Ducati News Today

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 both races.

Haga is undergoing intensive physiotherapy on his arm and shoulder (which showed cracks which required no surgery) and will race at Brno. Haga was pushing hard attempting to improve on his Race 1 result of third when the crash occurred.

In an interview with Italian weekly magazine MotoSprint, Noriyuki Haga recounts the Donington incident. “I remember everything clearly,” declared Haga. “I was in second place, I didn’t want to settle for that position and I was thinking about the situation in the standings … but maybe I was thinking a bit too much. When I saw that the bike was about to hit me full-on I thought: this is the end!”

link: Official World Superbike Site

The factory Xerox Ducati racer does still have some luck on his side in that there is a 4 week gap between the Donington and Brno rounds and a further 4 weeks before the subsequent racing at the Nürburgring.

Nevertheless Haga seems destined to relinquish the championship lead for the first time this year. For example if Spies wins both races at Brno and the injured Haga can do no better than 10th place then Spies will lead the series by 24 points, almost a race win. Even if Haga does the double at the ring as he did last year (and Spies finishes behind him), Spies will still lead by 14 points. Perhaps Haga should hope that his teammate, Michel Fabrizio, can take it to Spies in order to minimize the points loss he faces. Whatever happens, it is making the most exciting motorcycle racing series today even more compelling.

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