ACK
VOL. 50 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2013
P55
Briefly...
A host of injuries suffered by some
top riders saw a swathe of new and
not so new faces on the World Superbike grid at Laguna. In the mix for
the Kawasaki team in the absence
of the still injured Loris Baz was an
old friend of the Provec part of the
team, David Salom, who had no
World Supersport duties to perform
for his usual Intermoto Pony Express
squad.
una Seca
Niccolo Canepa was also brought
in to race instead of the missing Carlos Checa, on the official Ducati Alstare Panigale.
The obvious local wild cards were
Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki
pairing of Roger Lee Hayden and
Danny Eslick and the Aussie rider
Glen Allerton on a Next Gen Motorsports BMW.
Eugene Laverty (58)
leads Tom Sykes
(66), Sylvain Guintoli
(50) and the rest of
the World Superbike
pack in World
Superbike's return
to Mazda Raceway
Laguna Seca.
or 24.1, that kind of lap time. But
for whatever reason we were six
or seven tenths off our best times
in the same track conditions and
we have to think about why that
was. Yesterday the conditions
were the same. We know what
our potential was here again today, but we could not replicate it
again. Overall, we have extended
our championship lead if you
look at it that way, but looking at
it race-by-race it was a shame to
at least not be on the podium.
Ducati brought forth some modifications on the official Panigale, most
notably a new fuel tank, exhaust
and rear subframe, all designed to
put weight further to the back of the
machine. The tank features a massive extended rear section, which
is a dramatic change from the previous version. Said new Panigale rider
Niccolo Canepa, "The modifications
are a lot better, but it is not a normal
change. It helps on fast corners and
the fast part of the circuit."
Marco Melandri showed up in Laguna with the latest 'rider-aid' albeit a
non-electronic one. He got his team
in Turkey to fit a rear brake lever on
the left handlebar, but it is not a normal thumb brake lever, operated by
the rider pushing forward. It is like a
bicycle style one, pulled not pushed
but located just under the clutch –
continued on next page
