Circuit Information
Length: 4.542 Km
Pole position: Left
Corners: 17
Left corners: 6
Right corners: 11
Corner radius: 11
Finish length: 300 m
Weather courtesy of Weather.com
- Friday - 55°F 38° Partly Cloudy 10%
NNE 14 mph - Saturday - 58° 39° Sunny 0%
N 12 mph - Sunday - 57° 40° Partly Cloudy 10%
NNE 8 mph
"Racing back to the top"
Aruba.it Racing Ducati
Chaz Davies #7
"Hey, let's hear it for the boy! Let's hear it for the man!"
Don't worry, I won't sing (or ask you to) the rest of the song. It should be noted, though, that Chaz Davies deserves every bit of the accolade. It is unclear to fans just how much technology leaks down from Ducati's MotoGP effort to aid their bid for a return to dominance in World Superbike. Still, the Panigale has seen some decided improvement since Gigi Dal'Igna entered the shadowy world of Ducati Corse. The initial release version of the bike seemed to be a rocket ship and worthy contender for the first few laps under former champion Carlos Checa, but the mystique and glamour died quickly and what remained had fans scratching their heads in wonder. With decidedly strong competition from Aprilia, Kawasaki and BMW (back when they had a factory backed team) as manufacturers, and with Honda especially and Suzuki occassionally having strong riders, maintaining a top 10 finish was a tough ask. Podiums were few and far between. Then came 2014 and Gigi's defection. The Panigale's fortunes were certainly helped by BMW's official retirement from the series, however there was no doubt that there was still something going on under the fairings. By the opening laps of 2015 there was a decided change in the mannerisms of the company's flagship superbike. At the opening round, while the narrative focused squarely on the battle between Rea and Haslam for head of the pack honors, Chaz Davies not-so-quietly went about the business of putting Ducati on the 3rd step of the podium. Twice. While that may not seem like much of a feat, consider that in 2014 Ducati didn't see the podium at all until the 8th round. So to say that they have started the new year with a bang would be an understatement. If you doubted that it even was a bang, well maybe you should have watched race 2 last week.
Though he didn't make superpole, Davies had made his intentions known throughout the weekend by posting the fastest times right up to FP3. Haslam's pole seemingly came out of nowhere, the Aprilia rider showing a burst of speed that surprised even him. Until that fateful lap though, Chaz Davies ruled the roost. Race one may not have gone to plan, but smart men learn from their mistakes and race 2 was another matter entirely. Davies got an early lead on the field and never looked back. By the second lap he had the measure of every rider and had nothing to do but manage the gap for the remainder of the race. No mistakes, no mechanicals, no problems. Chaz is now officially the first person to record a win on Ducati's latest production weapon.
Being 57 points down may sound like a lot, but entering into Aragon Davies is suddenly looking a lot better as a championship contender, which changes the way the field looks by quite a bit. With their dominant performances over the past seasons Aprilia and Kawasaki were certainly the ones to beat coming into 2015, but the Ducati is now an unquestionable contender. Nothing puts that stake in the sand like a win in dry conditions with the field fighting at their best.
2014 - Ducati World Superbike - Panigale
- Race 1 - 4th
- Race 2 - 8th
2013 - BMW Motorrad - S1000RR
- Race 1 - 7th
- Race 2 - 5th
2012 - ParkinGo MTC Racing - Aprilia RSV4
- Race 1 - 6th
- Race 2 - DNF
Kawasaki Racing Team
Tom Sykes #66
Tom Sykes wasn't really having a bad start to the season, not really. Sure the former world champion was absent from the podium for the opening 3 rounds, but one has to consider that Sykes typically starts his season slowly and builds to a crescendo that has always kept him in close title contention. This season seemed to be not so different. It is easy to point at the success that his teammate has been enjoying aboard the Kawasaki over the same period, currently leading the championship by a respectable 26 points over next-in-line Haslam and a very healthy 74 points over Sykes himself, and give Rea the nod over Sykes aboard the green machine. However doing so would be to overlook some key points around how the season has developed to date. The most pertinent advantage that Rea probably has, possibly more important than his time aboard a less than competitive CBR that he forced onto the podium against all hope, has been the shift in rules to force the SBK grid to align more against superstock rules. While Tom Sykes is left adapting to the changes to the ZX10R and learning how to make it the most competitive that it can be, Rea has found himself aboard a slightly de-tuned rocket when he was used to a dry-docked freighter with the anchor deployed.
With all of these elements in play, it seemed that Sykes may have finally begun a return to form aboard the Kawasaki. The Briton set a blistering pace during qualifying that seemed assured of the pole until first Davies then Haslam squeaked by to push him to third on the starting grid. Though a minor setback, Sykes could take comfort in the fact that he had edged out his teammate and was poised to begin a run for the title. Qualifying, though, isn't racing and when the lights went out on Sunday a different picture emerged. Race one saw Sykes fight bravely for the lead, even setting a new lap record by the second laps of the race. Ultimately though he would falter midway through to finish in 3rd, exactly where he started. Race two was the true blow. Determined not to be outdone again, Sykes was in hot pursuit of Rea and David in the first four laps when "a small mistake" saw him pitched to the pavement.
The challenge now will be to regroup, recover and return stronger than ever. He has a good record at Assen thus far, and these early European tracks are where he has typically begun to show spectacular form. Sykes needs two strong finishes at the Cathedral of Speed if he wants to enter into title contention, because the gap opening to the front is quickly becoming unassailable.
2014 - Kawasaki Racing Team - ZX10R
- Race 1 - 3rd
- Race 2 - 4th
2013 - Kawasaki Racing Team - ZX10R
- Race 1 - 1st
- Race 2 - 2nd
2012 - Kawasaki Racing Team - ZX10R
- Race 1 - DNF
- Race 2 - 6th
Team Hero EBR
As a plan, it is so simple you would have thought that it was developed by underpants gnomes. It turns out that it really might have been.
1. Go WorldSBK racing
2. ?
3. Score points
The devil (not Roma) is in the details though, and it turns out that there is some rather tricky shimmy-sham that's supposed to happen in the middle. It is easy, as fans, to think that doing so is, well, easy. The grid itself loves to foster this belief, with marques such as BMW and Aprilia announcing that they are developing bikes for competition one year and then going on to almost immediate success. While BMW failed to wrest the championship during their tenure in the class, they quickly progressed from top 10 to podium threats and multiple race winners. Aprilia was almost an overnight race winner and championship threat, and famously earned their first rider's championship within 2 years which was an entire year ahead of their already ambitious (literally laughably so) schedule.
This would seemingly have put the EBR on the back foot however Rome was not built in a day. Both BMW and Aprilia have decades of competition engineering in their back pockets to draw from and even then BMW found themselves squarely behind the much smaller Aprilia due in no small part to their lack of road racing pedigree. So Hero has been struggling, and learning, and though it doesn't always show they have moved forward at a crawl.
Except that now it seems that they may have begun to take their first tentative steps. In dry conditions under the crucible of competition Nicolo Canepa scored Team Hero EBR their first point in World Superbike competition in Race 1 at Aragon. It was a small step, to be sure, but even Badwater starts with the first single and trembling step into the unknown. With the first point on the books, Buell will be looking to build on their finishes and hopefully start climbing the order.
