; Vermeulen 21; Pitt 20 and Toseland 20; Haga 16; Abe 15; Chili 11; Silva 9; Neukirchner 8; Muggeridge and Bussei 7.

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