Race one podium for Superstock graduates
At the most recent round of the Eni FIM Superbike World Championship at Silverstone the younger - or simply less than full-factory - championship hopefuls dominated the podium places on race one. And all of them are products of a system inside the SBK paddock designed to not only provide close exciting races, but to find the best young talent to make it to the top.
Silverstone race one winner Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) was of course youthfully extravagant and effusive in his late push to his first SBK win. But when you look at his background, he has used the Superstock classes to prove his potential, and actual, abilities. As a 15-year-old he won the Superstock 600 European Championship on a Yamaha in 2008. Moving to Superstock 1000 the year after he took one pole position, then the year after that he took his first podium. He moved to BSB in 2010, without the success he hoped for, but a return to Superstock 1000 with Ten Kate saw him score points and earn a ride in Superstock at the start of this season. He took a Superstock podium finish for MRS Kawasaki this year at Imola, before moving to the official Kawasaki Racing Team Superbike squad, where he has started out at electric pace.
BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet duo Michel Fabrizio and Ayrton Badovini are both well known in Superbike circles now, but both made their real early career advances in Supersport and Superstock. Fabrizio was Superstock 1000 champion in 2003, and Badovini the champion in that class in 2010. Ayrton had started out in Superstock 1000 in 2003, and after two years in Superbike in 2008 and 2009, he got his big break with the official BMW entry in 2010, winning in utterly convincing fashion. Badovini joined the podium club at Silverstone in Superbike but Fabrizio has a whopping 34 top three placements to his credit, having been an SBK rider for years after winning five podium slots in the Supersport class.
