Category: Superbikes

1. MOTOGP QUALIFIERS AT PHILLIP ISLAND

   Posted on 10:01am Sunday 18th Oct 2015

   SIXTH AND SEVENTH ROW FOR BAUTISTA AND BRADL

   Alvaro Bautista finished the qualifying sessions at Phillip Island,, riding his Aprilia RS-GP to the eighth best time in Q1 (in 1’30,147), just a half second behind the leader) which earns him 18th overall place and therefore the sixth row on the starting grid for the Australian GP tomorrow. In this decisive session that determines the starting order the Spaniard once again proved to be, as he has been throughout the weekend, faster than Bradl, his Aprilia Racing Team Gresini team mate. Already in the last two free practice sessions, dedicated to finding the best possible race pace, Alvaro had shown progress compared to the Friday sessions. It was more of an uphill battle for Bradl who, although making improvements, struggled to stay close to his team mate and finished qualifiers with the eleventh best time (1’30,634) which places him on the 21st spot and the seventh row of the starting grid for tomorrow.
   
   
   ROMANO ALBESIANO (Aprilia Racing Manager)
   “The team worked above all on improving grip, trying different geometries and chassis setups. Bautista was feeling more comfortable although we still need to work on his race pace. With Stefan, on the other hand, we had a bit more trouble from the start, more than expected I'd say. But even with him there are still a few things to test in order to try to improve for the race.”
   
   FAUSTO GRESINI (Team Manager)
   “Bautista did well today, performing well in qualifying. If we are able to get off the line well when the lights go out tomorrow he has the potential to stay with the group of riders in front of him. Alvaro still has a bit of difficulty, especially in the last sector of the track, so tomorrow morning in the warm up we'll focus mainly on trying to be more effective in the last two turns. Stefan has been struggling from the beginning of the weekend, so we'll try to help him for the race, also comparing his data with Alvaro's and testing some more adjustments in warm up.”
   
   ALVARO BAUTISTA
   “I'd say that these were good qualifiers which we finished just a half a second from the time that would have gotten us into Q2 - not bad. If anything there is still some room for improvement on race pace that I would like to make. Today in FP3 and FP4 we lapped well with worn tyres. Up to twenty laps I'm able to maintain a fairly consistent pace and then there is a bit of drop. I can feel spinning so I struggle a bit. Tomorrow we'll use the warm up specifically to work on improving pace. Then in the race it will be important to start well and push hard in the first laps to stay with the group ahead of us.”
   
   STEFAN BRADL
   “Up to now the weekend has been more difficult than we expected. Today we made some more changes on the bike, looking for more feeling with the rear tyre, but without actually making much progress. All we can do now is keep analysing the data more in depth to find a solution that allows me to be more competitive in the race tomorrow.”

2. a announces 2016 World Superbike riders

   Posted on 12:00pm Saturday 10th Oct 2015

   Honda has today confirmed the team that will spearhead its campaign in the 2016 World Superbike championship on the CBR1000RR Fireblade SP. Current rider Michael van der Mark will be joined in the team by former MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden.

   Hayden has been riding in MotoGP since 2003 when he joined the Repsol Honda team and the 34-year-old American has since gone on to start more than 200 Grands Prix, scoring 28 podiums and taking three wins. He won the MotoGP title with Honda in 2006.

   His strong flat-track racing pedigree, which began at the age of three, eventually led him into road-racing and the young Hayden turned professional on his 16th birthday, halfway through the 1997 season. He won the AMA Supersport series with Honda two years later before turning to AMA Superbike in 2000. He became the youngest ever AMA Superbike champion, taking Honda’s VTR1000SP (RC51) to victory in 2002 at the age of 21.

   Hayden is relishing a return to his superbike roots in 2016 and to continuing his racing career with Honda in the production-based World Superbike championship. Ultimate success in the series would make him the first rider to win both MotoGP and WSBK titles.

   He will team up for 2016 with Michael van der Mark, one of the most exciting and talented young riders in the series. The 22-year-old Dutch flyer has followed Honda’s rider development programme in winning both the 2012 European Superstock 600 series and last year’s World Supersport championship on Honda’s CBR600RR.

   Van der Mark won back-to-back Suzuka 8 Hours races in Japan in 2013 and 2014 and has scored three podiums to date in his rookie World Superbike season on the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP with the final round coming up in Qatar on 18 October.

   The team will begin testing for the 2016 World Superbike championship season in November with two scheduled tests in Spain which will be Hayden’s first opportunity to familiarise himself with his new Honda CBR Fireblade.

   Nicky Hayden

   Well, my next stop is Superbike with Honda! I’m very excited, obviously, to stick with Honda; it’s where I’ve had the most success in my career. World Superbikes is a championship that I followed closely as a kid when a lot of American riders were fighting at the front. It just seems like the right time and the right team to go with. I know I’ve got a lot to learn and it’s going to be a big challenge, but also I’m very motivated to start and learn what I can. I’d like to say thanks to everyone who has supported me through my MotoGP career. We had a good run but now it’s time to move on and try something different.
   
