Church of Choppers Blog: World Superbike

June 30, 2009

World Superbike - Donington Park

Fresh off of last weekend's round @ Misano where he clawed back a whole 5 points on Haga's championship lead, Spies rolled into Old Blighty still 48 points down. Qualifying saw Spies on pole (imagine that) followed Biaggi, Byrne, and Nakano. Spies' only real concern in the world, Haga, started from the middle of the second row in 6th spot. Will it rain? Who cares....I am perfectly aware that I can get some sweet financing on a Yamaha ATV and, no, I don't want to tune in Tuesday for NASCAR Cribs, so start the fucking race, already!

Race 1...Spies gets the holeshot into turn 1 followed by Biaggi and Haga. To be honest, there really wasn't too much to this race. Spies and Biaggi put a gap on Haga. Biaggi managed to stay with Spies most of the race...I'm pretty sure that was due to Spies going just fast enough to keep Biaggi behind him, but still in front of Haga. Smart ride. Further back, the Aggro-American John Hopkins did good in his first post-injury race to make his way up to 8th from 11th on the grid. Spies took the top step of the podium with his buffer-buddy Biaggi in 2nd. Haga cruised to a safe 3rd.

Spies

Biaggi

Haga

Race 2...Second race, same as the first (kind of). Biaggi gets the lead into turn 1 in front of Spies. Spies was just funnin', though and went past Biaggi intot he following corner. Biaggi's teammate, Nakano, wasted no time in running his rickshaw into the gravel and out of the race. Bummer. Not wanting to be left out, Biaggi did the same, but managed to get back on track...and get sideswiped by a passing rider in the process. Haga was the next to hit the deck, and he did it in spectacular style via a fast, but goofy-looking highside. Originally it was thought that he had cracked a vertebrae and broke his wrist. Turns out the vertebrae was an old injury, and he had his wrist plated-up. He should be back at the next round in Brno in about a month. In true Groundhog Day style, Spies would scurry off to take his second win of the weekend. With Haga out, it was up to his teammate, Fabrizio, to uphold the honor of Bologna. Fabri did his best, but the ever-flaptastic Haslam was clearly in a bigger hurry to get back to his motorhome (Google: Olivia Stringer) and forced Fabrizio to settle for 3rd. AMA stand-in, Blake Young, put in a good ride to finish in 15th. Fairly impressive considering that he just happened to be in Europe on vacation with Kevin Schwantz when he got the call to duty.