Bayliss on the pace

Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) put his title defence back on track with a win and a second place in an exciting day of racing at Phillip Island in front of a record 63,000 crowd. Bayliss battled with James Toseland (Honda) throughout the first 22-lapper and eventually made his move on his British rival on lap 18 to take the win. "That's the sort of racing everybody likes to see at Phillip Island," declared Troy, "so to come out on top in a race like this is extra nice."

The second race was just as exciting, with a five-way battle for the lead that also included Noriyuki Haga and Troy Corser (Yamaha) and Max Biaggi (Suzuki), but this time Toseland held off Bayliss for the win. "I was watching my board and the big screen all the time and I could see Nori and Max with me and James was preserving his tyres. I didn't want to get caught up behind anyone so I went into the lead but thought that this wasn't going to be any good because I'm going to destroy my tyre. Eventually when James put the hammer down we cleared off quite fast, the last three laps we were on the limit and my fastest lap was the last one. I threw everything at James but he still beat me in the second race so congratulations to him and his team," said Bayliss. For Troy Corser things weren't so rosy, with a pair of fifth places the best he could achieve. In the first race he had tyre problems while in the second he made a good start only to be slowed by engine and tyre problems.

RACE 1: 1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox); 2. Toseland (Honda); 3. Biaggi (Suzuki); 4. Haga (Yamaha); 5. Corser (Yamaha); 6. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox); 7. Xaus (Ducati); 8. Neukirchner (Suzuki).RACE 2: 1. Toseland; 2. Bayliss; 3. Haga; 4. Biaggi; 5. Corser; 6. Xaus; 7. Lanzi; 8. Fabrizio (Honda): 9. Neukirchner; 10. Rolfo (Honda).POINTS (after 2 of 13 rounds): Riders - 1. Toseland 90; 2. Biaggi 74; 3. Bayliss 64; 4. Haga 50; 5. Corser 45; 6. Lanzi 44; 7. Xaus 32; 8. Neukirchner 31. Manufacturers: 1. Honda 90; 2. Suzuki 74; 3. Ducati 70; 4. Yamaha 53; 5. Kawasaki 20.

Ilmor bails out of MotoGPIlmor GP Team principal Mario Illien announced the shock news that his team was pulling out of the MotoGP competition - effective immediately. The teams' race attendance has been suspended for the immediate future, however engine development will continue and Illien hopes to return to the MotoGP racing scene as soon as key financial partners have been secured. At this early stage in the project, racing and developing the engine and chassis has proved extremely costly for Ilmor's owners. Since the team launched last year in Estoril at the penultimate round of the MotoGP Championship good progress has been made but further development is needed to become fully competitive on track.

Commenting on the announcement Ilmor GP Team principal and part owner of Ilmor Engineering Mario Illien said, "We discussed the situation in great detail internally and obviously it was an extremely difficult decision for us to make. However once we went through all the options, we decided that the best course of action for the sake of the project as a whole would be to put the racing side of things on hold and continue developing."

Team riders, Jeremy McWilliams and Andrew Pitt are also out of a job, but are likely to continue on in a development role. Wine, anybody? Double World Superbike champion, Troy Corser has launched a special trophy winning 2005 Shiraz, in conjunction with De Iuliis wines (Hunter Valley, Australia) to commemorate his 2005 World Championship victory. This deep red Shiraz is available from Figtree Cellars. Pfeiffer wins world championship
BMW Motorrad's Chris Pfeiffer has become the first indoor streetbike freestyle world champion by winning every round of a one off indoor event that took place recently at the Swiss- Moto Motorcycle, Scooter and Tuning Exhibition in Zurich, Switzerland.