WSBK riders try out 'Solex' for size at Assen
| Thursday, 23 April 2009 16:06from: worldsbk.com |
Several top World Superbike riders took a break from their usual race routine in Assen today as they got to grips with Solex bicycles in the run-up to the Dutch Round of the championship taking place at the TT Circuit this weekend.
Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox), Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike), Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) and Ruben Xaus (BMW Motorrad), together with Dutch World Supersport contenders Barry Veneman (Hoegee Suzuki) and Arie Vos (Veidec Racing RES Software Honda) were the riders chosen for the pre-race media event for the fourth round.
Following a greeting from the Mayor of Assen, the riders went around town for a couple of hundred metres on the 49 cc machines before posing for photographs and conducting interviews with the national and international media present.
Noriyuki Haga: "My history at Assen has been rocky, up and down to say the least but I'm looking forward to riding this track on the 1198, it should be interesting. We know that the Ducati performs there as Troy won both races last year, we had a good fight in Race 2 I recall, and so it should be another good weekend; Checa and Neukirchner went well there last year and they, as well as Spies and I, are likely to be running at the front, so we should see more great racing."
Ben Spies: "Assen looks good, I've played it a bit on Playstation last week so I got some good seat time in! I've always wanted to ride here, the changes probably make it more rider-friendly and even though everyone seemed to like the old circuit more, for me it's a little bit easier to learn. It's got a couple of tricky spots and seems like a nice flowing track. We've just got to get up to speed."
Jonathan Rea: "It's one of my favourites, only about 45 minutes up the road from the team's workshop. To be honest, we're not happy as the whole team at the start of the season, but we did a bit of testing at an oval track near the workshop and went back to zero again on the engine management. The bike seems to be more user-friendly now, so unlike Valencia I'm coming here really confident."
Ruben Xaus: "Assen has always been a good place for me and this weekend looks great. I like this track but this weekend it's special with a new team and a new project. We're working hard, it's not easy, but everyone knew that. Sometimes I'm biting my lips because I want to be in the front part of the grid always, and right now I'm not there yet, so I need to work harder on this situation."
The Dutch Round of the Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship takes place from Friday 24 thru Sunday 26 April. World Superbike free practice and qualifying are held on the first two days, with Superpole scheduled for Saturday at 15.00. The two 22-lap (100.210 km) Superbike races are scheduled to run on Saturday at 12.00 and 15.30, with the 21-lap (95.655 km) Supersport race at 13.25 local time.
| Wednesday, 22 April 2009 17:09 |
Kawasaki World Superbike Racing Team regular Broc Parkes was hurt a 120mph accident at Snetterton in the UK during testing on Monday of this week, suffering several painful but minor injuries to his face, arm, wrist, knee, and he also pushed his collar bone out of position.
He has had an operation to insert a screw in his shoulder to hold it in place for six weeks, but as he will not be 100% fit for Assen, he has opted to spend the next couple of weeks recuperating in readiness for the subsequent Monza race, plus the Kyalami and Miller rounds, which follow on soon afterwards in May.
Arrangements have been made for former WSS rider Stuart Easton to step in for this event, as he has recently tested the Kawasaki and has experience of the Assen circuit.
Yamaha head to Assen looking to close the championship lead
from: yamaha-network.com |
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The Yamaha World Superbike Team head to Assen for round four of the World Championship fresh from testing in Monza last week and looking to build on the mixed success of round three in Valencia.
Assen is another new circuit for the Yamaha riders to learn in their debut year in World Superbike, however this hasn't stopped them putting in strong performances so far, with Ben Spies currently second in the championship with three race wins already under his belt.
The Assen circuit itself has undergone big changes from its early days as an open-road circuit, the present day incarnation offering much more in terms of spectator access to watch the action as it unfolds on track. Assen is traditionally a good circuit for four cylinder bikes and the new 2009 YZF-R1 is already proving to be a formidable machine under the control of Sykes and Spies.
| | |  | The Yamaha riders arrived in Holland a day early to spend some time at the Yamaha Motor Europe headquarters and meet some of the Yamaha family. They got a rare opportunity to see inside the enormous high tech parts warehouse that supplies almost all of the Yamaha parts for Europe and took time to have some lunch with Yamaha Motor Europe President Hayakawa-san and discuss the upcoming race in Assen. The riders were escorted to the Yamaha headquarters with an impressive procession of Superbikes from the Dutch R1 club.
