WSBK – Transfers 2009: the musical chairs of the Superbike –

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Transfers 2009: the musical chairs of the Superbike

WSBK - Transfers 2009: the musical chairs of the Superbike -

Each year, driver transfers for the following season are like a game of musical chairs. And this year maybe even more, with the departure of Troy Bayliss from the official Ducati team who is heading straight for his 3rd world title.

To replace Australian champion Troy Bayliss who is taking a well-deserved retirement – after three Superbike world championship titles and a few strokes in MotoGP – Ducati has chosen three options: Max Biaggi, Noriyuki Haga and Carlos Checa.

And while no official announcement has been made clearly this weekend at Donington, the Bayliss succession seems to have been won by Japanese driver Haga.

At the same time, we learned that Biaggi would have signed with Aprilia, which returns to the World Superbike with its RSV4 in 2009. The official presentation of the bike and the team could take place in Vallelunga in mid-September. The landscape clears up !

Haga at Ducati will be assisted by Michel Fabrizio, current Bayliss teammate in the official team. In support, the Sterilgarda team – which sees Ruben Xaus leaving for BMW and Max Biaggi for Aprilia – will entrust its two support machines to youngsters Brendan Roberts and Alessandra Polita, both from the 1000 Superstock championship. We are preparing the succession for the Reds !

But at Yamaha, the uncertainty remains: whether the fate of Troy Corser – whom BMW would like to recover! – not fixed yet, we also need to take care of the replacement of Haga … Not so simple, considering that the 2009 R1 will be entirely new and will require a lot of development work…

Corser being one of the best tune-ups on the field, Yamaha would do well to keep him. But that does not seem to be taken for granted, as the Australian would like to benefit from a motorcycle capable of winning the title … Let us not forget that Corser, who has two world titles to his credit, is approaching the end of his career. .. He would therefore like at least to equal the record of his compatriot Bayliss, who, barring an incident, will retire at the end of the year with a third title in his pocket..

As far as Honda is concerned, here too things are not completely fixed: Checa would remain first rider, assisted by Kiyonari already in place. The third bike could go to either Andrew Pitt (if he wins the Supersport title) or Jonathan Rea, whose young age and talent are assets for the team’s future in SBK. If Rea gets into Superbike, Pitt will team up at Ten Kate in Supersport with Turkish Sofuoglu, whose transition to Superbike this year is a real failure.

For its part, Suzuki remains in discussions with Francis Batta, the two parties failing to agree on the strategy to be adopted for 2009 which will again see a brand new GSX-R land….

Finally, at Kawasaki, the era of change seems to have arrived: the Greens could change teams and leave PSG-1 after the disastrous season that the official ZX-10Rs of Laconi and Tamada have just experienced. The contract could benefit the DFX team, currently at Honda, with the driver Karl Muggeridge.

As for the French riders, nothing is certain for the moment, although we can have some hope of seeing Regis Laconi sign with Christophe Guyot’s GMT94 team (see our video interview opposite). If this were the case, Regis would be exempt from running endurance races with the GMT. As for Sylvain Guintoli, we know he is in discussion with Yamaha to join the official team…

A. LAFFUT – Photos DR

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