WSBK- arrives at Misano

The Misano World Circuit
(until 2006 called Circuito Internazionale Santamonica) is an Italian racetrack located next to the town of Misano Adriatico (Province of Rimini) in the frazione of Santamonica. Originally designed in 1969 as a length of 3.488 kilometres (2.17 mi), it hosted its first event in 1972. In 1993, the track length was increased to 4.064 kilometres (2.53 mi).(wiki)

Location Misano Adriatico, Province of Rimini, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Time zone CET, UTC+1
Coordinates [show location on an interactive map] 43°57′41″N 12°41′0″E / 43.96139°N 12.68333°E / 43.96139; 12.68333Coordinates: [show location on an interactive map] 43°57′41″N 12°41′0″E / 43.96139°N 12.68333°E / 43.96139; 12.68333
Major Events MotoGP; SBK; Formula Renault; FIA Sportscars
Circuit Length 4.064 km (2.525 mi)
Turns 11
Lap Record 1:33.918 (Casey Stoner, Ducati, 2007)




WSBK: Misano Gears Up For Superbike Scorcher

Written by: SPEED Staff SPEEDtv.com

06/16/2009 - 02:36 PM

Misano Adriatico (ITA)

(Photo: Ducati Corse)

After the overseas doubleheader in South Africa and USA, the Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship returns to European soil for the start of the second half of the 2009 season. Round 8 of 14 will be held this weekend at the Misano World Circuit on Italy's sun-kissed Adriatic Riviera, with the event holding the denomination of San Marino Round. The circuit in the Romagna region, a stone's throw away from world-famous seaside resorts Rimini and Riccione, measures 4.226 km and has been the venue for 17 editions of the championship. It underwent a major restyling in 2007 with changes to the layout and sense of direction, which is now clockwise.

Misano is a circuit where Ducati has always dominated. The Italian manufacturer has taken its twin-cylinder machines onto the podium 26 times in 34 races, leaving the other manufacturers with the crumbs: Honda 3 wins, Aprilia 2, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki 1.

As for riders, the most successful at Misano is three-times world champion Troy Bayliss with 6 wins, while Giancarlo Falappa, Regis Laconi and Ruben Xaus all have three apiece. Out of all the riders who have won at Misano, only two will be on the track this coming weekend, the BMW pairing of Troy Corser (2 wins) and Xaus, who was the last to take a victory, in race 2 twelve months ago. Both Régis Laconi (Ducati DFX) and Max Neukirchner (Suzuki), who have also won at Misano, the German in race 1 last year, are currently out of action with injuries.

HAGA'S MISANO JINX

The splendid double win by Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike) at Miller has reopened the title battle, which after South Africa appeared to be heading the way of Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox). The Japanese rider, bruised and battered in the Utah Round, still has a healthy lead over his rivals (53 points over the American and 64 over teammate Michel Fabrizio), but is arriving at a circuit that is his ‘pet hate' seeing as he has never won there. In 18 appearances, Haga has only scored three podiums at Misano, his best being in 2007 when he finished runner-up in race 2 behind Bayliss, while in the first he ended up on the ground after a contact with Max Biaggi, while they were fighting for second place.


TWO'S COMPANY

Both Spies and Fabrizio are aiming to take away further points from the championship leader and they arrive at Misano as the riders most in form. The Texan doesn't know the circuit but so far has always demonstrated that he has no problems in this area, and he is backed up by an ultra-competitive Yamaha YZF-R1. As for Fabrizio, the rider from Rome has made a quantum leap in quality recently, proving that he can fight for the win at every circuit, and he will be aiming high this time around.
"It's great to be back in Italy again," said Ben Spies. "It was awesome to be home for the Miller race last month, and a dream come true to win in front of my home crowd. Everything felt right at the weekend, I couldn't have been happier. I'm excited about getting on the track at Misano, it's another new circuit to learn which is cool. The Italian fans are amazing which will also make this a special race for us as a team. We need to do well here to keep the championship challenge alive, and I'm confident we can."

"I'm very happy to put the US behind me," said Tom Sykes. "There's no denying we had a couple of issues but I think we're past it. We know everything works well on the bike and we have the pace to run at the front. I'm very much looking forward to Misano now, we've got a couple of things we want to try on the bike so let's hope it works and the track suits my riding style. I'm going in to the weekend feeling confident, I know the team can do a good job so if we can crack it we can get up there. I think this weekend will be the turning of the corner and setting me up for Donington and the rest of the season." (yamaha-racing.com)


MISANO OUTSIDERS

At Misano, Superbike can often produce some major upsets and the heat will surely have a major effect on men and machines. The outsiders this weekend include Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing), who has been putting together a string of top 5 results recently. The RSV4 machine is getting closer to the top and the Italian will surely be a difficult opponent for everyone. The Noale manufacturer should bring some new material to Misano and Biaggi will be hoping to upset the applecart in front of his home fans.

