CARL Fogarty managed to keep his title rivals at a safe distance as the wild card entries dominated round eight of the World Superbike Championship in California.

The championship leader could manage only a fourth and fifth place on the Laguna Seca track, the only circuit where he hasn't tasted victory.

The round was dominated by Ducati Vance and Hines riders Ben Bostrum and Anthony Gobert.

They are setting the pace in the American Superbike championship, the AMA, and combined superior local knowledge and the more heat-friendly Dunlop tyres to take a race win each.

Both riders are looking for World Superbike rides next year and their domination will have done their chances no harm.

A last minute change of engine for the crucial Superpole lap on Saturday left Fogarty languishing on the third row of the grid with the ninth fastest time. And after both starts he had ground to make up as the local boys streaked off.

While he was able to increase his championship lead with a fifth place in race one, with chief rival and team-mate Troy Corser trailing in sixth, Corser snatched second in race two to pegg the Fogarty lead back to 49 points.

Fogarty will already be relishing the next round at Brands Hatch on August 1.

He said today: "I didn't want to lose too many championship points here at Laguna Seca, a track I don't like very much.

"I changed the bike for race two and it seemed easier to ride, but I kept the same tyres.

"Even with the second bike, I still had a few problems in changing direction. Now I'm already thinking about the next races back in Europe". Bostrum won the second race after Gobert, who stormed to victory in the first, crashed out when leading.

"I was just pushing too hard. I tried to hold the bike up but it was inevitable I was going to fall," said Gobert.

Bostrum said: "I've only been racing superbikes for two years and I don't want to hurry things. I have to concentrate on winning the AMA Championship, then maybe I'll think about racing in the World Superbike Championship".

WORLD SUPERBIKE RESULTS:

Race one: 1 Anthony Gobert, Australia (Ducati) 41m 01.775s, 2 Ben Bostrom, USA (Ducati) 41m 04.926s, 3 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 41m 05.157s, 4 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 41m 15.180s, 5 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 41m 15.484, 6 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 41m 15.909s, 7 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Suzuki) 41m 16.095s, 8 Jamie Hacking, USA (Yamaha) 41m 24.943s, 9 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 41m 28.663s, 10 Eric Bostrom, USA (Honda) 41m 34.549s.

Race two: 1 B Bostrom 40m 58.346s, 2 Corser 41m 01.358s, 3 Chili 41m 04.656s, 4 Fogarty 41m 08.968s, 5 Edwards 41m 12.339s, 6 Slight 41m 14.466s, 7 E Bostrom 41m 16.499s, 8 Gregorio Lavilla, Spain (Kawasaki) 41m 27.648s, 9 Peter Goddard, Australia (Aprilia) 41m 35.427s, 10 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 41m 37.801s.

Championship points (8 of 13 rounds): 1 Fogarty 317, 2 Corser 268, 3 Edwards 218, 4 Slight 196, 5 Yanagawa 194, 6 Chili 144, 7 Haga 119, 8 Lavilla 103, 9 Katsuaki Fujiwara, Japan (Suzuki) 93, 10 Vittoriano Guareschi, Italy (Yamaha) 67.

Manufacturers points: 1 Ducati 377, 2 Honda 279, 3 Kawasaki 213, 4 Suzuki 167, 5 Yamaha 154, 6 Aprilia 65.

Next round: Brands Hatch

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.