World Superbikes & Supersport - Donington

[fatman]

Certainly a dramatic day in racing.

Race one was a bit of a snoozer after Troy chucked it. I hope he can get back in the action soon as my fantasy team is counting on him.

It was tons of fun watching Biaggi mix it up in race 2. Can't believe he blew the last corner and handed the race to Haga tho.

[fatman]

So did Troy literally lose most of the bone in his little finger? That doesn't sound like something which would be easy to recover from.

[The Phantom]

He did - two joints were lost. I think with the surgery (and painkillers) that are available to these guys* we'll see him on the bike at Valencia in a couple of weeks.

* also need to remember that we are talking about Troy Bayliss - he had to be forced into skipping race 2 at Donnington!

[The Phantom]

Update on Bayliss:

http://www.mcnews.com.au/NewsArchive...yliss_home.htm

[patnicholls]

Well, time I wrote a few words about Donington. It was my first time seeing World Supers there, although I've been to every GP from 2001 onwards there and saw the BSB 1999 finale plus some car racing there also.

Things kicked off on Friday (before I'd even got there) with damp practice sessions claiming a few victims. Yukio Kagayama knocked himself out with a fall at the Craner Curves - there was no lasting damage but since he'd been knocked out he wasn't allowed to race. The Yamaha SSP Supersport riders - Curtain and Parkes - both went down at Goddards in separate incidents and both broke a collarbone to miss the race. They face a battle to be fit for Valencia. Sebastien Charpentier also crashed and mangled the metal plate already in his shoulder as well as doing some muscle damage; he unfortunately looks set for a long lay-off.

The first thing I noticed on the Saturday as I arrived was how small the crowd was, which had me a bit worried. It also got me thinking about how important it is for things to be planned well in advance to get the fans in - checking through site news archives the Donington round was only confirmed ten weeks before the event itself. So it was probably not that surprising that there didn't seem many people there (with the MotoGP in June and Brands WSB in August, I plan my trips in January)

Still, Saturday had it's moments - Superpole was certainly the most dramatic I've seen with Regis and Nori storming up the grid and three riders failing to complete their lap. It was also a good chance to get round the circuit and take some pictures, which I'll be sorting out in due course.

Sunday morning came for raceday and fortunately my fears about crowd size from Saturday were unfounded as plenty of people were in - the announcers told us 51,500 in fact. Excellent in fact for an event confirmed so recently.

And the races were good, starting with the Superstock 1000s. Ex-125 rider Michele Pirro shot out of the blocks and built up a fairly substantial lead in just a few laps, before a red flag brought things to a sudden halt. After the restart it was Pirro again but he was in a scrap with Ayrton Badovini on the MV Augusta, with Claudio Corti (team-mate to Pirro), Didier van Keymeulen (2005 champ of this series, just beating Kenan Sofuoglu in fact) and Nicola Canepa on the 1098cc Ducati (his team-mate, Aussie Brendan Roberts, is injured) fighting it out behind. Pirro and Badovini fought for the lead but came together at the Melbourne loop and both went down; Canepa took a narrow victory to give the new Ducati a dream debut.

Supers race one was next and it was a tense one, and again a couple of crashes in there. Troy obviously with his unfortunate injury, and also Alessandro Polita who was having a good race but came flying over his handlebars in front of me, he's damaged a shoulder and needs to recover also. Nori Haga made a shocking start but fought back up well to fourth from about tenth or 11th. And JT took and excellent win - the crowd loved it of course.

Supersport followed that, with Pere Riba on pole with Simone Sanna (who I'd watched come about 22nd in a 125cc race here a few years ago) in second, then Kenan and Barry Veneman completing the front row with plenty up for grabs for some lesser lights. Fabien Foret was the first major retirement, he'd crashed twice on satuday and looked off form all weekend, pulling in with engine trouble from outside the points. At the front it was a close battle all the way, but was interrupted after some oil went down and caused an accident and stoppage to clear up. The two-part race was still very close and Kenan got it in the end, just ahead of Robbin Harms (still awaiting his first WSS win), Katsuaki Fujiwara and then Craig Jones in fourth - banishing memories of his time on the Foggy FP1. Sanna took fifth ahead of a name to definitely watch for the future - 17 year old Davide Giugliano on the Lightspeed Kawasaki, who had an excellent weekend. Riba dropped to 15th after a ride-through for jumping the restart.

Superbikes race two went off without Troy B and Alex Polita who were off to hospital after their race one crashes. It was disappointment for the home fans too with JT breaking down from the lead, but the remaining fight for the win made up for it, and Xaus wasn't far behind either - much improved form from him or his bike which is great to see. A quick mention for Jakub Smrz who had a superb ride to 8th on a two-year old, untested Ducati. He is quietly being very impressive in his short WSB career so far.

All in all a good weekend for the spectators. Not such a good one for the guys with broken bones!

[NinjaMaster]

Glad you had a good time Pat and look forward to seeing your photos.

I was most impressed by Smrz, he looks like someone with a healthy WSB future. The Riba ride-through was a joke. I saw a replay and couldn't detect a jump and even if he did have a tiny jump, he bogged it and dropped back to at least 15th on track. Overall it was certainly an intriguing weekend that leaves plenty of question marks heading into the next rounds of the championship. Congrats to Aussie Mark Aitchison on a fine 4th in his first World Superstock ride.