2009 World Superbike Championship Round 1, Phillip Island

[jim mcglinchey]

whoohoo, GSXR thous second and third, and nearly first and third, great race!

[Wim_Impreza]

Yes, absolutely. I enjoyed it a lot. What a great field and fights.

[tha_jackal]

Really happy for Haga to win, would be a great relief for him ..

Supersport race was off the wall, really amazingly exciting racing..

Delighted for Westy but also for Kenan, who had a really tough time of it last year..

Going to be a cracking season especially if Laverty and Crutchlow can find that little bit extra..

Cant wait for SBK race 2 now

[maxu05]

Great race, Nori did well to get up there as quick as he did. It could have gone either way though. Well done to Corser as well, 8th for BMW's debut is not too shabby. The only downside is the pathetic commentary on Foxtel prior to and after the race from McGee and the other chap,(don't remember his name). McGee might have been a fine rider, but he shouldn't be there on tv, he was woeful.

[Wim_Impreza]

Great racing in race 2 too as expected. Nice to see Stiggy has much success with the 3rd place for West in WSS and the 3rd place for Haslam in WSBK race 2.

The Xerox Ducati's were unbelievable fast in the corners. Good weekend for Haga with his performances and incredible fast starts. For me the most surprising performance of the weekend, is Régis Laconi. Last year I thought he must go to retire because he hasn't enough speed there and a lot of crashes, but he surprised me. Kyonari did not very well for one of the title contenders, but he had also last year a bad start in the first races.

Congratulations to Spies for his first, and absolutely not the latest, WSBK win.

WSS was also very good, but the result was as expected. Hopefully Ten Kate won't win again most of the rounds, but I am afraid of it. Neverless, it has been a fantastic race and there were the whole race a lot of fights.

[ChrisS]

After a long of season I was looking forward for some great racing and SBK didn't disappoint

Haga had a great start of the season despite the bad qualifying. Spies showed he is a true talent.

I was impressed by Haslam and Laconi, they punched way above their weight. Stiggy racing is doing some great work on its Hondas (both in SBK and SS) given they are a much smaller team that Ten Kate the top Honda team.

With all the preseason talk about the new Aprilia, BMW, Yamaha etc... I did not expect such performance by Suzuki in race 1, I hope their consistency improves.

Kawasaki, was once again disappointing, despite all the talk of factory support etc they failed to score points.

SS was a fantastic race from start to finish. I'm sure Sofuoglu, West and Laverty are really happy to be fighting for wins once again

[The Phantom]

What a great opener. Spies is the man! He and Haga are going to have some fantastic battles this year.

[Rod Richardson]

What an absolute blast!

Special mentions IMO warranted over the stellar performances of newcomers Spies, Haslam and a recycled and rejuvenated West as well as Stiggy Honda (hope they pick up well deserved sponsorship) Aprilia and BMW who showed their potential as forces to be reckoned with.

I hope that Celani can get Muggers' Suzuki going somewhere near as hard as the Nuke's bike.

[leopard]

Perhaps, the appearance of Aprilia and BMW this season is a remarkable notation. With more experience in racing Aprilia was supposed to outpace BMW performance, but the problem is not as such simple as it seems. There is probability that former boss of Biaggi, as reported here Franciss Batta will pledge a formal complaint that RSV4 is categorized as prototype bike and hence shouldn't be allowed racing in WSBK. In the event of the RSV4 riders finished in front of the GSXs it's likely the complaint was taken into effect yesterday. How do you see this?

The team riders abruptly changed right before the race commenced may result the same complaint.

[tannat]

How do you see this?

The team riders abruptly changed right before the race commenced may result the same complaint.

I guess the season needs some controversy. The tongue will get shaper if the Aprilia's start really performing..


I don't see Phillip Island as a very demanding circuit-fast sweepers with a few really tight corners. Losail will be a better measure of the BMW and Aprilia entries...