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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Jonathan Rea’s first round of the season at Phillip Island was a gruelling affair. The Ulsterman crashed twice during the pre-season tests in Australia, one sent him to the hospital for scans, while the second caused by an oil leak from his Honda’s engine to the rear tire setting fire to the superbike and forcing him to dive off and picking up a dislocated left ring finger and pain in his wrist.

Gritting his teeth he managed to finish the races in 12th and 4th, but was worried that he had re-injured his scaphoid and ligaments. Returning home Rea was examined by his hand specialist and reported to have not sustained any further damages to his wrist and will be able compete at Round 2 in Donington on March 27, and should be close to full fitness with some rehab.

“I have just been to see my specialist in Manchester and he has given me the all clear and confirmed that there is no further damage to my repaired ligament in my left wrist,” said the Castrol Honda rider. “I only have some soft tissue damage to the right wrist. That’s really good news and all I have to do now is work hard in rehab to regain full function. It was really hard in Australia; it drained me of everything. When I got home it hit me two or three days later. Traveling home was a big effort and I also got sick at the end of last week, which knocked me out for a day. I think it was a mix of jet-lag and illness, but now I have got a spring in my step again.

“I should be close to full fitness in time for Donington, so I should have no pain like before. My dislocated left ring finger still does not have a full range of motion, but that is a minor detail.”

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With the World Superbike championship having kicked off at Phillip Island two week’s ago, WSBK.com on their YouTube channel are giving us their post weekend magazine video of the Superbikes and Supersport races, which is a great chance to see again Carlos Checa and Luca Scassa win their respective races.

Besides the race highlights, Steve Martin also gives us close up look of the bike to beat this year, the Aprilia RSV4 Factory and it’s 2011 technical developments.

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The 2011 World Superbike championship kicked off in fine style even if round 1 was more or less what we expected from Carlos Checa who ended a perfect week with a double victory at Phillip Island.

The Spaniard wiped up in the points standings, with Max Biaggi following with a double second place, while Leon Haslam and Marco Melandri shared the limelight for the third spot on the podium.

Check out the highlight videos from round 1 and the post race interviews with Checa who today certainly didn’t make us miss the Ducati factory team and now we have to wait a full month to see more Superbike action.

Continue reading: Video highlights from WSBK round 1 at Phillip Island

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Carlos Checa dominated all the practice and qualifying sessions at Phillip Island, but almost lost the first Superpole of the 2011 season to hard charging reigning World Champion Max Biaggi.

The Althea Ducati rider managed to retain the first position on tomorrow’s grid by a mere 0.013s from Biaggi, who evidently fixed the chattering problems that he had declared that his Aprilia RSV4 had been having.

The Spaniard was the fastest during the first two stints, but during SP3 Biaggi managed to lay down a 1.30.895 lap that propelled him to the top of the timesheets while breaking the lap record, but Checa wasn’t done and blazed through the tortuous Australian track with his Ducati and a 1.30.882 lap was enough to pip the Italian for the pole position.

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island: Carlos Checa pips Max Biaggi in Superpole duel

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The first round of the 2011 World Superbike Championship officially got underway today at Phillip Island in perfect racing weather, where Carlos Checa easily dominated both free practice 1 and qualifying practice 1 which puts him in provisional pole position.

Tomorrow’s QP2 will be decisive on who’ll be allowed to progess to the Superpole qualification, as the latest format tweak will allow only sixteen riders get a chance to battle it out in the three stint session.

More rider quotes and photos after the jump.

Carlos Checa:

“We worked really well today, concentrating mainly on the tyres. We have a clearer idea of which race tyres to use and I’d say that we’re back in a position where we’re experiencing the same sensations as last year. Unfortunately I fell this morning at the second corner. I was having difficulty shifting down, meaning that I hit neutral and lost the front. Anyway the problem was quickly solved by my always efficient technicians. Today we worked more on tyres while tomorrow we have other things to try, but I admit that I’m feeling very confident for now.”

Continue reading: Photo Gallery and rider quotes from Phillip Island

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The 2011 World Superbike season has finally kicked off and Althea Ducati’s Carlo Checa was once again on top of the timesheets at Phillip Island, leading both FP1 and QP1 today.

The Spaniard continued his domination of the Australian circuit, just as he did during during this week’s earlier pre-season test, making him by sheer speed the man to beat in this opening round.

Checa, despite an early crash led the field in FP1 with a best lap of 1’31.647, leaving his closest rival Jonathan Rea,who had a big off during the last test, in second and adrift more than six tenths of a second.

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island: Carlos Checa leads in both FP1 and QP1

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Chris Vermeulen has decided not to take part in the opening WSBK round at Phillip Island and will be replaced by 39-year old Akira Yanagawa, Kawasaki’s test rider.

Vermeulen has been struggling for year to recover from his knee injury and the subsequent two surgeries after his crash during race two at Phillip Island.

The Aussie tried to take part in the massive Kawasaki test at Sepang, in the middle of January, but managed to ride for only a few laps of the first day before pain and swelling in his knee forced him to pull out of the test and further concentrate on his physical rehab. Vermeulen and his doctors are hoping that with another four weeks of treatment and training he’ll be 100% fit for the Donington Park round.

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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

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The long wait is over and no more testing, we’re finally going to see some real racing action as the 1st round of WSBK kicks off this weekend at Phillip Island.

Satellite rider Carlos Checa on his Althea Ducati led the top of the charts in today’s QP1with a best lap of 1′32″155, but official Ducati factory rider Michel Fabrizio was just a mere 0.007 from the Spanish rider. Leon Haslam was third, two tenths from Checa with his Suzuki followed by Checa’s team mate, Shane Byrne in fourth

There were four Ducati riders in the top five positions, with Noriyuki Haga taking fifth place. Max Biaggi was sixth on the Aprilia-Alitalia. The first Honda CBR1000RR to make it in the top ten was Jonathan Rea in seventh followed by Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki Alstare) and Jakub Smrz finished in ninth with Cal Cruchlow in 10th.

Despite hot and dry weather conditions, the session was scattered with numerous riders crashing their bikes; including today’s QP1 leader Checa. Shane Byrne highsided trying to better his times. Max Biaggi also crashed as did BMW’s Troy Corser and team mate Ruben Xaus, who totalled three crashes today. James Toseland also binned his Yamaha R1, leaving the English rider with a very sore left wrist.

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island: Carlos Checa leads in QP1

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