The eighth round of the World Superbike Championship takes place this weekend at the Misano World Circuit, located on the sun-drenched Adriatic Coast of Italy. Officially known as the San Marino Round, Misano marks the start of the second half of the 2009 Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship, which has developed into a three-way title race between the Ducati Xerox riders Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio and the rookie Yamaha Factory rider Ben Spies.
Haga and Fabrizio will be looking to continue Ducati’s success at its ‘home’ circuit, where the Italian marque has taken 26 podiums out of 34 races, placing three different riders on the rostrum in ’08 alone. Haga could certainly use some of Ducati’s Misano-winning mojo. Out of his 18 appearances at Misano, Nori has only placed on the podium three times and never won. If Haga lands on the steps twice this weekend it will mark his 100th podium finish of his SBK career. Fabrizio also has a string of DNF races to his name at Misano, but enters the weekend with more confidence after a strong performance two weeks ago in the United States.

Michel was able to take a pair of podiums in the last round at the Miller Motorsports Park; however, Nitro-Nori struggled to keep his usual form following a crash in qualifying. Noriyuki’s eighth and ninth finishes were the Japanese rider’s least successful of the 2009 season, and were made more pronounced by the incredible performance of Ben Spies. The three-time AMA Superbike winner capitalized on his home-turf advantage to score a perfect double win, which narrowed Haga’s seemingly unassailable 88 point Championship advantage to a more open 53-point difference, renewing the possibly of a championship title for the rookie World Superbike rider.

It will be a challenge for Spies to repeat his sweep at Miller as he heads into a circuit that he has never raced. The 24-year-old and his Crew Chief will not have previous racing and set up knowledge at Misano, but thanks to a massive re-design of the Italian circuit in 2007 (which changed the direction to run clockwise and added a succession of right-handers at the end of the main straight) no one else in the paddock will have a significant advantage over the American rookie. With Haga planning to be back in form, Spies always quick to learn a new track, and Fabrizio ready to capitalize on their mistakes . . . nothing short of a splendid battle should ensue.

The Misano round is known to produce upsets because the unusually hot circuit takes a toll on the performance of riders and their machines. Aprilia’s Max Biaggi has consistently landed in the top-five, so if the front-runners don’t perform as expected the Roman is poised to slide the RSV4 onto the podium.

After a difficult start to the season the Honda riders are also getting up to speed. Four different riders have placed on the podium this year for Honda, with Carlos Checa and Jonathan Rea taking second and third in the last round. In his debut season, Hannspree Ten Kate Honda’s Rea has proved to be the most consistent rider among the group, now sitting fourth in the Championship with 133 points and a pair of podiums.

Spies’ teammate Tom Sykes had modest results in the US, but the second race saw big improvements with his bike set up, which he hopes will carry through to the second Italian round of the championship. A strong performance will help to set himself up for his home race at Donington Park the following week.

John Hopkins (Stiggy Racing Honda) will make his return at Misano, having now recovered sufficiently from the broken hip he suffered at Assen in April. He will be up against another American rider, Jamie Hacking, who will once again replace the injured Makato Tamada. Hacking caught the eye of everyone at Miller when he finished seventh in Race 1, the best finish for a Kawasaki rider this season. The AMA Superbike rider will also take part in Round 9 of the World Superbike Championship in England.

With Max Neukirchner still injured Suzuki Alstare will be looking to a recently battered Yukio Kagayama and the struggling Fonsi Nieto to scrap together some points. BMW is facing better prospects after two difficult overseas rounds. 

Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus will be the only returning World Superbike riders to have previously won at Misano, with the veteran Corser having two wins to his name, and Xaus taking a victory in Race 2 last year. The two-week break has given Corser time to recover from a partially dislocated shoulder and the new BMW World Superbike team a chance to analyze data and feedback collected from the S1000RR over the last few rounds.

---

Other World Superbike Misano Pre-Race Rider Quotes

Jonathan Rea – HannspreeTen Kate Honda – 4th, 133 points
“It’ll be really cool to go to Misano – it’s a nice place to be and a good track that I enjoy riding at. I was on the podium there in Supersport last year. I really need to work on improving my qualifying because in the last few races, we seem to have had the pace all weekend but then, for one reason or another, ended up off the front row after Superpole. I’ve not started from the front since Australia but, if you’re not there, it makes the first lap really difficult. The bike development has been going in the right direction for me recently and that really motivates me and the rest of the crew to do the best job we can possibly do. We’ve just passed the halfway stage of the season and it’s important to deliver consistently good results now and, at some point, take it up to the next level. There’s still a gap to the guys ahead of us, but it’s a gap that we’ve managed to reduce slightly and that’s what we’ll keep working on.”

