The title of this post suggests that today’s race and the subsequent championship result for 2010 is simpler than it seems. Firstly, Carlos Checa continued his excellent form this weekend, winning Race 2 after a victory in Race 1 as well. He appeared on the podium in the number one spot with Noriyuki Haga in second place and Cal Crutchlow in third. It’s a nice result for Haga who will see out his career with Ducati this year, and with no concrete news about where he will go in 2011 when Ducati pulls out of the SBK.

Meanwhile, a third placing for Cal Crutchlow is a nice feather in his cap after his announcement that he will be moving to MotoGP next year to compete alongside Colin Edwards in the Yamaha Tech3 team. It proves his talent and his competitiveness in superbike which should be a boost in confidence for him when he moves to the very different world of MotoGP. Ducati finished up a great weekend at the WSBK Imola round, after taking all three spots on the podium in Race 1.

But the big news for Superbike and Italy is that Max Biaggi, despite a very modest performance this weekend, is the WSBK champion for 2010. He’s the first Italian to win the title and it’s also the first time that Aprilia has gained the championship win. Max Biaggi is already a champion in motorcycle circles, but he’s also known for his weaknesses and limits as well. So what we’ve seen today is not a victory for infallibility but a victory of hard work and belief in a team and its potential.

Continue reading: Max Biaggi is 2010 WSBK champion

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As we wait to see whether Max Biaggi can steal a win off the Race 1 winner Carlos Checa in Race 2 at Imola today, the local Italian crowd has had the pleasure of seeing Michele Pirro win in the Supersport class with his Hannspree Honda bike. He managed to steal the win from the usual protagonists Kenan Sofuoglu and Eugene Laverty who messed up at the end of the race and handed Pirro the win.

It’s a nice victory at Imola as the Italians say goodbye to the last Superbike Ducati race on home soil. Race 1 saw an amazing triple Ducati show on the podium with Carlos Checa in first place, followed by Lorenzo Lanzi and Noriyuki Haga. What a way to bring it home, with Imola providing an exciting spectacle and Ducati proving that it can still compete. Perhaps it might change some minds in the echelons of the company as to just how precious the superbike is to product development and image, Valentino Rossi or not.

Max Biaggi and Leon Haslam both made mistakes, with Haslam finishing fifth behind Jakub Smrz while sixth place went to Tom Sykes who had the race well wrapped up for most of it. But on to Max Biaggi - is it pressure or nerves? The extremely experienced rider stuffed-up more than once and in Race 1 has had to content himself with 11th position. That’s a big disappointment for Aprilia but Race 2 is underway and all will be revealed soon. The 52 points still held between Biaggi and Haslam have left Aprilia hoping for a party on home ground after the second race.

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Noriyuki Haga took the win in race 2 at Nurburgring five months after winning race 2 on aggregate timing at Valencia and after Ducati announced that they would be pulling their factory team from the championship next season.

“Nitronori” who crashed in Race 1 came back with strong win in race 2 after battling with Carlos Checa and Jonathan Rea. On lap four Checa who was leading ran wide letting the Japanese rider through, but the Spaniard would continue to hound Haga until he crashed out on lap ten at the Veedol, with Jonathan Read inheriting the second spot, but unable to make that final lunge to catch Haga and had to settle for second.

Third place went to Leon Haslam who suffered through the race with hand, arm and knee injuries after his crash in Race 1. Haslam fought his way up to third position getting past both Cal Crutchlow and Max Biaggi on lap 5 and holding his place tooth and nail.

Continue reading: WSBK Nurburgring: Noriyuki Haga surprises with strong win in race 2

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motosblog.fr have picked up a hot rumor regarding Noriyuki Haga that we can add to our WSBK silly season.

Haga is having a torrid 2010 season and has become a pale shadow of the rider, who just last year challenged Ben Spies in his title conquest. The Japanese rider is still struggling to find form and has clearly lost confidence in his 1198 and his place in the Xerox Ducati factory team is now on the line, but according to our French cousins, Haga has sounded out his former team manager Davide Tardozzi, who now runs the BMW Motorrad team, for a ride on the BMW 1000 RR next season.

