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Bayliss looking to move onto 4 wheels

Former MotoGP race winner and two-time World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss has hinted at a switch to four-wheeled competition when his motorcycle career comes to an end later this year.

The Australian has decided to call time on his Superbike career, but has made it clear that he wants to continue his involvement in motorsport.

And, having tested an Aston Martin sportscar and expressed an interest in V8 Supercars, there are plenty of options for him in 2008.

Speaking to The Herald Sun newspaper, Bayliss said his future options were open - and his only desire was to keep on racing.

"I don't think I'm finished with racing," he said. "All I know is I've had enough of racing world superbikes. I love touring cars. I'd rather watch touring car races than any other racing. It's close and it's full-on, just like superbikes."

A move to the V8 Supercar series would be most likely, with Bayliss having made it clear that he does not want to keep travelling to the extent that he does at the moment.

"I'm still going to be involved in motor sport in some shape or form," he explained. "I'm not sure what exactly, but it won't involve too much travel. I'm over planes

"The travel, the time away from family. I've had enough of all that."

Posted by All4Racing on March 05 2008 07:49:50 · 14 Reads

Phillip Island - Qualifying

Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB) heads the field after the first qualifying session for the Australian Round of the World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island. The 36-year-old Australian, who stands to become the record holder for Superbike rider presence this weekend, set a time of 1 minute 32.336 on his Yamaha YZF-R1 to clinch the overnight pole.

Fellow Aussie Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) was a shade slower at 1’32.374 on his Ducati 1098, with team-mate Michel Fabrizio another tenth behind in third. “The track is a bit bumpier each time we go out, even compared to the winter tests we did here” commented Corser. “I’m happy enough with that but we’ve still got work to do on the settings for race day. It’s only Friday but I’m pretty happy with the performance on this first day”.

“Maybe because of the rain yesterday, there’s still not fantastic grip on the track, but we tried a few different things to deal with it. We only made a few small changes between the free practice and the afternoon qualifying and things are going well, but I’m looking forward to tomorrow and Superpole”, said Bayliss.

“I was really happy with that, we didn’t change much between the morning and the afternoon session. We’ve been working mainly on the tyre set-up and for the moment it’s all good. It’ll all depend on the weather on Sunday but so far, so good”, declared Fabrizio.

Half-way through the session, the standings had an unfamiliar look about them, as Jakub Smrz (Guandalini Ducati) headed Max Neukirchner (Alstare Suzuki), but the Czech rider crashed out shortly before the end and the German slipped down to fourth ahead of Smrz. Max Biaggi was sixth on the Sterilgarda Ducati 1098, ahead of team-mate Ruben Xaus, who crashed, while Regis Laconi showed some progress in eighth on the PSG-1 Kawasaki machine. Spaniards Fonsi Nieto (Alstare Suzuki), race 2 winner in Qatar, and Carlos Checa (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda) made up the top 10. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB) currently lies in thirteenth place.

World Superbike – Q1 1. Corser T. (Yamaha) 1'32.336; 2. Bayliss T. (Ducati) 1'32.374; 3. Fabrizio M. (Ducati) 1'32.570; 4. Neukirchner M. (Suzuki) 1'32.808; 5. Smrz J. (Ducati) 1'32.827; 6. Biaggi M. (Ducati) 1'32.827; 7. Xaus R. (Ducati) 1'32.827; 8. Laconi R. (Kawasaki) 1'33.188; 9. Nieto F. (Suzuki) 1'33.269; 10. Checa C. (Honda) 1'33.283; 11. Holland R. (Honda) 1'33.340; 12. Muggeridge K. (Honda) 1'33.489; 13. Haga N. (Yamaha) 1'33.588; 14. Lavilla G. (Honda) 1'33.718; 15. Kiyonari R. (Honda) 1'33.995.

Posted by kerrmanningjarvis on February 29 2008 05:44:35 · 25 Reads

Phillip Island: Round 2 - Preview

The second round of the 2008 HANNspree Superbike World Championship takes place this weekend at the Phillip Island Circuit in Australia, just one week after a spectacular start to the season in Qatar.

