World Superbikes Head To Europe

This weekend the World Superbike series heads to Europe for the third round of the championship in Valencia at the Ricardo Tormo circuit.

The Ducati Xerox rider Noriyuki Haga is currently leading the championship after a win and three second places in the first two rounds in Australia and Qatar. However, this year he has Ben Spies to contend with on the Yamaha World Superbike who has so far won three out of the four races he has taken part in.

Jonathan Rea on the Ten Kate Honda feels confident of a podium finish in Valencia and believes that the tyre problems should improve at the European track.

The Sterilgarda Ducati rider Shane 'Shakey' Byrne is hoping to return to the domination he showed in testing after not finishing in either of the races in Australia. In Qatar Byrne showed his potential finishing inside the top six during race one and also has the advantage of knowing the circuit inside out.

The Japanese rider Makoto Tamada is set to return after missing the last round in Qatar while recovering from injuries he received just before the start of the races. Although he did break a toe in the accident he hadn’t broken his pelvis which was suspected at the time and is fit enough to get back on the Kawasaki.

Max Neukirchner will be hoping for a good race this weekend for the Suzuki Alstare team after his horrendous crash at the circuit last season. In the first race, he was in sight of his first ever Superbike win when he was collected by Carlos Checa on the final corner resulting in a smashed bike and a broken collarbone.

The Stiggy Racing Honda team recently had a one day test in Almeria with new parts on the bike and both riders Leon Haslam and John Hopkins are confident of a better race in Valencia after the progress the have made.

Hopkins makes his debut for the team at this round after seven seasons in MotoGP and is aiming for wins. He was left without a ride in the MotoGP this season after the Kawasaki team withdrew from the series before be signed by the Stiggy team in the WSB Championship.

Max Biaggi on the Aprilia has shown what he is capable of and it’s good to see him back on form, the Italian can still show some impressive riding, given the right machine, and is still a contender for the number one spot.

At their home circuit are the riders Carlos Checa on the Hanspree Ten Kate Honda and fellow Spaniard Ruben Xaus on the BMW, both know the circuit well but neither have shown any threat in the first two rounds.

The first two rounds have so far been dominated by Haga and Spies, will it be the same in Europe? I think that’s very likely.

Source:
http://www.worldsuperbikenews.co.uk

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Biaggi Battles On As Nakano Recovers

he Valencia race weekend was a very forgettable one for the Aprilia Racing team. Shinya Nakano fractured the left collarbone in practice and it was operated on in Spain, with a plate and eight pins inserted into it. He should be back at Assen at the end of the month.

Max Biaggi had problems in Superpole and could do no better than start each race from the fifth row, compromising his ability to finish well in the races. Despite this, Biaggi was aggressive and effective in each race, which he finished in eighth position each time. The points gained allowed Biaggi to limit the damage after a very difficult and complicated weekend.

"It was a very difficult race," said Biaggi. "I gave it my all, but it's very difficult to pass on this track and I also took a lot of risks trying to do even better. These two eighth place finishes may seem disappointing, but after the bad results in Superpole, it really was impossible to do any better. We did pretty well setting single-laps in practice, but we weren't able to set the pace with the racing tyres. My team-mate and I, to whom I wish a speedy recovery, experienced the same problem with vibrations at the back of the bikes that we had at Philip Island. We tried changing the alignment but the situation didn't improve and the Superpole reflected the situation we found ourselves to be in. This can be viewed as a success in that it has taught us to better evaluate the problems that we encounter and find solutions as quickly as possible."

Source:
http://www.worldsbk.com

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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

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

Source:
http://www.worldsbk.com

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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

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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.”

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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
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