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World Supersport Donington, Honda preview

In SBK

25 giugno 2009

Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR) arrives at Donington determined to claw back points in the Supersport class, having lost five more to his championship rival Cal Crutchlow at Misano, but only after a remarkable fight for the win between the current top riders in this class in 2009. Laverty is only 14 points behind, and each rider now has three race wins to his credit.

This race is also the home round for most of the members of the Parkalgar Honda team, which is Portuguese owned but operated from a logistical base the UK, providing machines for Laverty and Miguel Praia (Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR). The latter had his best career result at Misano, as he recovers from a painful fall in the American round last month.

Behind Laverty in the Supersport class Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) has now dropped a little further from championship contention, having no-scored for the first time in 2009 last time out. At Donington he hopes to return to the type of form that has given him two wins in 2009 already, at Phillip Island and the USA.

Only two points separate Anthony West (Stiggy Racing Honda CBR600RR) in fifth from 2008 champion Andrew Pitt (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) in sixth, as each of those riders aims for his first win in 2009.

Ryuichi Kiyonari (Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) returns to the scene of one of his three 2008 season WSB race victories this weekend, ready to add to his tally of two podium finishes so far. Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) is now eighth in the championship fight, 11 points ahead of Kiyonari.

A top ten finish in one race at Misano was a good reward for Matthieu Lagrive (Honda Althea CBR1000RR) in his first Superbike rode for his existing team. Mark Aitchison (Althea Honda CBR600RR) and Flavio Gentile (Althea Honda CBR600RR) return to the fray in the Althea squad, with Aitchison looking for his second podium of 2009 and Gentile simply seeking more points, after finishing 12th in his debut ride last weekend.

Gianluca Vizziello (Stiggy Racing Honda CBR600RR) is currently 18th in Supersport while Vittorio Iannuzzo (Squadra Corse Italia Honda CBR1000RR) has yet to score in Superbike.

After the Donington round there is only one race during the whole of July and August, at Brno, between 24 and 26 July. There is, however, an official SBK test at Imola on 15 and 16 July, for Supersport and Superbike classes. The championship run-in starts at the Nürburgring from 4 to 6 September.

Eugene Laverty: “Cal and I had another great race at Misano last time out and it was no disgrace to finish second in a race like that. We are improving our bikes race-on-race and getting the most out of them. Cal and I raced against each other like this in 2006 in the British Supersport Championship. We brought the level up midway through the season and nobody was able to touch us halfway through the year, and it is looking like it’s going to be the case again this year. I am looking forward to Donington Park next weekend; I’d like to win at home for the team.”

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