Ducati Monster Forum

FP1

1 Carlos Checa Althea Racing Ducati 1098R 1:31.973
2 Max Biaggi Aprilia Racing Team Aprilia RSV4 1000 F 1:32.161
3 Jakub Smrz Team Effenbert Liberty Racing Ducati 1098R 1:32.254
4 Tom Sykes Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:32.478
5 Jonathan Rea Honda World Superbike Team Honda CBR1000RR 1:32.524
6 Maxime Berger Liberty Racing - Team Effenbert Ducati 1098R 1:32.594
7 Sylvain Guintoli Team Effenbert Liberty Racing Ducati 1098R 1:32.640
8 Joan Lascorz Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:32.686
9 Michel Fabrizio BMW Motorrad Italia GOLDBET SBK Team BMW S1000 RR 1:32.790
10 Niccolo Canepa Team Ducati Roma Ducati 1098R 1:32.824
11 Marco Melandri BMW Motorrad Motorsport BMW S1000 RR 1:32.888
12 B Staring Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:33.020
13 Ayrton Badovini BMW Motorrad Italia GOLDBET SBK Team BMW S1000 RR 1:33.029
14 Chaz Davies ParkinGO Aprilia Racing Team Aprilia RSV4 1000 F 1:33.033
15 Hiroshi Aoyama Honda World Superbike Team Honda CBR1000RR 1:33.071
16 Davide Giugliano Althea Racing Ducati 1098R 1:33.116
17 Leon Camier Crescent Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:33.247


Qualy 1

1 Jonathan Rea Honda World Superbike Team Honda CBR1000RR 1:31.959
2 Jakub Smrz Team Effenbert Liberty Racing Ducati 1098R 1:32.116
3 Davide Giugliano Althea Racing Ducati 1098R 1:32.198
4 Carlos Checa Althea Racing Ducati 1098R 1:32.228
5 Max Biaggi Aprilia Racing Team Aprilia RSV4 1000 F 1:32.318
6 Niccolo Canepa Team Ducati Roma Ducati 1098R 1:32.343
7 Tom Sykes Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:32.402
8 Joan Lascorz Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:32.443
9 Marco Melandri BMW Motorrad Motorsport BMW S1000 RR 1:32.553
10 Michel Fabrizio BMW Motorrad Italia GOLDBET SBK Team BMW S1000 RR 1:32.609
11 Sylvain Guintoli Team Effenbert Liberty Racing Ducati 1098R 1:32.644
12 Leon Camier Crescent Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:32.817
13 Chaz Davies ParkinGO Aprilia Racing Team Aprilia RSV4 1000 F 1:32.874
14 B Staring Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:32.884
15 Hiroshi Aoyama Honda World Superbike Team Honda CBR1000RR 1:33.040
16 Maxime Berger Liberty Racing - Team Effenbert Ducati 1098R 1:33.075
17 David Salom Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:33.128
18 Ayrton Badovini BMW Motorrad Italia GOLDBET SBK Team BMW S1000 RR 1:33.136

More of the same...

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2012/02/23/rea-s-last-lap-flier-leads-the-way-in-oz/ (http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2012/02/23/rea-s-last-lap-flier-leads-the-way-in-oz/)

Why on God's green Earth can't BMW get any better results after all this time?  ( A rhetorical question, I know )

Kawasakis 7th and 8th?
The earth is going to tilt off it's axis!

you know BMW is cringing at the fact that Kawi's are ahead of them...

Where is Laverty?  I remember a high speed tumble in testing for him, but I thought he was going to be ok for the opener? Anyone have a link?

And who is the Althea Duc rider ahead of Checa?? 

On which lap of the race do ya think Smrz is gonna crash?   ;D

Davide Giugliano is the 2011 World SuperStock champion for the Althea team who has now moved up to SBK...

Team mate Eugene Laverty, back in the saddle after an injury to his hand last Wednesday, took advantage of the first session to regain familiarity with the bike and the track. But in the first few minutes of the afternoon qualifiers the Northern Irish rider took a spill in turn 9. Eugene was treated at the track medical centre, not for any particular physical injury, but for a state of confusion due to minor concussion.

His participation in the sessions tomorrow shouldn't be a problem: "In the first session I just wanted to see how my hand would perform. In the second the feeling was good from the first laps. I was on a used tyre and I lost the back end and took a slide, hitting my head and my foot. I'm fine now and there don't seem to be any problems for tomorrow, but I'm still disappointed about the important time we lost because of the crash. Tomorrow the goal is to stay in the top sixteen in order to get into Superpole and try to bring home good results in the two races".

