Ducati Xerox's Troy Bayliss (Photo: Ducati Corse) » More Photos

Then came Hannspree Ten Kate Honda’s Carlos Checa, by himself, with Suzuki Alstare’s Yukio Kagayama holding off Hannspree Ten Kate Honda’s Kenan Sofuoglu for ninth.

When the bikes idled up to the grid up for the 500th round of the Superbike World Championship, Bayliss was hoping to bookend the afternoon with a double race sweep. And once the race did, in fact begin, it looked to be a two-rider dogfight between Bayliss and Ducati Xerox teammate Fabrizio. But Bayliss took off like a scalded cat, leaving the race for second place between Fabrizio and Biaggi. While Bayliss won the 20-lapper by 0.928 seconds, Fabrizio and Biaggi went at it hammer and tong, Fabrizio passing Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati’s Biaggi on the final lap and beating him back to the line by an eye blink margin of a few tenths of a second.

Fourth place was granted to Yamaha Motor Italia’s Troy Corser and fifth to Alstare Suzuki’s Max Neukirchner.

With five rounds yet to be run, Bayliss’ two-win day in Brno combined with Max Neukirchner’s fifth leaves Bayliss with a convincing 79-point lead in the standings. Troy Corser is third, 91 points adrift of the leader while Checa stands fourth, 94 points back and Nori Haga fifth, just five points behind Checa.