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UPDATE: Jonathan Rea to Race at Phillip Island

By Victoria Reid 02/23/2011 2 Comments

Jonathan Rea has been cleared to race by doctors at Alfred Hospital in Melbourne after a test crash on Tuesday left his race weekend in question. Rea crashed at Turn 3 on the Phillip Island circuit after his Honda caught fire. Though he said he felt “a bit like a FMXer that just f**ked up a record attempt at the longest distance double backflip. Pretty much look like that guy too!” Rea’s doctors have discharged him with clearance to race. “He’s on his way back to Phillip Island with an all-clear from the hospital docs,” Castrol Honda announced, adding a picture of Rea eating dinner for good measure.

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Jonathan Rea Might Miss Phillip Island WSBK Race

By Victoria Reid 02/22/2011 No Comments

Jonathan Rea could miss the season opening World Superbike race at Phillip Island this weekend after crashing there during testing Tuesday. Rea went off at Turn 3 when his Castrol Honda caught fire from an oil leak. Though Rea has not sustained major injuries, he has broken and dislocated the ring finger on his left hand, and was flown to Alfred Hospital in Melbourne for tests. When combined with the general soreness from getting off the bike at 130 mph and the lingering issues from his fall last week at the Honda private test at Phillip Island, Rea is questionable for the race this weekend.

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Carlos Checa Dominates at Phillip Island Test

By Victoria Reid 02/21/2011 No Comments

Carlos Checa was fastest overall, with a lap time of 1:30.578, as the final World Superbike winter test ended Tuesday at Phillip Island. That time was also nearly a half second faster than the existing lap record set by Regis Laconi in 2009, and almost 1.3 sec faster than Troy Corser’s race lap record from 2007. In addition to Checa, Sylvain Guintoli, Jonathan Rea, Jakub Smrz, and Joan Lascorz completed the fastest five. Rea’s time from Tuesday morning kept him third fastest despite a crash at Turn 3 in the afternoon that resulted in an injured hand. No word is available yet on the specifics of his injury.

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Photo of the Week: Five Star Rating

By Scott Jones 02/21/2011 7 Comments

2010 World Superbike Champion Max Biaggi will be adding a fifth star to his leathers in 2011, the existing four representing his previous world titles. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, four of his five titles have been on Aprilia machines, the first four being consecutive 250cc GP Championships between 1994 and 1997.

Max has re-signed with Aprilia for another two years and will begin his title defense next weekend when the WSBK season kicks off at Philip Island. The above photo is from the Miller Motorsports Park round in 2010, where Max won twice after Carlos Checa’s Ducati quit while in comfortable leads in both races.

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WSBK: Checa Fastest at First Day of Phillip Island Testing

By Victoria Reid 02/20/2011 1 Comment

Carlos Checa was fastest overall during World Superbike testing Monday at Phillip Island, nearly a second faster than anyone else during the dry running in the afternoon. Monday was a quick day for Ducatis, as Sylvain Guintoli led the morning session and was second fastest overall, while Jakub Smrz was third fastest of the day. Reigning champion Max Biaggi was fourth fastest, with Michel Fabrizio fifth overall. Notably absent was Christopher Vermeulen who will not ride during the test or his home race this weekend, and has been replaced by Akira Yanagawa at the factory Kawasaki team.

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Chris Vermeulen to Miss Phillip Island Testing & Race

By Victoria Reid 02/20/2011 1 Comment

After failing to pass a fitness test, Chris Vermeulen’s knee injury continues to hobble his racing, as the Australian will miss both the test and opening round of the World Superbike Championship series this week/weekend at Phillip Island. Vermeulen coincidentally injured his knee last year while racing at PI, missing most of the 2010 season as a result. The Australian’s recovery has taken longer than expected, with just recently his injury forcing him to return home after just one day’s worth of riding with his Paul Bird Kawasaki teammates Joan Lascorz and Tom Sykes at Sepang.

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Yamaha Releases 2011 World Superbike Livery – Forgets to Add Sponsors’ Logos

By Victoria Reid 02/16/2011 4 Comments

Releasing its 2011 World Superbike livery today, Yamaha had to unveil its YZF-R1 with a profusion of the color blue, and total lack of a title sponsorship. Not renewing its contract after the 2010 season, Italian milk producer Sterilgarda is notably absent from the team livery. It might have been assumed that Sterilgarda would stay on to sponsor Italian rider Marco Melandri, but the once promising MotoGP rider obviously did not have the drawing power for the Italian brand.

