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WSBK Phillip island 2012

Frizzle said:
I think on any track where there is a reasonable size straight the Aprillia's are going to smash the opposition.

The Ducati's were already slow in a straight line, but adding another 6kg from last year gives them no chance to even get in a slip stream.

Early call I know, but I'd be very surprised if Biaggi didn't win the title this year.
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Agree, but that Duc has some real torque coming out of those corners. Haha, not too early buddy. Aprillia looks real good. For sure it will be an all Italian brand title. If they both stay on and not make dumb mistakes or bad look, it should be an interesting two horse race for the title. There was a moment when in last year's season that Biaggi looked to lose his cool. If he stays focused like he did race two, he will be a hard man to beat.



I'm having thoughts about going to Miller this year. Checa owns this track, but the straight there is about 3 miles long, so it will be interesting to see what Aprillia can do. Also, by then Hopkins should be healed up. Based on how Camier preformed, I'm not gonna get my hopes up about Suzuki. I also expect Kawasaki to do well at Miller. Woe...hahaha, I think I'm getting waaay ahead of myself. Lets go to Imola round 2 first, eh? hahaha



Again, so good stuff in the races. Anybody know what the temp was out there today? Just curious.
 
skaface said:
Such sad news for the start of the season. I forgot to leave record on last night, stayed off net hoping to see the replay.



Respect to Haslam and Laverty for getting out there, bring the 3 Lions helmet out Leon!



Very nice shots, Frizzle, that shot of Johnny Rea is tops
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Thanks skaface.

Here is the same shot in full res 3888 x 2592 - Click on the image to zoom in

http://farm8.staticf...24f7d8f9e_o.jpg



Oh & Jumkie the temps were slightly cooler today. More humid today though Was around 32C at race time.
 
Frizzle said:
Thanks skaface.

Here is the same shot in full res 3888 x 2592 - Click on the image to zoom in

http://farm8.staticf...24f7d8f9e_o.jpg



Oh & Jumkie the temps were slightly cooler today. More humid today though Was around 32C at race time.
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Thanks. Wow, Friz, you are awesome dude. Your pic shows the chafing in the leather on his hump. That pic is insane. Again, you should contact some mags man. I'm sure they could use your stuff. Superbikeplane often uses pics submitted by fans. You should email them a few of your pics.



13299:Frizz 65.png]
 

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  • Frizz 65.png
    Frizz 65.png
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Damn friz what are you shooting with?



Jealous I couldn't make it, bought flights and tickets but had to use my leave to go to NZ for a funeral and couldn't get time off work
<
 
Baffy said:
Damn friz what are you shooting with? Jealous I couldn't make it, bought flights and tickets but had to use my leave to go to NZ for a funeral and couldn't get time off work
<
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Canon Eos 1D MarkIII - Cracking camera
 
Frizzle said:
I think on any track where there is a reasonable size straight the Aprillia's are going to smash the opposition.

The Ducati's were already slow in a straight line, but adding another 6kg from last year gives them no chance to even get in a slip stream.

Early call I know, but I'd be very surprised if Biaggi didn't win the title this year.
Click to expand...







Early to call but after that effort in race two, down to 24th and up to 2nd it was like I was watching a different Max to the one who defended his title last year, unbelievable.



I also have a theory that Aprilia are going to get a lot of R and D for free with the number of CRT teams using that donk in motogp.
 
Jumkie said:
My apologies to everybody, but I'm a cynic, so I'm just gonna say it, I'm not convinced Checa's Ducati & Biaggi's Aprilia are on par with the rest of the field. To see the Aprilia blast past the BMWs (fast bikes themselves) makes me wonder what is what. Its gonna be an Italian machine for the title no doubt.



So for me personally, I'll be watching the rest of the field carefully. What is going on with Kawasaki? What has happened here? I'm happy to see a green machine running with the front runners. Sykes was excellent on the starts. Takes a lot of balls to lead into the first turn. Good for him to make the podium.
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It definitely seemed like Max and Carlos had something extra special. Max was pulling 1.5 seconds per lap on Sykes and Rea in the second race. If something is up, I'm blaming Pirelli for pulling some pro-Italy BS antics. Max's bike in particular was on rails, and I think that's why he was launching down the straights so quickly. Whitham said the frontal area is an advantage for Aprilia. Probably is, but Max was past the other bikes before the start-finish which suggests a bit more, imo.



The new Kawasaki has an upgraded chassis, and now that Kawasaki factory have taken over the team, the bike is starting to come together.



Weirdest thing for me this weekend was the manufacturers championship standing. Italian-Italian-German. Just plain weird. Second weirdest thing was listening to Guintoli speak in a half-french half-cockney accent.
 
mylexicon said:
Second weirdest thing was listening to Guintoli speak in a half-french half-cockney accent.
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It's not cockney - it's East Midlands - Leicestershire to be precise. Such strange brogues are often the result of regional dialects colliding with foreign accents - particularly in sport. There was a Danish footballer called Jan Molby who came to play for Liverpool in the 1980's and learnt his English in the locker room (in the days when 80% of a clubs players actually came from the City or region that they played in). The result was a bizarre sort of Scandanavian Scouse. He also scored one of the greatest goals the Anfield Kop has ever seen.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS24uaOQKHM



I digress.



