FIM Superstock 1000 Cup battle heats up
Hoping to follow in their footsteps, the current protagonists of the FIM Cup have given life to four nail-biting races, and the most likely candidate for overall victory is Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet). In winning three of the four rounds held so far (Imola, Assen, Misano), the young Frenchman more than made up for his ‘no-score' at Monza (due to an injury to his left shoulder), but his momentary stop has also given some hope to his key rivals.
The first name on this list is Lorenzo Savadori, the former European and Italian 125 GP champion, who is just 11 points away from the top on his Barni Racing Team Italia-prepared Ducati 1199 Panigale. Winner at Monza, and the first man to take the new Ducati sportbike to victory, the Italian has now been caught by his team-mate Eddi La Marra, poleman at Imola on his debut with Ducati. La Marra is third on 61 points and has missed out on the podium only once, at Misano Adriatico. The promising young German Markus Reiterberger has still to step on the podium and is fourth overall with an alpha Racing BMW, but he is rapidly being hauled in by two men who have tasted the champagne: Lorenzo Baroni (runner-up at Misano with BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet, but unlucky in the first three rounds) and the surprising Swede Christoffer Bergman, who finished third at Monza with a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R of the BWG Racing team.
As the second half of the season approaches, the jury is still out on Australian Bryan Staring, capable of scoring an exceptional 10th place in Superbike race 1 at Phillip Island as replacement for the injured Leandro Mercado (another product of the Superstock 1000 ‘nursery') and Fabio Massei (Honda EAB Ten Kate Junior Team). Meanwhile the former European Superstock 600 champion Jeremy Guarnoni, has since Misano returned to MRS Racing Kawasaki as replacement for Loris Baz, who has already shown considerable prowess in Superbike; further confirmation that the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup is increasingly becoming a training-ground for future World Superbike champions.
