World Superbike / Supersport 2005 - Round Four - Monza

Classic SBK Season Takes In Classic Circuit: The evocative and historic venue of Monza hosts World Superbike once more this coming Sunday, with the oldest permanent racing circuit in Europe always one of the most popular venues on the SBK calendar. Set in former Royal Parkland, the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza is a blisteringly fast ribbon of tarmac, with challenging corners as well as high speed sections testing courage and skill far more than the simple looking circuit layout may first suggest.

History and Modernity Meet: With extensive reworking carried out on the circuit’s facilities in 2004, yet the basis of the modern circuit laid on sections of the original 1922 track, Monza is a fascinating mix of old and new. The original oval banking, used for high-speed record attempts for decades, rings most of the current circuit, a monument to how long men and machines have accepted the unique challenge posed by such a magnificent monument to speed. The current SBK pace palace, Monza shows average lap times to be - despite the huge numbers of speed-attenuating chicanes – still over 190kmph. Of all the current SBK competitors only Pierfrancesco Chili and Regis Laconi have won Monza Superbike races; Chili four times in total, with Laconi taking the double last season.

Story So Far: Despite so many attendances at the Monza circuit the current championship leader Troy Corser (Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki GSX-R1000) has never quite taken a win at the Autodromo Nazionale, something he will be favourite to rectify this year. In contrast to Corser’s near perfect five-wins-from-six record so far, even his team-mate Yukio Kagayama’s challenge slowed somewhat at the last round in Spain, with the looming threats now seeming to come from other four-cylinder manufacturers, Honda and Kawasaki.

Four Front: The Spanish round at Valencia saw Winston Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR rider Chris Vermeulen score two second place finishes, and even more pleasingly for the non-partisan SBK fans, Kawasaki re-emerged as a true threat, with Chris Walker (PSG-1 Kawasaki ZX-10) also tasting top-three champagne, in race two. The presently all-conquering Suzukis have been fastest out of the starting blocks this year, but Honda and Kawasaki have already shown that any of the current breeds of litre road bikes can form the basis of a race-winning challenge.

Twins Tough It Out: The factory Ducati squad, and the few Ducati privateers in the series this season, will be hoping that home advantage for their machinery will turn the recent tides of their fortune. After an unfortunate entanglement with a back marker in morning warm-up at Valencia, Regis Laconi (Ducati Xerox 999F05) could not start either Spanish race and dropped down the
leader board, to sit fourth in the current rankings. 2004 champion James Toseland (Ducati Xerox 999F05) has had a troubled start to his championship campaign continue through all three rounds and six races to date, his tenth place in the championship a true reflection of how hard his title defence has been. Ducati privateer Lorenzo Lanzi (SC Ducati 999RS) will be present at Monza, albeit still recuperating from collarbone surgery after a high-speed crash at Valencia, when avoiding a competitor’s somersaulting motorcycle.

New Names Monza Bound: The relatively new technical rules and regs in World Superbike, combined with the latest generation of Japanese road going machinery, have allowed several new and existing SBK teams to mount serious challenges, even with riders new to the whole discipline of Superbike racing. Yamaha’s multi-pronged effort is being led at present by an SBK rookie – yet experienced Grand Prix competitor - Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France), currently fifth overall. One of several former WSS Champions in the field, Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) has had a fraught but fast introduction to his SBK career, frequently running with the leaders. Abe’s team-mate Sebastien Gimbert is another fast rookie who has shown his speed more than once. Proven World Supersport runners in the biggest league this year, Klaffi Honda, have adopted the most experienced current SBK competitor of all, Pierfrancesco Chili, and promoted 2004’s WSS Rookie of the Year Max Neukirchner (Klaffi Honda CBR1000RR). Having already been on the podium, Neukirchner is one of the stars of the show after only three rounds. Chili and Neukirchner have each lost points due to high speed falls, but enter Monza with the knowledge that they should be giving nothing away in terms of outright performance to any of their rivals. Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) is another high-profile SBK rookie this year, showing his obvious speed despite some misfortunes in race situations.

Prodigals’ Progress: Ben Bostrom (Renegade Honda Koji CBR1000RR) returned to the top ten fold at Valencia, overcoming some early season machinery issues just as soon as his technical package was completed. Both Bostrom and his Renegade team (In Ducati guise last year) are serial SBK race winners, and want to return to their days of glory before the season is out. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) is an old sparring partner of Bostrom’s and also awaits his first 2005 season podium.

Petronas Continue Development: Aussie pairing Garry McCoy and Steve Martin front-up the Petronas attack this year, running the unique three-cylinder 900s in their recently updated guise. Results in races have not quite matched some of their impressive qualifying performances, but it seems only a matter of time before one of the experienced duo rejoins the elite. At Monza, most of the other 1000cc machines may just be too much for either Petronas runner to overcome, but in the case of bad weather, anything will be possible. Another technical interest will be present at Monza, as Italian wild card Andrea Mazzali points at the future for an historic racing manufacturer with ambition, riding a privately entered MV Agusta F4 1000 MT.

Supersport: Winston Ten Kate Honda rider Sebastien Charpentier has shown strength and pace to secure two wins from three, and the championship lead. His team-mate Katsuaki Fujiwara has shown that the Ten Kate squad is once more the team to beat in World Supersport; especially now they are armed with a heavily revised CBR600RR. Currently sitting 1-2 in the championship, with all race wins taken between them thus far, their main competitors are Yamaha Motor Germany pilot Kevin Curtain and the Team Italia Megabike Honda runners Fabien Foret and Michel Fabrizio. When fully fit, Broc Parkes (Yamaha Motor Germany) will be another serious threat to the Honda hegemony.

Sunday - WSBK Race 1 - WSS Race - WSBK Race 2 - Pictorial Gallery
Reports - Corser - Ducati - FG Sport - FPR - HRC - Muggas - Pirelli - Ten Kate - Vermeulen - Yamaha - Coxhell

Saturday - SS FP2 - SBK QP2 - SS QP2 / Grid - SBK Superpole / Grid - Reports - Corser - Ducati - FG Sport - FPR - Muggas - Ten Kate - Yamaha - Coxhell

Friday - SS FP1 - SBK FP1 - SS QP1 - SBK QP1 - Team Reports - Corser - Ducati - FG Sport - Petronas - Muggas - Ten Kate - Yamaha

Previews - Yamaha - FG Sport - HRC - Ten Kate - Suzuki - FPR

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