WSBK guide: teams, drivers and challenges for the 2012 season
The World Superbike Championship (WSBK) is playing its 25th season this year! Site will cover the events almost live every Sunday, but invites you to discover now the forces in the presence of the WSBK 2012. Practical Guide.
Suzuki: towards a new era !
Like Honda, Suzuki is having a hard time in World Superbike and wants to come back to the fore in 2012 with an update to its GSX-R 1000 (read our). Like the Kawasaki Greens, the Yellows have decided to desert – momentarily? – the MotoGP scene and pretend to reinvest more seriously in the World Superbike.
Last year, only one Gex – that of the brave team manager Francis Batta – was entered in the WSBK. However, the sawtooth results of Michel Fabrizio (12th with 152 points) and the obvious lack of investment of the great Japanese pundits did not allow the brand to keep its third position acquired the previous year by the duo Leon Haslam and Sylvain Guintoli.
In 2012, the English Crescent team took over from Alstare and ran two sizes on its two motorcycles with engines carefully prepared by the Yoshimura workshop. Almost sacred in the English championship with Jack Valentine’s team, John Hopkins is naturally part of the adventure.
Or "will be part of it very soon", since the unfortunate pilot again injured his right hand during testing which is taking place at Phillip Island right now! "X-rays show I have a fractured bone at the base of my hand, near what’s left of my ring finger", explained Monday night the man with nine fingers (read)…
"It might be better to miss Phillip Island and get six weeks off after that before Imola, in order to get back to 100%", calculates the n ° 21, aware that he must be perfectly sharp to face and beat the top names of the world Superbike.
In top form last season, Hopper took advantage of an invitation to the England WSBK event to steal the show from Checa, Melandri and Biaggi, signing his very first pole position in a category he had too much. briefly seen in 2009…
Finally, if the two races at Silverstone turned out to be less prolific than expected (5th and 7th places), they will certainly have allowed the Crescent team to establish its notoriety at the international level and John Hopkins to whet its appetite. !
Because despite his false start, the Anglo-American pilot will race for the title this year, his first on a world scale. On the other side of the Suzuki box, the source of motivation will be exactly the same for the 2009 English Superbike champion, Leon Camier….
Arrived two years ago in the world arena by the big gate, alongside Max Biaggi in the official Aprilia structure, "Kamir" swaps the handlebars of the small RSV4 – "small" for his 88 meter! – against that of the "new" GSX-R 1000.
"We must be realistic", admits the new member of the Crescent Suzuki team."Our budget is not the biggest and the march has been high since the British Championship, but I am confident the team will be competitive, although it may take a few rounds".
From a personal point of view, the former Noale n ° 2 hopes, like Hopkins, that his health problems are behind him … Affected by mononucleosis last season, Camier could not "say how much it broke me", but seems to have recovered all his means this winter.
Twelfth in the championship in 2010 and seventh in 2011, Leon intends to do even better in 2012. But he will have to improve his statistics: the Briton has only climbed on the podium on seven occasions and has never settled on the highest market.
The task promises to be difficult: "I expect Jonathan Rea to be very strong, Laverty and Biaggi both BMWs (Haslam and Melandri, NDLR) and Checa will be the "usual suspects" … and John and I too, hopefully !"Leon said on his Twitter account..
Suzuki team
- # 21
WSBK: 9 starts, 1 pole - # 2
WSBK: 52 starts, 7 podiums
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