Haga was also linked to a return to his old Yamaha team, but the lastest news as reported by GPone, the Japanese rider has also an offer from Kawasaki to team up with the currently injured Chris Vermeulen and give the new Ninja Superbike a fighting chance in the series that has seen the green team constantly struggle for results over the years.

If Haga should refuse the offer, the team still has Tom Sykes who hasn’t had a bad season and they can also count on Kawasaki Supersport rider Joan Lascorz, who is ready to make the jump to the World Superbike championship.

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We’ve got another juicy little rumor to add to our previous WSBK Silly Season post. The latest gossip out of last weekend’s World Superbike Championship round at Brno is that Ducati Xerox will probably be handing Noriyuki Haga his walking papers at the end of this troubled season. NitroNori has simply fizzled out and even if at Brno we saw a more aggressive looking rider but binning the Ducati twice in the Superpole session, does not bode well for another year in team that will see another Italian manufacturer and direct competitor in superbike sales take the title this year.

So who will take Haga’s place? It seems that Ernest Marinelli is talking to the evergreen Colin Edwards. The Italian engineer who turned team manager after Davide Tardozzi defection to BMW has admitted that he’s put out feelers towards the two times Superbike champion and current MotoGP rider.

Carlos Checa is also high up on Ducati’s shopping list. The Spaniard has certainly out performed the factory riders on his privateer Althea Ducati and is fourth in the standings, in front of both Nori Haga and Michel Fabrizio. Ducati would also like to put an English rider on one of their official bikes to make their sponsor happy, but top riders Leon Haslam and Jonathan Rea are already tied to their current contracts for next year.

Continue reading: More WSBK Silly Season: Colin Edwards to Ducati Xerox?

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Four Ducati’s in the top five spots with a lonely Aprilia in second spot. Michel Fabrizio headed the top of the timesheets in this morning’s QP2 at Brno with an impressive 1′58″695 lap grabbed in the dying minutes of the session leaving Max Biaggi just 0.257s behind him.

Noriyuki Haga who finished first in yesterday’s QP1 had to settle for third and unable to better his lap times. Two privateer Ducati riders were fourth and fifth, Luca Scassa (Supersonic Racing) and Lorenzo Lanzi (DFX Corse) - making it four Italians and two Italian manufacturers inside the top five.

Cal Crutchlow took sixth ahead of Ruben Xaus and Jakub Smrz who certainly looks like he’s been riding an Aprilia all season instead of making the switch just two days ago. Jonathan Rea managed a ninth place and James Toseland closed out the top ten.

Leon Haslam was able to make a small step forward from yesterday, but still unable to crack the top ten with his 13th position.

Out of the Brno Superpole are Broc Parkes and Roger Lee Hayden

Continue reading: WSBK Brno: Michel Fabrizio Returns to the Top in QP2

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More surprises during today’s QP1 at Brno, Noriyuki Haga headed the timesheets for the first time this season with a perfect lap of 1′59.277 that set him to the top spot. Cal Crutchlow’s took second with a last lap lunge that propelled him from 13th to 2nd, while Michel Fabrizio took third and was the last rider under 2 minute mark.

Carlos Checa took fourth, but is 0.876s from the factory Ducati rider, while Max Biaggi made a big jump forward to take fifth. Ruben Xaus dropped to sixth in the QP1 after his third spot in the earlier free practice.

Troy Corser had a very bad crash on his last attempt to move up the charts. The Australian remained unconscious for several minutes and had trouble breathing so he was airlifted to the Brno hospital. We’ll keep you updated with the news on Corser’s conditions when we have it.

