This past weekend’s race at Monza, Italy lived up to the track’s history of great racing and surprise finishes, especially in Sunday’s second Superbike race. As always, racing in Italy brought that special something to the Italian bikes and the Italian riders.

Race one started out looking like more of the same with the two Corona Suzuki teammates of Troy Corser and Yukio Kagayama immediately running one-two. But rather than scampering away from the pursuing pack as they’ve done at every other race this year the Ducatis of Regis Laconi and James Toseland started closing in on the leaders starting at the mid-point of the race. As the laps wound down, the two booming Ducs were mixing it up with Yukio and looking like a real threat to win the race over Troy. It was on the last lap, with Kagayama’s tires begging for mercy, that Corser managed to pull a few bike links out and cement his chances for a fifth straight win. Kagayama’s toasted tires actually allowed him to finish second, not because they were hooking up but because they were so badly wasted that at the middle portion of the wicked fast Curva Parabollica the tire just refused to find traction and instead spun up. This sudden slowing in mid-corner meant that Toseland, who was parked on the Suzuki’s rear fender anticipating a draft pass, suddenly had to back out of the throttle to avoid an accident. When they both got back on the gas the Suzuki’s wicked motor gave Kagayama the edge in the drag race to the finish. Toseland got third with his teammate Laconi just missing the podium in forth.

With Suzuki again one-two in the first race, the second race results surely seemed like a forgone conclusion before it even got started. Well, the old Italian magic seemed to be growing back in the garage, because both Ducati riders came out swingin’ in race two. The race was slightly delayed when Chili’s bike was found leaking (Perennial good sportsman Giovanni Bussei pointing out the leak and saving Chili from an unpleasant incident) Once Chili’s bike was repaired the green flag flew and for the first time this season there was something other than a Corona Suzuki out front and, amazingly enough, it stayed that way for the entire race. Both Corser and Kagayama ran inside the top five for most of the race but it was two other sets of teammates that grabbed most of the attention: The Xerox Ducati pair of Toseland and Laconi and the two Winston Ten Kate Honda riders of Chris Vermeulen and Karl Muggeridge. All six bikes were sliding after just a few laps, again proving that the tires equalize the racing but also hold many of the riders back. The scenes of all six riders sliding through Curva Parabollica and Lesmo were spectacular, if only the TV cameras had been focused there more often especially late in the race where the bikes were smoking up the rear tires the entire way through both corners. With just a few laps to go, Kagayama blew the entrance to Lesmo and torpedoed his Suzuki into the gravel trap. That accident slowed Toseland up just enough that he lost the tow of the third place battle between Corser and Muggeridge. Up front, it was Laconi leading but with Vermeulen clearly anxious to make the pass. His chance came at the start of the final lap where he put a slick move on the Duc at the Variante della Roggia chicane to take the lead. The Australian immediately pulled out a few bike lengths over the Frenchmen so clearly the Honda rider had a little something in reserve, whether it was tires, power or just adreneline I don’t know. Going into Parabollica for the final time Corser got the Suzuki up the inside of Vermeulen’s teammate Muggeridge to claimed the final spot on the podium. Toseland finished in fifth.

In the end, Corser managed to grow his points lead over Kagayama, so it was more of the same in that respect but it was fantastic to see a resurgence from both the Honda and Ducati riders. Hopefully they can carry this momentum into the next round at Silverstone and finally put some pressure on the two Suzukis.

In other news, Frankie Chili managed two seventh place finishes at Monza despite still racing with the broken collarbone. While Frankie isn’t racing for race wins this year, like he has in years past, it is still great to see the Italian maestro putting in such amazing results aboard a privateer bike. Seeing what fellow racing elder Corser is accomplishing this year has to make you wonder what 40 year old Frankie could have accomplished the past three years had he been aboard a full factory bike.

Also of note this past weekend was the performance of Gianluca Nanelli who was standing in for the injured Lanzi on the privateer SC Caracchi Ducati. After the first day’s qualifying, Nanelli was *forth* on the grid ahead of both factory Ducatis, this despite the fact that he was racing in both Superbike and Supersport classes at Monza. By the time final qualifying and Superpole were finished he was down in 12th but then came back with noteworthy rides in both races to finish 9th and 10th, respectively. His second race finish of 10th is particularly special since he started the race dead last from pit lane due to a bike problem on the warm-up lap. While other riders were futzing around racing for 20th Nanelli carved through them all and worked his way into the top ten. Excellant!

So that Italian spirit worked its magic in the second race to shake things up a bit. For whatever reason, when racing comes to Italy the Italians always step up a little bit more than usual. Gold stars this week should be awarded to the Xerox Ducati team for finally getting back into the championship, to Corser for continuing to do what he needs to do to win the championship, to Vermeulen for getting his first win of the season, to Chili for showing true grit in soldiering on despite injury and to Nanelli for showing that a passionate and skilled rider can move to the front no matter how bad the odds are stacked against him.

Bella!

[image from the Ducati web site.]