CARL Fogarty closed the gap on John Kocinski with a tremendous second race win in a thrilling ninth round of the World Superbikes Championship at Assen, Holland.

The former two-time world champion from Blackburn led from start to finish but he was closely followed by Ducati team-mate Pier-Francesco Chili of Italy throughout.

The Italian eventually settled for second place as tyre trouble slowed him in the closing stages.

Burnley's Neil Hodgson, also on a Ducati, came in fifth behind Kocinski and New Zealander Aaron Slight.

Kocinski's third place was enough to keep him ahead in the series after he took the first race despite another bad start.

At one point in the second the American was six seconds behind Fogarty, eventually closing to nearly three seconds at the end.

In the opening race Kocinski battled through from 11th place and took the lead from Fogarty with little more than a lap to go.

Fogarty finished runner-up with Chili third.

Kocinski's Castrol Honda team-mate Aaron Slight finished fourth ahead of Neil Hodgson who got the better of Scott Russell with two laps to go. "It was important to win that second race to keep the pressure on Kocinski," said Fogarty.

"It could and should have been a double but he got past me on the second last lap of the first race.

"But I've narrowed the gap and I'm confident heading into the last three rounds."

After his sixth win of the year Kocinski said: "I worked hard all weekend to get pole position and wasted it.

"I honestly thought I'd blown my chance with that start.

"I know that 16 laps of Assen is a long way so I tried to stay calm and calculate what I could do and how long it was going to take to get to the front.

"But I was also trying my best to remain smooth as I made the passes."

The championship now moves to Spain in three weeks with both Kocinski and Fogarty confident of glory.

Kocinski commented: "I like the Albacete track and I've had good results there in the past so I'm ready."

First race result: 1 John Kocinski, USA (Castrol Honda) 33m 34.731s, 2 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 33m 34.874s, 3 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati) 33m 35.432s, 4 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 33m 41.094s, 5 Neil Hodgson, GB (Ducati) 33m 43.162, 6 Scott Russell, USA (Yamaha) 33m 45.501s, 7 Jamie Whitham, GB (Suzuki) 33m 48.271s, 8 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 33m 48.297s, 9 Simon Crafar, New Zealand (Kawasaki) 33m 51.333s, 10 Chris Walker, GB (Yamaha) 34m 02.379s. Second race result: 1 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 33m 31.289s, 2 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati) 33m 32.220s, 3 John Kocinski, USA

(Castrol Honda) 33m 34.277s, 4 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 33m 35.909s, 5 Neil Hodgson, GB (Ducati) 33m 44.715s, 6 Simon Crafar, New Zealand (Kawasaki) 33m 47.179s, 7 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 33m 52.229s, 8 Scott Russell, USA (Yamaha) 34m 02255s, 9 Chris Walker, GB (Yamaha) 34m 06.254s, 10 Piergiorgio Bontempi, Italy (Kawasaki) 34m 12.010s.

Championship points after nine of 12 rounds: Kocinski 314, Fogarty 312, Slight 249, Russell 190, Chili 183, Yanagawa and Crafar 162, Hodgson 118, Whitham 116, Bontempi 97.

Next round: Albacete, Spain - September 21.

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