Ducati News Today

With almost a month of recovery since his Donington Park crash that resulted in a broken right ulna and cracks in his left scapula, World Superbike Championship series leader Noriyuki Haga has vowed to fight hard for as many points as possible during this weekends crucial races at Brno in the Czech Republic.

Nitro Nori has been undergoing intense physical therapy since his surgery to plate his broken wrist and recover from 3 cracks in his left scapula (shoulderblade). Haga is confident and knows that the Ducati performs well at the Czech track, having witnessed Bayliss do the double last year, but he must be concerned about his level of race fitness against the on fire Ben Spies.

“After the crash at Donington I’ve been doing a lot of physiotherapy in order to get back into shape as quickly as possible and in time for Brno. It’s a pity I couldn’t take part in the Imola testing as that would have been very useful but it was just too soon and it’s more important to be fit to race. I’m not sure that my arm and shoulder will be 100% by the weekend but I’m confident I’ll be ready for the races and will fight to take as many points as possible.”

His team-mate, Michel Fabrizio, has performed consistently well at Brno in recent years, holding the lap record, and will be looking to improve his standing in the championship by taking the fight to Spies in order to close the points gap to Spies and Haga.

“Brno is probably my favourite track on the calendar, mainly because it’s the circuit where I’ve had most success! Since 2005 I’ve only failed to reach the podium once so that’s not a bad record but I know that this year I have some stiff competition. I will be looking for two more podium finishes, preferably a race win, this weekend as I need to do everything possible to close the gap between me, and Nori and Ben.”

Ironically, ducatinewstoday has personal experience recently of both a broken scapula and intense physical therapy and therefore has some idea of the physical challenges facing the Japanese rider. If Haga can just minimize the points loss to Spies he gets another almost 4 week break to more fully recover before the Nurburgring event where he swept all to double victories last year.

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1. Haga Will Race at Brno Ducati has confirmed that Noriyuki Haga will race at Brno following his crash at Donington Park and resulting surgery to plate his fractured right ulna. Despite the disastrous week-end, Haga retains a 14 point lead in the 2009 World Superbike Championship ahead of series rookie sensation, Ben Spies, who won...
2. Encouraging News for Haga – Might be Racing at Brno After a nasty crash put him into hospital during the 2nd race of the World Superbike round at Donington Park, Noriyuki Haga’s hope of taking his first ever World Superbike Championship seemed to be fading fast once it was revealed that his injuries included a damaged vertebrae in addition to...
3. Haga Defies the Odds and Holds on to Championship Lead Xerox Ducati’s Noriyuki Haga defied the odds yesterday to emerge from the Brno round of the 2009 World Superbike championship with his series lead intact despite riding only weeks after he fractured his right ulna and cracked his left scapula in 3 places at the Donington Park round. After severe...
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