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.”

Continue reading: WSBK Video - Ruben Xaus taking out Nori Haga at Phillip Island

Last Friday at the BMW Group Classic in Munich, Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport officially launched its second season in the FIM Superbike World Championship with Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus who are ready to begin the 2010 season that takes of at Phillip Island February 28th.

In the presence of Infront Motor Sports CEO Paolo Flammini, Superbike World Championship Director Paolo Ciabatti and other guests, Corser and Xaus arrived on stage, riding their BMW S 1000 RR bikes.

Director BMW Motorrad Motorsport Berthold Hauser has ambitious goals: “Our goal is to close the gap to the leading teams. We are aiming to finish in the top five as regularly as possible and pick up our first podium. That’s the ambitious aim we have set ourselves for our second year in what is an extremely challenging World Championship. However, we are well aware that our competitors have not been standing still either. The Superbike World Championship brings us up against six motorcycle manufacturers who have established themselves on the race track. You can set yourself aims in sport and make plans to achieve them, but you cannot dictate results – those have to be earned out on the track. Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport is working flat out to make this possible.”

Davide Tardozzi, former Ducati team manager will head up team management and operational control at the race tracks. Rainer Bäumel will continue as Head of Overall Project Management and Project Management Engineering, and Tardozzi has been given carte blanche by the German company.

Continue reading: BMW 2010 Team Launch

Just before Christmas we told you that former Ducati Xerox team manager Davide Tardozzi was heading to BMW, officially there’s no press release yet, but Tardozzi, speaking with Italian website gpone.com has confirmed that he will be infact in the WSBK paddock and manage the BMW team this year.

Here’s what Tardozzi had to say about his upcoming challenge and he’s very matter of fact about the work and the goals that he set out and wants to obtain with WSBK team:

“It won’t be our objective to win this year, but in 2010 we’ll try to do what Aprilia did in 2009. A couple of podiums and maybe a win so we can be ready to fight for the title in 2011.”

BMW has tied up the Italian manager for the next three years.

“BMW has been really great. They’ve given me the opportunity to move on at the end of 2010 if I want to, but they’ve also given me the option to stay on for another two years.”

Judging by his words Tardozzi is also looking towards the future and would like to run a MotoGP team one day and reading between the lines it looks like he wasn’t asked to replace Livio Suppo in Marlboro Ducati:

“In MotoGP? Why not? To be sincere it kind of upset me that … so if I have the opportunity… the new MotoGP rules will have 1000cc engine with a maximum bore of 81mm and the S1000 RR has 80. The biggest in production.”

Continue reading: WSBK: Tardozzi confirms BMW Move and Tips Championship between Ducati and Aprilia

The rumors were circulating for several weeks, but Italian website Motosprint has now former Ducati Xerox manager Davide Tardozzi almost signed up with WSBK’s official BMW team.

Tardozzi left Ducati after almost twenty years of service and eight Riders’ Championships, first as a team manager then as Ducati’s SBK project manager, stated that he left the team because he was seeking new personal challenges and will find it in the highly ambitious German Superbike team in it’s second year of world racing,

No official press release yet, but Tardozzi is apparently hard at at work and many are convinced that he’s behind Ducati’s tech and track engineer Max Bertolini,who worked with rider Michel Fabrizio for the past two years, defection to BMW.

Tardozzi will find in BMW two riders he already knows and managed when he was in Ducati, Troy Corser who won the 1996 title with Ducati and Ruben Xaus.

We’ll see Tardozzi in the BMW garage during the official tests at Portimao, January 22th-24th.

Continue reading: WSBK – Davide Tardozzi becomes BMW’s Team Manager

Ernesto Marinelli, who was Xerox Ducati’s technical director has been promoted and will take over Davide Tardozzi’s role as SBK project manager.

Marinelli’s promotion came after Tardozzi’s decision to step down from his position to seek new challenges because he lost movtivation.

Tardozzi helped Ducati take 16 World Superbike titles since joining as team manager in 1999 with such riders as Fogarty, Corser, Bayliss, Toseland and Hodgson.

“Davide has been part of Ducati’s recent history”, said Claudio Domenicali, General Director of Ducati, “a friend and, at the same time, an important presence that has allowed Ducati to achieve significant successes, particularly in the World Superbike Championship where, in recent years, he has project managed with passion, competence and professionalism. We are sorry to announce that Davide will not be part of the 2010 team but, at the same time, we wish him our very best wishes for the new challenges that await him, and thank him for the many years of service during which we have won and lost together.”

After the jump a great video with 25 years of Ducati Superbikes:

Continue reading: WSBK – Ernesto Marinelli new Ducati Xerox Team Manager

What’s happening in Ducati’s Corse Racing teams? First we have the rumor, that’s getting stronger by the hour, that Livio Suppo will be leaving his postion in Ducati to head for Honda HRC, we have Serafino Foti that lead Ducati’s Junior Superstock team has left and now we have Davide Tardozzi, Ducati Xerox Superbike team manager that has worked in Ducati for almost twenty years, has officially announced that he is leaving Ducati.

Speaking to GPone (the official website at the moment has no news) Tardozzi explained his reasons:

“It was certainly a painful decision because you can’t leave a company that you’ve worked splendidly with for almost twenty years without feeling any regrets.”

So why are you leaving?

