CARL Fogarty roared back into the World Superbike Championship race with a pair of second place results at South Africa's new circuit Kyalami.

And that leaves Blackburn's twice world champion just seven points behind championship leader Aaron Slight going into this weekend's next round at Laguna Seca in the USA.

Fellow Ducati rider Pier-Francesco Chili scooped a double win in round seven. Chili won the opening race, his third victory of the year, after following Fogarty for most of the 25-lap race before making his move into the lead with little more than a lap to go.

Spaniard Gregorio Lavilla got the better of the Suzukis of Jamie Whitham and Peter Goddard in the closing stages to take third place - only his second rostrum finish of the year.

Championship leader Troy Corser caused a dramatic start to the opening race when his Ducati suffered fuel starvation and he was forced to retire on the warm-up lap.

He now trails Chili by just one point.

Series leader Corser stormed away to lead race two before he slowed, allowing team-mate Chili to grab the lead.

With three laps to go Chili also slowed but he was forced to hold on for his fourth win of the year as Fogarty and Noriyuki Haga sat on the rear wheel of his Ducati for the last two laps.

Two eighth places on the day handed Slight the lead in the

championship - despite crashing when Gregorio Lavilla's Ducati broke and he took down Whitham and Slight on the eighth lap. Burnley's Neil Hodgson was forced to retire in both races.

The Kawasaki rider was lying 10th on the penultimate lap when his engine packed in.

He said: "All I could do was pull into the side of the track." In the second race Hodgson was challenging for fourth with four laps to go.

He added: "The bike was fantastic and I was getting a superb feel from both the front and rear.

"Then I had the same problem as the first race, this time on the entry to Nashua.

"I'm gutted not just for myself but the team as my lap times prove I am capable of running at the front."

First race result: 1 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati) 43m 45.405s, 2 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 43m 46.706s, 3 Gregorio Lavilla, Spain (Ducati) 43m 53.699s, 4 Jamie Whitham, GB (Suzuki) 43m 54.126s, 5 Peter Goddard, Australia (Suzuki) 43m 54.545s, 6 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 43m 56.078s, 7 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 43m 56.093s, 8 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 44m 02.207s, 9 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 44m 02.487s, 10 Scott Russell, USA (Yamaha) 44m 23.128s. Second race result: 1 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati) 43m 45.115s, 2 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 43m 45.345s, 3 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 43m 45.525s, 4 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 43m 46.400s, 5 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 43m 46.452s, 6 Peter Goddard, Australia (Suzuki) 43m 54.920s, 7 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 44m 03.266s, 8 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 44m 16.830s, 9 Scott Russell, USA (Yamaha) 44m 22.524s, 10 Piergiorgio Bontempi, Italy (Kawasaki) 44m 35.057s.

Championship points after seven of 13 rounds: Slight 210, Corser 209, Fogarty 203, Chili 194, Edwards 187, Haga 168, Yanagawa 122, Whitham 86, Goddard 92, Russell 75.

Next round: Laguna Seca, USA - July 12 1998

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