World Superbike / Supersport 2005

Two months since the Silverstone round the World Superbike Championship comes back to the UK to race at Brands Hatch, just before the summer break from regular on-track activities.

The classic track, not far from the capital city of London, has always offered a great show thanks to its undulations and contrasts, and always attracts a lot of SBK enthusiasts to enjoy the race.

The race will be anticipated most strongly by the series’ two regular English riders, James Toseland and Chris Walker, each of whom experienced differing fortunes in Brno recently.

At the earlier British round at Silverstone, James initially made up some ground on championship leader Corser, after scoring a third and a first place in front of his adoring home fans.

But still Corser is leading the Championship with 299 points, followed by Vermeulen (-94), Laconi (-112), Kagayama (-141), Toseland (-147) and Haga (-177). The latter offered an impressive performance in the last race in Brno when he scored his first victory of the season after a fantastic recovery from 18th position on the grid. The good news for Haga fans is that he loves the forthcoming English track.

Brands Hatch is a difficult challenge for the riders and a severe test for the tyres, offering relatively poor grip. The tarmac is smooth, worn, and in the World Championship races take place on the full circuit - so the tarmac changes in the second (and faster) part of the track, not usually used for most events at Brands.

For this reason Pirelli is bringing a ‘soft’ range of tyres. A hard tyre would not perform well on this track, because it would spin too much, not allowing the compound to work properly by ‘burning’ the surface of the tyre superficially, instead of a transferring heat evenly through itself.

It will be even more important than usual for the riders to find the right setup in order to make the tyres work well, and thus achieve the best grip.

For the rear there will be two different solutions with the softest compound. Pirelli will once more bring the 200-section tyre, having used it for racing in Misano, plus further testing and development during last week’s tests in Lausitz.

To the softer solutions, available in the two sizes of 190 and 200, Pirelli adds a medium tyre that represents a reference tyre for this track – already well known by the riders. The hard solution is represented at this meeting by a tyre that the riders would usually call soft – a perfect demonstration of the nature of the Brands Hatch surface.

The qualifying rear will also be new for Brands, available only in a single spec for all the riders, instead of the two choices they had in Brno.
Front tyre spec will also move in a soft direction at Brands, with an all-new solution never before raced, and one that sets the new soft reference point. In addition there will be two well-known front race solutions.

Supersport riders will find a similar scenario, with new soft tyres for both the front and the rear. At the front the tyre that is usually the soft choice becomes the medium, and a special solution tested in Lausitz completes the range of three. The same has happened at the rear: the soft becomes the hardest of the Brands range, and we have two new solutions to increase outright performance.

World Superbike / Supersport 2005 - Round Eight - Brands Hatch

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