2010 wsbk silly season

[Dave]

hrmmm

toseland


haslam


rea


sykes


camier


guintoli


checa


Back from the dead! welcome back Laconi!

[Dave]

are my eyes screwy or is that a different can from the leo PB kawi used last year? def looking forward to what they can do with decent riders and factory backing.

Camier remarks on his new ride:

Picture by: Paul Sturman
Newly-crowned British Superbike Champion Leon Camier has said he can't wait to figure the Aprilia World Superbike out and start to put in some consiently fast lap times.

Camier says that the RSV4 couldn't be anymore different than his BSB-winning Airwaves Yamaha but he is slowly getting used to it and was able to test some of Ohlins best forks at Portimao today.

"The Aprilia is so different to my Yamaha, you wouldn't believe and I can't wait to finally figure it out. We have tested some of the trick Ohlins forks today and I immediately went half a second quicker," said the Kent youngster, speaking to bikesportnews.com this evening.

"We managed some race-distance runs today and were into the 1'44s the whole way, with a couple of good laps in the 1'43s too so I am pretty happy with the way it is going. Hopefully, I can take the times down tomorrow."

1 Jonathan Rea (Ten Kate Honda) 1'42.156
2 Michel Fabrizio (Xerox Ducati) 1'42.362
3 Calvin Crutchlow (Sterilgarda Yamaha) 1'42.795
4 Noriyuki Haga (Xerox Ducati) 1'43.098
5 James Toseland (Sterilgarda Yamaha) 1'43.79
6 Max Neukirchner (Ten Kate Honda) 1'43.810
7 Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki) 1'43.902
8 Carlos Checa (Althea Ducati) 1'43.951
9 J Fores (Ducati) 1'44.413

[Dave]

Crutchlow and Toseland complete their first day of testing on the Yamaha R1

Yamaha Press Release

2010 Yamaha World Superbike riders James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow wasted no time today, getting straight down to business with their first ride on the championship winning R1. Both riders were working with their new teams for the first time, but gelled quickly and had got down to under the race pace of Sunday’s championship final before the end of the first sessions.

Today’s session was the first step in adapting the bikes to their new riders, both Toseland and Crutchlow will start again tomorrow morning to make further changes and close in on the perfect set up for their 2010 race season. Despite a high speed high side in the morning session, Cal Crutchlow showed no signs of slowing down and continued to make significant time improvements over the afternoon’s practice time. New team mate and fellow British rider James Toseland also showed solid improvement over the day, despite being new to the bike and track he quickly got down to business and continued to shave time off his laps over the course of the sessions.

Having achieved an incredible victory on Sunday and lifted the World Superbike title for the first time, the Yamaha team were straight to business today, working hard to develop championship winning riders for the next season.

Cal Crutchlow during Yamaha WSB testingCal Crutchlow, Yamaha World Superbike Team (1'42.7): “It was a good enough day apart from a stupid crash this morning after about 30 laps, there seemed to be something wrong with my rear tyre which caused me to high side. I hit my head and have had a few headaches today but ok apart from that. The testing has gone well, we’ve done quite reasonable times, all credit to the guys who’ve worked really hard. We haven’t changed much on the bike today, just tried to make it my bike a bit, tomorrow we’ll do some more and see how we go.”

James Toseland at Yamaha WSBJames Toseland, Yamaha World Superbike Team(1'43.7): “I’m feeling really positive, it’s obviously my first time on the bike, it felt a bit alien after two years on a GP bike but the balance of the bike felt good and I’m really impressed with how the team’s working, I’ve got an old friend of mine as a chief engineer. I’ve been really impressed to work with him today and Silvano Galbusera (Yamaha World Superbike Team Technical Co-ordinator) looking over him with his experience has been great. What’s been nice is the changes we’ve been making have always been in a positive direction, so to say we’ve got down to more or less race pace on a brand new track and a brand new bike is good, I’m pretty pleased with it.”

Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team: “Cal’s first day went pretty well, it was easier for him compared to James as he already knew the track, but it was still a really good first test session for him. For James everything was new today, the bike, the track, tyres, many things! I think tomorrow he will make another step. For the first day we are very satisfied with both riders.”

[Dave]

tardozzi out!


Reports from Italy suggest that Davide Tardozzi is about to leave his current position as Team Boss of the Ducati Corse WSB squad after almost 20 years of partnership with the Bologna factory.


