CARL Fogarty faces an uphill battle to retain his world superbikes crown after championship leader Australian Troy Corser claimed victory in the second race at Brands Hatch.

Quickly away from his pole position, Corser always held the upper hand and at the finish held off Italian Pier-Francesco Chili, winner of the first race.

Blackburn ace Fogarty, who claimed fifth spot in the opening race, crashed out at the Dingle Dell gravel trap on lap 16 in the second.

It was bitterly disappointing for the defending world champion after his double here last year.

Over 50,000 British fans had come to see a repeat performance but their hopes, like Fogarty's, were thwarted.

"I was changing from second gear to first and hit a neutral, losing the front end," explained 30-year-old Fogarty. "It was a silly little crash. Fifth was best I could do in the first race. I was hanging on in there for everything I could get. The rear was sliding all over towards the end of what was a very hard race for me."

Burnley's Neil Hodgson, on a Ducati, finished eighth in the first race but in the second, like Fogarty and a host of others, crashed out and failed to register any points. He lies ninth in the table after seven rounds in his first season in Superbikes.

Fogarty remains third but is now 48 points behind Corser, who reclaimed top spot, and has a mountain to climb. The next round takes place in Sentul, Indonesia, in two weeks' time.

RESULTS-Race One: 1 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati) 37m 05.894s, 2 Anthony Gobert, Australia (Kawasaki) 37m 07.681s, 3 John Kocinski, USA (Ducati) 37m 07.757s, 5 Carl Fogarty, GB (Castrol Honda) 37m 15.256s, 8 Neil Hodgson, GB (Ducati) 37m 20.954s.

Race Two: 1 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 37m 01.207s, 2 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati) 37m 05.289s, 3 Colin Edwards, USA (Yamaha) 37m 12.958s. Championship points after seven rounds: Corser 229, Slight 221, Fogarty 181, Kocinski 173, Chili 162, Edwards 152, Crafar 119, Gobert 117, Hodgson 70, Mike Hale, USA (Ducati) and Yoshikawa 66.

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