Crash puts Toseland party on hold

James Toseland's pursuit of a second World Superbike
Championship will go down to the final round after a dramatic
crash in the second race of the 12th round in Italy.

HANNspree Ten Kate Honda rider Toseland will travel to next
weekend's finale at Magny-Cours in France with a 29-point lead
over Alstare Suzuki rider Max Biaggi and is still in prime position
to regain the crown he won in 2004 with just 50 points available.

But while the title looked all but secure back in early August when
his commanding double win at Brands Hatch opened up a 66-point
lead at the top of the standings, Toseland will now have to bank
two decent finishes in France to reclaim his title in his last
Superbike race before moving to MotoGP next season.

Toseland claimed third in race one behind Biaggi and Xerox
Ducati rider Troy Bayliss at the Vallelunga circuit near Rome but
crashed in race two and was only able to finish 11th after
rejoining the field as Bayliss won from Biaggi.

The Sheffield-born rider admitted that he had endured "the
hardest race of the season" after problems with his machine's
traction control but was not too disheartened as he stands on the
cusp of regaining his title.

He said: "We've gone from a really dominant and strong position
on Saturday to struggling today.

"The guys made a great job of rebuilding my number one bike
after the superpole crash and I chose to ride it. This was my
decision and maybe it wasn't the best decision because we
struggled to get the traction control working.

"There was no improvement from race one to race two and race
one was bad enough - definitely the hardest of the season so far."
ukpress.google.com - photos from motograndprix.it