Believe the Hype : World Superbike Round 1
Published by Neil Everett
06 March 2009, 19:45
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It may have been 119 days since the last round of the 2008 World Superbike Championship but the series reopened last weekend to the fans delight with a big bang. The 2009 campaign has been hyped by many pundits and insiders as being one of the most competitive and exciting season ever. However, talk is cheap and actions speak louder than any words could.
A great deal of the expectation for the forthcoming season has been based around the influx of new riders to the series from around the world, with three time AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies, former MotoGP star Shinya Nakano, two time British Superbike Champion Shane Byrne and a host of other BSB and World Supersport talent looking to add some extra spice to the series. As we will all be well aware, sometimes things can fail to live up to the huge expectations that are placed upon them and everyone found themselves eagerly awaiting the green light in race one with a host of unanswered questions lingering in the back of their minds. Would Spies be able to compete with the world’s best Superbike riders? Would Aprilia and BMW be competitive after all the pre-season testing? Would we really be treated to a Championship where anyone of ten riders possessed the ability of winning a race?
An answer was very forthcoming in the new superpole format, with Ben Spies taking his first World Superbike pole but maybe more importantly any one of the top twenty riders taking part in the new qualifying system had the potential to make the front row on their given day.
This provided the fans with the perfect appetiser for the main course of Superbike action that would take place in the early hours of Sunday morning and it was well worth stopping up for.
In the opening race of the day it quickly became apparent that there was a great deal of substance to the hype, with a host of riders from both factory and satellite teams competing fiercely for a spot inside the top ten positions. Lap times were extremely competitive with a large proportion of the field lapping within tenths of a second of the leaders when in clear air. Spies’ charge in the opening round was halted at turn two, after he was forced to take evasive action when Leon Haslam and Max Biaggi got a little too close for comfort. Despite this off he quickly recovered and charged after the field and despite one more excursion after a close call with Ruben Xaus, the young Texan mounted a spirited fight back through the field to finish just outside the points in 16th place. His display in the second race of the day was perfection personified, battling with race one victor Haga, he maintained a competitive pace whilst managing the performance of his tyres before clearing off to take the win comfortably.
Ben has dominated the AMA series in recent years, winning the main superbike championship for the last three seasons, he’s also won the Formula Extreme and Supersport titles in his young career and has been headlined as the next great rider to come out of America. Spies’ first taste of the International paddock was at Donington Park in June 2008 when he deputised for the injured Loris Capirossi on Suzuki’s MotoGP bike. As is normal with the English weather Spies was subjected to a tough first weekend on the prototype beast, with changeable conditions throughout the weekend hampering optimum setup. However, he acclimatised himself extremely adequately and left the weekend with two points whilst putting his name in the frame for a seat for 2009.
As we all know now things didn’t pan out for Ben in MotoGP, but it could be for the best. I’ve always personally believe that establishing yourself in the World Superbike Championship provides potential suitors in the MotoGP paddock the perfect shop window to analysis your talents. Spies now has the opportunity to showcase his talents and demonstrate to any would be employers that he can compete with the worlds best riders and win.
Yamaha made a big play for the Texan at the end of 2008 and even though they are quick to deny any rumours of a MotoGP switch in 2010, you can bet that they won’t want to lose one of their prized assets.
Spending a year in World Superbike also will provide the perfect opportunity to learn some of the circuits that he may compete on in the MotoGP series if he should happen to make the switch in the future. Not that learning new tracks has caused Ben a problem so far. Although it normally takes riders a while to acclimatise themselves to a new circuit, it doesn’t appear to take Ben long at all before he is on a competitive pace. He has been on the pace in all of the test sessions in pre-season and some of Spies quick adaptation has been assisted with the addition of his faithful crew chief Tom Houseworth who has moved across the Atlantic to join up with Spies’ new Yamaha team. Tom was influential in Ben’s AMA success and between the two of them they share a clear understanding of the direction they need to take the bikes development.
There is also no doubt that Yamaha have developed an astonishing piece of machinery in the shape of the new YZF-R1 and the crossplane crankshaft with it’s uneven firing order providing the riders with additional traction and torque when exiting the corner.
The fact remains that this bike, this team and this rider might just make some impressive history in the 2009 World Superbike Championship, but you can bet that Haga, Neukirchner, Haslam, Rea and a whole host of other riders will have something to say about the eventual title outcome. One thing is for sure though, if you hadn’t already, it’s time to believe the hype. This should be one of the most enthralling and exciting Superbike seasons ever and Ben Spies is the real deal.
The one question remaining now is, Can MotoGP compete with this?
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