Brno has a variety of meanings to different people. To the Old Czech, the words means muddy, to the Slavs it means to fortify, to men aged 16-55 it means rail thin supermodels, but to motorcycle race fanatics, the city should take on the meaning of unpredictable racing action. You’ll have to continue after the jump to see why Race 1 proves this theory.
Imagine you’re Ben Spies, and you trail in the World Superbike Champion by a handful of points. All that stands in the way of you achieving your victory, is an injured rider who will likely be unable to answer your advances for the next few race venues.
But wait, this is World Superbike, and this is Brno. Ben Spies found out the hard way that anything can happen; such as, Michel Fabrizio barging into you, causing a collective 45 Championship points pile up. Spies is of course no stranger to the adverse racing conditions in WSBK, surviving break downs, fuel mishaps, and even birds to climb his way to within 7 points of Haga. You can imagine that this race will come up later from arm-chair racers if Spies loses the Championship by a margin less than the 17 point spread between 1st and 8th.
Despite still being the Championship leader (for now), Haga was not expecting to pull his lead farther ahead with his 8th place finish, but because of the crash between Fabrizio and Spies, Haga could celebrate Race 1 as if he won it. However the true podium duty went to Max Biaggi on his Aprilia RSV4.
The Emperor had been on fire all week, and it finally paid off for him and the Aprilia team. With Spies and Fabrizio out of the way, Max sailed to a comfortable three second lead over Carlos Checa, who was followed six seconds later by Johnny Rea. Biaggi later complained that his RSV4 was not setup properly, thus holding him back from going faster and/or crashing into Spies himself.
Other honorable mentions go out to Troy Corser and the BMW team for their 5th place finish. Brno has been good to BMW, despite Ruben Xaus’s DNF this Sunday.
Results from Race 1 of World Superbike at Brno, Czech Republic:
| Pos. | Num. | Rider | Country | Bike | Diff |
| 1 | 3 | M. Biaggi | ITA | Aprilia RSV4 Factory | |
| 2 | 7 | C. Checa | ESP | Honda CBR1000RR | 3.631 |
| 3 | 65 | J. Rea | GBR | Honda CBR1000RR | 9.948 |
| 4 | 67 | S. Byrne | GBR | Ducati 1098R | 12.952 |
| 5 | 11 | T. Corser | AUS | BMW S1000 RR | 14.599 |
| 6 | 96 | J. Smrz | CZE | Ducati 1098R | 19.359 |
| 7 | 91 | L. Haslam | GBR | Honda CBR1000RR | 19.680 |
| 8 | 41 | N. Haga | JPN | Ducati 1098R | 20.731 |
| 9 | 14 | M. Lagrive | FRA | Honda CBR1000RR | 21.923 |
| 10 | 100 | M. Tamada | JPN | Kawasaki ZX 10R | 27.807 |
| 11 | 10 | F. Nieto | ESP | Ducati 1098R | 35.263 |
| 12 | 23 | B. Parkes | AUS | Kawasaki ZX 10R | 36.535 |
| 13 | 9 | R. Kiyonari | JPN | Honda CBR1000RR | 38.586 |
| 14 | 71 | Y. Kagayama | JPN | Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 | 40.061 |
| 15 | 77 | V. Iannuzzo | ITA | Honda CBR1000RR | 40.280 |
| 16 | 99 | L. Scassa | ITA | Kawasaki ZX 10R | 40.641 |
| 17 | 25 | D. Salom | ESP | Kawasaki ZX 10R | 1’10.529 |
| 18 | 94 | D. Checa | ESP | Yamaha YZF R1 | 1’14.874 |
| 19 | 88 | R. Resch | AUT | Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 | 1’42.979 |
| 20 | 51 | M. Cihak | CZE | Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 | 1’43.111 |
| RET | 66 | T. Sykes | GBR | Yamaha YZF R1 | 1 Lap |
| RET | 53 | A. Polita | ITA | Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 | 6 Laps |
| RET | 121 | J. Hopkins | USA | Honda CBR1000RR | 10 Laps |
| RET | 56 | S. Nakano | JPN | Aprilia RSV4 Factory | 12 Laps |
| RET | 19 | B. Spies | USA | Yamaha YZF R1 | 16 Laps |
| RET | 84 | M. Fabrizio | ITA | Ducati 1098R | 16 Laps |
| RET | 57 | L. Lanzi | ITA | Ducati 1098R | 18 Laps |
| RET | 111 | R. Xaus | ESP | BMW S1000 RR |
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