With the upcoming opening round of World Superbikes Championship, that is shaping up to be one of the most exciting seasons ever, with highly talented and big named riding stars, we caught up with Lorenzo Lanzi before he left for Phillip Island.

After a difficult past season, Lorenzo has been signed up to ride for DFX Corse, for whom he raced for last year (replacing the injured Regis Laconi) and the bike could not be anything less than an awesome Ducati 1198, a highly professional team, for an all Italian duo and with six Italian riders on the WSBK starting grid, great racing will be a guarantee.

Here’s some questions that we asked the rider from San Piero in Bagno, including his expectations for the upcoming season.

Q: Finally you’re going to be back riding a Ducati, how do you feel physically and mentally?

A: “I’m really happy to have found a place in the DFX team. I’m finally back in the series and for the entire season and really want to do well from the start. I have to say that I’ve always believed that I’d be back, so I’ve always been in training to prepare for the double races. I knew that if I raced in other championships in the end it would have paid off. I’ve always believed in my talent, but being a rider without personal sponsors, it wasn’t easy finding a place, and today I’m here and I’m grateful to the team and believe that I can hold my own in the championship.”

Continue reading: WSBK: Interview with Lorenzo Lanzi

According to Italian website Motosprint, Italian rider Lorenzo Lanzi will be returning to Superbike team DFX Corse to subsitute Regis Laconi once again.

Lanzi subbed for Laconi for five rounds before being axed for Fonzie Nieto. Both Anthony West e 125 cc rider Andrea Iannone were linked to the team, however DFX’s team manager Daniele Carli picked Lanzi again, because according to the latest news Regis Laconi is still not physically fit to compete.

Laconi, suffered a horrific accident during free practice at the Kyalami circuit in South Africa and successfully recovered from two fractured vertebrae that kept him in a hospital for over a month and then continued physical therapy in France.

The French rider got back on his Ducati just five months after his crash and did three honour laps at his home race at Magny-Cours and later got some track time with his team at the Portimao tests last October.

Lanzi will be back on track for the official Infront tests that take place at Phillip Island the week before the opening round of the season.

Source | crash.net and motosprint

Continue reading: WSBK: Lorenzo Lanzi to Return to DFX Corse

In the final day of testing at the Imola circuit, it was Jonathan Rea who pipped Michel Fabrizio out of the top spot with a best lap of 1:48.670 at the end of the session. Michel Fabrizio was second, the only other rider to break the 1.48 mark.

Lorenzo Lanzi, riding on his home turf with a private Ducati, was third fastest, leaving Ben Spies in fourth and Yamaha team mate Tom Sykes was fifth.

John Hopkins ended up sixth overall with his time in the morning session, but did not to ride in the afternoon session because his injuries are still not fully healed.

WSBK riders will return to Imola, September 25-27th for the 12th round of the Championship.

After the jump, overall test times:

Continue reading: WSBK Imola Test Day 2 - Jonathan Rea tops at Imola

After subbing for injured Max Neukirchner in Alstare Suzuki for three rounds, Fonsi Nieto will be back in the WSBK championship, this time with the DFX Corse.

Nieto, who didn’t find a team for the 2009 season has been picked up by Daniele Carli, DFX Corse team manager, and the Spanish rider will be at Imola for the official Superbike tests, this Wednesday and Thursday.

Nieto’s best result in six races with Alstare Suzuki team was a 12th place in race 2 at Misano, was replaced at the Donington round, when Kevin Schwantz backed american rider Blake Young with the Belgium manager.

Matteo Baiocco, after his PSG-1 team pulled out of the championship due to economic woes and his excellent second place in the CIV race at Mugello was on the short list of riders available to DFX, but Carli preferred Nieto and in an extremely blunt and honest way said why, also hinting that Lorenzo Lanzi, Regis Laconi’s replacement rider is in danger of losing his place in the team if he doesn’t get a decent result.

“We simply prefered Nieto because he brings us money. Let’s hope that Lorenzo has a good result a Brno, because if he doesn’t, its useless to continue, each round costs us 20,000 euros and we can’t waste them to bring home DNF’s”.

