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BRNO RACE NOTES

• Tenth consecutive front row start for Ben Spies;

• In race 1 the Ducati riders missed out on the podium for the first time in 24 races;

• Best career result for Matthieu Lagrive, ninth in race 1;

• With his crash in race one, Michel Fabrizio put an end to his streak of races in the points (fourteen). At the moment the rider with the best sequence is Jonathan Rea, with fifteen straight races in the points;

• Maiden podium in the Superstock 1000 series for Ondrej Jezek;

SPIES LOOKING FOR TENTH POLE: After the ninth pole scored in Brno, Ben Spies can aim for pole number 10 starting from the Nurburgring, his 21st race participation. If he manages to score it in Germany (or even by Magny-Cours later this year) he would be the fastest man in Superbike history to clinch ten poles. This is the list of riders who have scored at least ten poles, and the races they needed to post them:

Doug Polen (26); Troy Corser (61); Carl Fogarty (84); Troy Bayliss (91); Neil Hodgson (120); Colin Edwards (123); Pierfrancesco Chili (236)

FORET 100: Fabien Foret won his twelfth Supersport race at Brno and at the Nurburgring he will be the first rider in the history of the championship to count 100 race starts. He is followed in the record books by Katsuaki Fujiwara, only one race behind, and by the former record holder, Stephane Chambon (94), who ran his last Supersport race in 2006.

PERFORMANCES IN GERMANY

The SBK World Championship has reached a total of 50 races run in Germany, the second country for hosted races behind Italy (57), these races have been run at four different tracks: Hockenheim (1988-2000), Oschersleben (2000-2004), Eurospeedway Lausitz (2001-2007) and Nurburgring (1998-1999, 2008). The following table considers the results obtained in Germany on the aforementioned circuits.

• Max Biaggi on his superbike debut at the Lausitzring obtained two podiums in 2007, second and third, but he wasn't lucky last year at the Nurburgring, where he was able to rack up only a thirteenth and a seventh, running under considerable pain after a fall in the warm-up;

• Two fifth places were the results scored by Carlos Checa in the two races held at the Nurburgring last year. The Spaniard started from third, the best Honda rider on the grid;

• Troy Corser has a good feeling with the German track: he has scored four podiums in six races run here, winning race 2 in 1999 and going very close to winning race 2 last year (he was in the lead when the race was stopped). For him also three podiums in eight races run at the Lausitzring, while at Oschersleben and Hockenheim he was never able to finish inside the top three in eighteen races, even though he started from the front row in sixteen of these races. Corser started from pole at the Nurburgring in 1998;

• The best result for Michel Fabrizio in Germany is a sixth place scored in race 2, last year. At the Lausitzring he retired twice out of four races started and in the remaining two he was eighth and thirteenth;

• Noriyuki Haga has recently scored excellent results in Germany, climbing on the podium in his last eight races run and winning four of the last ten races. The Japanese boasts at least one win at all four German tracks in superbike history: he won race 2 at Hockenheim in 2000, he won race 1 at Oschersleben in 2004, then he won in 2007 the first race at the Eurospeedway Lausitz and scored the double last year at the Nurburgring; all these wins came without starting from pole. His best grid result in Germany is a second place scored in 2004 at Oschersleben and in 2006 at the Eurospeedway Lausitz;

• Yukio Kagayama recently has been very unlucky in Germany: he had to withdraw in both races in 2007 and 2008 due to injuries sustained in practice;

• Ryuichi Kiyonari is still looking for a top-10 placement: last year he was twelfth and eleventh;

• Fonsi Nieto finished all the races he started in Germany (six) within the top-10, scoring his best result at the Eurospeedway Lausitz in 2006, a seventh place in race 2 and in 2007 in race 1;

• Jakub Smrz has never been able to enter the top-10, his personal best being a thirteenth at the Lausitzring in 2007 and an eleventh last year at the Nurburgring;

• Ruben Xaus was second and first in the two Oschersleben races in 2001 and in the last six races run in Germany he always scored points. Last year he was sixth and eighth.

OTHER NOTES ABOUT RACING IN GERMANY

• Honda has not scored a pole position in Germany since Oschersleben 2000 (Colin Edwards, VTR 1000 SP);

• The most successful riders in Germany are Carl Fogarty and Colin Edwards, with six wins each, followed on five by Troy Bayliss and Noriyuki Haga;

• The rider who has scored the highest number of poles is Neil Hodgson with four, followed by Troy Corser on three (Hockenheim 1995, Nurburgring 1998 and Oschersleben 2004);

• Noriyuki Haga is by a huge margin the fastest rider in Germany, with eight fastest race laps. Carl Fogarty and Troy Bayliss follow on five;

MILESTONES IN GERMANY

In Germany...

Scott Russell (1993), Troy Bayliss (2000), Ruben Xaus (2001), James Toseland (2003), Lorenzo Lanzi (2005) scored their maiden wins;

Alex Vieira (1988), Troy Corser (1995), Pierfrancesco Chili (1996), Simon Crafar (1997), Lorenzo Lanzi (2005), Fonsi Nieto (2007) scored their first pole positions;

Christophe Bouheben and Virginio Ferrari (1988), Troy Bayliss (2000), Mauro Sanchini (2001) scored their maiden fastest lap;