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There Can Be Only One
Number of posts : 3271
Registration date : 2007-02-03
 |  Subject: Title rivals head for Valencia - without Toseland.  Sat Mar 17, 2007 5:09 am | |
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- The 2007 WSBK title contenders will be hoping to gain an advantage over current leader James Toseland during a two-day Valencia test, which the Briton will miss.
Toseland has won two of the four races held so far this season, handing the former world champion a 16 point lead, but both he and Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate Robby Rolfo will miss the Spanish test - held this coming Sunday and Monday - due to 'logistical reasons'.
In Toseland's absence, two famous names from the world of motorcycling will be seeking to find an advantage over the #52 for the forthcoming rounds; reigning double world champion Troy Bayliss and former MotoGP star Max Biaggi.
Both have joined Toseland on the top step of the podium with a win each this year, placing Alstare Suzuki rider Biaggi closest to Toseland in the championship standings, with Ducati Xerox superstar Bayliss a further 10 points back in third.
Bayliss will be teamed up as usual with his ever-improving team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi at the test, while Biaggi's team-mate on the all-new GSX-R1000, Yukio Kagayama, is hoping to be fit after a big crash in qualifying at Phillip Island.
The 2006-spec Suzuki Germany GSX-R1000 of Max Neukirchner will also be going for another giant-killing performance, while the similar spec machine of Superstock champ Alessandro Polita will power him back into the European season in his rookie SBK campaign.
After much early promise from the all-new Yamaha Motor Italia R1 machines of Noriyuki Haga and Troy Corser, podiums have proved difficult but not impossible to achieve, and thus the latest Valencia tests is of great importance for the top Yamaha team. Yamaha Team YZF's Shinichi Nakatomi is also set to be in attendance at Valencia, as is R1 privateer Jiri Drazdak.
PSG-1 Kawasaki's Fonsi Nieto will be back on his native Spanish soil at Valencia, while his team-mate Regis Laconi will be looking to find a more repeatable machine set-up with which to enter the next two rounds at Donington and Valencia.
The privateer Honda teams have been waiting for the European season to come back around, to enable them to gain much needed track time with their full-spec 2007 engine and chassis set-ups. The Valencia tests will be the perfect opportunity for such shakedowns before points are at stake again. For Steve Martin and DFX Honda team-mate Michel Fabrizio, and Alto Evolution Honda riders Karl Muggeridge and Josh Brookes, the first few races were tough challenges, but each rider has already scored points.
Multiple SBK race winner Ruben Xaus, of Team Sterilgarda, has already tested to great effect at Valencia this year and with even more track time on his year-old spec factory Ducati, he has already shown flashes of his old brilliance in race situations. In a slightly reduced season for Ducati privateers thus far, Team Pedercini rider Dean Ellison and Caracchi Ducati SC rider Jakub Smrz have had their work cut out, but on a 999F05 Smrz has made a strong early impact on the SBK midfield. The LBR Racing Team MV Agusta of Austrian Christian Zaiser will also be in attendance at Valencia, as he attempts to score the first SBK points for the classic Italian marque.
In the World Supersport championship, an exciting start to the 2007 season has seen two different race winners on two different makes of machine, and some old faces reappear in the championship top six.
Race one winner Kenan Sofuoglu of Hannspree Ten Kate Honda will not be at Valencia, nor will his team-mate and double world champ Sebastien Charpentier, but second place overall rider, Fabien Foret of GIL Kawasaki is looking forward to even more upgrades to his all-new bike. Foret and his experienced team-mate Pere Riba have been fast from the outset, pushing the best Honda and Yamaha riders hard, hard enough for Foret to take an unexpected win at Phillip Island.
Third in the series so far, Katsuaki Fujiwara is a returning hero of yesteryear, who has shown he is not a spent force in 2007 on an Althea Honda. Top Yamaha rider to date is Kevin Curtain, but he is still looking for his first win of 2007, after experiencing problems with tyre choices. His team-mate Broc Parkes was third at home in Australia, but is only 7th overall after a round one no finish. A full 29 WSS riders are down to test at Valencia, with five different manufacturers represented.
This year the Superstock classes, Superstock 1000 FIM Cup and the Superstock 600 European Championship, will monopolise the Valencia track on the first day of testing (17th March) with the World Superbike and Supersport teams then sharing track time on the two subsequent days, 18th and 19th March.
The next points scoring opportunity for the SBK and WSS rider, and the first for the Superstock riders, comes at the classically flowing Donington Park circuit on April 1. Crash.net | |
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