Circuit Information:
Length: 4.542 Km
Pole position: Left
Corners: 17
Left corners: 6
Right corners: 11
Corner radius: 11
Finish length: 300 m
Photo Credit: Road Racing World
KAWASAKI RACING TEAM
Tom Sykes #1
Grey hounds like to run. They're lean, flighty and damnably quick. However, they can be even quicker when given just a hint of motivation. Some enterprising gentleman a long time ago discovered that if you throw a rabbit onto a race track the ever fleet grey hound will race away to catch it, much to the chagrin of the hapless bunny. To save our sensibilities the rabbit was replaced with a mechanical contraption that looked like a rabbit but was much more dependable, and was faster than the chasing dogs.
Tom Sykes is that psuedo rabbit.
Sure he could have been one of the hounds, but as it stands he is far and away the one to catch. Unfortunately for every single rider who climbed into bed during the off season, snuggled under the covers and then drifted off to sleep with wistful fancied of WSBK champship victories, Tom Sykes has started 2014 in a very different manner than he did last year. While an injury hampered early progress in 2013 the new season saw Sykes immediately competitive and earning an early podium in Phillip Island. Then last round saw him put the field on notice with the first double of the season. Gaining the podium in Assen last year while while still in recovery Sykes will look to start demoralizing the field with a back to back double this weekend.
2013 - Kawasaki ZX10R
[]Race 1: DNF
[]Race 2: 3rd
2012 - Kawasaki ZX10R
[]Race 1: DNF
[]Race 2: 8th
2011 - Kawasaki ZX10R
[]Race 1: 5th
[]Race 2: DNF
Loris Baz #76
The first rider hot on Sykes' heels is his teammate. That's easy enough to do in principle, considering that they're on roughly the same bike. In practice, however, this has proven somewhat difficult. While Sykes paid his dues developing the ZX10R into the absolutely lethal track weapon that it has become, Baz is the proverbial Johnny-Come-Lately to make use of the hard work. In his inaugural seasons he struggled, managing a mixed bag of success. This all seems to have changed for 2014, with the French rider already bagging his first victory of the year and standing on the podium in every race to date. This is a marked improvement from every other season, with Baz riding exactly as you would expect a factory rider to do. Sykes may have more W's on the books, but Baz is never far behind. Best of all for hash-tag seventy-six, Sykes does not have the world's best record at Assen. If Baz can pray at the temple of speed this weekend he may be able to claw back some or all of the ground that he lost two weeks ago.
2013 - Kawasaki ZX10R
[]Race 1: 5th
[]Race 2: 6th
2012 - Kawasaki ZX10R
[]Race 1: DNF
[]Race 2: 20th
Aprilia Racing Team
Sylvain Guintoli #50
Aprilia's veteran rider has a problem. Like last season he's gotten his inaugural win out of the way; and like last season he seems to be having a hard time finding the top step again. With the same number of wins as his former teammate who is now on a geriatric GSXR, Guintoli's performance looks just a little lackluster for 2014. The only saving grace is that Aprilia lost the services of he-who-shall-not-be-named, a fact which has hurt the Noale's brand racing endeavors in more ways than one. Still, Guintoli is currently on form for a repeat of 2013. This, undoubtedly, doesn't improve his standing with the powers that be. If Guintoli wants to right this ship, then his path is actually quite simple. He already has the most impressive results of this year's main protagonists courtesy of double podiums last year. So while others make the pilgrimage he should already be an acolyte at Assen's cathedral. Perhaps he could forgo the virgin sacrifice - Sykes has one in the oven after all, and Melandri's girlfriend Manuela is... well I'm sure that if his bed's cold on any given night he's got plenty of material to work with to keep warm.
