A look back at Imola

2006: Bayliss had his first chance to win the title after race 1 in Imola and being on pole certainly helped him in doing the maths. Troy was in no hurry in the race: he just had to control Haga. In the early stages Pitt led the field, and Bayliss stayed in second with Noriyuki behind, then, when the Honda CBRs of Toseland and Barros came from behind, he let them past and went back to his Japanese companion. Barros won his first Superbike race with Toseland behind him, Haga was fourth with Bayliss fifth: this was enough to give Troy his second world title. Free of thoughts, Bayliss in race 2 gave the best he could and pulled away at the start. No one was able to keep up with his pace. There could have been one rider, Barros, but he had to work his way through the field (he started eighth) and despite a strong pace at the end, when everybody else was slowing down, he was not able to catch Bayliss and he finished second, 1.4 seconds behind the Australian.

2005: Laconi was back from his injury sustained at Assen in practice, but his substitute and Lausitzring winner Lanzi was considered highly at Ducati and was given official equipment for the weekend, despite running in SC Caracchi livery. The only man that could touch Corser for the Championship, Vermeulen, duly did his job taking pole position. In race 1, on a drying track, several mistakes were made by the leading riders, but not by Corser and Vermeulen, who were glued to one another, fighting for the lead at almost every turn. At the end of the race Vermeulen won, with Corser second. The skies were not clear in Emilia Romagna that afternoon, and by the time race 2 was about to start, a torrential rain started to fall. After the warm-up lap, the riders came back to the grid and start waving arms for the start procedure to be interrupted. Talks started between the organizers and the riders, and at first the start was postponed. The race direction took several trips by car round the circuit at regular intervals, only to find out that the conditions to race were not there. There were large puddles inside the corners, and heavy rain kept on falling. The final decision was to cancel the race and, with one less race in the calendar, Corser was mathematically World Champion for the second time.

2004: Returning to the track where he won his maiden Superbike race, Laconi had a chance to take the upper hand in the fight for the championship against team-mate Toseland. Regis set pole and in race 1 followed race leader Vermeulen, passing him only three laps from the end, while Toseland had trouble staying in front of Haga in third. In race 2 it was the same story: Laconi went into the lead three laps from the end passing Toseland, who fought back and tried everything on the finish line, but Regis was able to retain the lead and scored the double. Vermeulen was not able to challenge the Ducati pair in race 2: on the formation lap his Honda let him down, he was picked up by Bussei, who took him to the pits where he jumped on his spare bike. Starting from the pits in last position he was able to achieve a 6th place. A remarkable performance that however was no use for his Championship challenge.