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2013 WSBK Private Phillip Island Test Day 1 Times: Laverty Leads as New Surface Causes Crashfest

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While the Moto2 and Moto3 riders finish up their test at Valencia, on the other side of the world, the World Superbike and World Supersport riders are beginning the final run in to the season opener in 10 days’ time.

They started today with the first of two days of private testing, the first chance the riders get to see the resurfaced Phillip Island track. The overall reaction to the new surface was very positive, though the lack of rubber on the track caused a spot of mayhem in the morning, with several riders crashing out.

Fastest man of the day was Eugene Laverty on the factory Aprilia, the Irishman circulating at lap record pace, but still a second off the pole record. Leon Camier put the Fixi Suzuki into 2nd spot, ahead of the Pata Hondas of Johnny Rea and Leon Haslam, while Marco Melandri ended the day in 5th. Carlos Checa did not ride, as the 2011 World Champion was suffering with a stomach bug.

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News

SPEED Still without TV Contracts for WSBK & MotoGP??!

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With the World Superbike season-opener now less than two weeks away, bad news looms for motorcycle race fans in the United States, as the SPEED Channel (now a part of FOX Sports), does not have a television contract to air WSBK and MotoGP for their 2013 seasons.

An issue that has been hanging in limbo since the start of the year, Superbike Planet yesterday suggested that American motorcycle racing fans could be without the World Superbike Championship on their televisions sets this year (we have heard similar murmurings regarding AMA Pro Racing as well).

Now today, Roadracing World confirmed with SPEED that the network still does not have any contracts with Dorna for the TV rights to WSBK and MotoGP. What’s worse, SPEED’s Vice President of Media Relations Erik Arneson gave no indication that the TV channel was any closer to finishing a deal with Dorna than it was earlier this year.

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Racing

Videos: Alstare Says Goodbye to Suzuki and Hello to Ducati

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Ending a 14 year relationship, the 2013 World Superbike Championship season sees Team Alstare under the flag of a new manufacturer, as the Belgian squad closes its story with Suzuki Racing, and begin a new one with Ducati Corse. An adjustment for many in the paddock, the name Alstare has always been synonymous with Suzuki, though the team’s absence this last season was a noticeable one, as Team Alstare has always been one of the top crews in WSBK.

In that regard, it seems fitting then that Alstare should find a partnership with another great name in World Superbike racing, and so while the name Team Ducati Alstare sounds a bit strange to the ear, it makes sense in the head. Bidding goodbye to Suzuki, and hello to Ducati, Team Alstare has put together two videos, which have more than a touch of bittersweet to them. Clearly, this is a wound that will still require some time to heal.

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Racing

2013 Aprilia RSV4 Factory WSBK Race Bike Debuts

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Fresh from Italy, we get our first glimpse of the 2013 Aprilia RSV4 Factory WSBK race bike in its new livery. While the uniforms may look the same, the men wearing them have changed to some extent, and in many ways so has the Italian brand’s racing strategy.

Building its previous team around Max Biaggi, the previous incarnation of Aprilia Racing catered to every whim of The Roman Emperor — read into that as you will. But now with Biaggi’s retirement from motorcycle racing, Aprilia is forced to replace tried-and-true talent with two up-and-coming stars.

Out from behind Max’s shadow, Eugene Laverty is expected to impress this year, having shown himself a formidable rider on the RSV4 Factory last season with his sixth-place Championship finish. Seventh in the Championship himself, Sylvain Guintoli will join the Irishmen, after coming off a tumultuous season with Liberty Racing. With three race wins and six podiums, Guintoli made a definite impression, especially when he was on the slower Ducati.

With both of Aprilia Racing’s WSBK riders starting to come into their own, the Italian brand is showing a lot of growth potential in the premier production-motorcycle racing series. Time will tell on the results, but we expect a bevy of podiums from the Aprilia riders this year, and maybe a win or two. Mas photos after the jump.

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Bikes

Photos: Ducati Alstare Unveils The WSBK Hotness

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Ducati is back in the World Superbike Championship, and today the Ducati Alstare team debuted its Ducati 1199 Panigale R race bike that Carlos Checa and Ayrton Badovini will campaign with this season. Heavily supported by Ducati Corse, it comes as no surprise then that the team’s livery is in the customary Rosso Corsa, and comes with some very familiar names on its side.

Energy Trading International (ENERGY T.I.) is a name you will see on Andrea Iannone’s Pramac Ducati, while communications company TIM has been a feature on the factory MotoGP bike for a number of seasons. Battery maker FIAMM has also been in the MotoGP paddock with Ducati, while energy drink FICC is the only new-comer to the world of two-wheeled motorsport on the team.

Despite all the cross-pollination, Ducati Alstare is true to form with a stunning machine for 2013. Enjoy some hi-res photos after the jump.

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Racing

BMW Motorrad is Ready for the WSBK Season

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If I had to forecast the results of the 2013 World Superbike Championship this very day, without seeing the teams grid up for their first race at Phillip Island, my money would be on the BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team. The consolidation of the factory BMW Motorrad team and BMW Motorrad Italia team into one unit, the German brand has compiled all its racing resources into one stout package.

