2009 World Superbike Championship – Who is on the Pace?
With the 2009 World Superbike championship kick-off less than one week away, it is very convenient for pundits that the final official test session have just been completed at the very same Phillip Island circuit which will host the opening round of the series. So who has got the pace? A number of the top teams took part in the testing, but they all didn’t complete laps on each day. In order to see who appears to have the pace for the season opener I compiled the fastest times from across the various testing days. Disclaimer: The weather conditions at Phillip Island can be quite variable especially with respect to track temperature and wind speed (which can effect top speed down the long straight). However this still provides an indication and we can see that 11 riders from 7 different manufacturers lapped in the 1’32″ range. Bring it on!!
At last year’s Phillip Island event, Troy Bayliss set the fastest race lap of 1’32″516, qualifying on pole a full second faster.
So far this year as might be expected the factory Ducati’s are fastest. These are evolutions of last year’s championship winning machines and Haga is arguably the fastest rider in the series now that reigning champion, Troy Bayliss, has retired.
What is impressive is that both the new Yamaha and the completely new Aprilia appear to be on the pace immediately, well at least for one lap. It remains to be seen, who can be fast for the full race duration. The Suzuki is still fast in Neukirchner’s hands and the BMW shows early promise with the undeniable skill and development abilities of Troy Corser.
There were a few crashed during last weeks testing. Max Biaggi, Regis Laconi (Quelle surpise!), Noriyuki Haga, Michel Fabrizio, Troy Corser and Carlos Checa (Chucker) all kissed the kitty litter at least once.
Composite Fastest Lap times during Official World Superbike Testing at Phillip Island
1. Fabrizio (Ducati) 1’32″19 2. Haga (Ducati) 1’32″30 3. Spies (Yamaha) 1’32″36 4. Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1’32″59 4. Biaggi (Aprilia) 1’32″59 6. Laconi (Ducati) 1’32″60 7. Nakano (Aprilia) 1’32″72 8. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1’32″78 9. Parkes (Kawasaki) 1’32″90 10. Corser (BMW) 1’32″93 11. Rea (Honda) 1’32″96
[UPDATE] Superbikeplanet and Roadracing World are claiming Jonathan Rea set the fastest lap at 1’31’8. If true this is on par with the outright record set by Troy Corser in 2007 on a Yamaha. My source is the official World Superbike Championship website.
The 2009 World Superbike Championship kicks off at Phillip Island next weekend and ducatinewstoday will be providing coverage.
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