Gang of Four heads to Donington

From the World Superbike Championship

The echoes of a splendid weekend of racing at Misano World Circuit are still ringing loud and clear as the Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship crosses the English Channel for its next appointment, round nine at Donington Park this weekend.

The British circuit, situated directly under the East Midlands Airport landing strip, measures 4.023km, has 15 curves and is a difficult track to master, a severe test for the resistance and concentration of riders, especially if it should rain.

The championship heads into its second half of the season with Noriyuki Haga, Ben Spies and Michel Fabrizio the big favourites, but also with Jonathan Rea, who took a fantastic win in race two at Misano, now part of the gang of four winners. Haga is the current rider who has the most wins at Donington, three, and he is followed by Troy Corser (two) and Ryuichi Kiyonari on one. The most successful rider is Carl Fogarty with six wins to his name, followed by Scott Russell with five. On the manufacturer front, the lion’s share goes to Ducati with 16 in 34 races, then Yamaha and Honda equal on six, Kawasaki on five and Suzuki on one.

Even though six rounds remain (and 300 points are up for grabs), the fight for the title appears to be a three-way affair between the Ducati Xerox duo of Haga and Fabrizio, and Yamaha World Superbike’s Ben Spies. 'Nitro-Nori' has led the standings since the start of the season, but has not had a positive run recently and has given the impression of racing somewhat in defense.

He still has a 48-point lead over Spies, who picked up his eighth win at Misano, but had it not been for the various technical problems that have afflicted him, the Texan would be right there with his rival. At least this time around Spies is not faced with a totally unfamiliar track, having raced here last year for Suzuki in MotoGP as stand-in for the injured Loris Capirossi, finishing 14th.

As for Fabrizio, after unleashing all of his talent in race two at Monza, the Italian has just kept on going and has accumulated a constant sequence of podiums without however stepping onto the top rung. Fabrizio is in excellent form, has nothing to lose and will surely be a contender this weekend.

Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) might not be a part of the title battle as he is 125 points behind, but he may yet have a say in the matter. Race two at Misano brought out the Northern Ireland youngster’s talent and this, together with the improved competitiveness of the Hondas following a switch to Ohlins suspensions, means that he will be a potential winner this weekend at the only British round in this year’s championship.

Eyes out as well for Tom Sykes (Yamaha World Superbike), who finished runner-up to Bayliss last year in race one, Leon Haslam (Stiggy Racing Honda), Shane Byrne (Sterilgarda Ducati), galvanized by his Misano podium, and also Kiyonari (Ten Kate Honda) who, despite clearly not being British, twice won the BSB championship as well as the second race here last year.

It will also be interesting to see how the young wild-card, and current BSB points leader, Leon Camier fares on the Airwaves Yamaha R1 machine against the WSB regulars at his home track.

After a positive (Aprilia) and fairly good (BMW) start to the season, the two rookie WSB manufacturers now appear to be in a mid-season slump against their racing cousins, Ducati, Yamaha, Honda and Suzuki. At Misano the Aprilia Racing duo of Max Biaggi and Shinya Nakano only succeeded in bringing home a handful of points, without ever getting a look-in. BMW fared even worse, with just two points scored for 14th by Ruben Xaus, and none by a still sore Troy Corser. Immediately after the Donington round both the Italian and German squads have scheduled test sessions to try out new updates and evolution components.

The American contingent in the championship goes up by one at Donington after the Alstare Suzuki team, while waiting for the return of Max Neukirchner, opted to replace Fonsi Nieto with the young American Blake Young. The 21-year-old from Wisconsin is thought to be one of the best young talents around and comes with the ‘backing’ of racing legend and former champion, Kevin Schwantz. Young joins his fellow Americans Spies, Jamie Hacking and John Hopkins in the series.

The World Supersport round will probably be another chapter in the derby match between home rider and points leader Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha World Supersport) and his friend-rival Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda) from Ireland. This season both Cal and Eugene have had an extra gear over the rest of the field, and have picked up three wins apiece. Crutchlow has a 14-point lead over his rival.

It’s a three-way battle in the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup, with yet another chapter in the season-long tussle between Xavier Simeon (Ducati Xerox), Claudio Corti (Suzuki Alstare) and Maxime Berger (Ten Kate Honda). The last round went to the Frenchman, with Ducati’s Belgian rider taking over at the top from Italian Corti.

In the European 600 category the points leader Danilo Petrucci (Yamaha Trasimeno) looks good for another win, but he is now under threat from his team-mate Marco Bussolotti, who is rapidly making up ground after a difficult start to the year.