Outside of World Superbike the new 2009 Yamaha YZF-R1 has kept the victories rolling in, extending the Moto GP derived machine's dominating winning streak to include the Le Mans 24HR du Moto and a number of European national Superbike wins including British Superbike, French Superbike and the Dutch series.
Ben Spies, Yamaha World Superbike Team
"I'm feeling good and looking forward to getting back in the swing of things. I left Valencia not too happy but feel better after we had a good test at Monza. I think we found a little something there which is good. It's great to go to another track we don't know and learn the circuit, see how we get on and still be up front on Sunday. It should be a fun weekend."
Tom Sykes, Yamaha World Superbike Team
"There's no question, I'm really looking forward to Assen, it's a circuit I've always wanted to race at. Unfortunately it's not the old circuit I grew up watching but at the end of the day it's still Assen! I'm especially looking forward to it as I feel the new R1 will work really well there. After a successful test in Monza hopefully we are edging closer to the podium and ultimately a win." | | Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team Manager
"we had good test in Monza recently so we are ready for Assen now. We're feeling very positive, I think we can get really good results at the circuit which would be great as it is the home race for Yamaha Motor Europe. I think the circuit will be very good for the new R1, we have the potential to do very well."
Assen technically speaking according to Tom Houseworth, Ben Spies' Crew Chief
"Assen is a new track for me and Ben and the bike is completely different this year with the crossplane crankshaft, fly by wire throttle and, new to myself and Ben, variable intakes. We will approach the first session with a base setting that should allow Ben to learn the track quickly and allow us to collect useful set up data for the later sessions.
The chassis is quite good, with bike 1 we will use a base setting form the Monza test to get started. Bike 2 will have a slightly different setting we came up with from looking at previous suspension data and Bens tendencies at this type of track.
The data and rider feeling will tell us which way to go after the first session; hopefully we have done our homework and are close with one of the bikes! Going to a new track presents some unique challenges for us. We must learn the track quickly, evaluate the bike set up and get the set up close as quickly as possible. This is important as we need to start looking at race tyres and that can be difficult if you're in and out of the pit box chasing set up. The quicker we start evaluating race rubber the better chance we have in the race."
"Once race setup and race tyres are chosen then we fine tune the mapping and the traction control as needed, watching the track and air temp closely. Everything has to come together as one to have a good race and be near the front!" | | Yamaha World Supersport Team look to build championship lead in AssenWorld Supersport rider Cal Crutchlow heads to Assen fresh from a strong victory in Valencia and looking to take it further with another win on the legendary Dutch circuit. The British rider showed top form in Spain, taking pole and following it with a flawless win. Although Crutchlow has never raced in Assen he has proved to be quick to learn new circuits and get on the pace quickly. Team-mate Fabien Foret comes to Assen looking to shake off a difficult start to the 2009 season and get back to form. Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha World Supersport Team"I've had a little look round the circuit now and I think it will suit our bike very well. I'm looking forward to taking on the challenge of going to another new circuit and seeing if we can keep the championship lead we've built up and building on it with another win." Fabien Foret, Yamaha World Supersport Team"I'm feeling ok, I'm not stressing after what has been a difficult start to the season. It's been pretty tough. I'm taking every race as it comes, so focusing just on Assen for now. I'm hoping everything starts to go my way again as I've not had so much luck so far." Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha World Supersport Team Manager"Assen is great as its kind of our home race. I think with the nice weather coming up we can expect a lot of exciting racing in Supersport. Cal has proved to be ready for any kind of track and hopefully Fabien will have more luck than in the first three rounds. I'm looking forward to it, it's nice to be there with lots of local fans watching us so it's a bit special." | Thursday, 23 April 2009 09:44 from: worldsbk.com |  Alstare Brux Suzuki riders Max Neukirchner and Yukio Kagayama enter the Assen race in confident mood, partly because of their natural expectations of success and partly because the Netherland's venue is as close as their team can get to a home race, as Alstare has is headquarters in Belgium.