This lack of corporate sponsorship is a worrying trend for the Japanese motorcycle manufacturer, as Yamaha has yet to announce a sponsor for its MotoGP team, after Fiat exited with its bags of money when Valentino Rossi left Yamaha for Ducati Corse (there’s considerable talk that when Yamaha debuts its MotoGP livery in Sepang later this month, it’ll be with corporate colors as well).

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Ruben Xaus to Start 200th WSBK Race at Phillip Island

By Victoria Reid 02/14/2011 9 Comments

Ruben Xaus will start his 200th World Superbike race at Phillip Island, making him the third rider in this season’s field to start such a large number of races. He will join the ranks of Carl Fogarty, Noriyuki Haga, Troy Corser, Aaron Slight, and Frankie Chili in numbers of starts by racing at the season opener later this month. Xaus began his WSBK career with two wildcard entries in 1998, after a rookie Supersport season in 1997.

He returned to World Supersport for 1999 and 2000, but began his full-time career as a World Superbike rider in 2001. He left WSBK for the 2004 and 2005 seasons to go racing in MotoGP, with a career high of third at Qatar in 2004 on a satellite Ducati. Xaus was named MotoGP Rookie of the Year for 2004 and moved to a satellite Yamaha for 2005, where he did not have the same luck.

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Castrol Honda Talks about Being Castrol Honda

By Jensen Beeler 02/11/2011 9 Comments

The name “Castrol Honda” in motorcycle racing is something that spans several decades, and for this writer conjures up the days when v-twins ruled World Superbikes. The battle in 2002 between Colin Edwards and Troy Bayliss is a season talked about when referencing “the glory years of World Superbike”, and I can still remember watching The Showdown at Imola, the final race of 2002 season, when Colin Edwards clinched the World Championship (did you just get goose bumps too?)…in fact it’s that race that got me hooked on motorcycles in the first place.

Taking that legacy into 2011, the newly reformed Castrol Honda team, campainged by Ten Kate Racing with factory Honda support, has quite a legacy to live up to…and the team knows it. Talking about what it means to wear the green, white, and red livery, Castrol Honda team members talk about the name’s past, and what they plan to accomplish this season while wearing the oil company’s banner. Check out their video after the jump.

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Corser Sits Out Testing After Crash at Phillip Island

By Victoria Reid 02/04/2011 1 Comment

Troy Corser was forced to sit out the second day of testing for BMW Motorrad at Phillip Island after a crash Wednesday left him heavily bruised. The team was testing at Phillip Island after skipping the official World Superbike test at Portimao in favor of warmer climes, first at Eastern Creek and now at Phillip Island in Australia. Though the team said the test was satisfactory, any crash major enough to force a rider to sit out a day of testing can be worrisome. He is apparently fine, but had “painful bruises” that kept him from riding effectively.

That crash left Leon Haslam to do the bulk of testing for his new team. “We were still focusing on electronics and worked on a setup for this race track,” Haslam explained. “This was important as in three weeks time we are going to have our first races of the season here. We have already found a good base to work on. I am happy; we made some good progress. My lap times were quite good for these hot conditions. Of course we still have some work to do before the season starts but I am happy with the progress we made so far. The bike improved a lot in the last month.”

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Talmacsi Saga Ends as Pedercini Signs Mark Aitchison

By Victoria Reid 02/03/2011 1 Comment

Team Pedercini announced today that Australian Mark Aitchison would partner Roberto Rolfo for the 2011 season, in what may finally be an end to the drama regarding their second rider. It was thought that former MotoGP/Moto2 rider Gabor Talmacsi would contest the 2011 World Superbike championship on a Pedercini Kawasaki, a move reinforced by Talmasci testing with the team at Sepang.

However then came the news that after Sepang he was still thinking about the team’s offer, then that Bryan Staring would be entered as a wild card for the team at the season-opener at Phillip Island. That decision presumably came because Talmacsi was either still considering, or had rejected, the offer from Pedercini. Now, it seems Aitchison is in, Staring is out, and Talmacsi has nowhere to go.

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