Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 29 JULY 23, 2013 The one and only World Superbike race got started in dry conditions with Chaz Davies (19) leading the way. but few expected what was about to happen in front of a crowd so small that it was not given as an official figure. From the start Melandri's teammate Chaz Davies launched into a lead that grew exponentially with the chances of real rain. With his teammate Marco Melandri following him in second and pole sitter Davide Giugliano crashing out on the Althea Rac- ing Aprilia on lap two, Davies put on the kind of show that got him a double win at Motorland Aragon some months before. His lead grew and was maintained all through the advent of rain on part of the track, then half of the track, splitting it into a skating rink and a place to race fast as you like – until near the end at least. On lap two, in the dry, Davies set a new lap record on lap two, a 1:35.299, for a 2.4-second lead over his teammate Melandri. Early in the race, which did make it to full race distance, two more big names finished their involvement early. Ducati Alstare's Carlos Checa collided with Jules Cluzel and both crashed, although Cluzel got back up to finish 10th – in a race that would have 11 finishers from only 18 starters. Shortly after Savadori and Iannuzzo crashed, with Iannuzzo writhing on the ground in pain. Kawasaki's Tom Sykes, who had stalled on the startline in the final warm-up lap, was up to fifth but suddenly pulled off the track, with oil spraying out of the side of his machine and the bike suddenly catching fire with him still on it. He jumped off and walked away, but could not hide his dismay at another pendulum swing away from him in the luck stakes. "I stalled at the start because, P95 Briefly... The role of suspension, brake and other manufacturers is set to change significantly in 2014, and according to Öhlins race representative Johan Soderdahl, this will have an obvious effect on what his company can and will bring. "For sure it will affect us in some ways, but it is not quite defined yet," he stated. "It will for sure affect the technology that we will release in SBK in 2014. It is going to be more production-based material, with less advanced features. Most teams here lease the material and return it, but from next year it has to be sold. That means also our product will be more exposed to our competitors. We have to think that the product has to function constantly and stable all the time. Some of the things we have here need quite frequent maintenance, and if we sell something we lose the chance to actually monitor that. Our material should still be high level in 2014, but maybe one step down to what we use this year. We will now lose the chance to develop our material as fast. We are trying to do the most we can with our material this year because we are not going to bring this stuff next year, it is not going to be available." Despite qualifying fifth after Superpole, and having a test at Imola shortly after the previous race, Marco Melandri still doesn't t have the repeatable, consistent bike he wanted by mid-season. "I would to have the bike more flexible over the bumps, absorbing more, and I would like to feel only the tire and suspension move and the bike to stay stable. Every time the bike is moving you lose part of the line. continued on next page

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