The World Superbike championship has always managed to provide cutting edge, close racing and this season appears like it will be no different. The first two rounds of the championship have provided us with an interesting insight of what we can expect to see at Valencia on April 6th.
Although the 1098 is new to the series this year the 1198cc powered machine is proving difficult to compete with especially in the hands of two times World Superbike champion Troy Bayliss who has won three of the opening four races. There were several emergency meetings held over the course of 2007 about the introduction of the Ducati 1098 to the series. Several guidelines and stipulations were put in place to ensure fair competition for the 1000cc 4-cylinder machines. One of those stipulations was to monitor the performance of the new 1098 over the course of four races with weight penalties being added to the machines to increase closer competition if needed.
So far after four rounds of the championship there does seem to be a slight advantage although it doesn’t appear to be as bad as first predicted. So far there have only been the Ducati’s of Bayliss, Biaggi, Xaus and Fabrizio competing for the podium places which isn’t much different to the 2007 season in comparison. Xaus and Bayliss managed to pick up wins on the uncompetitive 999 in 2007 and Ducati have strengthened their line up this year with the addition of two talented Italians Fabrizio and Biaggi. With some small weight adjustments there should be plenty of fairing bashing racing to come around the circuit at Valencia.
Ducati’s dominance has been exaggerated slightly by the fact that the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team have been struggling around in the middle of the pack with an undeveloped Fireblade. Ten Kate missed all of the important pre-season tests because of delays in the release of the new Fireblade from HRC. In fact they only had three days of testing at Califat to gauge any possible faults with the bike before packing up the bikes for shipment to Qatar. Because of this the opening four races of the season have been like an extended test for the team, who find themselves in the awkward position of not only having a new bike to develop, but also helping their three new riders integrate into the team, Carlos Checa from MotoGP, Ryuichi Kiyonari from British Superbikes and Kenan Sofuoglu from their own Supersport team.
Bearing that in mind, the teams results have been incredibly impressive, Only Kenan Sofuoglu has ridden on Pirelli rubber before the season started and all three riders had impressive performances in their last race outings at Phillip Island. Honda will be pleased at the speed at which the new bike has developed in to a competitive race package. Ten Kate are one of the premier bike tuning companies in europe, however the speed at which the bike development has taken place has been astonishing. To score a podium in only it’s fourth race, beating Suzuki’s and Yamaha’s which have had a year of development shows the potential for the new Fireblade which Ronald Ten Kate has already called the new weapon of choice. It clearly shows that the new Fireblade will be a worthy adversary for the Ducati 1098.
Like many of the other teams Ten Kate were present at the two day Valencia test last week and continued their impressive early season development with Kiyonari and Checa in the top four on race rubber. Whether the bike will be competitive enough to mount a serious title challenge in it’s first season only time will tell, but it does appear that for 2009 many privateer teams may be looking to purchase a Fireblade instead of a 1098.
Valencia will see the homecoming for the Spanish heroes in the championship and this year the fans have extra reason to be optimistic with three Spanish riders competing for the Championship as the race approaches. Suzuki’s Fonsi Nieto is the front runner of the three, having already won with his new team in only his second outing on the GSXR1000 and currently lies in second place in the overall championship. Nieto is enjoying his most fruitful season since his 250cc Championship days and if he can continue to push Bayliss all the way through the season he may finally live up to the potential which he hasn’t always been able to show. It does appear that he is now happily settled in to a team and the results are starting to flow. Nieto clearly has talent but has maybe not had the machinery to show this until now. He’ll certainly be hoping to put on a good show in front of his home fans on April 6th.
Likewise Ruban Xaus scored his only victory of the season last year, albeit a very impressive victory on a privateer Ducati 999 at Valencia. Xaus has been incredible consistent and strong through the early part of the championship, claiming that he has a new found focus with the arrival of his team mate Max Biaggi and that he is concentrating on competing for the Championship. Xaus was another who was extremely impressive at the recent two day test at Valencia although he did raise some slight concerns over the life of his tyres over the race distance. Carlos Checa who is coming off a fantastic second place in Phillip Island will be hoping that he doesn’t have to wait another couple of years before he makes a trip back to one of the three steps. Carlos was one of the strongest throughout the two day test and although he didn’t set the fastest time, he was able to lap consistently in the 1:34 minute bracket which should serve him well come the race. Overall it should be a fascinating race weekend on April 6th.
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