   Michael van der Mark

   I’m really looking forward to 2016 already! This season we have made a lot of progress with the CBR and I think that taking my experience on the bike from every track will be a very good base to start from. We’ve really improved the bike even more over the last couple of rounds and that has put us close to the front, which is what we’ve been aiming for throughout the year. The next target of course is a victory but I think that in my second season on the CBR I can be confident that we can make some more podiums and fight for wins. I’m happy to hear that Nicky will be my team-mate next year and I think we’ll be able to learn a lot from each other during the season.

   Marco Chini – WSBK Operations Manager, Honda

   We are of course delighted to announce that Nicky Hayden will be Michael’s team-mate on Honda’s CBR Fireblade machine in the 2016 World Superbike championship. The team has worked really hard this season, continuing the development of the bike together with Cosworth’s electronics and we are really happy that this endeavor has translated into strong performances from both riders, particularly in the last few races. These results have demonstrated the great potential that remains in the CBR and I’m happy that they may have influenced Nicky’s decision to join our programme. We are confident that the wide experience he has gained at the highest level of our sport can help the squad to continue the development, the momentum and the team-work that has been established this season and translate that into further positive results.

   Ronald ten Kate – team manager

   It’s well known that, at Ten Kate, we always have been and always will be Honda. There is only be one person in the world who could possibly be more Honda than us, and that’s Nicky Hayden! That’s why I’m absolutely delighted that he’ll be joining us for next season. He was AMA Superbike champion with Honda and we’re really looking forward to bringing him back to his superbike roots. By working together and using all our combined resources, I hope that in the future we can make him the first world champion in MotoGP and World Superbike. We are also looking forward to combining Nicky’s experience with young Michael, who has shown really good pace and huge potential on the CBR in his first season. I think you can safely say that I’m more than happy with the line-up we have for 2016!

3. Lloyds British Moto Rapido Ducati leave Oulton Park disappointed after a promising start

   Posted on 10:00am Monday 7th Sep 2015

   The Lloyds British Moto Rapido Ducati team were unable to lose the curse of bad luck that has beset the team this season. The Winchester based team were unable to capitalise on a promising practice and qualifying sessions as technical gremlins plagued the team throughout the three races.

   Hopkins had been quick throughout the weekend but the run of bad luck had continued in qualifying three and all three races of the weekend’s triple header.

   Qualifying had begun in a promising manner for ‘Hopper’ with a P3 in Q1 and 2nd in Q2. However a missed gear in the final qualifying session on a flying lap, led Hopkins to run on at cascades resulting in a slow speed spill thus only being able to complete the qualifying session.

   Race 1 - Hopkins starting from 10th position on the fourth row of the grid immediately made gains on lap 1 as he eased into 7th position. He was to the hold this position until lap 3 when a dust-up with Luke Mossey relegated him to 8th. ‘Hopper’ began to lose ground to those in front but seemed to regroup and close in on the tails of McConnell and Linfoot. However it soon became apparent that Hopkins had a problem as his times dropped and he fell further down the field. On Lap 13 the Californian rider brought his Panigale into the pit lane as he could no longer continue with the grip levels he had available. Hopkins did re-join the race briefly once the tyre had cooled to see if any grip had retuned but pulled into the garage shortly afterwards after the rear tyre continued to spin up.

   Race 2 - Again Hopkins started from the 4th row but after two laps had dropped back to 13th position, however on lap 3 a mistake led to him dropping further back to 21st. From there Hopkins had to dig deep to try and claw some places back for the Lloyds British Moto Rapido Panigale. By half distance the American rider had moved into 16th and then over the next couple of laps moved through the field to close in on the top 10 only for technical problems to strike again. A clutch problem gave Hopkins no option but to pull into the pits to end another eventful and ultimately disappointing race for the team.

   Race 3 - A decent lap in race 2 set up Hopkins for a row 2 start in the final race of the weekend. A good start meant Hopkins held his position and was immediately challenging Linfoot in front of him but mechanical gremlins struck again. Hopkins found it difficult to select a gear so was forced to bring the bike back to the garage to end a disheartening weekend that had seemed to promise so much.

   Steve Moore – Team Manager – Lloyds British Moto Rapido Ducati

   “It’s been a really disappointing weekend, we had the lap pace, and we had the lap times, the fastest the bike and John had ever been around here. There was not much we could do about race 1, but race 2 we had a clutch failure, for race 3 we changed everything, we wouldn’t have done anything different so we will have to investigate the reasons for what happened in race 3. So we just have to move on to Assen where we expect the bike and John to be strong. We have not had some of these technical problems before so hopefully we have now got them out of the way for the final leg of the season.”

