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WSBK Misano: Rea hopes to shine

In SBK

17 giugno 2009

With the half-way point of the World Superbike and World Supersport Championships now reached the next race, at the Misano World Circuit this weekend, will be followed closely by the British round at Donington between 26 and 28 June. Normally the Misano event is one of the hottest and most gruelling on the 14-round World Superbike calendar, with track surface temperatures usually the highest of the year.

The forthcoming Misano race, officially the San Marino round, will feature a host of potential race winners in Honda colours, with Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) fourth overall and thus the highest placed Fireblade rider in Superbike. Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR) sits second in the World Supersport Championship, only nine points from the lead.

Rea and his team have overcome some early season issues with their machine set-up and all the Ten Kate riders underwent a further test session at Magny Cours, France recently, in order to take another step up the ladder of consistent competitiveness. Jonathan has two podium finishes to his credit so far in 2009, his debut season.

Laverty is the closest Honda challenger to WSS series leader Cal Crutchlow, but after a superb late charge to victory at the Miller Motorsports Park in late May, Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) took his second win of the year, the overall championship fight opened up again. Laverty has three wins of his own now, with Crutchlow the winner of the remaining two races.

The Superbike class has been as competitive in the midfield as could be expected in a season with large numbers of experienced riders and ambitious teams, which makes Leon Haslam (Stiggy Racing Honda CBR1000RR) particularly happy to have made such an early impact for his team, which is experiencing its first WSB season on top of existing WSS commitments. Haslam is sixth in the rankings after Miller, 11 points behind Rea.

The top ten, in a championship with an impressive level of competition right down through the top 20 this year, has two more Honda riders in it, Ryuichi Kiyonari (Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) in eighth place, and Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) ninth.

John Hopkins (Stiggy Racing Honda CBR1000RR) is set for his race return at Misano, having now recovered sufficiently from the broken hip he suffered at Assen in April.

Matthieu Lagrive (Honda Althea CBR1000RR) has moved from the Supersport class to the Superbike class, to replace the outgoing Tommy Hill, allowing Italian rider Flavio Gentile (Althea Honda CBR600RR) to take over Lagrive’s Supersport ride. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Squadra Corse Italia Honda CBR1000RR) returns for this race after missing the two recent fly-away rounds in South Africa and America.

Like his WSS team-mate Sofuoglu, Andrew Pitt (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) is on the way back to full competitiveness, having started the season well, then tailing off until recent rounds. He is fourth, tied on points with Spaniard Joan Lascorz, but Pitt has a better podium finishing record.

A great start to the year by Anthony West (Stiggy Racing Honda CBR600RR) has not continued the way he had planned, most recently because of lowly qualifying performances leaving the Australian rider too much to do in races to recover and fight for top positions. He is still inside the top six of the championship itself, thanks to podium finishes in Australia and Spain.

Third at Kyalami was a breakthrough podium finish for Mark Aitchison (Althea Honda CBR600RR), as he sits eighth in the points table right now, despite his no score in America. Miguel Praia (Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR) is out for his first top ten finish, despite the lingering effects of injury carried over from a crash at Miller. Gianluca Vizziello (Stiggy Racing Honda CBR600RR) who came close to a top ten finish at Valencia, is looking for a better result than that in his second home race of 2009.

Immediately after the Misano race, the teams head cross Europe once again, to Donington Park in England, for round nine.

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