Retaining the formidable services of Marco Melandri, who was in the hunt for the 2012 WSBK title to the very end of the season despite injuries, BMW Motorrad’s number-two rider, Chaz Davies, is no slouch either. With both BMW-men showing the prowess of the WSBK-spec S1000RR earlier this year at Jerez, it was Melandri who topped the time sheets on the test’s dry second day. Sending a clear message of things to come this season.

While I still expect to see strong competition from Tom Sykes and the factory Kawasaki team, and I also don’t think you can count out the Aprilia riders or even Ducati’s Carlos Checa, there is however a tremendous amount of expectation, preparation, and money behind BMW’s World Superbike entry. This year I think we will finally see the team’s hard work payoff in the championship points.

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Racing

XXX: BMW Motorrad GoldBet WSBK-Spec S1000RR

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Lately, there has been a lot of talk about the upcoming changes that will “dumb down” World Superbike racing. With Dorna pushing an agenda that brings the premier production-bike class into something that races bikes that are actually similar to the bikes on the showroom floor, there is a vocal portion of fans and enthusiasts that will hate to see the current spec of machinery go away.

While we may think that making World Superbike more affordable and closer in specification to the current Superstock rules is a positive step for the series, we will certainly miss the bike porn that comes from all the fine WSBK machines.

A motorcycle dripping in sex, one can spend hours drooling over photos like these of the factory BMW S1000RR in WSBK-spec. So a hat-tip to the BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK team, for providing this week’s bathroom reading. There are a couple photos of Marco and Chaz in there as well, for the ladies.

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Racing

2013 Fixi Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 Debuts with Less Engine-Building Support from Yoshimura

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We must be getting close to the 2013 World Superbike season-opener at Phillip Island, because a bevy of teams are debuting their 2013 bikes and riders for the media this week. Returning for the 2013 season, Paul Denning’s Fixi Crescent Suzuki team is ready to race its venerable stead against the other factory teams. For Fixi Crescent though, the battle will be tough-fought, with little support coming in from Suzuki Motor Co., and also with the news that Yoshimura will not be building the team’s GSX-R1000 race engines.

Instead, riders Leon Camier and Jules Cluzel will ride machines whose engines have been built in-house by the Crescent Racing crew, while Yoshimura continues its R&D with the GSX-R1000 and does long-term development for the team. Taking a private test at Phillip Island February 14-15th, and then having the official WSBK test at the same venue later that week on February 18th and 19th, Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s mettle will finally be tested with World Superbike’s first race on Sunday, February 24th.

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Racing

2013 Provisional WSBK Entry List Shows Only 19 Riders

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As feared, the World Superbike grid seems likely to shrink for the 2013 Championship season, with only 19 riders listed on the provisional list by the FIM. Down from the 23 bikes on the grid at Phillip Island in 2012, the euro-centric series is still dealing with the economic downturn in Europe, which continues to linger in the important markets of Spain and Italy.

However though, it is of note that the difference in machines can be attributed to the absence of the Liberty Racing Team, which ran four riders in the early part of the 2012, before falling to pieces by the conclusion of the season. Only one former Liberty Racing rider returns to WSBK for 2013: Sylvain Guintoli, who will race on the factory Aprilia Racing team, with Maxime Berger, Jakub Smrz, and Brett McCormick unable to secure rides in WSBK for the coming season.

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Opinion/Editorial

January 2013: The MotoGP & WSBK Story, So Far

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With the first full test for the World Superbike class behind us, and the first test of the MotoGP grid about to get underway at Sepang at the end of this week, it is time to take a look at motorcycle racing’s pre-season, and evaluate where we stand so far. Just what is the state of play for both MotoGP and World Superbike in 2013?

The question is even more pertinent now that both series have been taken under the wing of Dorna, much to the consternation of World Superbike fans and, to some extent, the WSBK paddock as well. It was feared that Dorna would either kill off World Superbike entirely to strengthen the position of MotoGP, or impose such stringent technical regulations on the series as to dumb it down to Superstock spec.

Fortunately, neither of those options looks likely. World Superbikes will continue as a separate series, Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta was keen to explain when quizzed about the takeover at Ducati’s Wrooom launch event early in January. The aim is to build a strong WSBK series to stand alongside MotoGP, preserving the unique identity of the two series – WSBK as a place to race production bikes, MotoGP as the series for racing prototypes.

But exactly how should the phrase “production bikes” be interpreted? As a hotted up version of the road-going model, as is the intention of Superstock, or as a genuine racing machine built using the production bike as a basis, which is much closer to what some regard as the ethos of WSBK? The answer, it appears, will lie somewhere in the middle, and the factories will have a major say in how this all turns out.

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Racing

Video: A Whole New Meaning to Passing on the Inside

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Helping promote World Superbike’s stop at Britain’s Silverstone circuit, stunt driver Paul Swift has climbed behind the wheel of an Alfa Romeo Mito (the pace car of WSBK), and collaborated with Chris Walker, of Kawasaki Ninja British Superbike fame, and created a little promotional clip. What starts out seemingly as a trite marketing video, rapidly turns into something pretty spectacular, and we wouldn’t recommend trying it at home (or elsewhere).

What we would recommend is for other racing venues to take note of what is going on with the Silverstone circuit and the marketing that surrounds it. Cleverly promoting World Superbike with this event, along with the body-painting of Leon Haslam, Silverstone also distinguishes itself by playing host to Riders for Health’s Day of Champions fundraising event, and has been featured on Google Streetview with a very unique entry. It pays to be media friendly.

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