Continue reading: WSBK Brno: NitroNori on Top in QP1, Corser Crashes Sent to Hospital

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On Saturday at the WDW Troy Bayliss confirmed that that he wouldn’t come out of retirement because he realized that “when I tested here I found out that things weren’t going that good and we ended up going around in circles. That’s when it hit me and it was hard things like that that I didn’t miss about racing. That completely I changed my mind and I spoke too early.” but the Aussie pensioner concluded the Ducati private test yesterday, riding the development bike and finishing ahead of both Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio. Bayliss set a best unofficial time of 1′35.6, while Fabrizio lapped in 1′36.0 and Haga in 1′36.4.

All the WSBK Ducati teams were present, including private teams Althea Racing, DFX Corse and Supersonic.

Here’s what the three riders and the team manager had to say:

Continue reading: Troy Bayliss Faster than Fabrizio and Haga in Ducati Test

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The Ducati drag race was the hit of the World Ducati Week with Troy Bayliss, Franco Battaini, Shane Byrne, Carlos Checa, Michel Fabrizio, Noriyuki Haga, Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner facing off on the the Misano straight in a drag race with Streetfighters.

It was a Desmo-dream and Noriyuki Haga and Nicky Hayden went to the wire with the Japanese Superbike rider crossing the line in 5,703s with Hayden a very close second and Troy Bayliss third. Bayliss also had fun with his burnouts, destroying the Streetfighter’s tires.

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When someone says never bet on motorcyle racing, they’ll use what happened in race 1 at Miller Motorsports Park as an example. Carlos Checa was leading the race with a dominant three second lead over Max Biaggi ,when disaster hit the Althea rider, his Ducati was struck down by a technical problem with just three laps to go handing over the victory to the Roman Emperor who cruised to his fifth victory of the season.

Checa and Biaggi would fight for the lead with a series of fast laps for over half the race leaving the rest of the field to fight over the rest of the positions, but halfway through the race with his tires taking a step down Biaggi had to concede the lead to an ultra fast Checa who was lapping easily under the 1′49 mark before his Ducati decided it had enough.

Leon Haslam took the second spot on the podium, despite a bad start that left him in ninth at the end of the first lap and having to contend with Jakub Smrz’s smoking Pata B&G Ducati, with the Czech rider having to retire at the end of the first lap. Haslam jumped up to two spots with a spectacular pass on Noriyuki Haga and Troy Corser and then found Leon Camier in front him. The Aprilia rider didn’t concede his third place easily, but Haslam managed the pass when Camier ran wide and the Brit would make the same mistake again letting Haga get by and allowing the Japanese take his third podium of the season.

Continue reading: WSBK Miller Race 1: Max Biaggi Wins as Carlos Checa Ducati Breaks Down

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Luca Ruggeri, Motoblog’s inhouse artist, as usual is a spot on with his comics and this time getting the brunt of his pen, is the Ducati Xerox factory team’s this year’s dismal and disappointing results with both Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio.

Here’s what Ernesto Marinelli Ducati Xerox Team Manager had to say after yesterday’s final day of testing at Misano:

“We’re going through a very difficult phase, perhaps the most difficult that I remember, but the important thing is to react and never give up, and in this respect the whole team is very strong. This test has been very important and the problems regarding lack of feeling (the hardest kind to fix), that both riders were citing at Assen, seem to have been resolved or at least greatly reduced. It’s a pity that Noriyuki was affected by the flu, but Michel’s solid test is certainly an important base from which to start at Monza, where we’ll give 200%.”

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Here are some great scenes from all the action of the qualifying round, Race 1 and Race 2 from the WSBK Valencia round, thanks to Bikechannel.com. We get a close-up look at some of the riders, including Max Biaggi, Noriyuki Haga and Leon Camier, some scenes from pit lane (including the girls strutting their stuff in platform heels in the middle of mechanics and riders), and some track action. If you want an idea of what it’s like to be right among the action, with SBK pit lane access, check out these videos from the guys at Bike Channel. More after the jump.

Continue reading: Behind the scenes videos from WSBK Valencia

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