Thrilling racing was seen in both World Superbike and World Supersport and more of the same is expected this weekend for round 2. Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) took the first win of the year at Losail, and the first win for the Ducati 1098, after an exciting battle with Max Biaggi on an identical Sterilgarda Go Eleven machine, while Fonsi Nieto swept to his maiden Superbike win on the powerful Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 in race 2. In Supersport Fabien Foret gifted the win to his Yamaha World Supersport team-mate Broc Parkes after running out of fuel on the final lap. With plenty of Australian riders fighting for contention in both categories, above all Bayliss and Corser in Superbike, a large partisan crowd is expected this weekend at the splendid Phillip Island track.

Form Guide - The first race winners of the season were Ducati’s Troy Bayliss and Suzuki’s Fonsi Nieto. The two riders’ respective team managers Davide Tardozzi and Giacomo Guidotti, gave their view on the opening races.

"We are very pleased with the result of the first race. We didn’t expect to be so competitive, especially because as the Suzuki showed in race 2, we think the four-cylinder bikes are still the favourites, at least at the Losail circuit" declared Tardozzi. "As for Phillip Island, I think things will be a bit different because we are sure that our bike, both judging from the past and the winter tests, adapts well to this track …and also because Troy makes all the difference!. As for the race in Qatar, we’re still clearly on a high, but we are starting to ‘mindset’ again for Phillip Island. We only expected to be in the leading group, to be close to the front but not to win. We were very pleased with the performance of our rider and our bike, and the tyres worked perfectly" said Guidotti.

"We did six days of testing in the winter at Phillip Island, three with the new bike, which formed the basis for the bike that won in Qatar and which we have here. The engine is very powerful, with a controlled delivery, and is very good at getting the power down. This is our current package".

Posted by kerrmanningjarvis on February 29 2008 05:44:03 · 17 Reads

Qatar Rookie Roundup

One of the many fascinating features of the 2008 SBK year is the number of 'rookie' riders, embarking on their first full campaign. There are eight full time new riders this season - GP winners like Carlos Checa, wildcard winners of the past like Makoto Tamada and absolute beginners at this level, like Russell Holland.

Here is a run-down of how the first time few got on in their first full exposure to World Superbike, and who looks like being SBK Superstars sooner, rather than later.

Carlos Checa (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda) : The best novice on show, Carlos was on the least developed of the official machines in the championship, the 2008 Honda Fireblade. With more miles and machine development time, he'll be in the top bunch, and pretty soon it appears. Silky quality from Spain, fuelled by determination to join his Spanish brethren (Nieto and Xaus) on the podium without delay.

Kenan Sofuoglu (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda Jr.) : Learned in race one, and was the top rookie and also the top Honda rider in race two. The Supersport champ is a super-competitive rider, and you could see him learning how to go faster with every passing lap in Qatar. One to watch for sure, maybe even in Australia.

Makoto Tamada (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) : Funny to regard a three-time SBK race winner as a rookie, but Tamada is certainly embarking on his first non-wildcard rides this year. At Qatar he struggled, as did his vastly experienced team-mate Laconi, so in context his 12th in race two was an impressive ride - on a machine that did not even get into Superpole. A talent and a half, waiting for his bike and team to gel properly before dreaming of more wins.

Ayrton Badovini (Pedercini Kawasaki) : On last year's often uncompetitive Kawasaki, he was a revelation in qualifying (12th before Superpole), and somewhat unlucky to miss out on points in each race in Qatar. He was only 0.138 seconds behind Laconi in race two at Losail! An instant star on the first day of school, he's a good bet for more of the same at the ultimate rider's circuit, Phillip Island.

Ryuichi Kiyonari (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda) : Struggled for pure pace from the start in Qatar, certainly in comparison to his team-mates, who are both rookies also. A class act, he needs to get his head around differences in the tyres and more importantly the numbers of top class riders in the field. Knows lots of the tracks because of previous GP experiences, but that was some time ago. Not the fastest learner when he started in BSB either, but two British titles show he can really ride.

David Checa (Yamaha France Ipone GMT94) : Although he did six SBK races a couple of seasons ago, he is a rookie for our purposes. A seasoned WSS and Endurance rider, he found the white heat of SBK competition a challenge, going 23rd out of 28 riders in race one, before a retirement stopped him in race two. He'll get better with experience, and his WSS heritage means he knows the tracks.

Russell Holland (DFX Corse Honda) : Another good rider at domestic level, Holland was workmanlike and efficient in Qatar, but not setting the desert on fire first time out. Another fast Aussie? Yes, but maybe it will be later in the year before he can show us all the goods - for reasons of machinery development, if nothing else.

