Troy Corser survived the black-out in Italy to light up the weekend for Foggy PETRONAS Racing with two seventh places at the penultimate round of the World Superbike championship in Imola.

After much of the country had spent the night without electricity, the Australian powered the FP1 – the Malaysian superbike – to another double display which highlighted the progress made in the last two rounds.

And team owner Carl Fogarty was suitably impressed with his Australian rider. He said: “It was a fantastic weekend for Troy. I am really pleased with that as it was a race that I didn’t expect us to do too well in, as the circuit has a few uphill sections and slow corners and it is well-documented that we are down on power at this stage of the engine development. But those results show how well he is riding, how good the chassis is and how hard the team has been working. We are going to be a serious force when we get a stronger engine next year.”

Troy said: “We have got the bike working pretty well in the short time we have been here, which is encouraging. I had a great start in race one but the other bikes were a little faster on the straights. In the second race the engine was slower from the start and I almost had to pull in with six laps remaining, as I could see oil on the bike. But the rear hugger must have been deflecting it from the tyre so I decided to push hard and try to force Sanchini into a mistake, rather than wait until the last lap to make a move.”

Team-mate James Haydon suffered another frustrating weekend and was forced to retire on the fifth lap both races with engine failure. He said: “I came into the weekend feeling really positive but the outcome was still the same and there was nothing I could do about it. After the disappointment of the first race I had a great start and was up to 15th and thought ‘Yeah, this is more like it.’ Then I felt the engine tighten, saw oil and had to come in.”

Race two results, World Superbike championship round 11, Imola, Italy: 1 Xaus; 2 Laconi 12.038; 3 Lavilla 15.741; 4 Hodgson 24.846; 5 Walker 25.952; 6 Pedercini 51.778; 7 Corser (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 55.582; 8 Sanchini 1:00.859; 9 Borja 1:03.424; 10 Garcia 1:17.924; 11 Borciani 1:31.807; 12 Gramigni 1:34.712; 13 Fuertes 1:43.592; 14 Saiger (Remus Racing Austria) one lap; 15 Pini one lap