Echo CRS Honda’s Broc Parkes, who missed the first round at Phillip Island after breaking his right tibia in a pre-season training accident, will also have to sit out the second round of the World Superbike championship at Portimao.

The Aussie rider is expected to return to full fitness for Valencia or at the latest the Assen round of the championship, which are scheduled for April 11th and 25th.

The team is currently looking for another replacement rider for to ride the CBR 1000RR at Portimao. Josh Brookes, HM Plant Honda rider who subbed for Parkes at Phillip Island took 19th in race 1 and 14th in race 2.

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With WSBK round 2 at Portimao in just two weeks time, we’ve got a couple of injury updates on riders of who will be racing and who’s still in doubt.

Chris Vermeulen (Kawasaki Racing) with his usual video, (thanks Chris) tells us the extent of the knee injuries that he picked up during race 2 when his gearbox locked up and sent him crashing into the tire wall at 200 km/h. Vermeulen in doubt.

James Toseland (Yamaha Sterilgarda) fractured his third metacarpal bone of his left hand during a heavy fall in free practice and hurt his hand further when he highsided in race 1. In race two the Brit rider took 10th place, but rode the race with his hand heavily anethestized. Toseland will race.

Roland Resch (Reitwagen BMW) crashed during Q1 and picked up a concussion and fractured his right collarbone and was operated on a week ago according to his Twitter page and thinks he can be ready for the Portimao round. Resch still in doubt.

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The WSBK website has kindly put up this video so we can finally see how Ruben Xaus took out Noriyuki Haga during warm up practice at Phillip Island, and this fourth and final crash of the weekend resulted in Xaus pulling out of the first round.

While the latest rumors are saying that Xaus may lose his ride, BMW’s team manager Davide Tardozzi hasn’t given up on his Spanish rider and will be spending two days in Spain this week, talking to a dejected Xaus in order to help him regain his confidence:

“He has completely lost confidence and what I want is to to make him regain it. It might take a few races to see the Ruben we’re used to, but we’re counting on it. We know he’s a fast rider, aggressive, a quality rider. In 2008, a little more than a year ago, he won at Misano with a privateer Ducati. We want to bring him back to that level.”

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BMW’s Ruben Xaus, who crashed out four times at Phillip Island has been the latest rider to be targeted by the caustic wit of Motoblog’s resident comic artist Luca Ruggeri.

The Spanish rider who seems to single handedly support the motorcycle fairings market, according to the latest rumors that are circulating, may find himself without a ride for the rest of the season if he doesn’t regain his confidence and improve his performance in the next two rounds at Portimao and Valencia.

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How can anyone forget what happened at the Monza chicane during Race 1 last year? After the multi-rider pile-up and complaints by motocycle racers, the chicane is finally being widened, as you can see from the photo.

Work has yet to be completed, because the run off area is also being widened as the exit of turn 1 which has been moved twenty meters further up. The debut of the “Nuova Prima Variante” will be ready in time for the Italia CIV that is scheduled for March 19-20 and along with other improvements for the World Superbike race May 9th.

Monza race 1 accident after the jump.

Continue reading: Monza Circuit Gets 1st Turn Makeover

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While Infront Motor Sports announced last week during the first round of the World Superbike Championship that thePhillip Island venue would be kept on the calendar until 2014, there have been rumors that the Flammini Brothers would like to add an additional venue in Australasia in 2012.

This should make Kiwi racing fans happy because it seems that Infront is in talks with the Hampton Down circuit owners about holding a race in New Zealand’s newest motorsport facility that is located about 60 km south of Auckland and 65 km north of Hamilton, when they lengthen the track to 3.8 km so they can obtain FIM homologation.

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Kawasaki’s Chris Vermeulen crashed out twice in round 1 Phillip Island with a very big and scary crash in Race 2 that left the rider with a very swollen leg.

Here’s Vermeulen from his video blog describing his races what happened and why he crashed.

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After the race highlights of round 1 of the World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island, you can now check out our gallery of pics from the race weekend.

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island - Gallery of Pics

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We can imagine that BMW’s rider Ruben Xaus couldn’t wait to take the first flight out of Australia and put this last weekend at Phillip Island behind his back.

Xaus binned his S 1000 RR three times during Friday’s practice leaving him no spare bikes to ride and during Sunday morning warm-up slammed into the back of Noriyuki Haga’s Ducati at turn 1.

Both riders managed to escape serious injuries, but doctors and BMW’s team manager Davide Tardozzi probably though it was better that the Spaniard withdraw from the first round especially after Xaus said he felt disorientated.

Source | motociclisti.my.blog.it

Send your funny, bizarre or surprising pics to us and we’ll post them, with your name. We’d love to share what you guys find in the world of motorcycling! Send to: pics@twowheelsblog.com

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If you were unlucky enough to have missed today’s first round of the World Superbike races at Phillip Island, here’s two videos with the highlights of both races full of spills, thrills and one of hottest finishes since Monza 1999 when Colin Edwards won over Carl Fogarty by 0.005s.

Check out the second video after the jump and watch how outsider Carlos Checa on a privateer bike out races factory riders.

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island Video Highlights

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