2013 - Aprilia RSV4 Factory
[]Race 1: 2nd
[]Race 2: 2nd
2012 - Ducati 1098R Satellite
[]Race 1: 12th
[]Race 2: 13th
2011 - Ducati 1098R Satellite
[]Race 1: 11th
[]Race 2: 11th
Marco Melandri #33
Did I say that Guintoli had the most impressive results of the current protagonists? My bad. Allow me to revise that. If Guintoli is an acolyte at the Cathedral of Speed then Melandri is one of the priests. Melandri has one really good thing going for him this weekend - he knows how to win at Assen. In fact, not only has he done it before, but he's done it for more than just one brand. It's hard to argue against those numbers. Unfortunately he also has one very bad thing going for him as well - he is struggling to come to terms with the RSV4 Factory that he currently pilots. This has come as something of a surprise, as Melandri enjoyed a successful career in GP with Aprilia previously and under Max Biaggi's guidance the RSV4 was developed in many ways as a production 250cc racer. In fact some would consider the use of the word "production" somewhat of a misnomer for early versions. Ultimately Melandri is struggling to find the podium this season aboard what should be one of the most capable machines in the paddock. However he seems to have found something last time out. For the Italian fans, he'll need to take that, build on it and recapture the magic that he once had. If he can do that, then Melandri will complete the hat trick of wins for 3 of the top OEM's of the sport and become something more akin to a bishop or cardinal. He won't be pulling a Prince John and starting his own religion though; there's just too much to keep him honest.
2013 - BMW S1000RR
[]Race 1: 3rd
[]Race 2: 5th
2012 - BMW S1000RR
[]Race 1: 2nd
[]Race 2: 1st
2011 - Yamaha YZF R1
[]Race 1: 1st
[]Race 2: 2nd
Ducati Superbike Team
Chaz Davies #7
So if Guintoli's an acolyte, Melandri's a priest, what do we make of Davies? Not only has he won at Assen, he managed to pull the double in 2013 and upstage his more accomplished teammate (cough - Melandri). While Melandri has won on two manufacturers Davies at leas podiumed with two of them, one of which was a customer RSV4 that WSBK legend Noriyuki Haga struggled with the year before. That makes Chaz something akin to the white haired abbot in the old Kung Fu movies. He'll need that skill this weekend if he hopes to really put the Panigale on the top step, Ducati's latest having struggled in the past two seasons of competition. Chaz does, however, have an ace up his sleeve - the proverbial secret technique that only the old masters know and they break out in the final showdown. Except, of course, we all know what it is. There's no doubt that some of Gigi Dal'Igna's juju has been filtering down to the WSBK team, the production Ducati's experiencing something of a resurgence that closely mirrors the increase in performance evident in MotoGP where he has concentrated much of his time. The GP14 managed its first dry podium two weeks ago in Austin. Davies will be pushing hard to give the production team much the same.
A priest, an acolyte and Buddhist monk step on to a track; there's a joke in there somewhere....
2013 - BMW S1000RRR
[]Race 1: 1st
[]Race 2: 1st
2012 - Aprilia RSV4 Customer
[]Race 1: 4th
[]Race 2: 3rd
Davide Giugliano #34
So there's no cool intro for Davide - no religious or historic references or storied accounts of his exploits at Assen. Right now, I'm pretty sure he doesn't give a hootenanny.
Aside: For our international readers, a hottenanny, despite it's Scottish etymology is a wild, uninhibited celebration in the Southern parts of the United States that has evolved into a colloquialism for not giving a flying... err, hootenanny.
Back to the subject at hand, Giugliano is simply the person to have gotten the best out of the Panigale to date. Like Davies Giugliano comes into the newly minted Ducati WSBK team with RSV4 experience, so the pair have some understanding of the strengths that their opponents will seek to exploit. Chaz's previous wins out the window, Guintoli has had the Panigale closer to the pointy end more often this season. If there's anything that was learned about making the monocoque chassis work then expect Giugliano to exploit it to the fullest this weekend. Considering his penchant for physical racing, that may just upset the apple cart of more than one rider come Sunday.
2013 - Aprilia RSV4 Customer
[]Race 1: DNF
[]Race 2: 4th
2012 - Ducati 1098R Customer
[]Race 1: 8th
[]Race 2: 10th
