With four weeks between the Phillip Island and Portimao rounds of World Superbikes, Kawasaki’s Chris Vermeulen had hoped to have sufficient time to recover from the horrific knee injury he suffered in a crash. Sadly for the Australian, that has not proved to be the case, and after taking a lap of the demanding Portuguese circuit, Vermeulen decided to pull out of the event. Here he is, explaining the decision in a video posted on his Youtube channel yesterday:
Ask most motorcycle racing fans to name a World Supersport team, and the names you are most likely to hear are the Ten Kate Honda team of Ronald and Gerrit ten Kate and Simon Buckmaster’s Parkalgar Honda team. But Kenan Sofuoglu and Eugene Laverty have got had their hands full over the past season holding off the Spanish Motocard Kawasaki rider Joan Lascorz, and this year Lascorz looks even stronger than ever.
To highlight this fact, Kawasaki released a promotional video presenting Lascorz and his team, Team Kawasaki Provec Motocard.com, to give them their full title. Though the video contains little information, it does show the process that goes into preparing a race-winning World Supersport machine. It remains a fascinating insight to just how close these machines are to standard production road bikes, that you can walk in off the street and buy, if you are so inclined.
Despite it being nearly four weeks since the World Superbike paddock last convened at Phillip Island, the weekend – and the runup to that weekend – is having knock on effects on the rider lineup of the series. Before the weekend had even started, Australian rider Broc Parkes broke a tibia during training, and was replaced on the Echo CRS Honda by fellow Australian Josh Brookes. Parkes is still not fully fit to race, and so will be replaced by South African Sheridan Morais at Portimao.
Morais was a substitute rider last year, taking the place of Makoto Tamada in Paul Bird’s Kawasaki World Superbike squad. The South African has switched manufacturers this winter, and is currently campaigning an Aprilia RSV4 in the South African Superbike series.
There was much disappointment around the world when it was announced, shortly before the first round at Phillip Island, that the 2010 World Superbike season would not be shown live online on the World Superbike website, as it has been done in previous years. The reason was simple: TV companies – who had paid sizable sums to Infront Motor Sports to screen the races live – were fed up of losing their audiences (and therefore their advertising income) to the website of the company they had handed their money over to.
Fortunately, the World Superbike series can lend at least some succour to racing fans. For Infront has placed highlight reels of both World Superbike and the World Supersport race up on the World Superbike series’ Youtube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/sbk. So fans who have missed the races can at least get a taster of the action from Down Under before their local TV stations show the races – if they are being shown in those territories.
After a long, cold, lonely winter, the World Superbike racing season is finally upon us again. With 26 machines on the grid, the series is down a bit in participation, but considering the depressed world economic climate, it could be a lot worse. Despite the drop in sheer numbers, there are seven manufacturers with factory (or the equivalent) teams. There has been some shuffling of marques and talent on privateer teams, but participation is fairly strong on that level as well.
Reigning World Superbike Champion Ben Spies has abdicated his throne for the theoretically greener pastures of MotoGP and there are a crop of both familiar and new faces eager to claim his title. There doesn’t appear to be someone who is going to grab the series by the throat and make it his own in his rookie year like Spies did, but then no one could have predicted that at the beginning of last season either.
The Empire Strikes Back
Just three more days to go before the World Superbike season kicks off in earnest, and to further enhance your already over-stimulated anticipation of the new season, the Italian Superbike TV has another short video on their website. The video was shot on the second day of testing at the final WSBK test, and contains a brief summary (in Italian) of how the riders performed at Phillip Island. See all of the 2010 World Superbike season’s protagonists in action, and get ready for Sunday. Enjoy!
If there was any doubt that Ducati has set its sights on reclaiming the 2010 World Superbike title, then the last test of the preseason before racing starts in earnest will have put those doubts to rest. After allowing Leon Haslam and Suzuki top honors in the first session on Sunday, a Ducati has topped the timesheet ever since, ending the session with five bikes in the top six. Fastest over both days was Michel Fabrizio, the factory Xerox Ducati rider shattering Troy Corser’s race lap record on Monday morning, after the track had dried and before the wind picked up too strongly.
Photo copyright Andrew Gosling
Joan Lascorz topped the timecharts at the end of two days of testing at Phillip Island, getting within spitting distance of Kenan Sofuoglu’s pole record from last year. The Spaniard had been strong all weekend, finishing as fastest in three of the four sessions the World Supersport class had at the Australian track, the final test in the run up to the opening round of the 2010 season.
