Well, on top of rugby and cricket, the Australians can now add Superbike Racing to the list of things they've learned from other countries and now dominate. The tempestuous meeting at Philip Island, windy and wet as it was, gave us nothing less than a masterclass demonstration by Troy Corser on how to ride fast, consistently and utterly, utterly smoothly. Lap after lap after lap.

The weekend started with rain and wind. Practice and qualifying were hard work for everyone with most riders having major moments and several taking the opportunity to compare gravel traps in the Southern Hemisphere with those closer to home. The biggest loser in the battle of rider vs elements in Australia was veteran Frankie Chili, who broke his left collarbone for the third time, ruling himself out of this race and probably the next as well. Local boy Andrew Pitt had a huge crash, surviving with lots of bruises but no serious injury. Yukio Kagayama crashed out in the rain, again unhurt.

Superpole, then, saw a slightly strung out and diminished field. Kagayama came back from his crash to claim the front spot from the real surprise of the day. Steve Martin, on the apparently outgunned Foggy Petronas FP1, took second place on the grid, just six hundredths of a second down and ahead of the other big surprise, Max Neukirchner on the Klaffi Honda. Corser rounded off the front row, still only seventeen hundredths of a second behind his pole sitting team-mate. Row two saw local boys Pitt, Muggeridge and McCoy ahead of Regis Laconi while the third row was the unlikely home of Chris Vermeulen and defending champion James Toseland with Giovanni Bussei and Norick Abe alongside.

Race one was cool and extremely windy but, crucially, dry. A textbook start by Troy Corser saw the Suzuki rider pull out a commanding lead which simply grew and grew as the race went on. Second place was initially held by Andrew Pitt but he was overwhelmed by Kagayama within a couple of corners, Yuki making an herculean effort to catch Corser and pulling out a similar margin over the rest of the pack while failing to catch his team mate. Pitt, meanwhile, held on to third place for a fair time before succumbing to the immense pressure being put on by Chris Vermeulen who recovered from his dreadful start and steadily fought his way up throughout the race. Nori Haga started strongly and looked to be a real threat for a while before suddenly dropping off the pace and then parking his Yamaha by the pitlane wall and retiring. Countryman Norick Abe, in his first year of Superbikes, made a great impression and rode like a man possessed, battling with established and new players alike on his way to an eventual sixth.

But how the mighty fall. Ducati, so long the bike to beat, are looking decidedly underdog-like at the moment. Regis Laconi, who so far this year has been the better performer of the factory pair, struggled throughout the race and although he climbed as high as fourth he fell under the assault of a succession of young guns to finish a distant sixth. Team mate and defending World Champion James Toseland did his title efforts no favours at all again by finishing a lowly and, some might say, distinctly lacklustre fifteenth, being promoted one place by the later exclusion of fellow Ducat pilot Lorenzo Lanzi on a technical infringement.

After such a great start to the weekend the Foggy Petronas had the cruellest of luck with both bikes expiring while running well.

A titanic battle between new boy Vermeulen and even newer boy Neukirchner was decided in favour of the Australian, but only after some last lap fairing bashing.

So race one, other than a few real highlights, was slightly processionaly with the huge advantage of the Suzukis dominating proceedings and rendering everyone else as little more than interested bystanders.

Race two was cooler though slightly less windy. Corser again went off the line like a scalded cat, though this time it was Regis Laconi who made the break with him. Indeed, both Ducatis were doing rather better with Toseland, in his hundredth World Superbike appearance, up into eighth place in the middle of a pack of riders all challenging for third. Pitt, Neukirchner, Kagayama, Vermeulen, Martin, Abe, Toseland, Haga, Walker and Muggeridge formed this snarling snapping mass of wheels, engines and elbows with places swapping all the time, and it was all so close that there were bound to be tears before bedtime. Unfortunately, Toseland fell victim to a racing incident where Muggeridge left himself nowhere to go except into the World Champion, sending both off the track and out of the race, thankfully without injury.

Corser put on another masterclass, opening a four second gap over Laconi while Neukirchner managed to squeeze past Pitt to put the Yamaha rider between himself and the pursuing Vermeulen and Kagayama.

Then it started to rain. A lot.

As the red flags came out Andrew Pitt made his second visit to the gravel, spectacularly launching the Yamaha and landing hard, fortunately in one of the many well placed and well maintained gravel traps around the circuit. Unhurt but looking distinctly second hand, the Aussie cadged a lift back to the pits with a marshall for the restart. Chris Walker's Kawasaki expired halfway round the last lap so the poor guy had to push it back to the pits.

The restart was always going to be something of a sprint. Just ten laps on wet tyres starting from the positions reached the lap before the first leg was stopped. That put Corser, Laconi, Neukirchner and Pitt on the front row. The start saw both Corser and Pitt go backwards, Pitt badly so as he wheelspun off the line and was consumed by the ravening pack behind. Kagayama and Neukirchner made the break well but Walker took everyone by surprise by coming from nowhere to take second place for three laps before getting into the lead. Hayshed corner claimed a lot of riders in the wet, with both FP1s going down on almost successive laps, Haga joining his team-mate Pitt in taking yet another dive into the gravel and, sadly, Walker highsiding the Kawasaki after running just a tiny bit wide. Laconi had a huge moment, saving the Ducati by some feat of acrobatics and ending up on the grass but still upright, rejoining in thirteenth after climbing all the way up to fourth.

Corser passed Kagayama, though not easily, and was in turn passed a few laps later. Both the Suzuki riders were clearly having a blast, Corser being Mr Smooth as always while Kagayama was sliding and generally showing off at every opportunity. Max Neukirchner, though, as seems to be his way, quietly made his way round the circuit and through the pack to take a comfortable third.

So when the times were all added together Troy Corser had done his home double, taking race two from Kagayama by five seconds. Neukirchner got his first, and richly deserved, podium in third place while Vermeulen kept his championship hopes alive with a fourth. Fonsi Nieto, another newcomer to Superbikes, took a highly respectable fifth on the Caracchi Ducati ahead of Corradi on the Pedercini Ducati and Laconi on the works machine.

So overall I have to say it was a spectacular display of ability and control, both in terms of machinery and riding, by Troy Corser that dominated an otherwise slightly sterile race. Roll on Valencia, where hopefully we'll see Toseland start to defend his title against the Alstare Corona Suzukis who'll be on their home soil...

Race One

1 Troy Corser (Suzuki)
2 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
3 Chris Vermeulen (Honda)
4 M Neukirchner (Honda)
5 Andrew Pitt (Yamaha)
6 Norick Abe (Yamaha)
7 Regis Laconi (Ducati)
8 Karl Muggeridge (Honda)
9 Chris Walker (Kawasaki)
10 Giovanni Bussei (Kawasaki)

Race Two

1 Troy Corser(Suzuki)
2 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
3 Max Neukirchner (Honda)
4 Chris Vermeulen (Honda)
5 Fonsi Nieto (Ducati)
6 Allessio Corradi (Ducati)
7 Regis Laconi (Ducati)
8 Norick Abe, Yamaha
9 Giovanni Bussei (Kawasaki)
10 Mauro Sanchini (Kawasaki)

Championship Standing after two rounds:

1 Troy Corser 91
2 Yukio Kagayama 85
3 Regis Laconi 54
4 Chris Vermeulen 50
5 Max Neukirchner 37
5 Norick Abe 33
7 Andrew Pitt 31
8 James Toseland 22
9 Giovanni Bussei 20
10 Fonsi Nieto 17