Superbike World Championship 2009 [updated] [Archive]

earthling

04-07-2009, 11:23 AM

I'm a huge WSBK fan..so thought of opening one thread to update the entire championship...

Superbike World Championship

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b2/WorldSBKlogo.png/150px-WorldSBKlogo.png

Superbike World Championship (also known as SBK) is the premier worldwide Superbike racing Championship. The championship was founded in 1988. The Superbike World Championship season consists of a series of rounds held on permanent racing facilities. Each round has 2 races and the results of each race are combined to determine two annual World Championships, one for riders and one for manufacturers.

The motorcycles raced in the championship are tuned versions of motorcycles available for sale to the public, by contrast with MotoGP where purpose built machines are used.

Europe is Superbike World Championship's traditional centre and leading market.[1] However, rounds are also held in Qatar, Australia and the United States.

The championship is regulated by the FIM the governing body of motorcycle racing and managed and promoted by FGSport.

The Legend

Troy Bayliss

Team/Bike: Dukati
World Championships: 2001, 2006, 2008
Race starts: 152
Podium Finishes: 94
Race Wins: 52

http://www.superbike.co.uk/imageBank/b/Bayliss%202007.jpg

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200811/r309789_1360753.jpg

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2009 Calendar

14 Circuits - 28 Races

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/9361/2009calander.jpg

earthling

04-07-2009, 11:23 AM

Race 3 - Valencia (April 05th 2009)

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/5466/sbkvalencia.jpg

Haga is King..The championship leader & the Master of Valencia..Ben Spies got owned by Haga..Spies is the rookie who was putting on MotorGP times and made the Pros look like Armatures (Including Haga) in the previous 2 races (Aus & Quatar)..

But Valencia is Haga's kingdom & in it he rules..even Troy Bayliss lost to Haga in Valencia & it was proved yet again..True that Ben Spies crashed in Race 1 & it was a walk in the park for Haga...But in Race 2 Spies couldnt even come close to him..Haga won by 5+ seconds..so it was obvious that even if Spies hadnt carashed in Race 1.. the race results wouldv been the same & Spies would have lost to Haga by a big margin anyway. :)

http://mototribu.com/competition/superbike/2009/course/001australie/wallpaper/images/0241_sbk_haga_1.jpg
Haga in his Dukati Xerox

Race Review
Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox) dominated both races in round 3 of the Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia. In front of 65,000 spectators the Japanese rider notched up wins number 35 and 36 in his ten-year long World Superbike career to lead the table with 135 points. Team-mate Michel Fabrizio also had a positive weekend, the young Italian taking second and third while the remaining podium places went to Max Neukirchner (Suzuki Alstare) in race 1 and rookie Texan Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike) in the second encounter.

Race 1
Haga led virtually from lights to flag after moving past early leader Neukirchner at the start of lap 3, the championship leader adding a chunk of points to his advantage over Spies, who then crashed out while fighting with the German. Fabrizio took the second slot to give the factory Ducati team a 1-2 finish.

Front-row man Regis Laconi (Ducati DFX) finished just one place away from the podium, while Leon Haslam (Stiggy Racing) was the first Honda rider to the flag ahead of Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki Alstare). Yamaha's race was saved with the positive form of Tom Sykes in seventh ahead of Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing), who recovered well from a lowly grid position. Broc Parkes finished an encouraging tenth for Kawasaki, with Superbike rookie John Hopkins (Stiggy Racing Honda) one place behind. Riders who crashed out included Troy Corser (BMW), who was running fourth in the early laps, and Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), who remounted but retired.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6572/sbkras31.jpg

Race 2
Haga dominated the second race in a similar fashion, this time taking the lead on lap 5. He then pulled out to win by over five seconds, taking a new lap record in 1 minute 34.618 seconds in the process. Spies managed to prevent a second Ducati 1-2 of the day with the runner-up slot but never managed to challenge Haga for the win. Third went to Fabrizio, who again had to hold off Laconi throughout the 23 laps for the final podium slot. Haslam scored another fifth place, again the best Honda rider to the flag, ahead of Checa and Neukirchner, who faded away with tyre problems after starting off well. Biaggi came home in eighth place again, after prevailing in a five-way battle with Ryuichi Kiyonari (Ten Kate Honda), Sykes, Shane Byrne (Ducati Sterilgarda) and Hopkins. The final point went to Corser, while Parkes failed to get into the top 15.

Ben Spies: "I was trying as hard as we could in the first couple of laps, but had a couple of problems and didn't quite get rolling. By the time we got into second, I would have needed to be right on the back of Haga to stay with him because he was riding at a really good pace. I just didn't quite have those 3 or 4 tenths today so I will come back at Assen and try to step it up."

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/2959/sbkras32.jpg

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Glad to see Haga getting back his form.. he should not let some punk ass rookie kid from US take away the 09 championship from his as he was denied it for so many years by the great Bayliss..