WSBK – Quadrupled from Ducati Xerox to Kyalami! – The pole for Spies

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Quadrupled from Ducati Xerox to Kyalami !

WSBK - Quadrupled from Ducati Xerox to Kyalami! - The pole for Spies

For the big comeback of the SBK World Cup in South Africa this weekend, Spies signed the 6th pole of his career – in 6 races! -, but Haga and Fabrizio proved intractable … In Supersport, Laverty and Crutchlow share the honors. Story.

Pole for Spies

That’s it ! Ben Spies (Yamaha WSB) equalized the record set 18 years earlier by another Texan: it was indeed necessary to go back to 1991 to see a rider – Doug Polen, on Ducati – do six consecutive poles at the start of the season. Will Big Ben make the pass of seven at home in the United States on the Miller Motorsport circuit? Suspense…

There was no shortage of suspense in the South African Superpole event and the gap between the two fastest pilots attests to it: only a thousandth – not a tenth, not even a hundredth! – separates Ben Spies from Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox): the American completes the lap in 1’37.288 and the Italian in 1’37.289 … You said tight ?

Laconi came out of the coma

Fallen in the first round of the first test session (read), Regis Laconi "could be operated on Tuesday on his two fractured cervical vertebrae "", said the FIM yesterday afternoon."The Ducati DFX rider was placed in an induced coma but came out and was able to move both upper and lower limbs. Laconi will remain in intensive care until his operation, then will be hospitalized for two weeks. He is expected in France at the end of the month". Patience, therefore … and courage Regis !

Max Biaggi on his RSV4 (Aprilia Racing) and Noriyuki Haga 1098 (Ducati Xerox), respectively 2 and 3 tenths behind the "two polemen", complete the first row.

In the 2nd row, we find the first CBR1000RR driven by the young Jonathan Rea (Honda Ten Kate), a third 1098 led by the specialist in qualifying ‘- and first private – Jakub Smrz (Ducati Guandalini), the second Honda Ten Kate from Carlos Checa and the second official Yamaha ridden by Tom Sykes.

We have to wait for the 3rd row to see the first GSX-R 1000 – that of Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki Alstare) – and the first S1000R – that of Ruben Xaus (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) – appear, respectively installed in 13th and 15th positions. Between the two, Shayne Byrne slides his 1098 (Ducati Sterilgarda).

Due to the "carnage" of Monza (read the start of the 1st round,), many replacements took place: we particularly underline the fine 11th place on the grid of Sheridan Morais, local of the stage, at the controls of the Tamada ZX-10R.

Back in the SBK World Championship, Fonsi Nieto only places Neukirchner’s GSX-R at a distant 21st position, while Steve Martin fails in 23rd place riding the Corser S1000R and Shaun Whyte, who exceptionally replaces David Checa on the R1 of GMT94, ranks 24th and last.

"Thanks to Shaun Whyte, we were able to go to South Africa "", relates Christophe Guyot’s team on its official website:"we met great people, James Dent, Paul, Jason, who welcomed us, lodged, transported us. Erwan Nigon will be able to take over in the United States: a great opportunity for all of us! Meanwhile, David Checa is preparing to return to Misano on the handlebars of a machine that will have evolved, thanks to the work that Martial Garcia is doing on the engine and Michel Guerre on the chassis.".

Supersport side, Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha WSSP) again largely dominates his opponents: by signing the record time of 1’40.634, the Englishman obtains his 5th pole in a row and leaves Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda Ten Kate) to almost 4 tenths !

Behind the Turkish driver, Eugen Laverty (Honda Parkalgar) and Andrew Pitt (Honda Ten Kate) complete the 1st row, relegating the ZX-6R of Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Motocard.com) in the lead of the 2nd ahead of Michel Pirro (Yam ‘Lorenzini) , Fabien Foret (Yam ‘WSSP) and Mark Aitchison (Honda Althea).

Gianluca Nannelli offers Triumph (Parkingo BE1) his best place on the South African grid: the Italian is 9th in front of the 2nd Ninja of the Motocard.com team driven by Katsuaki Fujiwara, the CBR (Honda Intermoto Czech) of Massimo Roccoli, the McCoy’s 675 (Triumph Parkingo BE1) and Matthieu Lagrive’s CBR (Honda Althea).

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