2002 World SuperBike Championship - Round 8 - Misano - Preview

Since its introduction to the World Superbike Championship in 1991 Misano has hosted some noteworthy races and delivered some surprise results. The circuit has a great propensity for producing double winners (seven doubles in ten years in fact), with the very first meeting giving early nineties SBK phenomenon Doug Polen the first pair of back-to-back wins.

A recent well attended Misano test session saw Troy Bayliss – unsurprisingly – head the timesheets, but as previous seasons have shown, the signals point towards the Misano race being as unpredictable as ever.

A clinical inspection of the 2002 statistics show that there has been one dominant force this season, Troy Bayliss (Ducati Infostrada). Winner of 11 of the 14 races run during the seven World Superbike rounds conducted so far, the reigning champ has been almost immaculate, never finishing lower than fifth. An amazing string of performances.

His race wins disguise one simple fact, however, and that is the almost equally startling form of Colin Edwards (Castrol Honda), his closest challenger in the championship. Only off the podium once, twice a race winner, Edwards tails Bayliss by a surprisingly small 39 points – a telling fact when you consider that there are 300 points left to fight for this season.

Realistically, there are no other contenders for the World Championship itself, but the battle for third went into overdrive at the previous Lausitz round – or even freefall if you were Neil Hodgson (HM Plant Ducati).

The Englishman’s DNF and eighth place finishes at Lausitz dropped him closer into the clutches of Aprilia rider Noriyuki Haga, a mercurial talent who has been suffering from some machine and set-up problems thus far, but can never be counted out of contention.

Closely on his heels is Bayliss’ team-mate Ruben Xaus, the leading Spanish light in the SBK championship, and thrice a podium finisher in recent races. Another factory Ducati rider, Ben Bostrom (L&M) is within a mere 22 points of third place, and as a winner in 2001, will be strongly fancied as one of the main men at Misano.

Pierfrancesco Chili (NCR Ducati) has shown flashes of his old excellence this season, despite failing to score a podium so far. He is the most likely Italian rider to score a podium finish on home ground, despite sitting only tenth overall.

No four-cylinder rider has won a Misano SBK race since Aaron Slight’s double in 1998, although as recently as 2001 Gregorio Lavilla took his Kawasaki to a third place finish in race two. Now a Suzuki factory rider, Lavilla will compete on his GSX-R750, in Alstare colours.

Chris Walker (Kawasaki Racing Team) holds the upper hand in the 2002 four-cylinder championship-within-a-championship, sitting eighth overall behind his countryman James Toseland, Neil Hodgson’s team-mate.

With regular Kawasaki pilot Hitoyasu still out through injury Lausitz SBK debutant Alex Hofmann returns for his second taste of ZX-7RR power.

In the privateer camp, Lucio Pedercini may well be the top finisher, but Steve Martin, Alessandro Antonello and numerous others may raise their game enough to score top ten finishes once more.

The floodlights which line the tortuous layout of the entire 4.060km Misano circuit may not be needed by the World Superbike fraternity but they hint that Misano is a little out of the ordinary.

Good set-up is vital, partly because it eases the burden on the riders at one of the most physically demanding circuits on the calendar. All those changes of direction and a scarcity of places to relax take a toll on each rider’s mental and physical reserves, making Misano a far greater challenge than the somewhat basic layout and lack of elevation changes suggest.

In the Supersport World Championship, three riders are running up front, although a disqualification for Fabien Foret (Ten Kate Honda) in the last round at Lausitzring has dropped him from the leading pace somewhat. Leader at this stage of proceedings is 1999 Champion Stephane Chambon, closely pursued by reigning champ Andrew Pitt (Kawasaki Racing Team). Last year’s winner, Jörg Teuchert (Yamaha Motor Germany) has had a disappointing season by the standards of his winning 2000 season, but the nature of Misano favours good set-up and tyre choices rather than any current formbook.

Werner Daemen (Van Zon Honda), injured at the Lausitzring, is being replaced at Misano by Robert Ulm; the same rider who recently deputised for John McGuinness (Honda UK).