Shuhei Aoyama (Alto Evolution Honda) : A good 250 GP rider, his small stature didn't help him to muscle around his 2007 Fireblade at the fast Qatar circuit. SBK racing has been a culture shock to him on many levels, but he is a favoured Honda rider, who has certainly got riding ability. If he can find the right development path for man and machine, he should be another fast Japanese in the 2008 mix.

Posted by kerrmanningjarvis on February 29 2008 05:43:28 · 17 Reads

HANNspree Ten Kate Honda out to improve in Australia

Last year's championship-winning HANNspree Honda Ten Kate team had a difficult start to the year at Losail.

A brand-new Honda Fireblade machine, and just three days of testing at Almeria before the three new riders in the team ventured out into the Qatar desert meant that they were not on the leading pace in the two races.

Carlos Checa used his many years of MotoGP experience to bring home the best result, a sixth place in race 1, but he ran off the track after a contact with Kagayama (Suzuki) and could only finish 14th.

Ryuichi Kiyonari and Kenan Sofuoglu had even more difficulty to reach a top 10 finish.

Team manager Ronald Ten Kate gave his analysis of the situation before the Phillip Island round: "We always knew that the first race was going to be the most difficult one for us since we have an under-developed or even non-developed bike, even though the feeling of the riders was very positive" he explained.

"With development ongoing I expect some good results here, or at least to run with the front guys and for sure when we're back in Europe we will be even stronger. We have some new parts, mainly engine, arriving here which will make the bike a bit better and should allow the engine characteristics to be a bit more friendly for the riders. We are matching so far the power of last year's bike but we want to take it a bit careful at the moment and we want to keep something in reserve because it's important to have a reliable bike".

"After these two rounds we will see what the real potential of the engine is and probably we can lift the bar a bit, but it is quite a bit more than last year's one. It can rev more and also from the tuning side there is a bit more room for improvement on the engine, so I expect it to grow during the year and be a real fast one".

Posted by kerrmanningjarvis on February 29 2008 05:42:06 · 21 Reads

Injured Kagayama to miss Australian Round

The opening round saw an unfortunate start to the season for Yukio Kagayama.

It has been confirmed that Alstare Suzuki's Japanese rider has a broken left collarbone from crash on lap 1 of race 2 in Qatar after making contact with Carlos Checa. Kagayama, who changed his race number this year from 71 to 34 in celebration of his Suzuka 8 Hours win, his age and his idol Kevin Schwantz, will be forced to miss the Australian Round of the World Superbike Championship this weekend, but he should be back for the FGSport tests at Valencia on 13-14 March.

In Australia he will not be replaced and his GSX-R1000 is being used by Max Neukirchner.

Posted by kerrmanningjarvis on February 29 2008 05:41:25 · 20 Reads

A Spanish party with Nieto (Suzuki) and Xaus (Ducati)

The second race win saw a battle up front between Corser, who led for nine laps before fading, Biaggi, Xaus and Nieto, with Bayliss not far behind. Max and Ruben both had spells in the lead but neither were able to shake off Nieto, who took over at the front with three laps to go.

The Spaniard went on to take his first-ever WSBK win, ahead of his compatriot Xaus and Biaggi. The two factory Ducati riders Bayliss and Fabrizio were fourth and fifth, with Corser finishing sixth.

"It's nice for me, I haven't won for four years and I'm really happy" said Nieto. "When I arrived in World Superbike it was really difficult for me. I worked really hard for four seasons and this is a dream come true. We are not yet 100% with the frame of the bike but the engine is the best now, today I won because I had a really good engine. I rode with my mind and never gave up".

Posted by kerrmanningjarvis on February 29 2008 05:40:44 · 15 Reads

Bayliss (Ducati) takes the win in the Qatar World Superbike opener

Bayliss had to work hard for the win from eighth place on the opening lap. He put his wheels on the edge a few times as he made his way to the front and then had a terrific duel with Max Biaggi (Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati) on the final lap to seal victory.

The Italian, in front from lap 12 to 17, went slightly wide and had to settle for second. Third went to poleman Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia), who ran in the top 3 throughout, while Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Go Eleven) made it three 1098s in the top 4.

Max Neukirchner looked impressive on the Alstare Suzuki, leading for most of the first half of the race, eventually finishing fifth ahead of Carlos Checa (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda), while Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) had a nasty high-side on lap 7.