“I wanted to be completely honest with the Company that put a lot of faith in me. I was loosing the necessary stimulus to do this job, so I thought it was appropriate to tell Ducati in time so they could have enough time to find a replacement before the new season.”

Continue reading: WSBK Bombshell - Davide Tardozzi leaves Ducati!

Take a look at this video of Davide Tardozzi hugging Michel Fabrizio at the parc ferme after race 2 at Portimao and what the guys who posted the video compared it to. Hilarious.

After all the controversy surrounding the lack of team orders by Tardozzi, this video might just soothe certain Italian fans. Would Tardozzi have tried this with Carl Fogarty?

Continue reading: WSBK - Fabrizio gets the kiss of death?

Ducati Xerox team manager Davide Tardozzi has been getting a lot of flak from Italian Ducatisti fans (we’ve personally read them) since Sunday afternoon, when Noriyuki Haga lost the WSBK championship to Ben Spies by only six points.

Many were angrily citing the fact that Tardozzi refused to give Michel Fabrizio any team orders and that Fabrizio’s first place in Race 2 at Imola and in Race 2 at Portimao took away 10 valuable points from Haga’s title race.

Tardozzi has even had to defend himself on the official Desmoblog:

At this point I would also like to address some comments that we have heard since the final race….
Certainly, and we are well aware, that the decision to not stop Michel at Imola could have cost us dearly. But, after seeing how things went, I don’t think that this is the right moment to evaluate that situation.

In race 2 today Spies was clearly in control, knowing that he had the potential to fight for the podium but realising that a fifth position would be more than enough to win. One should also consider that Nori took second position during the final lap and Michel could not have known what was happening behind him.

Continue reading: WSBK - Davide Tardozzi has to defend himself

WSBK racing fans are going to jump with joy when they find out that three time World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss, less than a year into his retirement wants to return to racing.

The 40 year old Australian talking to Motosprint, told the Italian website that he’s in great shape and is tired of being a pensioner and that his new career in V8 Supercars isn’t going well as he expected, (at Phillip Island the car broke down and he couldn’t race) but he want’s to go back to his first love, two wheels.

“I want to go back to racing in Superbikes again. I’ll be looking around at Imola. It’s a shame that Ducati already have their team for 2010, I could have really helped them next year. For sure I’m not going to be a image man anymore”.

Davide Tardozzi, Ducati’s SBK manager for Borgo Panigale, has denied that they can field a third F10: “As soon as he landed last Tuesday Troy told me he wanted to race, how can we satisfy him? We don’t have the resources for three riders.”

If Bayliss truly wants to return, and wife Kim is tired of having her husband moping around the house, there’s going to be a line-up outside his door. According to Italian gossip, Aprilia’s Giampiero Sacchi heard that Bayliss was on the market again and the Italian manager just might think of stealing the Ducati icon, one of Italy’s most loved and admired riders, and give him the RSV4.

Continue reading: Troy Bayliss Wants to Make a Superbike Comeback

The not-so-young will certainly remember teh Aspes brand, linked to the Yuma and Hopi models, and now we’ll have the chance to see them back on the market. Menzaghi Motors, from Varese in Italy has announced its acquisition of the Aspes brand and is undertaking a relaunch of the historic Italian motorcycles and their quality and innovation.

Aspes will take to the market with new motard models, and some new scooters both low and high wheel with engines between 50 and 150 cc. This is a move from the past into a modern niche market. Mostly four-stroke engines will be used in line with anti-pollution laws.

Aspes will establish a partner network among dealerships for sales. Umberto Pertosa is Aspes general manager and is happy to announce the return of the brand after 27 years. It’s their intention to launch environmentally friendly models from the outset.

Continue reading: Return of the Aspes brand after 27 years

Controversy has hit Aprilia after Max Biaggi took second place in the Superpole shoot out.

It happened early this morning during the Superpole when Alstare Suzuki owner and team manager, Jean Francois Batta told Italian network La7 that: “Everyone knows that the RSV4 is a prototype and shouldn’t be racing here in SBK. After the race I’m going to the technical commission and lodge a complaint.”

What exactly is in RSV4 that made Batta want to lodge a complaint? According to paddock gossip the Alstare techs seem to have had a tiny peek at Aprilia’s fuel system and saw something that did not convince them. Fuel systems according to Superbike regulations have to be identical to the road bike version.

Continue reading: Bombshell! Aprilia RSV4 isn’t a Superbike, it’s a Prototype!

Davide Tardozzi, Ducati Corse’s Superbike Team Manager confirmed the riders line-up for next year’s World Superbike season. We all know for some time legend Troy Bayliss leaving World Superbike at the end of this year. Haga will replace Bayliss and Michel Fabrizio will stay for a second year at Ducati Corse, as revealed in our exclusive interview with Fabrizio.

Davide Tardozzi said:”I am very proud to be able to welcome Noriyuki. We are convinced he is one of the strongest and best loved of the Superbike riders, a talented and courageous man. He is a rider that has proved that he never gives up, in the true spirit of Ducati, and is a rider with the credentials to fill the place that Troy Bayliss vacates.

“Haga will, for the first time, ride a factory Ducati, and I am certain that he will win over the Ducatisti fans and bring great satisfaction. We are very proud to have him in next year’s squad together with Michel. They are two fantastic riders and we will do everything to ensure that they can achieve the great results that everyone hopes are possible.”

Source | superbike

Continue reading: Ducati Xerox official riders line-up