WSBK – At Ducati, retiree Troy Bayliss remains the boss! – Used DUCATI

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At Ducati, retiree Troy Bayliss remains the boss !

WSBK - At Ducati, retiree Troy Bayliss remains the boss! - Used DUCATI

On the occasion of World Ducati Week, old Bayliss assisted Haga and Fabrizio in their tests. Or rather ordered, as Troy is still in the game! The other drivers of the Bologna brand were also present, including a certain… Laconi !

A hot topic at the moment in France – although Vuvuzela’s World Cup is also in full swing … – retirement does not necessarily mean inactivity, far from it … This is in any case what the example Troy Bayliss !

Unbeatable Bayliss

So these last three days, on the occasion of World Ducati Week, Troy Bayliss he assisted in their work Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio. In reality, the Australian rather "ordered" them since at the end of these private tests in Misano, the irreplaceable n ° 21 sticks half a second to the Italian n ° 84 and almost a second to the Japanese n ° 41 !

In the family of professional pilots still "in activity" – understand who ride on factory equipment, officially, and who align more than honorable times -, Bayliss is a veteran: the triple world champion of Mondial Superbike hung up the leather two years ago and celebrated its 41st birthday on March 30.

But despite his "definitive" retirement (read), the "old" Bayliss remains in the game: his best time in 1’35.6 is only two tenths of the pole achieved last year by Jakub smrz.

Although he preferred not to go out on the second day – cooler and shortened by a downpour – Bayliss did not spare himself on the handlebars of "his" development Ducati. Like Nori and Michel on their official 1198s, Troy was testing new Pirelli gums obviously very to his liking..

"I’m glad it went well and hope my information will help Nori and Michel for the race in two weeks, but I’m also tired because we had a lot to do in this new edition of WDW, on and off. of the track", explains the" retiree ".

WDW: a good-natured atmosphere !

As expected (read), the charismatic Troy indeed took part in many activities, the most anticipated of which was undoubtedly the "Drag Race" challenge in which the greatest Ducati riders of the moment participated: Stoner, Hayden, haga, Fabrizio, Checa, Guareschi, etc. : a competition "for laughs" on Streetfighter which quickly turned to the competition of burn !

In the caption of its video, Ducati still delivers the name of the winner of this nice competition: "Haga wins the final !"

The Japanese rider obviously enjoyed himself but also applied himself, especially during the last day of testing carried out behind closed doors: "I enjoyed the WDW, my first as an official Ducati rider, but today we did a real job and I feel confident about the next race in Misano".

Currently fifth in the championship, Noriyuki cannot decently aim for the title this year with almost half as many points as Max Biaggi: 135 against 257! No.41 should not be buried too quickly, however, because the second half of the season has only just begun !

Last year against Ben Spies and after a half-hearted first part of the season, Nitro Nori had executed a thunderous end of the course, finishing only 6 points behind the incredible American rookie! Hopefully this year too, Nori will be able to recover … and will spice up the Biaggi-Haslam duel !

Like Haga, Fabrizio is fully satisfied with his tests: "it was great to do a few runs during the WDW the fans got to see how it was going". And Biaggi knows it: an Italian over an Italian in Italy makes tifosis hysterical !

But it was Monday that most of the work was done: "today was the only full day and we have worked a lot on our preparation for the race in two weeks"said Hurricane Mich ‘."It was extremely hot but the conditions will certainly be the same for the race so it will definitely be useful for us".

The 1198 are preparing for June 27

Credited with a 1’36.0 by his Ducati Xerox team, the rider is in reality content with his 1’36.2 – we are not close to two tenths and we understand that the timekeeper could have been distracted by a pretty ragazza in such trying conditions…

His compatriot Lorenzo Lanzi did not do quite as well on his private Ducati from the DFX Corse team: at the end of his 45 laps, the former student of Troy Bayliss – Lorenzo was racing alongside him in the official team in 2006 and 2007 – completed his fastest lap in 1’36.6.

Back in the Corsica DFX team, our national Regis Laconi completed no less than 70 laps of the Misano Adriatico circuit, recording a reassuring 1’37.8 … But Daniele Carli’s team is keen to cut all rumors short. or hope !

"Any idea of ​​returning to competition for the moment is premature and without any merit. Only the friendship between Regis and team manager Daniele Carli allowed these tests to take place, to the joy of the thousands of fans present at the WDW", insists the team.

The two members of the Ducati Althea team, Carlos Checa and Shane Byrne, also took part in these "private" tests – but in public! -, just like Luca Scassa (Ducati Supersonic) who will have to be watched out of the corner of his eye during the next WSBK event in Misano…

Laconi for fun

"The minimum objective is to keep my momentum going", indicates the Italian n ° 99, in constant progression since his start of the season in Portugal (for budgetary reasons, the Italian team did not participate in the opening round in Australia).

"A Top 10 would be a good result again, but personally, I hope to reach the 3rd phase of the Superpole", he adds, well aware of the fact that"Starting from second row is vital to stay in contact with the leading drivers".

Its gearbox ratios have already been validated, Luca will be able to focus during the test sessions on "getting good settings and some modifications to the electronics and clutchAfter which, the 2006 Italian Superstock 1000 champion will also try to delight "his" public, expected en masse for the races on June 27.

But the Ducatis will not be the only ones to seek the outposts and the victories: the four leading teams of manufacturers Aprilia, Yamaha, Suzuki and BMW are currently turning in Misano to fine-tune their settings … Only the Honda team Ten Kate has isolated himself at his home in Assen. Business to follow … on Site naturally !

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