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World Superbike – The Golden Age

Friday, April 03, 2009

As the title suggests, the finest era of World Superbike may be upon us. I've said it before and I'll say it again: This is shaping up to possibly be the best year of all time. Having just seen the provisional qualifying results in our Valencia WSBK post, I was taken aback by closeness in lap times. Typically, World Supersport is supposed to be the class where the top-20 are all within a second of each other, right? Not anymore...

Ben Spies took the Race 2 win pulling away from Haga in the final laps - Phillip Island

WSBK has never been better! Not to mention our American hero Ben Spies has been at the front and winning all but 1 race, plus taking both poles in the first two rounds,

Looking at the times, the top-20 in World Superbike are separated by a mere 1.311 seconds. World Supersport, on the other hand, has a nearly 2-second a gap between first and 10th. How can this be? I’ll tell you how: The talent in Would Superbike is as deep, if not deeper than any time in its three-decade history.

And the best part? Our good ol' American boy Ben Spies is running at the front everywhere they go (2 poles and 3 wins in 4 races!). Throw in the addition of John Hopkins on the very capable Stiggy Motorsports Honda and there’s plenty for the United States to be rooting for. Hopkins may have been 18th in first qualifying, but he’s only 1.093 seconds back. And don’t forget, it’s his first time riding a Superbike – in his life! No doubt the Anglo-American will be up front quickly.

Now if freaking SPEED channel would actually play both races on Sunday! What’s this BS of playing one and having to wait until Tuesday to see the second? I just can’t take it! Either way, World Superbike is the place to be this year and Motorcycle-USA.com will have all the coverage you need, so stay tuned! I sure will be…

Post Tags: world superbike, ben spies, john hopkins

Blog Archive

2009: Jan; Feb; Mar; Apr; May; Jun; Jul; Aug; Sep; Oct; Nov; Dec

2008: Jan; Feb; Mar; Apr; May; Jun; Jul; Aug; Sep; Oct; Nov; Dec

Comments

Fenton - cggunnersmate April 5, 2009 03:45 PM
If you read my post carefully you will understand I was not seeming to offer any alternative reason but simply pointing out a fact, of which, does have an impact on the close lap times and that this fact was not mentioned in Steve’s blog. I am also pretty sure my remarks don’t just support Steve’s opinion but also bring up a topic not discussed in his blog. This is also why I put a short disclosure statement at the end of my post so nobody would interpret my post as an opinion or guess of why lap times are closer being the spec tire rule. I guess you could say the predicate of my post would be: “By the way don’t forget the spec tire rule that has only been around recently and that there may have been grids with talent this deep or more in the past".

cggunnersmate - WSBK April 5, 2009 08:35 AM
Fenton, your remarks only support Steve's opinion even though you seem to be trying to offer an alternative reason for the closeness of the lap times. Because of the spec tire rule no one rider/team has an advantage because they got the "BEST" tire from the manufacturer which has often been the case in MotoGP the last few years. Because of the spec tire, eveyone has the same choice of tires so there's no distinct advantage an it comes down to rider skill, bike set-up and tire management to win races. So with such close lap times it shows you just how good this field of riders are, they are some of the best on the planet. I am with Steve on the whole SPEED fiasco. We only get to watch race 1 today and have to wait til tuesday to watch race 2. I haven't checked to see when it'll be on but I'm sure it'll either be on in the middle of the night or during the workday so I won't be able to watch. I really hate SPEED, I know you can watch the races on the WSBK website though some people in the US have had problems in the past and had to use a proxy server or some thing like that in order to watch. I thin I heard that had been sorted so hopefully we can watch the races on the website.

Superlight - WSBK/AMA April 5, 2009 05:47 AM
Yes, this is a great year for WSBK. Some of that magic needs to rub off on the AMA Superbike series, and soon.

Bikerrandy - World Superbike April 4, 2009 02:19 PM
Whatever the real reason for close qualifying, it still makes for a good show ! Go Spies !! Hopkins has yet to prove his best abilities, IMHO.

Fenton - But also because of... April 4, 2009 10:50 AM
“Looking at the times, the top-20 in World Superbike are separated by a mere 1.311 seconds. World Supersport, on the other hand, has a nearly 2-second a gap between first and 10th. How can this be? I’ll tell you how: The talent in Would Superbike is as deep, if not deeper than any time in its three-decade history”. Steve, I agree mostly about what you wrote but not entirely. The spec tire rule has helped close the gap between riders lap times. The spec tire only came into play in the last several years so this is part of the reason. Full disclosure, I am not saying I like spec tires nor am I saying it is or is not the way to go. I am just saying it is a huge factor that did not exist in most of WSBK's three decade history.

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