Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/148526
VOL. 50 ISSUE 31 AUGUST 6, 2013 that we have been using all weekend. Literally, we are quite critical on set-up here and fair play to Loris [Baz], he loves the place." Melandri admitted that in race one it was a no-risk strategy, same as those adopted by his closest rivals. "I preferred not to risk anything and to get the best possible result limiting the damage," Melandri said. "After a couple of laps of race two, while I was gaining positions, I went wide and I lost contact to the riders in front. I tried to attack once more, but I had many vibrations and I was not able to ride well. Luckily, I didn't lose many points from the leader in the rankings." Chaz Davies may have had a chance of the race win in race two until his bike blew an engine. In the championship, Guintoli has 262 points with Sykes on 249; Laverty is now third with 226 and Melandri has 221. There's a tie for fifth between Baz and Davies with 180 points each. CN Race One 1. Jonathan Rea (Honda) 2. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia) 3. Leon Camier (Suzuki) 4. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia) 5. Loris Baz (Kawasaki) 6. Jules Cluzel (Suzuki) 7. Leon Haslam (Honda) 8. Ayrton Badovini (Ducati) 9. Marco Melandri (BMW) 10. Chaz Davies (BMW) Race Two 1. Loris Baz (Kawasaki) 2. Jules Cluzel (Suzuki) 3. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia) 4. Jonathan Rea (Honda) P109 Briefly... unknown at present. Said Carlo Fiorani, from Honda Europe, "We would like to keep the riders we have now in SBK, as I know they can do a good job for us again, Leon [Haslam] has been injured for so long his season is almost now restarting, and Jonathan [Rea] is riding really well for us." Rea has several offers on the table, but not the one he really wants, a top MotoGP ride of some sort. All the main berths are taken in the factory set-ups and even the satellite rides are filling up, so a good CRT machine may be his best bet so far. Anybody who hopes to get hold of the factory BMWs to use in 2014 may be in difficulty as they are reportedly going back to Germany to be either shown in a museum or crushed. With all that factory electronics and engine hardware inside, the BMW management do not want to let the bikes go to just anyone. The recent races in World Superbike has seen the disappearance of the favored SCO rear tire fitment, with the range available on any weekend only starting with the all-new SC1 as the softest option. Pirelli's argument is that in Russia and the UK temperatures are usually cool for the SCO to be chosen one month before the event as one of the allocation, but the team opinion is that if Pirelli has a higher performing tire they should bring it and lose the hardest compound of all choices at each race. The position of the official Ducati team in World Superbike is tenuous for 2014 according to some, but the Alstare side of the operation, run by Francis Batta, has a two-year contract with Ducati. Some of his own sponsors, however, are on one-year deals depending on results and exposure, so there could be hard times ahead unless more podiums like that one taken by Ayrton Badovini in Russia are forthcoming. The reason for the high-profile crash that threw Carlos Checa from his machine when it seized on him in Russia was a failure in the gudgeon pin area on the bikes race kit part two-ring piston. The early racing life of the Ducati Panigale was interrupted by failures in testing, of an unspecified area, but this was the first fail of this kind, according to sources. The Mahi Kawasaki team in World Supersport may well grow to become a one-bike World Superbike team and a two bike World Supersport squad in 2014, but it seems that Kenan Sofuoglu will not be the World Superbike rider. He tested the official Kawasaki ZX-10R in Spain some time ago and it was enough prove to him that a modern Superbike is all about electronics, so he will take some persuading to get on one in 2014. Silverstone used the "old' pit buildings in 2013, and it was a reasonably welcome return after having to take bus rides from the parking areas to the pit lane. Eugene Laverty found it difficult to get used to the return to a start/finish straight in a different place from continued on next page