WIND
IN THE
P48
Nicolo Bulega clinched the
WorldSBK title on home ground in
Italy.
PHOTOS: GOLD & GOOSE
Bulega Claims WorldSBK Title at Cremona
A
new Italian champion, on an
Italian bike, in Italy, and with the
mortal deities from the very top of
Ducati Corse grinning from ear to
ear on Sunday afternoon, meant
only one thing. Nicolo Bulega is the
new WorldSBK Champion.
The Cremona Circuit was re-
ally an autumnal celebration for
the locals, who had largely come
to see one thing: Bulega become
the champion on "their" bike.
The gorgeous late summer
weather at Cremona over the Sep-
tember 25-27 weekend, helped by
the fact that Pirelli brought new
tires even with only three rounds
of their WorldSBK involvement
left, saw the action start fast and
early on Friday. That was also
because most people had tested
here not long before race week-
end got underway.
WorldSBK
Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Rac-
ing - Ducati), not Bulega (Aruba.
it Racing - Ducati), was fastest
overall on Friday, but of course the
champion-elect was second quick-
est, and, like Lecuona, also under
the previous lap-record pace.
Early on, Alberto Surra (Moto-
corsa Racing Ducati) was proving
to be the most potent force behind
the top two Ducati riders and put
his Independent bike on the front
row of the grid, ahead of even Sam
Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing
Team Ducati) and Yari Montella
(Barni Spark Racing Team).
Two falls for Bulega on Friday,
the second in particular prov-
ing to be a weird one, left him
unharmed but now in a bit of
jeopardy: To fight hard in Super-
pole and race one to make sure
he could win in Italy, especially
with top Ducati bosses floating
around? Or accept that maybe
Lecuona had grown so much he
would be better off just getting
the biggest job done, even from
second place? In the end, he had
to wait until late to set a new Su-
perpole record, only for Lecuona
to beat it shortly after.
In race one, there was no repeat
of the great scrap between the
top two Ducati riders that allowed
Lecuona to take his first and very
narrow WorldSBK race win. That
was because Lecuona was just
too fast for him, and he won by
