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Spies second overall after tough Round 3

The Yamaha World Superbike team, which has made such a great start in 2009, had an unexpectedly tough raceday at Valencia. Ben Spies fell going into turn one on the ninth lap as he moved in to pass Max Neukirchner. Spies team-mate Tom Sykes fared better despite starting well back after finding trouble in Superpole, but he worked his way through the field to finish seventh. Race two saw Spies touch with Haga (Ducati) on the opening laps, bending his brake lever in the process. Despite this distraction he hung on for second in another impressive ride for the rookie of the year thus far.

For Sykes race two was a strong one despite his lowly starting position, passing Biaggi and new boy Hopkins in the process. Sitting up to avoid a late braking rider in front he ran wide five laps from the end allowing Biaggi back through and leaving Sykes in tenth position at the end of the race. Double Valencia race winner Noriyuki Haga still leads the championship, now by an extended margin of 40 points, but Spies is still a clear second. Sykes now has 47 points and sits eighth in the championship.

"Race one was unfortunate for me," said Spies: "I was pushing really hard to make up for an electrical issue going into the corner and crashed. We tried as hard as we could in race two to make it up. For the first couple of laps I had a couple of small problems and just didn't quite get rolling and by the time we got into second position I would have needed to be right on the back of Nori to challenge for it as he was riding at a very good pace. I guess I just didn't have the speed today. We'll come back at Assen and try to step it up."

"I got a good start in race one and got past a few in turn one," said Sykes. "It was a fairly decent race in the end, I think I could have gone for fifth but Leon Haslam had done a good job in the last few laps and made a big gap. I think we could have been in the top five otherwise. For me it was very difficult in race two. I had a good start, but going into turn two I was held and others came round the outside and went through. I worked my way back up to ninth and was looking good and catching up with Neukirchner but unfortunately got so close to Biaggi and just as we were going into turn one I ran wide a bit and let two or three past."

Source:
http://www.worldsbk.com

Haga makes his best start ever

Noriyuki Haga has ridden in WSB races in most seasons since his very first start at Sugo in 1994. In fact, he is now in third place in terms of how many races he has started, with 235 to his name. He has never had a start to a WSB season like this one in 2009, however.

His current points total of 135 is remarkable, only 15 shy of perfection, after three wins and three second places, and this is his best ever championship start.

The table below shows Haga's WSB points totals at the equivalent stage of all his full-time WSB seasons - with six races gone. As you can see, Haga is normally a slow starter, and has only led the championship at this stage in one previous season, his first full-time year, 1998.

2009 - 1^st(135)
2008 - 6^th (47)
2007 - 3^rd (88)
2006 - 4^th (64)
2005 - 7^th (40)
2004 - 5^th (69)
2002 - 6^th (60)
2000 - 2^nd (79)
1999 - 6^th (50)
1998 - 1^st (104)

Source:
http://www.worldsbk.com

Haga Breaks the Spies Spell

By Mike Nicks

Noriyuki Haga won the second race in the World Superbike Championship round at Valencia today on his Xerox Ducati, and proved decisively that the American new boy Ben Spies can be beaten on equal terms.

In this race Spies stayed on his Yamaha R1 – he dropped it in the first encounter – but still trailed in second by 5.105s to a raging Haga.

Haga’s double win gives him a 40-point lead in the championship, and the prospect that the 34-year-old Japanese might finally win it after twice finishing second.

Michele Fabrizio crowned a fabulous weekend for the Xerox Ducati 1098R machines by claiming his second podium of the weekend, with third place, just ahead of Regis Laconi on the DFX Ducati.

Leon Haslam continued the fighting form that has made him Britain’s top superbike rider this season, blazing through from the third row to claim fifth place on his Stiggy Honda, from Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda).

It was a disappointing weekend for the two new factory teams in the championship, Aprilia and BMW. After qualifying for the fifth row, Max Biaggi fought through to eighth place on an RSV4 that earlier in practice looked like a potential winner, and Troy Corser could only finish 15th on the BMW S1000RR.

The other Brits? Shane Byrne (Sterilgarda Ducati) was 11th, a troubled Johnny Rea (Ten Kate Honda) 13th and Tommy Hill (Althea Honda) 22nd.

Source:
http://www.motorcyclenews.com

Casey Stoner refusing to single out Valentino Rossi challenge

By Matthew Birt

Casey Stoner has refused to single out Valentino Rossi as his big title threat ahead of the first MotoGP clash of 2009 in Qatar this weekend.

Aussie Stoner has been in scintillating form during winter testing with his new carbon fibre chassis Ducati GP9 catapulting him to the fastest time in all three tests in 2009.

But the 23-year-old is refusing to be drawn on what most people expect to be another titanic battle between himself and Italian Rossi.

