HAGA AND SPIES DOMINATE AT OPENING WORLD SUPERBIKE ROUND AT PHILLIP ISLAND
Japan’s Noriyuki Haga and American Ben Spies have begun their 2009 Superbike World Championship campaigns in blazing fashion at Phillip Island, sharing victories in the two 22-lap races in front of a record three day crowd of 63 250.
Haga was the first to jump out of the blocks, making a dream debut on the factory Ducati with a narrow win over Germany’s Max Neukirchner, before polesitter Spies (Yamaha) rebounded from a race one off-field excursion to win his maiden WSBK event on the all-new Yamaha YZF-R1.
After recent Aussie domination of the local WSBK round, this year there would be no repeat, with Troy Corser’s eighth place on the BMW in race one the highlight of an otherwise hapless day for the Aussies.
Instead, it was left to world supersport riders Andrew Pitt and Ant West to maintain some local pride when they finished second and third in the 21-lap race, won narrowly by Turkish star Kenan Sofuoglu in an all-Honda podium.
WORLD SUPERBIKES – WINS FOR HAGA AND NEW BOY SPIES
For Haga, it was just about the perfect start to the championship, and he’s already a 15pt (45 to 30) leader over Neukirchner heading into round two at Qatar on March 12-14.
Then it’s Honda privateer Leon Haslam (26pts), who heads a tight battle for third from Spies (25pts), Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki, 24pts), Michel Fabrizio (Ducati, 24pts) and Regis Laconi (Ducati, 22pts).
After a four-year WSBK exile, Haslam made a stunning return to the international arena with a third place in race two, while Kagayama claimed the last spot on the dais in the opener.
“Today has been my best ever performance at a first round and a great way to kick off the championship,” said Haga. “I’m very glad to be back with Ducati and I am planning on having a very good year.”
In race one, Haga and Neukirchner were locked together for most of the 22 laps, with no one willing to surrender an inch. The impasse was finally broken when Neukirchner nearly crashed at Turn Nine on the final lap, allowing Haga back into the lead.
From there, the Japanese star was in the driving seat, and he flashed over the finish line just 0.030secs ahead of Neukirchner, with Kagayama making it two factory Suzukis into the top three.
It was Haga’s 34th WSBK win, and his first at Phillip Island in 11 years. The victory also took him past Corser on the all-time winners’ list.
“I am very happy for the win because I crashed this bike four times in winter testing, but the team has done a great job to make the bike very comfortable for riding,” said Haga. “I tried to put a lot of pressure on Max (Neukirchner) in the last few laps, and I was trying to work out where to try and pass him.
“But on the last lap, he made that mistake and I was able to get past.”
The much improved Fabrizio was fourth in race one, with Jonathan Rea (Honda) winning a tight battle from Haslam and Laconi.
After the disappointment of superpole when a tactical blunder saw him qualify in a lowly 17th, Corser’s eighth was a respectable result, and he also set the fastest lap of the race – 1:32.726.
Spies ran off the track on lap one after coming off worst in some mid-pack jostling, but fought back to just finish out of the points in 16th.
Redemption for Spies was only just a few hours away, and his grinding victory over Haga was reminiscent of his epic battles with Mat Mladin in the American superbike title over the last three years.
After a stirring fight, Spies moved into the lead for the last time with four laps to run, and then slowly edged clear to secure a 1.286sec victory, with Haslam a strong third from Laconi and Fabrizio.
“The first race was tough and we just were at a bad spot at the wrong time,” said Spies. “In race two the battle with Nori was great. We kept the pace high and kept it between us.
“World superbike in general is so tight and people don’t understand how many fast people are here. It was great and I am glad to be here.
“I can’t say enough about the Yamaha — it was a great bike and such a new machine for the team. Hopefully we can now get some more out of it.”
Spies is the first American to win a WSBK race at Phillip Island since Colin Edwards in 2001. It also gave Yamaha a first-up victory with its revolutionary all-new YZF-R1.
Neukirchner, Jakub Smrz (Ducati) and Kagayama filled positions 6-8, while Max Biaggi (Aprilia) was running in fifth on the last lap before running off the track. He rejoined to claim the last championship point in 15th.
