WSBK 2014...

Max Headroom wrote: »

Starts this w/e......Nice to see Eugene flying the flag for us again...;)...looking forward to seeing Lowes too, but most of all i want to see 10' tall Chaz Davies on the Panigale.......:D

Was going to start a WSBK thread today

I'm really looking forward to this year. I think that Laverty will push very hard this year.

Race 2

Not great for Suzuki to have that happen so early on, I wonder if its a case that they are trying to get too much from that engine to maintain competitiveness?
Eugene is a very tidy rider to watch on any machinery.

Grim. wrote: »

Was thinking the same this morning, hoping this isn't the case and it was something like a batch issue with a particular part, at least there's time before the next round to figure out what happened and try find a solution to it.

Yeah I'd be surprised if its any major issue, sometimes racing engines just blow. It's a shame it happened today and not in practice because Eugene looked very well placed to take the double

Grim. wrote: »

He's amazing to watch especially at fast flowing circuits like Philip Island

I've always been a fan of Eugene and he showed how good he can be over the last few years. I always bring it back to WSS in 2008 when he was up against Cal Crutchlow for the the title. That year the Yamaha was clearly the bike to be on (Chaz Davies won the title two years later on pretty much the same package) but Eugene on a second tier Honda (The Ten Kate squad and Kenan had the better bike that year) was able to come damn close to winning the title.
Last year on the Aprilia he always seemed to be chasing some good luck and his mechanical issues really held him back but with some luck he'll have a strong year and be in MotoGP next year on the factory Suzuki. It'd be great to see him get a proper shot at GPs

They usually put it up on Aertel but I don't remember them ever covering his results on the main sports news.

I think UTV have it on their sports bulletins as I remember them mentioning Laverty and Rea's results last year.

Sylvain Barrier was in a coma after a car accident last weekend.
He has since come out of it but remains in hospital
Best wishes for a speedy recovery Sylvain.

Deleted User wrote: »

What channel has coverage this year? A bump on race weekends would be good, love watching a Superbike race.

Eurosport will have the coverage of BSB and WSBK.

The next WSBK round is in Aragon on April 13th. The first round of BSB is the following weekend in brands hatch.

Max Headroom wrote: »

Sad to see this thread dropping down the list...goes to show that WSBK was always been the poor mans Motogp......it certainely is for me now that Motogp is ppv ....:)

I don't think the gap between races at the start of the season helps.

The Russian race has been cancelled which means there shall be a long gap mid season as well now.

EB_2013 wrote: »

Very impressive double by Rea. It seems they have sorted the Honda's out this year compared to last year when they were down on top speed. Just hope they can keep it up for the rest of the season and challenge the Kawasaki's who usually pill ahead in the races.

Haven't a clue what's going on with Suzuki, I expected Laverty to be challenging for the title after Phillip Island but it's been a disaster since then.

I think there is a couple of things at play here.
Kawasaki's usually totally dominant but at Imola suffering from tyre wear issues, Aprilia usually top of the heap alongside Kawasaki, suffering with tyre wear issues and falling away mid race.
Now the FIM have recently appointed a new technical director in Scott Smart and he is a pretty smart dude, ex racer crew chief etc etc.
He has said he is going to be looking for frames that aren't legal.
In other words that have adjustability outside that of what is currently permitted and maybe non-homologated frame thickness/geometry etc.
I wonder are these related to the current issues or was it just the track:D
Also it was mentioned that Ten Kate have a new electronics guru who was previously with BMW and is a bit of a genius with electronics, he apparently has spent a lot of time with the CBR which is running MotoGP electronics apparently.
This might have helped Johnny Rea with his bike although Haslam doesn't seem to be anywhere near Rea in terms of speed or consistency.
WTF is up with Sofuoglu's team? He didn't need another DNF at this stage.
Suzuki have a lot of work to do to catch up.

Flying yonsepang this morning for the weekend, first wsbk race of the year for me! Got a few bits and pieces lined up for it so ill post them here with a few pics over the weekend