World Superbike News

Andrew Pitt - Supersport Champion 2008

Andrew Pitt has signed a two-year deal to ride alongside Roland Resch for the Reitwagen Motorsport BMW team for the 2010 World Superbike Championship.

The double World Supersport champion and former MotoGP rider has been out of the World Superbike series for four-years but is keen to get back in the championship.

Pitt said;

“After four years I’m very happy to be back in World Superbike and excited about riding for such a dedicated and passionate team.  The team also includes plenty of very experienced operators and BMW are obviously serious about the World Superbike program, so I think this is going to be a great thing.

I’m looking forward to the challenge of a new bike.  I’ve been working hard on my fitness and I’m more motivated than ever to have a successful two-years.”

Leon Haslam - Stiggy Honda Racing 2009

It has been confirmed that the Stiggy Honda team will not be taking part in the 2010 season in either the World Superbike  or the World Supersport series due to financial difficulties.

An official team statement read;

‘The Stiggy Racing Honda team has over its five years of participation been very successful, but nevertheless found itself put in a difficult economic situation and has been forced to withdraw from the World Superbike and World Supersport championships in 2010.

The decision has been made after a close evaluation of the team’s poor economic situation, which was created during this year’s expanded venture by participating in both championship classes, a huge financial project that was poorly executed by the team’s investors as a result of failing to fulfil their financial commitments for the 2009 season.

The Stiggy Racing Honda team has since its beginning shown great potential, starting up in 2005 in the Supersport class, slowly building its ground in the championship and year-by-year advancing to finally set a solid mark as a top contender. The team managed its best result in 2008 by finishing third in the Supersport championship with Joshua Brookes.

Being a private team in a championship like Superbike – consisting of seven factory teams – means not only stiff competition on-track but also an immediate financial weakness, making it very difficult to survive without solid financial back-up and support.

Despite financial disadvantages, the team has been able to achieve incredible performances in its Superbike rookie year, debuting the season with a third-place podium finish and repeating another three podium places during the season including eleven top five finishes – giving Leon Haslam the title of best privateer rider in sixth place in the championship. The team ended the year as the fifth-best ranked team in both SSP and SBK classes in 2009.

‘[This was] a magnificent result by everyone involved with the Stiggy Racing Honda team since its beginning – an achievement to be proud of and one that allows it to finish its career with heads held high.’

WSB Valencia 2009

Many of the top World Superbike riders will begin testing today in a two-day test session at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, Spain.

Max Biaggi and Leon Camier will be on track to test the Aprilia Racing team bikes along with the teams test rider Alex Hofmann.

The Moto2 and the World Supersport series are also at the circuit this week, with the Hanspree Ten Kate Honda team hosting a full rider line-up from both the WSB and the WSS classes.  Jonathan Rea, Max Neukirchner, Kenan Sofuoglu and newcomer Michele Pirro will all be on hand to get to grips with the development of their machines.

Leon Haslam and Sylvain Guintoli will also be in attendance for the Suzuki Alstare team after both riders recently took part in a testing session in Australia.

James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow will both be putting their R1 machines through its paces for the Sterilgarda Yamaha team.

It is rumoured that Jakob Smrz will also be at the track to test the Aprilia despite their being no confirmation of a signing between the Guandalini Racing team and Aprilia.

The Althea Ducati team will not be making an appearance at the two-day test session as the riders Carlos Checa and Shane Byrne along with the rest of the team are still working on next seasons bikes after changing from Honda in 2009.

World Superbikes 2009

In 2009 the introduction of the new Superpole format took place aimed at cost cutting to help the financial crisis but for 2010 further changes have now been scheduled.

For the Superbike series there is to be a 14-minute session for Superpole 1, 12-minutes for Superpole 2 and 10-minutes for Superpole 3 but the 7-minute break between each session will continue as before, although the break between the end of free practice and the start of the Superpole sessions has been extended from 15-minutes to 25-minutes.

In Supersport the riders have been given an extra qualifying session to take place on the Friday afternoon at 5pm with the actual race now taking place 5-minutes later than it’s previous slot, starting at 1.30pm.

In the Superstock 1000 series an extra qualifying session has also been added to the Friday afternoon schedule which will take place at 3pm.

The Superstock 600 race will now take place on the Saturday afternoon at 6pm, following the two qualifying sessions and one free practice session.

Leon Camier - BSB Airwaves Yamaha 2009

The 2009 British Superbike champion Leon Camier has been confirmed as the rider to race alongside Max Biaggi for the Aprilia team in the World Superbike series for the 2010 season.

Camier dominated the 2009 season on the Airwaves Yamaha, taking the victory on 19 out of the 26 races and with 22 podium finishes.

The 23-year-old made his debut in the World Superbike series as a wild-card at Donington before replacing the injured rider Shinya Nakano for Aprilia at the Portimao finale where he finished the day with an impressive sixth place in race one and seventh in race two.

Camier will now be riding for the team full-time alongside veteran rider Max Biaggi who finished the 2009 season in fourth place overall.