"I guess it was special to take the 1098 to its first win and it's the first time I've had a win here at Losail" declared Bayliss. "I thought it was going to be between me, Troy and Nori, but Neukirchner surprised me and Max did a good job as well. It was a hard race, I got a terrible start and had to really ride hard to get to the front. I made a couple of mistakes, eventually when I reached Max I was on the limit. Then it was a matter of playing our cards, he went a bit wide and that gave me the advantage to come home to the finish line".

Posted by kerrmanningjarvis on February 29 2008 05:40:17 · 14 Reads

Corser grabs 41st Superbike career pole in Qatar

Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia) powered to the 41st pole position of his career in the opening round of the 2008 HANNspree Superbike World Championship at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar but he had to work hard to hold off the challenge of Ruben Xaus and Max Biaggi, second and third respectively.

Corser's time of 1'58.053 was four-tenths of a second quicker than the circuit's best lap, which the 36-year-old Australian set for Yamaha last year. Xaus and Biaggi, both on Ducati 1098 RS08 machines from the private Sterilgarda Go Eleven squad, were heading for a sensational 1-2 before Corser put in his quick lap. Alongside them on the grid for the two races tomorrow will be Alstare Suzuki's young German rider Max Neukirchner.

"I really like this track and the Yamaha seems to work well round here" declared Corser."Last year was a good result but now I feel more relaxed and at ease with the team. I've got to thank all the guys, they worked really hard in the tests which helped us a lot but now I've got to keep my head down and be consistent. We actually struggled a bit in the last free practice after making a few small changes but we went back to we know what works well and hopefully now we can go for the win tomorrow".

"The team is working very well, I was here testing and was really focused on this race" said Xaus. "The bike worked perfect, the team is incredible, Max Biaggi next to me has given me really more motivation and also more focus so what can I say? Second and third and front row for the team is fantastic!"

"I don't know if the factory is happy or not but we made an amazing job to be second and third" said Biaggi. "We have a kind of OK set-up for tomorrow, it all depends on the conditions. I more or less made an endurance run for the tyre and I know what it is doing. We will see tomorrow but it looks like it's going to be tough here as always".

"Today was not so bad for us, I was not testing here unlike my team-mates and I think we have now a good set-up" said Neukirchner. "For one lap we are really fast but I think we must try and do a good race to score some points tomorrow".

Lorenzo Lanzi (RG Team) will line up on the outside of the second row in fifth place on another Ducati 1098 customer machine, a fraction ahead of Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB). Troy Bayliss could only manage seventh on the factory Ducati Xerox 1098, ahead of Yukio Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki) and Carlos Checa (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda), taking part in his first-ever Superpole, while Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) rounded out the top 10.

Posted by kerrmanningjarvis on February 29 2008 05:37:38 · 17 Reads

Two Troys make early headway in blustery Qatar opening session

Two Australian double world champions were the first to make their mark on the first day of World Superbike action at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar as Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB) and Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) took the top two positions in the opening qualifying session. With violent gusts of wind making track conditions extremely difficult, the two Troys were the only riders to dip under the 2 minute mark, posting times of 1m59.627s and 1m59.853s respectively.

Troy Corser said: "The last tests we did here and at Phillip Island were useful for sure and I've got a great feeling with the bike, so it's a good start to the season for us. Last year I lacked that bit of confidence with the team and the bike at the beginning of the season but now I've got that and I'm feeling good".

"It's early days at the moment but we're feeling reasonably comfortable on the bike" declared Bayliss. "I think we have back now what we missed before, acceleration, but through the speed traps we showed that the bike is not a missile like everyone thought. We hope to continue this weekend and get a good setting but it was very difficult today because of the wind. My collarbone is healing quite well, I'm not such a young guy anymore, but I'm pretty confident on the bike with it".

Spain's Fonsi Nieto was next up for Suzuki Alstare, taking his GSX-R1000 to third place on his debut for the Belgian squad. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB) was on the pace of his team-mate for much of the session, the Japanese rider eventually finishing fourth ahead of Yukio Kagayama on a second Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000.

Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Go Eleven) headed three more Ducati 1098 machines in sixth place, a fraction ahead of Italian Lorenzo Lanzi (RG), who had missed the opening free practice session in the morning, and last year's race 1 winner Max Biaggi on the Sterilgarda Go Eleven bike in eighth.

