News

With seven of the 13 WSBK rounds now completed the Superbike World Championship has offered up the usual doses of unexpected drama, rider and machine development and the inevitable stories of grit and grimace after some high profile injuries. It's a tough sport, no doubt about it. No matter how high or low the result has been on any one day, every single point has been particularly hard won in the first half of 2011.

As we saw at the start of the season there were many podium threats and riders good enough to guarantee themselves a top ten finish every time out. But with over 20 top competitors on perennially improving machines, you cannot guarantee anything in 2011.

Even the metronomic consistency and unshakeable composure of long-term championship leader Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) has finally been interrupted, as he fell at home in Spain last time out and lost a little ground to the two riders who have challenged him most often so far, Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia) and Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike).

All three of those riders have taken wins, but Melandri's team-mate Eugene Laverty and Castrol Honda rider Jonathan Rea have also put themselves ahead at the flag - twice at Monza for rookie Laverty and once at Assen for Rea.
Rea, a proven quantity as a race winner, is one of the unlucky few who have been hurt and held back by injury already this year, with big names like James Toseland (BMW Motorrad Italia Superbike), Chris Vermeulen (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Troy Corser (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) also getting hurt or taking a long time to recover from injury.

Laverty and Melandri may be the most high profile WSBK 'rookies' imaginable, but other riders have made impacts in their own way. Mark Aitchison (Kawasaki Pedercini) and Maxime Berger (Supersonic Ducati) are already impressing despite the illustrious and more experienced company they are keeping on track. Ayrton Badovini has more experience of Superbike racing than either of those but the reigning Superstock 1000 FIM Cup champion has now become a serious podium contender on his BMW Motorrad Italia SBK machine.

Kawasaki has a new bike for 2011 and it has proven to be almost the immediate top five contender they hoped it would be, with both Tom Sykes and Joan Lascorz close to the podium occasionally and now finding consistency as time goes on. Early days yet, but the green riders are very definitely on a top bike in 2011.

So far there have been no fewer than 12 riders who have taken podiums in 2011, including first-time top-three-man Sylvain Guintoli (Effenbert - Liberty Ducati). With Max Biaggi finally taking a victory in Spain there have been five individual race victors, mounted on four different types of machinery - from Aprilia, Ducati, Honda and Yamaha.