Source | motosprint

Continue reading: WSBK - Fonsi Nieto in DFX Corse

With John Hopkins still convalescent, Stiggy Racing Honda has called back Jake Zemke for the Miller Motorsports Park round of the World Superbike Championship on May 31. Zemke replaced Hopkins during the Monza round and finished 18th in Race 1 and 20th in Race 2. Hopkins won’t be able to ride, but will be present in the Stiggy garage.

Jamie Hacking has been called up to replace injured Makoto Tamada in the Paul Bird Motorsports Kawasaki Racing Team. Tamada ended up with a broken wrist during the pile-up in race 1 at Monza.

After Francis Batta’s PR move to try to get AMA superstar Matt Mladin to rider for Alstare Suzuki, the Belgian team manager had to settle on calling again Fonsi Nieto to take Max Neukirchner’s place for the USA round. Nieto’s name was also being linked to replace injured Sete Gibernau in the Grupo Francisco Hernando team at the Italian GP at Mugello.

Erwan Nigon will be taking David Checa’s place in Team Yamaha GMT 94 at Miller’s. Nigon came in second in last year’s French Superbike series and has also been Michelin’s test rider in MotoGP.

Lorenzo Lanzi will be subbing for the unfortunate Regis Laconi in Team DFX as team boss Daniel Carli announced during Italian show Paddock, Uomini e Corse (Paddock, Men and Racing). Lanzi was supposed to be called in for the Misano race, but Laconi’s injury anticipated his re-entry in the team.

Continue reading: WSBK Replacements for Round 7 at Miller Motorsports Park

The Ducati Sterilgarda Go Eleven Team set the fastest lap time with new comer in World Superbike Shane Byrne. The British champion rode the Ducati to a best lap time of 1 min 43.6 seconds on Wednesday at the Portimao racetrack.

The Roman Max Biaggi is not riding the Sterilagarda Go Eleven Ducati but rather his new Aprilia RSV for the first time. He came in third after the American Ben Spies with his Yamaha Motor Italia YZF-R1. Lorenzo Lanzi and Regis Laconi rode a 9th and 10th position on the DXF Corse Honda CBR 1000RR.

The Ten Kate Honda Team, Alstare Suzuki, Ducati Xerox and the new BMW Team did not come to Portimao but choose to test at Valencia.

Continue reading: SBK Portimao test results

All World Superbike teams are traveling to Portugal for this weekend’s last SBK round at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve. We will watch this race with mixed feelings as Troy Bayliss, the winning rider of the British Superbike title in 1999 and 3 World Superbike Championship titles (2001, 2006, 2008), will ride his last round.

The Portimao racing track is situated close to the city and is brand new. The SBK race will be the first international event at this new “Autodrome” which is 4,658 km long, including six left and nine right corners. Length of the race will be 22 laps which means a total of 101,024 kilometers.

Ducati RG Team rider Lorenzo Lanzi will not ride this weekend, as revealed by the Family Gianfardoni in a small press release, though they would like to thank Lorenzo Lanzi, the entire team and FGSport and sponsors for the support and in 2008.

Continue reading: SBK Portugal: preview Xerox and RG Team

“The RG Team will ride next year also in the Superstock 1000 series and in World Superbike. If things develop in a good way the RG Team will have also a second rider in World Superbike,” said RG Teammanager Rossela Tosetti Gianfardoni to Twowheelsblog on Saturday in Magny Cours.

About Lorenzo Lanzi she also: “We don’t know yet if Lorenzo will stay with the team, we still have to talk about it with him. He did good things this year, he rode very well and he is a very nice person.” To my question if they will keep on riding Ducati she answered:” Yes, we will. We have a good relationship with Ducati and we really like to ride Ducati.”

The main sponsor for the RG team is the europe painting group and according to Rosella some new sponsors will come for the 2009 season. Lorenzo Lanzi is 14th in the general standings and holds 104 points today.

Photo | Koen

Continue reading: SBK 2009: second rider in RG Team?