SBK
World Superbike: Entry List for the 2008 Season
05 febbraio 2008  In the top Superbike category 28 permanent riders will be on the grid for the opening round of the championship at Losail in Qatar, riding for five different manufacturers and sixteen different teams. With James Toseland’s move to MotoGP, the # 1 plate remains absent so the top rider on the list, numerically speaking, now becomes Max Biaggi, whose privateer Ducati 1098R will have the # 3. The only other rider to sport a single-figure number on his bike is Spain’s Carlos Checa, who will be tackling his first ever World Superbike season for the title-winning Hannspree Ten Kate Honda squad with the # 7 plate. Italy provides the lion’s share of the riders this year, a total of seven, with Roberto Rolfo, Michel Fabrizio, Lorenzo Lanzi, Luca Morelli, Vittorio Iannuzzo and Ayrton Badovini joining Biaggi as ‘tricolore’ representatives. Next on the list is surprisingly Japan, with six representatives, as SBK stalwart Noriyuki Haga is joined by BSB champion Ryuichi Kiyonari and fellow countrymen Yukio Kagayama, Shinichi Nakatomi, former Honda 250 GP man Shuhei Aoyama and WSBK and MotoGP winner Makoto Tamada. World Superbike’s growing success is Spain is confirmed by the presence of five riders from the Iberian peninsula nation, the ever-popular Ruben Xaus and Fonsi Nieto now flanked by another former BSB champion Gregorio Lavilla and the Checa brothers, Carlos and David. Australia also has a powerful representation, with Troys Bayliss and Corser leading the way for Karl Muggeridge and Russell Holland. Régis Laconi, Loic Napoleone and Sébastien Gimbert make up the French line-up, while singleton entries come from Germany (Max Neukirchner), Turkey (Supersport champion Kenan Sofuoglu) and Czech Republic (Jakub Smrz). After winning a total of Superbike six titles over the years, British riders are conspicuous by their absence in the top category this year, but this is more than made up for by their presence in World Supersport. The Supersport category has a full 36-strong grid and more riders than ever capable of lifting the trophy at the end of the year. Fourteen different countries are represented, Italy (7), Britain and France (5 each) being the most numerous. The impressive line-up includes two former Supersport World Champions (Andrew Pitt and Fabien Foret), three Superbike race winners (Pitt, Chris Walker and Garry McCoy), two Superstock champions (Didier Van Keymeulen and Lorenzo Alfonsi), a 125 Grand Prix World Champion (Arnaud Vincent) and a five-strong British contingent of Chris Walker, Jonathan Rea, Tommy Hill, Craig Jones and newcomer Graeme Gowland. The Big 4 Japanese manufacturers will be joined on the grid by a fifth competitor this year as four brand-new Triumph 675 triple machines will be run out of two separate outfits. 41 riders make up the Superstock 1000cc FIM Cup entry list, 14 of them coming from Italy and all aiming to repeat Canepa’s 2007 feat of taking the title. The rest of Europe is well-represented in this extremely hard-fought category, with riders from as far afield as Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland being joined by three Australians and one South African.
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