It started off on Saturday at Assen with Bradley Smith getting yet another podium, shame he didn’t get to celebrate it as it was awarded after a post race decision to dock Nico Terol 20 seconds for cutting the chicane. This gave the Aspar team a clean sweep of the podium with Sergio Gadea, Julián Simón and Bradley Smith taking Aspar’s podiums number 200, 201 and 202.

James Toseland then went on to have a thrilling battle for sixth place in the MotoGP race, which saw Valentino Rossi take his GP win count to 100. It was a six way contest for sixth place between James Toseland, Mika Kallio, Nicky Haden, Loris Capirossi, Randy de Puniet and Toni Elais. Which went from early on when it was a battle for eight right up until the last lap when after Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso crashed out ahead of the chasing pack. James led the pack in sixth for most of the race until the last lap when he was demoted to ninth only to be bounced back up to sixth by Mika crashing and Toni and Loris Tangling in the last half of the lap.

Sunday saw the World SuperBikes come to Donnington Ben Spies put on his usual show of winning, but the Brits put on a good show too with Shane Byrne getting onto the third step of the podium and Leon Haslam coming home fourth in the first race. The second race saw more drama as Max Biaggi crashed out of second and then Noriyuki Haga had a massive crash, these two crashes allow Leon up into second after a ding dong battle with Michel Fabrizio and Shane Byrne (third and fourth), Tom Sykes made up for a DNF in race one with fifth position ahead of wildcard Brit Leon Camier.

Cal Crutchlow continued his impressive form by winning the World SuperSport race to go 28 points ahead of Eugene Laverty, although this time there wasn’t the usual tit for tat battle between the two of them as Eugene fell early on and had to fight his way back up from 26th to 5th.

This coming weekend MotoGP goes to Laguna Secawill we get a repeat of last years thrilling race between Valentino Rossi and Cassey Stoner, can James Toseland continue to regain his form and give us the result we all know he can?

We have a four week break until the World SuperBikes and SuperSport are back in action at Brno

Posted in: Bikes  Tags: 125 gp, andrea dovizioso, bradley smith, ben spies, cal crutchlow, casey stoner, eugene laverty, donnington, james toseland, julian simon, leon haslam, michel fabrizio, motogp, noriyuki haga, shane byrne, superbikes, supersport, tom sykes, wsb, wss

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The eighth round of the World SuperBike Championship took place at Misano on Sunday, Race one started wet and Britain’s Shane Byrne got a flying start from the second row of the grid to take and stretch the lead on lap one. Byrne’s lead was almost 20 seconds at one point, until the track started to dry out and riders started switching to their dry bikes. Ben Spies managed to get his dry bike at the right time as he made his way through the pack up to Byrne before passing him in the closing stages. Jonathan Rea was looking good having qualified second, however stating from the pit lane and receiving a ride through penalty he still made it home in seventh ahead of Tom Sykes in eighth.

Race two saw Jonathan Rea start from his qualifying position and taking advantage of it spending most of the race battling with Noryuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio with the first three places swapping throughout the race and sometime lap. But at the flag it was Rea who came across the line first to take his maiden Superbike win. The day was made better by having Byrne, Sykes and Haslam in the top eight.

With Donnington and more British riders courtesy of wildcard rides next weekends round should be one to watch.

Posted in: Bikes , Bikes - Racing  Tags: misano, jonathan rea, michel fabrizio, tom sykes, wsb, shane byrne, leon haslam, noriyuki haga, ben spies

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The first start to race one saw the first corner claim five bikes and riders and the race stopped. Makato Tamada, Tommy Hill, Troy Corser, Max Neukirchner and Brendan Roberts all went down in two crashes. Neukirchner and Roberts both sustained serious injuries, Neukirchner suffered a broken right Femur and a dislocated left foot, whilst Roberts has a break high on his left Femur and also sustained a heavy blow to his throat. Tamada suffered a broken left wrist, whilst Corser and Hill both walked away and were able to join the restart.

After a lengthy delay race one was restarted and the battle at the front was between Ben Spies, Michel Fabrizio and Noriyuki Haga. This three way battle carried on for all 18 laps with the leaf swapping several times a lap, Spies looked to have broke Fabrizio and Haga, until with metres to go Spies Yamaha R1 ran out of fuel at the Parabolica. Speis misfortune allowed Fabrizio to take his maiden wins in World Superbike. Spies coasted home to get the final point in 15th. Jonathan Rea brought his Ten Kate Honda home in fifth, Tome Sykes claimed sixth on the second Yamaha R1, to make up for a slightly disappointing qualifying having been constantly on the pace in practice. Shane Bryne came home in 14th on the Sterilgarda Ducati, Tommy Hill brought his Althea Honda home in 20th place after getting tangled at the first corner during the first start. Lean Haslam ended the race disappointed when hi Stiggy Honda ran out of fuel.

Race two went a bit more as planned for Ben Spies as he managed to break away early and make his fuel last until the end to take victory in race two. Michel Fabrizio came in second with Ryuichi Kiyonari third, Jonathan Rea managed to claim fourth with Tom Syke sixth again and Lean Haslam getting seventh. Further back Saw Tommy Hil in 17th and Shane Byrne in 18th.

The standings at the top remain unchanged with Bot Noriyuki and Ben dropping point to each other maintaining a status quo, Michel leapfrogged Lean for third and Tom did the same To Max to move up to fifth.

Standings

1 Noriyuki Haga Ducati 200
2 Ben Spies Yamaha 146
3 Michel Fabrizio Ducati 125
4 Leon Haslam Honda 103
5 Tom Sykes Yamaha 90

8 Jonathan Rea Honda 77
14 Shane Byrne Ducati 41
20 Tommy Hill Honda 6

Posted in: Bikes , Bikes - Racing , Motor Sport  Tags: ben spies, honda, leon haslam, monza, qualifying, shane byrne, superbikes, tommy hill, tom sykes, jonathan rea, yamaha, wsb, makato tamada, troy corser, max neukirchner, brendan roberts, michel fabrizio, noriyuki haga

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