That Qualy is all sorts of messed up. Sykes was running up there in testing! What happened?

he crashed in the AM so he spent most of the session in the box (only 1 bike this year)

QP2: Sykes!

http://motomatters.com/results/2012/02/25/2012_philip_island_wsbk_qp2_sykes_overco.html (http://motomatters.com/results/2012/02/25/2012_philip_island_wsbk_qp2_sykes_overco.html)

2:30 and 3:30 eastern on speed Sunday

HOLY KAW!!!!  Getting excited about the upcoming season. :D

http://www.motomatters.com/results/2012/02/25/2012_philip_island_wsbk_fp2_checa_shows_.html (http://www.motomatters.com/results/2012/02/25/2012_philip_island_wsbk_fp2_checa_shows_.html)

"Max Biaggi may have finished Saturday's final free practice session atop the timing screens, but the man on the move is, you guessed it, Carlos Checa. Checa put in 12 laps in the 1'32 range, while Biaggi managed just three."

There's the money right there.

FP2

1. Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1'32.222
2. Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) Ducati 1098R 1'32.246
3. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) BMW S1000 RR 1'32.585
4. Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike Team) Honda CBR1000RR 1'32.631
5. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'32.785
6. Sylvain Guintoli (Team Effenbert Liberty Racing) Ducati 1098R 1'32.850
7. Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) BMW S1000 RR 1'32.971
8. Niccolò Canepa (Red Devils Roma) Ducati 1098R 1'33.037
9. Michel Fabrizio (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) BMW S1000 RR 1'33.210
10. Jakub Smrz (Liberty Racing Team Effenbert) Ducati 1098R 1'33.223
11. Leon Camier (Crescent Fixi Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1'33.290
12. Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) Ducati 1098R 1'33.487
13. Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda World Superbike Team) Honda CBR1000RR 1'33.568
14. Maxime Berger (Team Effenbert Liberty Racing) Ducati 1098R 1'33.579
15. Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'33.622
16. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1'33.706
17. Bryan Staring (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'33.709
18. Joshua Brookes (Crescent Fixi Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1'33.885
19. Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) BMW S1000 RR 1'33.889
20. Lorenzo Zanetti (PATA Racing Team) Ducati 1098R 1'33.952
21. Mark Aitchison (Grillini Progea Superbike Team) BMW S1000 RR 1'34.419
22. David Johnson (Rossair AEP Racing) BMW S1000 RR 1'35.269
23. Raffaele De Rosa (Team Pro Ride Real Game Honda) Honda CBR1000RR 1'35.318

sykes on pole, but not for good reason   :'(       (superpole was canceled)

http://motomatters.com/analysis/2012/02/25/2012_philip_island_wsbk_round_up_cancell.html (http://motomatters.com/analysis/2012/02/25/2012_philip_island_wsbk_round_up_cancell.html)


wtf is going on with that track this year?

 [popcorn]

Hell.

A bad way to begin a new season. :-\

Here's what's on the SpeedTV website's WSBK page...

"Filling the void left by ‘09 rookie champ Ben Spies, Max Biaggi took the championship by storm aboard his V4-powered Aprilia RSV4 in 2010. However, fellow veteran aces Noriyuki Haga, Troy Corser, Carlos Checa, and Leon Haslam could pose a threat to Biaggi’s dominance in ‘11 with European racebikes of their own (Aprilia, Ducati, and BMW)."

 [roll]

6 kilos apparently didn't hurt Checa too much  [thumbsup]

Apparently highsiding at 140 mph is no big deal to Checa.

Simply amazing.

It's gonna be a great year.

Holy shit Max  :o

Yeah he looks like he is going to be tough to beat this year.

I dont like biaggi... but damn, that was pretty freaking impressive.  That Aprilia looks pretty perfectly set up this year in his hands.

Haslam...5th with a 1-week-old broken leg. Wtf.  [bow_down] [bow_down] [bow_down]

Glad to see Checa start race 2, that high side was nasty!

BMW looks to have improved, and the Kawis look to really have improved. Very cool.  [thumbsup]

Someone needs to have a close look at Max's bike. His bike was crushing everyone on the straight. Beating the Honda and Ducati there isn't a surprise, but BMW and Kawi too?  [coffee] I'd be a little surprised if anything was up, but they do have a history of pushing the rules as far as they can. Funny that the powers thought it necessary to add weight to the Duc this year...then the Ape does that.

Yeah, I don't believe for a second that Max is that good. There's something up with that Ape.

Watching Biaggi come through the pack was impressive, though not as fun to watch as I would liked.  Me no likey Max.