ON THE WAY UP

The Honda riders are now emerging as front-runners as well after a difficult start to the season. Jonathan Rea, Ryuichi Kiyonari, Carlos Checa (Ten Kate) and Leon Haslam (Stiggy Racing) have all been on the podium at least once and the Miller race showed that the CBR1000RRs are not that far away from the level of Ducati and Yamaha. All eyes will in particular be on Rea, who is fast becoming a true contender. Progress is also being recorded by Kawasaki, who will enter American Jamie Hacking once again in place of the still convalescent Makoto Tamada as teammate to Broc Parkes.

SUZUKI AND BMW

The Suzuki Alstare team will again be present at Misano without the injured Max Neukirchner, who is expected to be back for Brno at the end of July. The team's progress will continue to revolve around Yukio Kagayama, who is not exactly 100% fit after crashing in the USA, and Fonsi Nieto who is struggling to find the best possible feeling with the GSX-R 1000. Attention will also be focused on the BMW Motorrad team, which had a difficult time overseas, but the German squad has had an opportunity to analyze everything back in the factory workshop and both Corser and Xaus will be looking for improvements this weekend.

WSBK: All change at Honda Althea

As Lagrive comes in for Hill

It's all change for the Althea Honda team from the Misano round onwards as Matthieu Lagrive replaces Tommy Hill in Superbike while Italian Superbike championship leader Flavio Gentile comes in for Lagrive in Supersport.

Unfortunately, the first part of the season wasn't very successful for either Hill and the team so together with Tommy the team decided to terminate its relationship. To replace the English rider the Team management chose Matthieu Lagrive not only because he knows the team and technical staff very well, but also because the French rider has a great experience with high-¬powered bikes as he is a five time Endurance World Champion.

With Matthieu the team really hopes to be able to gather the fruits of their hard work and they hope that Lagrive will demonstrate that Honda Althea team can obtain in Superbike the same good results as he did in Supersport.

"This will be my first race with Honda Althea Superbike team. I never raced in Superbike before and so I will have to familiarize with my new CBR 1000 RR starting from Friday's free practices. I have already raced with an Honda CBR 1000 RR, but in Endurance races and so I know this will be a completely different bike”, said Lagrive. “I know the team's technical staff and I'm sure they'll help me adapt quickly to the new bike. I'm happy because I'm starting a new and exciting experience in Superbike with a very clever and skilled team. Hopefully we'll reach some very good results".

In Supersport, the team have decided to give Flavio Gentile an opportunity to race at Misano to show his talent and skills also in the Supersport World Championship. Flavio is currently participating with the Honda Althea Team in the Italian Superbike Championship and is leading the standings.

"I'm really happy to be here and I know my team will help me to quickly adapt to the new bike. I'm lucky because I can start this new interesting experience from Misano, which is actually my favourite circuit” he said. “I have always obtained good results here and I think I will be able to challenge hard this time as well. I want to enjoy myself and take this opportunity to do my best for Honda Althea team and for my sponsors".(moto-live.com)

Freestyle show at Misano World Circuit with Chris Pfeiffer

Monday, 15 June 2009 13:04

The performance skills and style of Chris Pfeiffer will be coming to Misano during the World Superbike weekend. On Sunday the most famous streetbiker freestyler in the world will perform on the track, during the pit-walk, from 11.10 to 11.25. Pfeiffer will also repeat his show in the SBK Motorzone, the commercial area of SBK, twice during the day. The first one will be at 10.00, the second at 13.00. During Chris Pfeiffer's show there will be an event-car too, with music and DJ. It will be 20 minutes long and will show how the world of motor sport can join up with music and art to make an electrifying performance.

Chris is first and foremost a big fan of motorbikes and all things engines and has been since he was a child. His streetbiker freestyler background is a very long one and he has demonstrated his skills in more than one hundred international events. Pfeiffer has also received many awards, including Stunt Riding World Champion, "Stuntwars" Champion in the legendary freestyle competition in Florida, and three times European Stunt Riding Champion. (worldsbk.com)

Get to know the grid: WSBK- Xaus Ruben #111

Rubén Xaus #111

Personal opinion: rids on a new bike in the series, it is obvious there is still a lot of work still needed to be done on it for it to be fully competitive, a specially with Spies in Haga in the front, but he did improve his results from round 1 in Australia in the race in Qatar, so I wish him luck in the rest of the season and hope he will be able to improve even more in the races to come.

