At the first round of the 2012 World Superbike Championship - which will take place in Phillip Island, Australia, over the last weekend of February - BMW Motorrad’s rider Leon Haslam will debut a new Arai helmet designed by Drudi Performance that will also carry an exclusive “25 years” logo. The ‘25 years’ to which that special label refers to are the time spent by the Englishman with Arai, the world’s leading helmet manufacturer. Not too bad considering that Haslam is only 28 years old.

“I really like the new design and it’s always nice to have something new for the start of a new Championship - said Haslam - This is the pre production design and I’ll now work with the Arai guys in Holland and Japan to finalize the replica.”

He also added: “I’m also really proud to have been with Arai for so long, 2012 will be my 25th year with them. They’ve been looking after my head for a long time now and their product is simply the best.”

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Our colleagues at Motoblog.it are at Aprilia’s 2012 Superbike team presentation at Piaggio’s Spazio Broletto in Milan to present this season’s rider line-up Max Biaggi and Eugene Laverty.

Since the team will no longer be running under the Alitalia title sponsorship banner, they’ve reverted back to the original Aprilia corporate colours livery they used in 2009 when they returned to the World Superbike championship.

Technical and Sporting Director will again be Gigi Dall’Igna, and the new Team Manager will be Dario Raimondi. The late Marco Simoncelli’s crewchief Aligi Deganello will be following Max Biaggi’s side of the garage (since Giovanni Sandi left with almost all of Biaggi’s crew), while Marcus Eschembacher while be following Eugene Laverty.

After the jump, more pics and two videos from the team presentation including the RSV4 technical specifications:

Continue reading: Aprilia Factory Superbike Team presentation at Milan

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Considering that half of Europe is under snow and sub-zero temperatures, chosing the ski resort town of Sestriere, Italy (where the 2006 Olympics where held) seemed the proper choice for the Effenbert Liberty to do their official team presentation.

The two day event took place on last Saturday and Sunday, and they presented their 2012 rider line-up, with Sylvian Guintoli, Jakub Smrz and Maxime Berger for World Superbikes and Federico Sandi and Brett McCormick for FIM Superstock 1000 Cup championship, with Sylvain Guintoli’s #50 Ducati as the star of the programme.

The team also hosted a gala dinner at the Hotel Belvedere restaurant, followed up by a night of fun and dancing at the Tabata disco, with the usual hot looking ladies draped all over the Ducati 1098R.

Continue reading: Effenbert Liberty Superbike and Superstock Team presentation at Sestriere

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The World Superbike championship kicks off at the end of the month and the BMW Motorrad factory team has decided to go for a pre-season Q&A with their new rider Marco Melandri and the Italian talks about his impressions on the BMW S 1000RR, the new single bike rule and his relationship with team mate Leon Haslam.

Melandri who joined BMW after Yamaha’s decision to withdraw its factory effort in the series, and also refused a ride with Aprilia.

Q: How long did it take you to feel comfortable within BMW Motorrad Motorsport?

“For sure, it takes some time to get to know each other, but from my side we have actually got off to a very good start. I find the atmosphere in the factory very positive, and everybody has tried to work even harder than before. And from my side it is the same, so I really liked it. We know it will be a big challenge, and we know we need to keep up with the other guys. But we will do that. I am very happy to be here.”

Q: What were your first impressions of the team?

“That it was very big! That was a bit unusual for me in the beginning. But now we are all working together, and trying to use the full potential of all the resources and people available to us.”

Continue reading: Q&A with BMW's Marco Melandri

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Newly signed Kawasaki Pedercini rider Leandro Mercado will not be taking part in the opening round of the World Superbike championship at Phillip Island, February 24th to 26th after fracturing his right radius bone while training with his supermotard.

The young Argentian rider who won last month’s 500 Milhas Interlagos endurance race has already undergone surgery to fix the fracture in order to speed up the healing process and will start rehabilitation next week, and is expected to return to action for the second round of the season that takes place at the end of March at Imola.

Pedercini has already lined up Bryan Staring as Mercado’s replacement rider. The Australian is in his second year of Superstock FIM 1000 Cup championship with the Italian team and last season Pedercini had him wildcard in WSBKs always at Phillip Island, where he picked up one point.

Leandro “Tati” Mercado: “I’m really disappointed because I won’t be able to participate at the Phillip Island races as it could be my Superbike debut. I was eager to compete in Australia hoping to obtain good results. I know the whole team worked extremely hard to prepare my bike for the first appointment of the season and now I’m forced to miss out on the race. Starting from next week, with the help of my doctors, I’ll start intensive rehabilitation to make sure that I’ll be in top condition for the second race in Imola”.