"It's quite new for us, a new team, a new bike, new people" commented Max. "We don't have such great experience but I've got a guy from Ducati with me and I think we are going fine. But for the moment we are trying to know each other and what the problems with the bike on the track are. So far from the morning to the afternoon we improved a little, for tomorrow we really hope to improve and move further up".

Frenchman Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha France Ipone GMT 94) and Germany's Max Neukirchner (Alstare Suzuki) rounded off the top 10. The three riders of the championship-winning HANNspree Ten Kate team, Carlos Checa, Ryuichi Kyonari and Kenan Sofuoglu, continued to get to grips with their new Honda CBR1000RR machines during the session, but all three finished outside the top 10, while Kawasaki PSG-1 Corse contenders Regis Laconi and Makoto Tamada were down on the pace with their new ZX-10Rs.

Posted by kerrmanningjarvis on February 29 2008 05:36:59 · 22 Reads

Season gets underway this weekend

The 2008 HANNspree Superbike World Championship gets underway this weekend with the opening round in Qatar, the first in a scheduled 14-race calendar. The 2008 season will be the twenty-first of the championship, which began back at Donington, UK in 1988.

All the leading challengers in last year's thrilling championship – Noriyuki Haga, Max Biaggi, Troy Bayliss, Troy Corser, Ruben Xaus – are back again this year and they will be joined by a healthy influx of competitive riders from other series to make up an impressive grid of 28 permanent riders.

After the final days of unofficial pre-season testing for some of the top teams in World Superbike, the stopwatches demonstrated that a few well-known names in World Superbike will be the toughest to beat when the season starts. Not all riders were on track on all the Qatar test days last week however, and some of the other teams in the series had chosen to stay in Europe for their final tests.

Despite a broken collarbone, sustained in a Phillip Island test crash last month, 2001 and 2006 champion Troy Bayliss took his all-new factory Ducati Xerox 1098 F08 to the fastest lap of last week’s Losail tests, a 1'58.8, set on the final day.

"I'm pretty happy with how things have gone" declared Troy. "We had a brand new bike and it always takes a bit of time to run in so we hope that we have solved those problems before next week's race. I'm also pretty positive about my condition and I think I can say I’m pretty much back to normal".

Hot on his heels was fellow Aussie Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia), the 1996 and 2005 World Champion, who set a 1'59.0.

"It was mostly a shakedown test, with a bit of back-to-back comparison of the different bikes and I feel really confident with our starting package for this coming season. With what we found here today, I would be happy to go and start the championship tomorrow", declared Corser.

His time was matched by Italian Lorenzo Lanzi (RG Ducati) on his privateer machine, while Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) notched up a 1'59.3.

"It has been good to test so close to the start of the season and things went well with the bike. We only really had one type of tyre to test but I think when we get the real race tyres, we will be ready to go", said Haga.

Ruben Xaus (Ducati Sterilgarda Go Eleven) was on good form, and was joined on 1'59.5 by Gregorio Lavilla (Paul Bird Racing Honda), who returns to World Superbike for the first time in four years. Bayliss' team-mate Michel Fabrizio recorded a 1'59.6, ahead of Max Biaggi (Ducati Sterilgarda Go Eleven) who could not quite get below the 2'00 mark.

"I'm not completely satisfied by the results of this test and I haven't reached a good feeling with the motorbike yet" said Biaggi. "After the good testing in Australia I expected to find less problems here, but we learnt a lot, and now we know the work we have to do in Qatar, at the season first round". Despite this, multi-MotoGP and SBK race winner Biaggi is fully expected to be a threat in 2008, having finished third in his rookie season in 2007.

Makoto Tamada and Regis Laconi (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) had some bad luck when they arrived for the tests to find that most of their full spec engines had been damaged in transit and are thus behind in their preparation schedule.

The championship-winning HANNspree Honda Ten Kate team have only been able to put in only three days of testing at Almeria with their new Honda CBR1000 machine, allowing their three riders Carlos Checa, Ryuichi Kiyonari and Kenan Sofuoglu little preparation time for the new season.

The Alstare Suzuki squad from Belgium have also followed the Dutch team's example by adding a third rider to their line-up and Fonsi Nieto, Max Neukirchner and Yukio Kagayama were able to do all their preparatory work for the new season at Phillip Island.

Posted by kerrmanningjarvis on February 29 2008 05:35:40 · 21 Reads

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