Leon Haslam – Stiggy Racing Honda - 6th, 126 points
“I am looking forward to the Misano event this weekend, for me it is another circuit I have not been to before. It looks like a great track to me, and it will be another challenge to quickly learn the track and get the bike competitive. After returning from the US, I have spent some time in Italy with my engine company Oral. They have made some further improvements to our engines and I am looking forward to testing the hard work on the track this weekend.”

Tom Sykes – Factory Yamaha – 7th, 113 points
"I'm very happy to put the US behind me. There's no denying we had a couple of issues but I think we're past it. We know everything works well on the bike and we have the pace to run at the front. I'm very much looking forward to Misano now, we've got a couple of things we want to try on the bike so let's hope it works and the track suits my riding style. I'm going in to the weekend feeling confident; I know the team can do a good job so if we can crack it we can get up there. I think this weekend will be the turning of the corner and setting me up for Donington and the rest of the season."

Ryuichi Kiyonari – Ten Kate Honda - 8th, 96 points
“It was a little bit frustrating in America because the team worked so hard to give me a bike to put on the front row. We showed that we had the pace to run at the front but the problems that appeared only in the races did not allow us to do that. But I think we have made good progress in the last few weeks and I want to continue that in Misano by returning to the podium. The results there last season were not so good but so far this year, things have been better when I return to a track that was new last year. As always I will try my best for a good result.

Carlos Checa – Hannspree Ten Kate Honda - 9th, 93 points
“I like the circuit at Misano a lot, although we suffered from quite a bit of chatter there last year. It would be good to get back on the podium again, after the first race at Miller two weeks ago. The second race there was not so good but the feature of the circuit where I crashed is not something you find anywhere else. The important thing from the last race is that we had enough pace to fight for podium finishes. The bike felt really good and we want to carry that to Italy and through the second half of the season.”

Ruben Xaus – BMW Motorrad Motorsport - 16th, 40 points
Well, I won a race in Misano last year and of course it would be great to do that again, but this bike is new and we have a lot of work to do to put it on the podium this weekend. That’s not to say, it’s impossible, but the important thing is that we are improving the bike every time we go out on the track and as long as we are doing that, then my feeling is very positive. The bike has a lot of potential and it will not be that long before Troy, I and the team can show it.

Troy Corser – BMW Motorrad Motorsport  - 17th, 40 points
It’s good I found out that there was a problem with my shoulder because I had the feeling something was wrong – especially as I couldn’t lift my right arm above my shoulder! I’m not sure if it was fully dislocated or what, but I do know that it wasn’t in the right place. When the doc started manipulating it, he told me that putting it back in the right place might be a painful, and he was right! But after that, we started working on massages and physio and it began to get better. It’s been good for the team to get the bikes back to the workshops and look at all the info from South Africa and USA. I am sure they will have some ideas about which direction we should take at Misano and I think we will start improving again and the results will follow.

Broc Parkes – Kawasaki World Superbike - 18th, 25 points
“I’m feeling much fitter in myself after a few weeks’ break so I’m really looking forward to the Misano race. We left Miller feeling positive despite the results not really reflecting our bike development - just due to some bad luck - but we know that the bike is getting better and better, and our qualifying and race pace times are up there. I think the whole team is looking forward to some solid point scoring finishes and hopefully we can break back in to the top ten.”

Jamie Hacking – Kawasaki World Superbike  - 20th, 9 points
“I’m delighted that the team has asked to me to fill for Makoto at both the Misano and Donington races. I’m really looking forward to racing the bike again and working with the Kawasaki WSB team. I was hoping we could finish top ten in both races at Miller but events in race two didn’t go our way, so I’m really looking forward to pushing myself to my full potential on the bike in Misano. I don’t know the track but I’m confident that we can have some really decent results over the next few races.”

John Hopkins - Stiggy Racing Honda -  20th, 9 points
“Misano is a track I do like a lot. I had some decent results there in the past, and got on the podium in the 2007 MotoGP race. It is a circuit I enjoy well, and the audience is always great. People really take a liking towards the World Superbike series, and I expect the atmosphere to be similar to the one we received at the MotoGP races. It is going to be an exciting race and hopefully I can be out there from the start. Right now, I am not going to make any promises of running at the front of the field. I am just taking it step-by-step and focus on getting a good feeling with the bike again and set the best possible results for the team and myself.”

Matthieu Lagrive – Althea Honda - Replacement rider for Brendon Roberts
“This will be my first race with the Honda Althea Superbike team. I never raced in World Superbike before and so I will have to familiarize with my new CBR1000RR starting from Friday’s free practices. I have already raced with an Endurance spec Fireblade, but I know this will be a completely different bike. I know the team’s technical staff and I’m sure they’ll help me adapt quickly to the new machine.”