A cluster of Hondas sit from 2nd to 4th, with Eugene Laverty’s Parkalgar bike sandwiched between the Ten Kates of Kenan Sofuoglu and Michele Pirro. These four look the most likely title candidates, but the old guard of Katsuaki Fujiwara and Fabien Foret will give them a run for their money from time to time.
With three Kawasakis and three Hondas in the top six, the prospect of a Kawasaki winning a world championship is looking increasingly realistic. Team Green have generally had a miserable time in all of the World Championship series they have entered, their last title coming in 2001 in this very class, with Andrew Pitt aboard a Kawasaki ZX-6R. But the World Supersport series is the only class where Kawasaki have shone, and with Joan Lascorz growing in maturity year on year, the Spaniard could be one to watch in 2010.
Results of the second and final session of testing for the World Superbike class at Phillip Island:
Results of Monday’s first session of practice for the World Superbike class at Phillip Island. The session was delayed due to overnight rain, which took a while to dry out:
Results of the second and final session of testing for World Supersport at Phillip Island:
The first day of testing for the World Superbike class at Phillip Island was a chance for Ducati to stamp their authority on the series they have so often dominated. The Italian factory tackled this challenge with gusto, putting five bikes in the top six of the morning test session, and taking three of the four top spots in the afternoon. It was not the factory bikes that took top honors, however: In the morning session, Xerox Ducati riders Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio had to cede that honor the the Alstare Suzuki of Leon Haslam, while in the afternoon, it was the turn of the privateer Carlos Checa on the Althea Racing 1098R, edging the factory bikes into 2nd and 4th.
Checa’s time in the afternoon was extremely impressive, just over a tenth off Troy Corser’s official lap record, and nearly four tenths of a second faster than the next fastest man Fabrizio. Leon Haslam is continuing his apparently trouble-free transition to the Suzuki GSX-R 1000, claiming a permanent spot at the top of the field, though the Englishman was half a second slower during the afternoon session. The two Xerox Ducati teammates are once again closely matched, raising the specter of a repeat of last year, when Fabrizio stole valuable points from Noriyuki Haga in the Japanese rider’s failed attempt to conquer the 2009 WSBK title.
If Moto2 testing has been dogged by bad weather and poor conditions, the sun has smiled on the World Superbike and World Supersport classes. The men – and woman – of the WSBK paddock enjoyed the warm sunshine of the Antipodean late summer, but then again they did have to fly halfway round the world to enjoy it. Kenan Sofuoglu immediately made himself at home at Phillip Island, setting the fastest lap of the first day of testing during the morning session, and showing a similar turn of pace in the afternoon. Motocard Kawasaki’s Joan Lascorz was quickest in the afternoon session, but his time was well off the time set by the Ten Kate Honda rider in the morning session.
The Ten Kate Hondas and Motocard Kawasakis dominated the timesheets, taking the top four spots with Sofuoglu and his new teammate Michele Pirro sandwiching Katsuaki Fujiwara and Lascorz between them. Another Kawasaki was 5th, the Lorenzini by Leoni bike of former WSS World Champion Fabien Foret. The Frenchman finished just ahead of last year’s championship runner up, Eugene Laverty on the Parkalgar Honda.
Sebastien Charpentier was the fastest of the Triumphs, ahead of his BE1 teammate David Salom. Chaz Davies was the second fastest of the British riders in 10th place, 3 places ahead of newcomer Gino Rea, and two places ahead of his Factory Triumph teammate, American rider Jason DiSalvo.
Results of the second session of practice for the World Supersport class at the Phillip Island test :
Results of the first session of practice for the World Supersport class at the Phillip Island test:
Results of the second session of practice for the World Superbike class at Phillip Island:
With just over two weeks to go until the 2010 World Superbikes season kicks off at Phillip Island in Australia, the ever-assiduous staff at World Superbike headquarters have put together a video preview of the season to whet your appetite for the racing – as if that was necessary after a long cold winter. The video features a rundown of the teams and riders participating in the upcoming season, interviews with most of the protagonists, and highlights of the fantastic racing that made up the 2009 season.
So pour yourself a fresh beverage, pull up a chair and enjoy 25 minutes of World Superbike action. It’s very nearly time to go racing again.
You can also watch this video in high resolution on the World Superbike Youtube channel.
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