CARL Fogarty experienced the highs and lows of motorcycle racing during round five of the Superbike World Championship at Oschersleben in Germany.
His rider, Troy Corser, grabbed the headlines by claiming pole position with a stunning Superpole lap and followed that up with a creditable fourth-placed finish in yesterday's first race.
But, as team-mate Chris Walker brought his FP1 home in seventh place in the day's second race to further strengthen the Foggy Petronas' second-placed position in the manufacturers' standings, Corser suffered a heavy crash after oil from his bike leaked onto the back wheel.
The 28-laps around this challenging and technical track proved another test of durability, with only 14 riders finishing the second race, won by Regis Laconi, after Noriyuki Haga had claimed victory in the opener.
The results leave Corser and Walker within a point of each other in the rider standings, in eighth and ninth respectively, while Foggy Petronas now lead Honda by 13 points.
Corser said: "The same thing happened in the second race as in the first, with oil leaking from the bike. I had noticed it the previous lap and thought to myself that I should pull in.
"Then I thought 'I've got a gap over the man behind so I'll try to hang on to that again like I had done in the first race.' But, going into the chicane, I lost the rear on the oil and hit the fence head first.
"I was up there with Haslam, who finished on the podium, and he had only come past me because of the oil. So it could have been a much better ending to a weekend which had promised so much after achieving pole position and coming fourth in the first race, my second best result for the team."
Walker added: "It was not a good end to the weekend and that's a shame because it had looked like being such a good round for the team.
"I had a problem with my clutch halfway through the second race, which meant I had to brake too early. I also made a mistake early on which cost me a few places. The back end came round on me coming out of the long left-hander. My feet were above the seat but I happened to land back on the bike. I thought it was all over!
"And then I nearly went down on the oil from Troy's bike. So it was not a good day overall, after having to retire from the first race with an electrical problem. Troy did a fantastic job to come fourth in the first race, as only finished behind people who had a lot more speed on the straights."
James Toseland leads the championship by two points from Ducati Fila team-mate Regis Laconi.
Toseland holds the slender advantage over his French team-mate after two podium finishes.
Laconi made up for the disappointment of finishing sixth in race one to take victory second time out ahead of team-mate Toseland.
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