The best race of the weekend was seein Rea trying to hold of Sykes.  Sykes should have had him about 2 laps before the final lap, but Rea's lines were just amazing.  He couldn't even get the bike to the apex of some of the turns and was spinning it up wildly coming out of 'em, but still managed to almost hold off Sykes 'til the end.  Rea even added a huge smoky on the final turn.  Fun to watch.  Too bad the Honda sucks again this year.

I can't believe that Checa raced after that highside.  It prolly even made him nostalgic for the 500GP era.  

BMW was good at the beginning of last year too and then they started to suck.  As long as they are using their own in-house electronics package, I'll remain skeptical.  Melandri and Haslam is a good duo though.  Strong riders.  The Laverty-Biaggi pairing is the other really strong team.


I think the front straight speeds were a bit deceptive.  It was a combination of HP and drive.  The priller was putting down the power soooooo much better than everyone else out of the last turn that it appeared that he had a massive HP advantage down the front straight.  Don't get me wrong, he did, but it was magnified by his drive.

That was definitely fun to watch. Rea outbraking him at the end of the straight on the last (?) lap was amazing.  [clap] I couldn't believe his entry speeds into some of the corners knowing his rear was shot.


Ya, I know. It looked to be a huge differential though, probably aided by drafting as well. It's Aprilia...someone should have a look anyway!  ;D

there is tech inspection, before and after..  he is that good.  but in addition to (obviously) some more engine (keep in mind it's the only V4 on the grid..) they clearly have nailed the settings.  it puts that much power to the ground but doesn't destroy the tire.  amazing.

+ 1 on the rea/sykes thing.  johnny was riding his nuts off.

craziest thing about checa's highside was steve martin calling it seconds before it happened...  god love that guy as a commentator.

That didn't take long...

http://www.crash.net/world+superbikes/news/177121/1/althea_boss_concerned_by_biaggi_fight_back.html (http://www.crash.net/world+superbikes/news/177121/1/althea_boss_concerned_by_biaggi_fight_back.html)

6kg = ~13lbs.  that's a lot to complain about.

It only seems fair to add that weight to the Ape.

it's a multi-faceted argument (understatement...) but the whole thing began when they let the duc have an additional 200 CCs.  the aprilians can rightly say they have a 1000cc bike just like everything else on the grid.  can't penalize them for doing it better.  outside things like gear-driven cams, anyway.

It'd be interesting to see the top speeds of all the bikes. Aprilia shouldn't have to carry additional weight, for the reason gm2 said...but maybe the Duc shouldn't either if it's slower than the I-4 bikes. If the Duc top speed was in-line with the Honda, BMW, Kawi, Suzuki and Yamaha, then the weight isn't a bad thing.

I'm not sure what brought on the weight in the 1st place. Checa was dominant, but the next Ducati was in 6th place at the end of 2011...185 points behind Melandri. That seems like a rider thing to me, not a bike thing.

max was doing 325, carlos about 310.  haven't seen a list but i remember them saying the BMW and Kawi were around 320

seems like good enough reason to remove the weight... i guess they'll see how it works out after another race or two.

there's a whole formula for how they arrived at the addition of it; can't really look at the speeds or results at one track.

(imo it's a crap rule, either way.)

Hm. [coffee]

Personally, I've no love for additional "thanks for winning" weight. Or minimum weights in general, for that matter.

IMO it's just to keep all the 1K guys quiet.

Ducati gets an extra 200 cc cuz they're a twin.

You can add all the weight to the Duc you want (let's be reasonable) and it will still shine at what it's good at.

It will never be a straight line rocket....

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned it already or not, but HOLY FACK, THAT'S FAST!!!!!.   

'member when the GP bikes broke 200 mph and that was a big deal?  :o

1st...I think Checa got some frequent flier miles for how much airtime he spent in race 1...and I think the extra weight added to the extreme element for points in that flight....

2nd...the way the Ape was passing 2 bikes at a time on the straight with relative ease was a tell tale as to how blindingly fast that bike is and how obscenely exploitive it potentially could be....that said, if Laverty gets well enough and starts railing just as fast as Max, we'll all know how much is the bike, and how much is the rider to a degree...

Holy Kaw is right....and to think...Kawi almost let Sykes go when they were in their upheaval of letting Paul Bird and Co. go as their "factory" team....

all 3 of the Effenbert bikes looked pretty damn planted and stable in comparo to last year...very threatening trio there...

Fabrizio...he didn't bin it....and was seemingly competitive....makes me wonder if the BMW Italia squad are using the Beemer 'lectrics or the Marelli stuff?