   James Egan riding the MWR Motorsports Superstock 1000 Ducati never managed to get going during the weekend. Egan was 18th in first qualifying and was unable to improve on that position in second qualifying due to damp track conditions. A race start from the 7th row on the grid was always going to make things difficult for the South African and was not helped by a poor start to the race that left him languishing in 25th place. Egan failed to improve on his position in the race and returned to the garage after lap 7.

   Mark Webster – Team Manager Lloyds British MWR Ducati

   “Its been a disappointing end to a long weekend, unfortunately James didn’t feel confident in himself to push the bike as much as he needed to and therefore didn’t ride the bike to its full potential. We now look forward to the last races and hope to capitalise on a good result.”

4. Fifth place start for Honda Endurance Racing at the Oschersleben 8 Hours‏ ‏

   Posted on 10:25am Saturday 22nd Aug 2015

   The Honda Endurance Racing team will start tomorrow’s German Speedweek Oschersleben 8 Hours race from fifth position aboard the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP.

   Honda’s trio of endurance specialists Julien Da Costa, Freddy Foray and Sébastien Gimbert completed the final qualifying sessions today and their combined times gave the Honda squad an average lap time of 1’27.644, placing them fifth.

   Throughout the day all three Honda riders built on their lap times from yesterday’s sessions with Da Costa obtaining the seventh best time with 1’27.740 lap. Team-mate Gimbert finished his session top of the sheet with a best time of 1’27.306, and Foray’s 1’27.887 lap time saw him finish his stint in fifth position.

   The Oschersleben 8 Hours race will start tomorrow (Saturday 22 August) at 12:00 (GMT+1).

5. APRILIA RACING TEAM GRESINI - Indianapolis Grand Prix, Race

   Posted on 10:00am Monday 10th Aug 2015

   Indianapolis (USA), 9 August 2015 - An extremely demanding weekend for the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini has just come to an end where they found a stubborn adversary in the American Indianapolis track. The characteristics of the Indy track penalised the RS-GP, especially in the second half of the race when tyre wear kept Alvaro Bautista from battling for a finish in a position that would have earned him championship points, where he had been hanging on, and it kept Stefan Bradl from holding onto the positions he had gained after a good start. The German rider also had to deal with pain in his recently operated right wrist, but he is leaving the United States with good sensations after his debut on the Aprilia.

   At the start Alvaro Bautista was unable to find his way through to move up in position through the first turns, finding himself stuck in a thick group of riders. Bradl, on the other hand, got off the line well, even moving up to thirteenth position at the beginning of the race. However, both riders suffered a drop in grip which was particularly penalizing in right-handers. Alvaro finished his race in 18th place, whereas Bradl crossed the line in 20th.
   
   
   ROMANO ALBESIANO (Aprilia Racing Director)
   “We had some difficulties with the rear tyre in a way that we had never experience before, especially on the right side, so much that both riders at a certain point were forced to slow down significantly. For Stefan the pain in his operated right wrist added to the problems, so both riders lost a bit of their edge toward the end of the race. The fundamental problem, which was closing out turns, has an impact on the grip and that is where we need to work. Thanks to Bradl’s comments, which add to the great job Alvaro is doing, we may have identified some new solutions that we’ll be testing in the next race at Brno."
   
   FAUSTO GRESINI (Team Manager)
   “This was a difficult race in terms of the result which was certainly not the best, but I should point out that we did a good job with both riders throughout the weekend and this is important in view of the coming rounds. Alvaro rode a good race, but when the tyres began to wear he struggled a lot to maintain a good pace, whereas in the final phases of the race Bradl was feeling the pain in his injured right race and he crossed the finish line under a lot of stress.”
   
   ALVARO BAUTISTA
   “This was a really hard race. We had the same difficulties that had come up in practice. At the start I struggled because on the first turn I found myself stuck in a group of a lot of riders and wasn’t about to gain any positions. From there on I tried to set my pace and I was in the zone to be able to battle for fifteenth place and a points finish, but I had trouble keeping up with the others. This track posed some difficulty for us, especially when we started feeling the tyre war. In right-handers I was losing a lot of time. In any case, we finished the race and collected some more fundamental information for 2016. I’d like to thank the team for their hard work this weekend.”
   
   STEFAN BRADL
   “After spending three days on the track I expected to have problems with my right wrist today. Already this morning in the Warm Up session I started feeling some pain and after the midway point of the race I wasn’t able to control the bike as I would have liked at a lot of places on the track. In any case, we gave it our all and I consider this first weekend for me on the RS-GP as a positive one. I learned a lot about the bike and together with the team we made a lot of changes in the little time we had available, doing a good job. I wasn’t used to riding the entire race distance on this bike and if you add my injury to that obviously I wasn’t able to be as fast as I would have liked. For the moment we are satisfied anyway and we are looking forward to Brno where we’ll try to take a step forward.”