Round 9 - WSBK 2011, Silverstone

[jhansen]

WSBK is back in action at Silverstone. Hopkins lead first practice.

In supersport, Gino Rea has provisional pole followed by Lowes and Scassa.

[jhansen]

Hopper on pole. Didn't see that coming.

[Dani Filth]

back to Checa trashing all of them

[gomick]

He did didnt he... Pity for Camier in race 1 - processional races?

How come Hopper was entered as "wildcard"? Where was the rest of the bsb riders?

[jhansen]

I am baffled as why Aprilia are struggling so much this year. Any thoughts?

On a sad note, Yamaha Europe have announced no factory backed superbike team in 2012.

[chunder]

I wouldnt say Aprilia are struggling much, I do think Biaggi is though!! And I dont mind that as he is a very arrogant, weird little man!

As for Yamaha, I would imagine all that will happen is that an importer run team like GSE or Graves will run a team using leased bikes, as they did in the past with Belgarda, the issue was that Yamaha Europe was funding the team, no big sponsor.

Lots of moaning about Ducati again,but it was obviously a DUcati track if you look at the speed of Berger and Smrz/Guinters in qually, and Checa lets face it is a class above most out there right now.

Also Batta forced to issue a statement saying he is commited to Suzuki, plenty of rumours linking lots of people to Kawasaki after Paul Bird's team have struggled and their contract is up

[gomick]

Committed enough to run 2 bikes? Heard talk of Crescent leaving BSB & going WSB... Be good if Suzuki entered a 600 too!

[jhansen]

Crescent to WSBK would be good news indeed. Also the chance of Yosh doing the entire series next year, although it seems unlikely. But lets face it, WSBK is becoming very expensive with GP derrived electronics and the like.

[chunder]

They are bringing in a one bike rul which will help a but,

It has with WSS this year actually, but some of the people out there are not even national level.

BSB looks like going pure EVO aswell soon which will also help

[jhansen]

Originally Posted by chunder

BSB looks like going pure EVO aswell soon which will also help

Is that like what AMA have done?

The AMA route has had successful racing this year, but near superstock spec bikes plus electronics seems a bit odd. I would rather see high spec bikes minus the electronics.

[one five five]

Originally Posted by jhansen

Is that like what AMA have done?

The AMA route has had successful racing this year, but near superstock spec bikes plus electronics seems a bit odd. I would rather see high spec bikes minus the electronics.

What needs to happen is, apart obviously from making it cheaper to build and run bikes, is for WSB, AMA, BSB etc... to work on getting common rules for Superbike Series around the world (WSB included)

For starters it means a manufacturer only has to worry about one bike

The WSB grid is also looking abit thin these days (not compared to MotoGP, but compared to the past...and to Moto2), Wildcards need to start being really encouraged again... maybe offer them free tyres or something as an incentive to enter?

[chunder]

The problemw ith wild cards in the WSBK is some countries now run a cheaper version of Superbike rules.

Not all rules are the same as WSBK, same as WSS. Used to be the same in AMA, their old Supersport rules were pretty much what we call Supertock here, a Supersport bike in the UK is a very tuned piece of kit.

The issue, let's be plain is, and always has been electronics!

It is the bain of my life while watching the last 10 years of bike racing, it ruins it, makes it more expensive and means that now, sadly the best engineers and data guys are just as important if not more than technicians and tuning guru's like Kanemoto, Yoshimura et al.