Tardozzi is a legend in the WSB community, having been team manager to 1996 World Champion Troy Corser in his pre-factory times, and then the guiding force behind further Ducati victories for Carl Fogarty, Troy Bayliss, Neil Hodgson and James Toseland. In total Tardozzi has won ten Riders' Championships as a Ducati team manager. Having almost won the first ever WSB Championship for Bimota, Tardozzi was a seven times Italian Superbike Champion as a rider, and four times a winner in WSB races.


An official announcement of Tardozzi's resignation is expected on Monday 9 November, if not sooner.

[Dave]

updated listing for shakey since he finally found a ride next to checa at althea

[Dave]

interesting stuff, hope arises once again for an aprilia sattellite team and perhaps another run at motogp.

Aprilia To Abandon Moto2 Plans For A Return To MotoGP?
Submitted by David Emmett on Fri, 2009-11-20 16:11.
in ApriliaMoto2MotoGP
The news that 1000cc production-based engines will be allowed to race in MotoGP alongside the prototypes appears to be having some unexpected consequences. After at first announcing their intention to offer cut-price Aprilia RSA 250s to run in Moto2, and then dropping that idea to concentrate on building a chassis for the Moto2 class to wrap around the spec Honda engine due to be used, the Spanish website Motoworld.es is reporting that Aprilia may decide to switch tack altogether.

According to the reports, Aprilia will instead start work on plans to enter the MotoGP series, dropping their support for the Moto2 class altogether. Five teams had already been lined up to use Aprilia's Moto2 chassis, but hints that the project had been shelved appeared when news broke that Julian Simon and Mike di Meglio of the Aspar team are testing the BQR chassis at Valencia today. Aspar has very close links to the Aprilia factory, and so their choice to test a different chassis could be interpreted as a sign that they have already been informed that Aprilia's plans have changed, and there will not be an Aprilia chassis.

Aprilia will reportedly redeploy the resources that would have gone into their Moto2 program, and set up a second World Superbike team, to continue the development of their RSV4 machine. That team could feature the currently unemployed Alex de Angelis, according to the senior American journalist Dennis Noyes. De Angelis is known to be carrying a sizeable chunk of sponsorship from the Republic of San Marino, and though that sponsorship may not have been enough to get him into MotoGP, it could well be enough to fund a competitive World Superbike effort.

The intention of Aprilia to enter MotoGP raises and interesting dilemma, and could pose a real legal problem for the new regulations. For Aprilia to enter MotoGP as a factory, they would have to put together a completely new prototype, which uses none of the parts from their current Aprilia RSV4 Superbike. Their other option would be to build a chassis and engine kit to sell to privateer teams, but this could land the MotoGP series in trouble. If the chassis bears more than a passing resemblance to the one used on the RSV4, Infront Motor Sports, the commercial rights holder for World Superbikes, would be almost certain to mount a sustained legal effort to get the bike - and possible the MotoGP regulations - banned. Given that the current RSV4 is probably the closest thing on the market to a MotoGP bike that the general public can buy, it is hard to see a potential Aprilia 1000cc production-based MotoGP bike being a whole heap different.

The news - if true, of course - does highlight that the switch to 1000cc is a move in the direction that Dorna and the FIM were hoping for. The organizers have presented the switch back to 1000cc as a way of getting more MotoGP bikes on the grid, and if there's already interest from Aprilia just a couple of weeks after the news started to surface, that's a sure sign that the grids in 2012 will be a good deal fuller than they are now.

[Dave]

bunch of good stuff today.

unofficial times from the testing in valencia:

1. M.Biaggi (Aprilia Racing) 1.33.8; 2. L.Haslam (Suzuki Alstare) 1.34.0 3. C.Crutchlow (Sterilgarda Yamaha) 1.34.1; 4. J.Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) 1.34.2; 5. J.Toseland (Sterilgarda Yamaha) 1.34.3; 6. M.Neukirchner (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) 1.34.7; 7. S.Guintoli (Suzuki Alstare) 1.35.0; 8. L.Camier (Aprilia Racing) 1.35.2.

and bmw will be fielding a privateer effort with rider Roland Resch of austria

[Clay]

Crutchlow lookin' good. I think Biaggi may take it next year.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Clay

Crutchlow lookin' good. I think Biaggi may take it next year.

i agree. If mad max rides anywhere near as consistantly as he did at the end of this season it ought to be a cinch. That bike is a really good match for him

[pdog]

ABM - Anybody But Max. I can't root for such an obvious egomaniac. Honda and Yamaha both look strong.