Haslam to put on the show he did with a screwed together leg the way he did....just WOW!!!

I think half of the 6KG they added to all the Ducs was just bolting back on a starter...

in 2010 biaggi did 326.9 (203mph) at monza

and yeah.. stupid fast.

the first time he threw a leg over that bike he was the fastest guy on the track..


how ironic is it that now paul bird is going to go be the worst CRT bike on the grid. 

i wonder who the new team poached as an electronics engineer.  i bet that is the single major difference in this zx-10: a codemonkey taught it to not eat the rear tire.


marelli i believe.

and is it just me or was fab moving around all weird on the bike more than normal?  settle down dude.


and to finish race 2 in front of melandri...  ouch.

not just you....it was weird the way he was all kinds of squirrelly on the bike...

A lot of riders seemed to be having to make traction/stability corrections coming out of turns.

is that re the fab comment?  wasn't that.. he was wiggling around for no apparent reason.

I knew the results but didn't get to see the second SBK race until last night. Damn! What a run by Max through the pack! Double damn! :o [beer]

And Checa's highside in the first race was a Lorenzo quality get off! [popcorn] Like he said in the 2nd post race interview "winning was the best anti-inflamatory!"

I have a funny feeling we are going to see some epic Biaggi/Checa fights this season. I missed seeing any Yammyhammers in the fray but it was made up by seeing Sykes doing so well on the Kawi. [thumbsup] 

Finally got around to watch the Phillip Island races last night.  It wasn't easy staying off this thread this whole time. :D  Race 1 was ok but the drama in Race 2 was awesome!  I am really glad that Kawasaki has improved and emerged as a front runner.  But what about Max and Aprilia.  The way he made up that much time has me very concerned for the 2012 season...  He might just run away with the championship by mid season.

nah: laverty will get well. 

and the 2 factory BMWs will continue to do well'ish.  Ten Kate will figure out a don't eat the tire setting.  hopefully Hopkins will make some waves. 

but it'll still probably be an old dudes battle at the end.

old age...

treachery...

and deceit.

every time bro. ;)

What he said. ^ [thumbsup] [Dolph]

But Max would have way more championships if that was always true.  [laugh]

..as would Nori... :P

at least he still has a ride.

it seems that experience is counting in SBK these days though.

Max will break himself. It's inevitable.

At least I hope he breaks himself. He can challenge as much as he wants but the Emperor losing out at the end of a race provides me with so much satisfaction...  [popcorn]
Unfortunately, the Ape is insane. And Max can ride the wheels off that danged thing.

We shall see...oh yes...we...shall...see...

I like Max in this series even more than in GP. I think getting away from GP and not having a ride for a couple of years for being a dick actually helped him. I doubt he would admit that over drinks at dinner but that's my take on it.

Like Checa, they rose like the Phoenix to have a great second half of their racing careers in WSBK. Just think what the series would be like with them AND Bayliss! [popcorn] [bow_down] The old guys don't go away that easy. They just keep taking everyone to school. [thumbsup] [Dolph] And the series is the better for it.

i think he would.  he was obviously a different person when he came back in 2007.

Max comes off snobbish even when he's trying to be humble.

It's just Max.

well, he is Roman...  ;)



(where's Luca when you need him?!)

he's busy sleepin with da fishes

WSBK Kawi write up! [thumbsup]

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2012/03/01/riding-kawasaki-s-world-superbike/ (http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2012/03/01/riding-kawasaki-s-world-superbike/)

A few snaps from our trip:

Start of Race 1, from turn 1:
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7047/6803488018_68d0ca4995_b.jpg)

Checa & Biaggi into turn 1, early in race 1:
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7042/6949592087_398ef676eb_z.jpg)

Biaggi all alone in Race 1:
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7205/6803483600_d4dac5a749_z.jpg)

Race 1 Cool-down:
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7184/6949597687_42e5d01571_z.jpg)

Why Phillip Island is the best place in the world to watch a race...from turn 3/4:
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7056/6949599041_b2faf9bcfc_z.jpg)

ASBK Race from Siberia:
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7180/6949596157_fab7ef98f7_z.jpg)

Erickson Air Crane on display at PI:
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7055/6803476842_15de46232f_z.jpg)

"...switching its entire defunct MotoGP engineering operation headed by technical director Ichiro Yoda to the Superbike sector."

makes sense.. but didn't know that

I hate you soooooooo much!!!

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2012/Mar/120307a.htm (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2012/Mar/120307a.htm)

I'll watch it in the morning.