Said Neukirchner, who has already stood on the podium in 2009, "Assen is not the same as it used to be and the first section now is very different to what it was before. It is not a bad track, but it's just not as fast and flowing as it used to be and so some of its appeal has gone. Last year, I took a third in the first race and a fifth in the second, so it was quite a good day for me - especially as I had broken my collarbone in Valencia in the previous round. This year's championship is more competitive than last year, so it's important to do well in practice and qualifying and then get a good grid position. I am hoping for a podium or two and can see no big reason why I cannot achieve this." Yukio Kagayama also prefers the older Assen layout, but is aware that the main job this weekend is to qualify well and get into a good starting position for Sunday's races. "I like fast tracks with fast corners and Assen used to be one of my favourite tracks. There are still some good, fast corners, but you now have to ride the track in a different way because of the first section. This year is very tough and it is difficult to qualify well, but it is important to be on the front two rows of the grid for the races, otherwise you have a lot of work to do to get good results." | Wednesday, 22 April 2009 16:11 |  |  2006 - Race 1 was held under heavy rain and all the front runners fell while they were in the lead or they were fighting for first place: the first one was Corser, then Kagayama, Bayliss, and the last one was Haga, inexplicably when he had more or less half of a minute over his pursuers. At this point the fight for the win was between Michel Fabrizio, Andrew Pitt and Chris Walker. The latter was literally fired up and won his first Superbike race with an irresistible pace. His win was more valuable as he started from the 27th spot on the grid and was on the gravel trap at the first corner of the first lap.
In race 2 the track was dry and at the start Corser did it all wrong: the Aussie after a few meters hit Haga, puncturing the Japanese rider's rear wheel and damaging his front brakes. At the first braking point Corser braked but nothing happened, he fell and collected Haga and Toseland in the process. All three were out of the race and Bayliss was left without any real threat: he placed himself on Kagayama's tail until he decided to pass him and pulled away to win. Andrew Pitt was second and Nieto was third after a good climb up the field and recovery from an off-track excursion on lap 15.
2007 - The early stages of race 1 saw a hard fight between six riders: Toseland, Bayliss, Xaus, Lanzi, Haga and Corser. After some laps the situation was more clear as Toseland and Bayliss were on their own in front. Starting from lap 17 however, Bayliss had to slow down due to a drop in tyre performance, leaving the win to Toseland. Troy only finished fourth, and it could have been worse if Corser hadn't retired with a mechanical failure two laps from the end.
Race 2 was a close fight between Haga, Toseland and Bayliss. The Japanese rider went into the lead at lap 9, but after only a couple of laps in front he was forced to retire with a blown engine. It was up to Toseland and Bayliss, who played all their cards in the last three laps: Toseland started attacking Bayliss on lap 20, in the part of track that goes from Meeuwenmeer turn to the last chicane. His Honda's higher speed let him pass Bayliss under acceleration, but Troy was in front again under braking. The couple exchanged places four times in this piece of track and on the following lap they repeated the same show, turn after turn. On the last lap Toseland was more determined and was able to keep the lead at the entry of the last chicane. Sadly for him the race didn't end there: Bayliss had a better acceleration out of the corner and pipped James at the finish line by nine thousandths of a second.
2008 - In Assen Troy Bayliss scored his first Dutch pole since 2001 and took the lead after a perfect start, followed by Kagayama, Haga, Xaus and Checa. During the first lap Xaus was able to pass Haga for second, but the Japanese rider was having none of it and tried to take the place back on the following lap. The move didn't work and Noriyuki clipped Xaus on a slow left-hander: they both slid out of the race. On the fifth lap Kagayama hit the front and was able to set the pace in the central part of the race, with Bayliss, Neukirchner, Checa and Corser queued up behind him. The turning point was a small mistake by the Japanese at the exit of the chicane on the twelfth lap: he lost the rear momentarily and Bayliss took the opportunity to take the lead. Troy immediately set a higher pace, stretching the front runners: Kagayama and Corser fell back, with the latter suffering from rear-end grip, while Neukirchner and Checa had a slightly superior pace, but lost contact with Bayliss after a handful of laps. The Ducati rider went on to win all alone, while Checa took second from Neukirchner on the eighteenth lap.
In race 2 Bayliss took the lead at the start, followed by Haga and Xaus; the latter fell into the clutches of Max Neukirchner, who took third on the third lap, joining the leading duo, that was gradually pulling away from the rest. Towards mid-race Neukirchner had to slow down due to front-end lack of grip; Bayliss was able to lead Haga comfortably, a few lengths separating the two. This situation changed in the following stages, when Bayliss dropped his pace, allowing Haga to close in. The Japanese rider tried to take the lead up to the final corner: the pair came out towards the finish line side by side and Bayliss won by only 0"082 over Noriyuki. The third step of the podium was taken by Checa, who had a better pace than the fading pair of Xaus-Neukirchner in the final stages.
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