I do agree about the perceived inequities in tyre performance, but then tyre endurance was the Kawasaki's main problem last season, and PI has never been kind to the in line fours on that front.
 
great shots frizzle! thanks for sharing



great race 2 , the aprilia looks like its got +20hp but i can't be fooled into thinking that that ducati slides itself so gloriously for a second time, checa rides brilliantly and i don't see guintoli or smrz on checas level



biaggi, man of the day. forget the top speed advantage, how he overtook people in the corners was just awesome.

the best rider on the best bike, he has to be the favorite for the title



awesome performance by haslam, who knows what he's able to do this year when his wounds are healed?

melandri,whats wrong?
 
I think Sykes was always going to suffer with tyre degradation when comparing the Kawasaki to the Duc and the Aprilia. Max and Carlos are pretty smooth. I gotta say that I was surprised the way Biaggi just blasted past the BMW down the straight. Props to Haslam.



Camier just cannot make a start. Be real interesting to see what Hopper can make of the Yoshi powered Suzuki
 
mylexicon said:
It definitely seemed like Max and Carlos had something extra special. Max was pulling 1.5 seconds per lap on Sykes and Rea in the second race. If something is up, I'm blaming Pirelli for pulling some pro-Italy BS antics. Max's bike in particular was on rails, and I think that's why he was launching down the straights so quickly. Whitham said the frontal area is an advantage for Aprilia. Probably is, but Max was past the other bikes before the start-finish which suggests a bit more, imo.
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Pirelli wasnt Checa's friend in race 1! Max's fastest lap was a new SBK record 1'31.7. Compare that with motogp's fastest lap being a 1'30.6. Amazing, the Aprilia is a motogp ready bike. The SBK Aprilia team is said to be the ex-factory 250gp, so maybe its not surprising.



Whats going on there, Rea was smoking the rear tire, where's his TC? Did anyone notice him on the last corner, I havent seen a power slide like that in years.
 
Damn....did anyone else hear the sonic booms when Max's Aprilla came down the front stretch? It's only one round but Checa and Biaggi look good.

Haslam is one tough hombre nuff said!

Was it me or did Rea's Honda seem down on power? Come on I want to see Rea fighting for wins!
 
L8Braker said:
Damn....did anyone else hear the sonic booms when Max's Aprilla came down the front stretch? It's only one round but Checa and Biaggi look good.

Haslam is one tough hombre nuff said!

Was it me or did Rea's Honda seem down on power? Come on I want to see Rea fighting for wins!
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I know its very early days, but I expect or expected Johnny to be at the very Sharp end this season. Honda have talked a lot in the off season about this being a year when they really apply some focus to their WSBK effort.

Normally when Honda really focus, they get the job done.

In my opinion, Johnny is certainly fast enough to win a title. Possibly not consistent enough ( especially with max and Carlos around ) to win a title yet.



But the Honda didn't look ready to challenge. Perhaps it was just the tyre issues. Hopefully heading back to Europe will give us a better idea of how the rest are going to compare to the aprilia and the duc
 
Arrabbiata1 said:
It's not cockney - it's East Midlands - Leicestershire to be precise. Such strange brogues are often the result of regional dialects colliding with foreign accents - particularly in sport. There was a Danish footballer called Jan Molby who came to play for Liverpool in the 1980's and learnt his English in the locker room (in the days when 80% of a clubs players actually came from the City or region that they played in). The result was a bizarre sort of Scandanavian Scouse. He also scored one of the greatest goals the Anfield Kop has ever seen.



http://www.youtube.c...h?v=KS24uaOQKHM



I digress.



I do agree about the perceived inequities in tyre performance, but then tyre endurance was the Kawasaki's main problem last season, and PI has never been kind to the in line fours on that front.
Click to expand...





Thank you. I had no idea what the accent was, but I knew if I rendered a bad guess, someone would come to my aid.
 
Willski said:
But the Honda didn't look ready to challenge. Perhaps it was just the tyre issues. Hopefully heading back to Europe will give us a better idea of how the rest are going to compare to the aprilia and the duc
Click to expand...



I think this is the issue hear. Hes at a disadvantage, after all, hes on a Jap bike.
<
No, all kidding aside, hes, I think Honda is down on a lot of things. The way it burned up those tires reminded me of BMW 2010-11. The way Kawasaki blasted past them, and to see Kawasaki & BMW dwarfed by Aprilia, well, the puts Honda low in the pecking order. JRea have better results in Europe.
 
mylexicon said:
It definitely seemed like Max and Carlos had something extra special. Max was pulling 1.5 seconds per lap on Sykes and Rea in the second race. If something is up, I'm blaming Pirelli for pulling some pro-Italy BS antics.
Click to expand...



The thought of tires did occur to me, but honestly, I have more faith in the tire situation here than that other series circa early 2000s. But maybe I'm wrong. I've always thought Biaggi's smooth style has always been kind on tires, but here the guys was riding aggressively to make up positions. Ok, so he's smooth, but geez, when he reached the podium positions, they were all smoking tires so dramatically that for a moment I thought there was a busted engine.



If I was going to blame something, I'd blame the leniency given to Aprilia & Ducati. It just looked way to lob sited to me personally, which fuels my cynical inclinations. I know Biaggi and Checa are good, but am I really made to believe they are this good? From last to 2nd? In fact, lets say Checa would have crashed again, that means Biaggi would have won after seriously going off track. If I'm to take this at face value, what does this say about the talent of Wsbk? Or, is this just the reality of this venue, and the strengths of Checa Ducati/Biaggi Aprilia at PI? I will say, there are some things that certainly could have helped us evaluate the parity, a healthy Laverty, Haslam, Hopkins.
 

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