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Ducati’s 2017 World Superbike Team Debuts

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Race teams continue to debut their 2017 liveries and riders, and this time around we feature the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike squad that will race in the World Superbike Championship.

Chaz Davies of course returns to the team, and this season he will be joined by Marco Melandri. The duo will be an interesting pair to watch this season, with Davies holding onto his impressive form from the last-half of the 2016 season, and Melandri making his return to motorcycle racing, after sitting out last season.

With 2017 to be the penultimate season for the Ducati Panigale R in the World Superbike Championship, the v-twin superbike has shown itself to be an extremely mature machine on the race track.

Couple that to some of the rule changes that have affected the inline-four machines the most, and this season could be Ducati’s for the taking, having both the riders and the machine to tackle Kawasaki’s dominance.

As such, 2017 should make for an extremely interesting season, and all eyes will be on Phillip Island to see if Ducati can draw first blood in the championship standings. These photos are redonkulously large, by the way.

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WSBK

MV Agusta Faces Rule Changes Challenges in WorldSBK

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Having missed the Jerez test, the MV Agusta squad had plenty of work to do in Portimão. Their sole rider, Leon Camier, had a tremendous 2016 campaign, but in the face of regulation changes, he faces the daunting task of trying to make the F4 into competitive package once again.

The Englishman had seven Top 5 finishes last year, and 15 Top 10s, and helped to change the perception of the Italian squad. Previously, MV Agusta had been consistent under-performers and tail-enders in WorldSBK, but their form last year gave plenty of hope of revived fortunes.

The ban of split throttle bodies, which allowed the cylinders to be opened independently when accelerating, hit the team hard in their initial tests and it appears that over the last two months little progress has been made on the issue.

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Rumors

WSBK: Jerez Will Be Added to 2017 WorldSBK Calendar

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The 2017 World Superbike calendar is close to being finalized. When it was announced at the combined WorldSBK/MotoGP test in November of last year, the calendar featured thirteen rounds of racing, only twelve of which had been confirmed.

The missing round, many present at the test felt, was a Jerez-shaped hole waiting to be filled. Now, we have learned, the penultimate round of World Superbikes will indeed take place at Jerez.

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WSBK

Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team Debuts

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In an airplane hangar in Austria, Honda’s World Superbike team unveiled its wings…that is to say, the Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team debuted in the energy drink’s Hangar-7 facility in Salzburg today.

As the name implies, Red Bull will be the title sponsor for Nicky Hayden’s and Stefan Bradl’s World Superbike title bid this year, on the updated 2017 Honda CBR1000RR SP2.

This is the first time that Red Bull has been a title sponsor in the WorldSBK paddock, though the energy drink company’s livery can be seen on variety of bodywork throughout motorsport.

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WSBK

Ducati Corse Looking to Make Big Gains in WorldSBK

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Far from sitting on its laurels after winning seven of the last eight World Superbike races of 2016, Ducati came out of the blocks swinging at Jerez with a busy testing program. As such, Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri had a host of upgraded parts in the Spanish sun.

Davies spent the majority of his time working on chassis development with Melandri focussing on the engine. Afterwards, the Welshman gave a revealing insight into the makeup of the mindset of one of the world’s top racers when at one of these pre-season tests.

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MotoGP

SCRAMP Will Continue to Manage Laguna Seca

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The battle for who would manage Laguna Seca going forward has finally been put to rest, for at least the next three years, as the Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula, better known as SCRAMP, has signed a three-year agreement with Monterey County to manage the historic Californian race track.

To get to this point has been a tumultuous process, with SCRAMP’s now 60-year role at Laguna Seca challenged by NASCAR’s International Speedway Corporation (ISC), and other local groups like the Friends of Laguna Seca.

Ultimately though, SCRAMP’s bid for the management agreement with Monterey County won out, and the non-profit organization will continue to operate the venue, which plays host to the World Superbike Championship’s only stop on US soil, among other racing events and activities.

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WSBK

WSBK: Plenty of Work Ahead for Hayden and Honda

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They say you should never underestimate the fight in a dirt-tracker, but after Portimao the dirt-tracker isn’t underestimating the fight ahead of him. After four days on the new Honda Fireblade, Nicky Hayden cast a downbeat figure at times, but the American is digging deep.

Armed with his renowned work ethic, the Ten Kate rider will be leaving no stone unturned in finding a solution, but after a troubled opening test, it went from bad to worse for the Dutch team.

“The first day was not a good day for us,” admitted Hayden. “I really don’t know how to sugar coat it any better. We’re really struggling with edge grip, the bike pumping, and not being stable on the exit of the corners. We never found a direction to go in and nothing really helped the problem.”

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WSBK

Eugene Laverty Talks About Aprilia’s New Factory Effort

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It’s been a turbulent 12 months for Shaun Muir Racing. Their much touted move to World Superbike in 2016, as reigning British Superbike champions, proved to be an exceptionally trying campaign that ended with infighting between the team and its lead rider, Josh Brookes.

Armed with the BMW S1000RR, expectations were high for the British squad, but ultimately they struggled to find a consistent balance during the season, and their relations with the German manufacturer petered out.

For many teams that would have brought dark clouds, but instead SMR may have hit the jackpot. The team launched their 2017 project this week at Jerez, and while beautiful sunshine flooded the Jerez circuit, the team lifted their garage doors to a genuine belief that they can win races.

Their partnership with Aprilia began at the November tests last year, but it was this week that the real fruits of that relationship came to bear.

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WSBK

2017 January WorldSBK Test, Day 2: Rea Still Leads

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The second and final day of testing at Jerez is complete for the World Superbike series, and though the names at the top are familiar, the order is a little less clear cut than it was yesterday.

Jonathan Rea is still fastest, the reigning world champion a tenth quicker than anyone else on track, and one of only two riders to drop into the 1’39s.

But behind the Kawasaki rider is not his teammate Tom Sykes, but Milwaukee Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori. The Italian posted an impressive time in the afternoon, jumping to finish between the two Kawasakis.

Tom Sykes ended the day in third, four tenths behind teammate Rea. Both Kawasaki men fell during the day, not the only riders to crash, as Althea BMW riders Jordi Torres (WSBK) and Marco Faccani (STK1000) also fell, the two BMW men injuring their shoulders in the fall. 

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WSBK

2017 January WorldSBK Test, Day 1: Rea on Top

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The 2017 season is now officially underway, as bikes roll back out for testing. First up are the denizens of the World Superbike series, with most of the major teams getting underway at a sunny, but not especially warm, Jerez de la Frontera circuit.

A good selection of teams are present, including the Kawaski, Honda, Yamaha, Ducati factory teams, the Milwaukee Aprilia squad – now resplendent in their official 2017 colors – the Althea BSB team, and Puccetti Kawasaki.

The WorldSBK riders are joined by the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team from BSB, as well as a selection of World Supersport and Superstock 1000 riders.

Reigning champion Jonathan Rea topped the timesheets, starting the new season where he left off the previous one. Rea was a quarter of a second faster than his Kawasaki teammate Tom Sykes, and six tenths quicker than Chaz Davies on the Aruba.it Ducati. 

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