The pair have dominated the 800cc era of MotoGP with 29 wins in the 36 races and as Rossi goes in search of an eight world title, he looks odds on to pose the most serious threat to Stoner again.

But Stoner said: “I expect nothing and just have to fight my way through. Whoever is going to be my toughest rival is on race day, if it’s everyone it’s everyone but if its one in particular you just have to beat them.

" just need to do the best job I can and try and get my fitness back to its peak and understand the new bike and start the season strong like last year but this time keep it going.

"We really fell off the pace for a while and had bad luck with an engine failure and it would be nice to stay in with a fight instead of trying to chase it down.”

Source:
http://www.motorcyclenews.com

No secrets at Repsol Honda

By Matthew Birt

Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso will have an open working relationship where both will be able to access each other’s data during the 2009 MotoGP world championship.

New Honda MotoGP boss Shuhei Nakamoto has pledged a no secrets policy inside Honda’s official factory team between triple world champion Pedrosa and new recruit Dovizioso.

The issue of data sharing inside Repsol Honda dominated the headlines late last season when Pedrosa’s manager Alberto Puig accused Nicky Hayden of constantly checking the Spaniard’s telemetry.

That drew an immediate denial from the Hayden, who said Pedrosa could access the data of any Honda rider, but nobody could look at Pedrosa’s.

It seems the controversial issue will no longer be a flashpoint though, with Nakamoto wanting a more united front from the Repsol squad.

So would Dovizioso be able to check Pedrosa’s data?

“Of course he will. Why not? This is a team. Of course they will work together. I can’t comment on last year. Of course riders and engineers will have to share data.

"If needed I will make changes because this is a team, “said Nakamoto.

Source:
http://www.motorcyclenews.com

Stoner and hayden chase Jerez set-up in final preseason test

Ducati MotoGP Team riders Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden made the most of changeable weather in the south of Spain today to complete some important set-up work on their Desmosedici GP9 machines. With less than two weeks remaining before the opening practice session of the 2009 MotoGP World Championship in Qatar there was anxiety amidst a soaking wet paddock this morning, with torrential rain having drenched the track.

Thankfully the strong Spanish sun emerged before lunchtime to produce acceptable conditions for a worthwhile test in the afternoon, when Stoner consistently featured at the top of the timesheets despite struggling to get maximum potential out of the GP9 at what has proven to be a demanding track for Ducati in recent seasons. Hayden continues to make progress in his adaptation to the bike and Bridgestone tyres but will be looking to make the most of his final day of preseason testing, which takes place here tomorrow.

The climax to the test comes at 2pm tomorrow afternoon, when Stoner will look to repeat his feat from last year by setting the fastest time in a 45-minute televised ‘qualifying’ session and take home a brand new car as his prize.

CASEY STONER (Ducati MotoGP Team) 3rd fastest - 1’39.906
“Jerez has been our weak point for the last couple of seasons and for some reason our bike just doesn’t like it here. There used to be a lot of bumps that unsettled it but to be fair a lot of them were ironed out when they re-laid the surface and now it’s hard to put my finger on the problem. I think every Ducati rider is in the same boat – Jerez is like our kryptonite! So basically we’re not working on general set-up because we know the data we get here will be useless everywhere else - the target is to work on finding something that will help us get around this circuit and limit the damage when the race comes around. As far as my wrist is concerned, the hard-braking left-handers are tricky but other than that it is okay and I have no concerns about going race distance.”

NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati MotoGP Team) 9th fastest - 1’40.987
“We were lucky today because it looked like the weather was going to be a disaster. This morning we decided to go out and do some laps anyway just to check the performance of the wet tyres on a damp track because we won’t have any intermediates this year. When it dried out in the afternoon we found that the bike had improved in some areas but there are other things we really need to work on. We’ll speak to Filippo Preziosi this evening, analyse the data and try to do much better tomorrow because it would be nice to be pushing near the front before we go to Qatar.”

Circuit Record: Dani Pedrosa (Honda – 2008) 1’40.116 Best Pole: Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha – 2008) 1’38.189

Source:
http://www.ducati.com

Simoncelli surgery a success

250cc World Champion Marco Simoncelli underwent succesful surgery on his right scaphoid, fractured in a training accident, on Tuesday morning and will head to Qatar on Thursday. The Italian was operated on by Dr. Oliveiro Soragni and Dr Claudio Costa at a facility in San Marino, receiving a metal screw in the appendage.

Costa commented after the procedure that Simoncelli is only experiencing swelling and pain following the procedure, but was keen to race in Qatar.

If the Metis Gilera man is unable to ride this weekend, then his return will be postponed to the Japanese round of the World Championship on April 26th.

Source:
http://www.motogp.com