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This afternoon at their company headquarters at Civita Castellana, World Superbike team Althea Racing officially presented their 2012 line-up with reigning Superbike champion Carlos Checa and Superstock champion Davide Giugliano and the new livery that the team will be using in this season’s championship.

Althea Racing has picked up some important sponsors for 2012, not only has Unibat re-confirmed their backing, the team has also picked up a couple of mega sponsors like TIM (Telecom Italia’s mobile phone brand) and SNAI (Italy’s largest gaming and betting group) to front their racing effort.

The presentation was followed by the sponsors, Paolo Flammini, CEO of Infront Motor Sports, Paolo Ciabatti, General Manager of Infront Motor Sports, and Ernesto Marinelli, Ducati’s Superbike Project Director and various members of the press.

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Yesterday at the famed Monza circuit, BMW Motorrad Italia Goldbet SBK team did another presentation of their 2012 line-up with Ayrton Badovini and Michel Fabrizio and officially unveiled the colours of its new title sponsor GoldBet (we’ve already seen a livery mock-up last December when they did a first unveiling).

The BMW satellite team debuted in WSBK in 2011 with James Toseland and Ayrton Badovini, who often out performed the BMW factory team and Badovini finished 10th overall, while James Toseland had to retire due to a career ending wrist injury.

Taking Toseland’s place will be Michel Fabrizio, who spent a very dismal 2011 season with the now defunct Alstare Suzuki team, making it an all-Italian effort. In the Superstock 1000 series, the team’s line-up will be fielding Sylvain Barrier (who has been training under James Toseland’s guidance) and Lorenzo Baroni.

After the jump official press release and more pics.

Continue reading: BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet SBK official team presentation at Monza

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Red Devils Roma wasn’t the only World Superbike team present this past weekend at Vallelunga, BMW Motorrad Italia was also present with Michel Fabrizio for a single day of testing.

Fabrizio who underwent surgery to his right forearm last December to correct a long standing problem needed to check out his fitness before heading to Phillip Island for the upcoming Superbike tests and the Italian team was more than happy to help him out, bringing to the circuit both the 2011 S1000RR and the first version of the 2012 model to test.

The Italian rider was able to complete around forty laps without any lingering arm problems. No lap times were released.

Photos taken by Cadalorafalappa via Motoblog.it

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Newbie World Superbike team Red Devils Roma has continued their preparation for the 2012 with another two day test session at Vallelunga last weekend.

Niccolò Canepa seemed particularly pleased with the results of this latest test, considering the cold weather front that hit the Italian pennisula Friday evening, as he set a best unofficial lap time of 1’37”3 with race tires and with a softer tire lapped in 1’36”5.

“We had a very good couple of days testing, which represents a good starting point for the 2012 season,” said Canepa. “In just a couple of days we tested a lot of new things and I did more than 90 laps. On Sunday afternoon I tried a few fast laps and times dropped considerably. With the softest tire I lapped in 1′36″5 and this was particularly satisfying not only because of my performance , but also because I’m convinced we can do a lot better when we are further along with the work. I know there’s still a lot more to do and I still don’t feel completely comfortable on the bike yeat, but we’ll have another couple of days in Australia to work on improving this aspect. At Phillip Island I’ll also have a chance pace myself against my rivals so we’ll know where we are, but I’m leaving for Australia feeling optimistic. It’s going to be a tough and hard world championship, but this will push me to give my best.”

Continue reading: Niccolò Canepa and Red Devils Roma WSBK team complete final test at Vallelunga

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BMW Motorrad World Superbike team, with Leon Haslam and Marco Melandri spent two days at Valencia testing preparing for the start of the 2012 season after the long test ban, verifying the latest version of the BMW S 1000RR engine and updated electronics software package and new parts which will now allow them to fine tuning the chassis and electronics.

Despite the very cool air and track temperatures (15°c -18°C) the team completed a total of 950 kilometres of testing on the 2012 race version of the RR and both riders seemed positive about the outcome of the test.

“We got through everything that we needed to go through, so I am very positive. These two days were important. We have a lot of new things for this year and it was good to test before we go to Phillip Island. In addition, it was good to get a few laps under our belts and get up to speed again. We definitely made big steps and are much further ahead compared to last year. It really is a stronger package and we still have five more days to test in Australia to dial it all in.” said Leon Haslam.

Continue reading: BMW Motorrad Superbike team concludes two day test at Valencia

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