Unbeatable at Phillip Island, #7 Carlos Checa will be hard pressed to hold the front-running pace at Donington.
World Superbike returns to its roots for Round 2 of the 2011 SBK Championship. Donington Park hosted the first-ever SBK races almost 23 years ago, and after a one-year absence on the schedule the premier production road racing series is back at the Leicestershire circuit. Althea Ducati’s
Carlos Checa leads the points entering the first of two British stops for WSB in 2011, but the defending champ Max Biaggi is sure to challenge the front-runner in Round 2.
GP Vets Square Off
None could match Checa’s pace during the opening round at Phillip Island. The solo Althea rider mastered the Australian circuit with the
Ducati 1198, claiming the double at a track which historically favors the Twin. Donington may prove a different matter, however, with Checa sure to be challenged by fellow MotoGP veteran turned SBK star Biaggi. The Italian was closest to matching Checa’s pace in Round 2, with a steady pair of second-place finishes. Relentless in his title-winning charge on the Aprilia last season, expect Maxwell to dash toward the front during the first British doubleheader of the season.
Super-Marco Melandri seems to have taken to his new SBK surroundings, looking to improve on his solid 5-3 debut.
Added into the former-GP mix for 2011 is Yamaha’s
Marco Melandri. After a fifth-place result in his Race 1
SBK debut, Supermarco was tussling with Biaggi en route to a third-place podium in Race 2. A 5-3 result in his first effort will have the factory
Yamaha squad hopeful for a potential rider title. Melandri will look to improve on a solid Round 1 result at Donington.
Natives Holding Court
The British Superbike ranks have graduated many a home-grown talent into the SBK class. Amongst them is Leon Haslam, who after a legit title bid with Suzuki in 2010 now fights to keep the BMW up toward the front. As evidenced in our
Phillip Island Insider report, the British rider is aiming for the title this year, not just garnering some "ata boys" for making the Beemer competitive. Round 1 saw Haslam author a 3-5 byline (the inverse of Melandri). Not a bad result, but there’s work to be done and races to be won before the S1000RR can be thought a championship-capable mount.
BMW's Leon Haslam (top) hopes his S1000RR has what it takes to win a race. Meanwhile, Jonathan "My Bike's on Fire" Rea, will try for his first podium of the season after his hard-luck trip down under.
Former BSB champ Leon Camier fell flat at Phillip Island, with a 13-6 result. Not the result expected for the factory Aprilia-backed Camier, but the Englishman gets a pass at PI as he was wrestling with a severe bout of glandular fever – which us stateside folks call mono. Still in recovery from the kissing disease, Camier is one of at least ten riders with realistic podium expectations they must fulfill in a talent-deep paddock.
Jonathan Rea and Eugene Laverty both look for their first podiums of 2011 at Donington. A jump across the Irish Sea, Round 2 is as close to home as the Northern Irishman can find in the SBK series. Rea had a rough go of it to open the season. The tough as nails competitor withstood four high-speed getoffs at the Isle, including one triple-digit MPH bailout when his Castrol
Honda caught fire. Nonetheless Rea managed a fourth-place result in Race 2, after a disappointing run-off in Race 1 resulted in 13th.
As for Laverty, the SBK rookie tallied an impressive debut with a near podium finish in Race 1. The second affair was less glowing, as a pair of run-offs resulted in a 15th-place finish for the
Yamaha rider. Expect both Rea and Laverty to shoot for their first podiums of the year at Donington, as well as correct the lapses that have already spoiled top-10 consistency.
Another rider looking for home field advantage, Yorkshireman Tom Sykes, tallied an encouraging 8-9 result for the Paul Bird Kawasaki team in Round 1. The Kawasaki wasn’t quite within striking distance of a top-5 pace, but it was one of the better ZX-10R results in recent memory. Sykes has plenty of experience at Donington from his BSB days and will look to improve on the Kawasaki’s standing on his home soil.
Toseland Out, Vermuelen In
The Kawasaki Contingent will increase by one when our old pen-pal Chris Vermeulen joins the fight for the first time since Round One of last season!
One English rider glaringly absent from the Donington entry list is two-time WSB champ James Toseland. The BMW Italia rider will be out at least six weeks following wrist surgery. King James fractured the offending limb during a two-day team test at the Motorland Aragorn circuit this past week. While initial reports gave Toseland the green light to compete at his home round, further evaluation revealed more injury damage than expected. Toseland will also miss Round 3 at the Assen TT.
Toseland’s absence is filled by Chris Vermeulen’s return. The hard-luck Aussie is finally back from reconstructive knee surgery for an injury that happened last season at Phillip Island. Seeing Chris the V back in the road racing trenches is good news, though the former GP rider revealed on Twitter that his first shakedowns aboard the ZX-10R at Cadwell Park show there's “still work to do on my knee to be race fit.” Perhaps the former World Supersport champ can get his race-winning mojo back later this season aboard the redesigned ZX-10R. It’s been too long since the talented 28-year-old has found the top step on the rostrum.
Age Before Beauty
At 38 and 39, the top riders in the points prove SBK isn’t just a young man’s game. The 39-year-old Troy Corser is still hanging onto a top-10 pace, too. The factory BMW rider managed 10th in Race 1 at PI before a dismal 19th in Race 2. With Haslam replacing the crash-happy Xaus for 2011, Corser’s position as front-running Beemer appears over. That doesn’t mean the former champ can’t still log a competitive run to shame the youngsters every now and again.
A former champion, Troy Corser's pushing 40 and still riding at a top-10 pace in SBK aboard the BMW S1000RR.
Noriyuki Haga saw his last best opportunity for that elusive WSB crown in 2008 with the factory Ducati squad, 2009 being a forgettable season on the 1198. Now the 36-year-old fights it out on his new PATA Aprilia, which he flogged to a solid, if unspectacular, 9-7 result in Round 1. Nitro Nori will be hard pressed to challenge the Alitalia squad, but the fan favorite will be a sentimental pick for many and is equipped with the 2010 manufacturer’s title-winning machine.
Michel Fabrizio (Alstare Suzuki) and Ruben Xaus (Castrol Honda) also find themselves aboard new rides for 2011. Fabrizio fared better at the opener, the lonely GSX-R pilot delivering a 6-8 result. Xaus missed the points with a 16th in Race 1, returning in Race 2 with a 10th. Both riders look to rebound from 2010 campaigns in which they did not live up to expectation.
Another rider to watch in Round 2, Jakub Smrz snuck out of PI with a 7-11 result. Nowhere near the pace of Checa, the clear Ducati favorite, but Team Effenbert-Liberty rider has already proven a top-10 pace and looks for more at Donington. Smrz will be rejoined by his teammate, Sylvain Guintoli, who crashed out of the first race at Phillip Island and missed the second race.
World Superbike practice will begin Friday, followed by morning qualifying and afternoon’s Superpole on Saturday, with the pair of 23-lap Superbike races on Sunday. The World Superbike races will air on Speed Channel, Race 1 at 3:00 p.m. EST and Race 2 at 4:00 p.m. EST. And don’t forget to make Round 2 picks in Motorcycle USA’s Fantasy Superbike game. Remember there’s two picks for each round, so make ‘em count!
Need to get up to speed on what happened at Phillip Island? Check out the Round 1 recap courtesy of World SBK and YouTube.
