The action in the 2008 HANNspree FIM Superbike World Championship is undoubtedly set to heat up this weekend as the runners and riders head for the Misano World Circuit cauldron on Italy’s Adriatic Riviera coast for Round 8, the San Marino Round organized in collaboration with the motorcycling federation of the tiny, Italian-speaking but independent, Republic state. With 7 rounds done and dusted, the season now enters its second half and the revised Santamonica circuit could not be a better place for this next phase of the championship, with scorching weather expected at the holiday venue to liven up proceedings. The last two rounds have produced two double winners in Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) at Miller Motorsports Park and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB) at the Nurburgring, but more to the point they have seen Troy Bayliss’s leadership grip on a championship gradually come under threat.
Max Neukirchner (Alstare Suzuki) and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) shared the wins in the IDS Italian Round of the HANNspree FIM Superbike World Championship at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in front of a record crowd of 112,000 spectators. The first-ever win for a German rider in World Superbike history came at the end of a sprint finish to the line with Haga, just 0.058 seconds behind at the flag. The final podium place went to championship leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) after a late attack by Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki Alstare), who finished fourth despite a couple of errors at the chicane.