ROUND 7/JUNE 30, 2013
ENZO/DINO FERRARI CIRCUIT/IMOLA, ITALY
WORLD SUPERBIKE
P98
WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
Race One
1. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)
2. Davide Giugliano (Aprilia)
3. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia)
4. Marco Melandri (BMW)
5. Michel Fabrizio (Aprilia)
6. Chaz Davies (BMW)
7. Leon Camier (Suzuki)
8. Ayrton Badovini (Ducati)
9. Loris Baz (Kawasaki)
10. Leon Haslam (Honda)
Race Two
1. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)
2. Jonathan Rea (Honda)
3. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia)
4. Marco Melandri (BMW)
5. Chaz Davies (BMW)
6. Loris Baz (Kawasaki)
7. Leon Camier (Suzuki)
8. Michel Fabrizio (Aprilia)
9. Leon Haslam (Honda)
10. Ayrton Badovini (Ducati)
Sykes sprayed plenty of bubbly on Sunday.
WHICH ONE?
Pick your favorite racetrack in
Italy. Impossibile! - as they say in
the boot-shaped country. Although
you can argue the points of each just for fun.
Misano. Nearby beaches, sun
and fun, modernized, but not the
best track layout.
Monza. Superfast, unimpeachably historic, the last of the big bad
speed bowls, in a stunning town
center parkland location.
Mugello. Idyllic location, flowing
up-and-down design, great hillside
area to spend time in.
Vallelunga. Errr, moving on…
(even if it is close to the fabulous
Eternal City).
Imola. Almost all of the above,
with the good and the bad.
The good is the amazing plung-
ing and rising corners and unique
vistas all over, the intense atmosphere when the crowd turns up in
numbers and a location and layout
that rivals almost any other track on
earth.
The bad are walls too close
to the track, a stuttering track
surface on many occasions and
some recent chicane redesigns
that arguably make it less safe, not
more so. Safety is imola's only real
problem, but it is a problem.
This year, the usual anticipation
of a great Imola were tempered
by the fact that this is the place
that last year ended Joan Lascorz'
career with a spinal injury in testing
a day after race day. The dangers
of this place are obvious and yet
perplexingly unfixable in many
places.
There are lots of parts of Imola
you cannot work on or extend unless you are in the Santerno River,
which hems in the paddock, or
start digging into the neighbors'
houses. It's almost like the Isle
of Man TT with gravel traps and a
retaining wall - if the TT were just
over 3 miles long, of course.
It is an epic of a track, scene
of the most life affirming-dramatic
championship finish of all (2002)
and it is full of character and challenge, the way all tracks should
be. Well… if it had more run-off…
and if the final chicane had never
been changed… and if the river
did not make the paddock not very
wide by seemingly miles long… if it
was simple to make it safer without
having to buy people's houses or
land all around.