Biaggi had rallied in race two after finishing a distant 12th in the opener from a front row grid position.
Meanwhile, one of the stars of pre-season, Shane Byrne (Ducati), crashed out of both races, in the worst possible WSBK debut for the British gun.
Broc Parkes (Kawasaki) was 18th following his race one DNF, ahead of Adelaide’s Brendan Roberts (19th), Karl Muggeridge in 21st and an ailing Corser in 22nd.
Roberts (Ducati) was 17th in race one, while Muggeridge’s Suzuki expired with a mechanical problem.
CORSER FRUSTRATED
Corser was frustrated with a complete lack of grip in race two.
“I was stoked with the bike in my first race, and eighth (place) was good,” said Corser. “But in the second race it was a shot tyre on the rear. It felt like I was riding a wet tyre in the dry, that’s how much grip I had.
“There’s just seems to be no consistency in the tyres. It was exactly the same bike, exactly the same set-up, so all we did after race one was come in, new tyres, new fuel and then it was a struggle from the start
“All I want people to know is that there is not a problem with that bike and not a problem with me.
“It was sliding around after one lap and I nearly crashed twice – once at southern loop and another almighty crash at the last corner at Lukey Heights. I was so far out of the saddle, up in the air and fortunately I fell back on the bike. But 22nd is not where I want to be.”
PARKES DISAPPOINTMENT
Parkes was also upset, after promising lead-up form in testing last week.
“The first race was a major disappointment for me as I had a really good start and we had good pace early on, but I really struggled with chatter and finally a clutch problem took me out of the race,” said Parkes. “I didn’t get a good start in race two which set me back further in the field.
“This is the first race distance on the bike and it was one of the toughest rides I have had in a long time. I lost grip early on and still had issues with chatter, but I was determined to finish the race so we can try and get some progress on set-up and data ready for the next race in Qatar.”
Pictorial – Gallery A (SBK Race One)
Pictorial – Gallery B (SBK Race Two)
Multimedia – SBK Race One Interviews – Haga (1Mb) (1Mb)- Neukirchner (379Kb) (379Kb) – Kagayama (746Kb) (746Kb)
Multimedia – SBK Race Two Interviews – Spies 1 (700Kb) – Spies 2 (489Kb) – Haga (471Kb)- Haslam (584Kb)
Multimedia – Superpole Interviews
Multimedia – Pre Season Interviews
| SBK Race 1 1 Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 34’22.631 (170,677 kph) | SBK Race 2 1 Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 34’20.457 (170,857 kph) | SBK Championship 1. Haga 45 |
| Supersport In world supersport, Pitt and West battled hard throughout, but they were eventually upstaged by Sofuoglu. It was Sofuoglu’s 12th world supersport win, with just 0.153secs separating the trio after 21 hard fought laps. “I am really happy because this track is not easy, and Andrew (Pitt) was very fast from the beginning,” said Sofuoglu. “I was very worried, but my team did a great job finish first and second.” Pitt was a little bemused by how the event played out. “It was a strange old race,” said Pitt. “We rode at such a slow pace for most of the race, and it’s hard when you know you can go faster and you want to go faster at the start, but the tyres aren’t going to last until the end of the race. “It was a matter of tripping over each other until the last five laps, and that’s when the three of us stretched it out over the other guys. “I thought I’d saved enough rubber and had enough at the end, but I got caught in the wrong spot around the last lap. Congratulations to Kenan — he rode a great ride, and also Westy. It was good fun out there.” After peppering away at the leaders throughout, Mark Aitchison (Honda) made it three Aussies in the top 10 in sixth position, finishing a couple of seconds behind rookies Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) and Eugene Laverty (Honda). Camden’s Garry McCoy briefly made it into the top 10 on his Triumph, but eventually finished 14th. Russell Holland (Honda) and Shaun Geronimi (Suzuki) were 20th and 23rd. Multimedia – Supersport Race Interviews – Sofuoglu (793Kb)- Pitt (689Kb) – West (550Kb) |
| Supersport Race 1 Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Honda CBR600RR 33’42.156 (166,18 kph) | SS Championship 1. Sofuoglu 25 |
