Brno is a bit of a mystery to many people. Apart from anything else, exactly how do you pronounce it? Berno? Bruno? B'rnow? But more of a mystery, to me at least, is why this lovely circuit isn't used for major league events like this more often. It's fast and flowing, with interesting elevation changes and complexes that keep everyone on their toes. Yet Superbikes left in 1996 and never came back. Until now...

Qualifying and open practice saw lots of people going very well indeed and taking their turn at the top of the leaderboard. Brno seems to be a Ducati circuit, and James Toseland seemed to be the man of the moment, easily lapping faster than the rest of the field and, for once, managing a stirling Superpole to put himself on the front row, just under half a second behind the inevitable pole setter, Mr Superpole. Troy Corser came along, calm and unflustered, and just took the lead without, it seemed, even breaking a sweat. Max Neukirchner was a real surprise too, taking third ahead of the more experienced and, one would have said, faster Chris Vermeulen. The second row was headed up by Karl Muggeridge, just five thousandths of a second slower than his team-mate, while Chris Walker rode to a storming sixth on the big Kawasaki. Yukio Kagayama, still battered and bruised after his off last time out, rode in to a solid seventh while Cardoso was the lead Yamaha rider in eighth. Regis Laconi, having been comprehensively out-ridden by his team-mate, headed up the third row in ninth place ahead of David Checa, Norick Abe and Garry McCoy. Frankie Chili and Nori Haga failed to make the cut for Superpole, starting seventeenth and eighteenth respectivel after a truly dire start to the weekend for them both.

As has mercifully been the case at most meetings this year, race day was warm and dry. Race one started cleanly with Corser getting the holeshot from Vermeulen and Walker, while Toseland had an awful start and dropped to seventh, his race seemingly over. Brno is a circuit which encourages action, and this meeting was no exception as positions swapped and changed constantly. But a few things didn't change at all. One of them was the bike at the front. And the other was the determination of a certain young Englishman to make the most of the opportunity presented to him. James Toseland, having handicapped himself at the start, proceeded to ride the wheels of the Ducati, climbing to fourth by the eight lap before piling the pressure on Laconi and Walker ahead of him, passing them both and opening a second gap over his team-mate before running out of laps.

Further back, Frankie Chili was doing rather well, climbing from his lowly twentieth at the end of the first lap to an extremely respectable fifth by the end, riding the way that only a middle aged Italian approaching the twilight of his career can ride. In fact, given another couple of laps he might even have got past Walker as he was hunting him down towards the end, while himself hotly pursued by Lorenzo Lanzi. Nori Haga overcame some of his disadvantaged start, hauling the Yamaha up to a seventh place finish while Chris Vermeulen suffered badly from tyre fade, as did many others, dropping to eighth, remaining ahead of the similarly afflicted Abe and Pitt. Kagayama and Muggeridge fared even worse, finishing eleventh and thirteenth while Max Neukirchner enjoyed a reversal of fortune to finish fourteenth - a poor reward for such a fantastic qualifying effort.

Early on in the race, Garry McCoy and Mauro Sanchini were caught up in Jose Luis Cardoso's accident in waiting. Cardoso and Nieto were racing hard when Cardoso outbraked himself and ran wide at the top of the hill. McCoy, not being a man to look a gift horse in the mouth, kept his line and went straight down the inside. Unfortunately, Cardoso decided it would be a good idea to get back on line and turned in hard, clobbering McCoy and slowing everything up to the extent that Sanchini was unable to avoid a collision. McCoy gashed his arm and injured his ankle, ruling him out of the second race, while the unfortunate Sanchini broke his arm in two places. Giovanni Bussei also went down trying to avoid the crash.

Race two was a disappointment for many people. Stopped after just two laps because of oil on the track, the restart, which ran full distance, proved a struggle for many teams and tyres. Before the red flag it was Laconi, Corser and Toseland making the running with a strong likelihood of a Ducati 1-2 as they seemed to have the legs on the Suzuki. But the restart saw them both go backwards, suffering from huge grip problems and eventually finishing seventh and eighth behind Lorenzo Lanzi on the semi privateer Carracchi bike. Ahead, Frankie Chili managed another good, solid fifth after an outstanding ride that saw him challenging for potential podium slots plenty of times. Fourth went to a resurgent Norick Abe while Chris Vermeulen also managed to improve on his race one performance with a podium. Troy Corser, for once, didn't have it all his own way. Nori Haga, starting, remember, from seventeenth on the grid (one up from race one as McCoy was out of the picture) was up into eighth by the end of the first lap and just kept pushing. Five laps saw him in second, while another two saw him take the lead and hold it, eventually opening a three second gap to take Yamaha's first win since Haga left them in 2000. We've come to expect something special from Nitro Nori, but nobody has ever taken a win while not even making Superpole before.

Further back, Muggeridge chased Toseland in vain, remaining ninth while Chris Walker did all he could but still couldn't improve on a tenth place finish.

All of which means that Troy Corser needs to have a major catastrophe not to win the series by a country mile. Chris Vermeulen could still do it in theory, as could Laconi, Kagayama and Toseland. But realistically, with a ninety-four point lead over Vermeulen and a huge one hundred and twelve points on Laconi, it would be a brave (or perhaps very silly person) who would bet against Corser getting his second and Suzuki's first SBK title.

Next round is at back at Brands Hatch on 7th August. Brands rocks - it's a fantastic circuit to ride and to spectate, and you should expect some seriously close racing and some real challenges from Messrs Walker and Toseland, back on home turf again...

Race One

1 Troy Corser (Suzuki)
2 James Toseland (Ducati)
3 Regis Laconi (Ducati)
4 Chris Walker (Kawasaki)
5 Pier-Francesco Chili (Honda)
6 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
7 Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha)
8 Chris Vermeulen (Honda)
9 Norick Abe (Yamaha)
10 Andrew Pitt (Yamaha)

Race Two

1 Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha)
2 Troy Corser (Suzuki)
3 Chris Vermeulen (Honda)
4 Norick Abe (Yamaha)
5 Pier-Francesco Chili (Honda)
6 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
7 Regis Laconi (Ducati)
8James Toseland (Ducati)
9 Karl Muggeridge (Honda)
10 Chris Walker (Kawasaki)

Championship Standing after seven rounds:

1 Troy Corser 299
2 Chris Vermeulen 205
3 Regis Laconi 187
4 Yukio Kagayama 158
5 James Toseland 152
6 Noriyuki Haga 122
7 Pier-Francesco Chili 108
8 Chris Walker 106
9 Norick Abe 83
10 Andrew Pitt 76