Ducati News Today

Texan Ben Spies capped off his spectacular rookie World Superbike season by taking the 2009 World Superbike championship during the final round today at Portimao, Portugal after finishing first and 5th in the two races. Noriyuki Haga who was struggling with setup all weekend crashed out early in the first race before finishing second in the last race of the year behind teammate, Michel Fabrizio leaving him 6 points short of his rival.

Spies will now join fellow Texan and the last American to win the World Superbike Championship, Colin Edwards, at MotoGP in the Tech 3 Yamaha satellite team next year. The competition was at such a high level this year that Spies scored 2 points more than the total Troy Bayliss garnered during his winning season last year and Haga was just 4 points short of that same total.

Spies is a worthy champion taking 11 pole positions, 14 wins and 17 podiums in a stunning display on the equally stunning new flat plane crank Yamaha R1. However the Ducati factory must be regretting some poor strategic choices that in effect, denied Haga the title.

During the Imola World Superbike racing, Fabrizio bet his team-mate denying him a crucial 5 points. If team orders had been in effect, then the race 2 winner at Portimao could have let Haga by on the last lap. In that case, Haga would have been champion. Of course this is all moot, since no-one will know how Spies would have raced in the second race if Haga had another 5 points in his tally.

Haga took his bitter disappointment well and the now thrice runner up has a chance to try again in 2010 although he will have Ten Kate Honda, Jonathan Rea and teammate Fabrizio to deal with first. Competition will be enhanced by a couple of MotoGP rejects- 2-time World Superbike Champion James Toseland who will, ominously, be on a factory Yamaha and Australian Chris Vermeulen who will be Kawasaki mounted.

Ben Spies 2009 Champion:- “First I’ve got to thank Yamaha for giving me everything I needed to win. It was really good, we did what we had to do and it was difficult to do that because the pace was quite fast and I saw that there were a couple of people behind me. I knew that if Nori won I had to be sixth, so I tried to stay out of trouble. It was spectacular, I can’t thank Yamaha enough and everyone who’s been behind me for my first year here. It’ll sink in in the next couple of days!”.

Noriyuki Haga 2nd in Championship:- “This weekend we had a problem with the rear tyre and in the first race we made a mistake with the tyre choice and I crashed. Second race was quite good, I was worried for the tyre life, but I started to push and I am happy for second position. Unlucky for today for the title but I try to do my best for next year and congratulations to Ben for the world title.”

link: World SBK.com

Race 1 Results: 1. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 38’15.390 (158,442 kph); 2. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1.697; 3. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 2.113; 4. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 2.757; 5. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 14.753; 6. Camier L. (GBR) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 20.044; 7. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 25.634; 8. Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 31.104

Race 2 Results: 1. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 38’19.654 (158,148 kph); 2. Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 1.195; 3. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1.494; 4. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 5.553; 5. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 5.842; 6. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 7.374; 7. Camier L. (GBR) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 9.658; 8. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 10.434; 9. Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 17.010; 10. Guintoli S. (FRA) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 24.509; 11. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 27.195; 12. Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 34.825; 13. Lagrive M. (FRA) Honda CBR1000RR 35.135; 14. Scassa L. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’01.842; 15. Checa D. (ESP) Yamaha YZF R1 1’09.782; 16. Tamada M. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1’30.818

Final Points: 1. Spies 462; 2. Haga 456; 3. Fabrizio 382; 4.Biaggi 319; 5.Rea 315; 6. Haslam 241; 7.Checa 209; 8. Byrne 192; 9. Sykes 176; 10. Smrz 169.

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