Rubén Xaus Vs Norino Brignola Monza 2006

from: http://www.ducati.com/xaus/story1.jhtml

Ruben was born in Barcelona on the 18th February 1978.
His father, who had competed in amateur motorcycle “mountain” races, was probably Ruben’s biggest influence and had Ruben on a 25cc Montesa by the time he was 5 years old! From that day he taught Ruben how to ride and encouraged him to perfect his riding by practicing endlessly on dirt bikes. At the age of 8 he progressed to a KX60 and then by 11 a KX80.

At the age of 14 he was ready for a bigger dirt bike but his father had a different idea: “Let's go road racing.” With his father’s mechanical knowledge and the help of friends, Ruben started his road racing career at 14 years old in the 125 Championship of Catalonia. Hungry for racing experience, he continued into 1993, taking part in the Solo Moto 125 Criterium and winning the 80cc Supermotard Championship of Catalonia. Ruben was ready for big bike action.

In 1994, his first year competing on a large-capacity 4-stroke bike and at high-level competition, he entered the intensely competitive Spanish Open Ducados Supersport Championship and finished a very creditable 17th. Suddenly, he was making a name for himself in Spanish motorcycle sport and in 1995 he finished 3rd in the Ducados Supersport Championship, 12th in the FIM Thunderbike Trophy and had 4 races in the 250 Grand Prix with the Fortuna Pons Team aboard an NSR 250.

Ruben improved on his Thunderbike Trophy result by finishing 6th in the series in ’96 before underlining his talent in the 600cc class with a final placing of 12th in the ’97 World Supersport series. It was also in this year that he had his first major win whilst competing in the 35th Montjuic 24 Hour Race at his home circuit of Catalunya.

Keen to progress into Superbike, Ruben decided to compete in the German Pro-Superbike Championship in 1998 on the Team Alpha Technik Suzuki GSXR 750. The experience he gained by finishing 6th in this highly competitive championship convinced him that he was going in the right direction. Superbike was definitely what he wanted but he wanted it at world level with a Factory Team. The only way to get to there was to be by proving himself in World Supersport first.

In '99 he moved into the World Supersport Championship with the Dee Cee Jeans Team and certainly proved his potential with a fine 5th in the series enjoying, also, his first win at world level at the Misano circuit. His efforts were recognized and rewarded with a place in the Factory Ducati Infostrada Team for the 2000 World Supersport Championship. Ruben would now have new pressures to deal with: the enviable pressure of being a "Factory Rider" with a major manufacturer. If he was under pressure, he didn't let it show! He soon adapted to the Ducati 748 and finished 7th in the world as well as chalking up his 2nd win at this level in a fantastic race at the Assen circuit in Holland. Once again recognised for his "Foggy"-like focus, determination, and a race maturity beyond his years, his initial goal was about to be achieved: to compete in the World Superbike Championship as a "Factory Rider".

In 2001, Ruben lined up against the world's best aboard the Team Ducati Infostrada 996R and picked up where he left off in World Supersport in 2000 - building on his experiences and gradually improving his standings. Through the middle of the year, Ruben had mostly top 10 finishes...and a handful of crashes. The signs were there, however: Ruben was testing his limits and when he didn't end up on the ground, he was being rewarded with solid results.

The turnaround came in race 1 at Oschersleben. Ruben achieved his first finish on the podium as a World Superbike rider by finishing second to world champion, Colin Edwards. In race 2 of the same day, he reversed that result to become the first-ever Spanish rider to score a victory in World Superbike. From that race forward, he finished every race of the remaining season on the podium. Everything had come together: the crew, the bike, the tyres, and most importantly: Ruben's confidence and skill.
Nobody in World Superbike wanted the 2002 season to start more than Ruben did... with the exception, maybe, of all his fans!

In 2002, Ruben continued with Team Ducati Infostrada aboard the 998F02. In the second race of the season at Phillip Island, Ruben podiumed twice; it was a great start in which he'd find himself stepping up to the podium an incredible 10 times during the season. Not even the race retirements scattered throughout the season could reduce his confidence in himself or his machine. Except for the retirements, Ruben always finished inside the top 10.

One of the most memorable races in SBK history was also the finale for 2002, a race in which Troy Bayliss and Colin Edwards battled for the number 1 plate. Ruben ran with the two champions and did his best to help his teammate, but was ultimately unable to affect the outcome. Still, his fighting spirit shone through as he finished third in both hotly contested races.

2003 was to be Ruben's third full year as a World Superbike rider but this time it would be on a brand new model, the Ducati 999. The beautiful new Team Ducati Fila machine was to serve him well as he continued to be an official factory rider.