Didn't see a thread for this yet. Nice to see Sykes and the Kwack on the pole. Yeah, I know. He gets poles in crummy weather but still nice to see things get shaken up in WSBK... unlike MotoGP.

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2011/06/11/misano-sykes-kawasaki-on-pole/

I'm always amazed that the fast guys in the dry are also fast in the wet.  That just never quite made sense to me.  But it makes sense that Sykes is up there.  He learned to race underwater.  I'm bummed Laverty didn't make it into the final Superpole.

Tomorrow should be good stuff.   

Quote from: Spidey on June 11, 2011, 11:03:35 AM
I'm always amazed that the fast guys in the dry are also fast in the wet.  That just never quite made sense to me.  But it makes sense that Sykes is up there.  He learned to race underwater.  I'm bummed Laverty didn't make it into the final Superpole.

Tomorrow should be good stuff.   

Laverty must have had a bad session. I too was surprised to see him down the grid. I'm looking forward to some good racing tomorrow. Hope some of it rubs off on MotoGP.

I just read where Biaggi hurt his ankle in a crash during the last free practice before Superpole. Apparently his motor broke in the first Superpole session and the crew had to build a new bike from the crashed one and the one with the busted motor. They got it done for him to make it through all of Superpole but Max was saying he was in severe pain during those sessions. Guess we'll see what magic the doctors can come up with before tomorrow's races.

Checa is incredible...

Biaggi was sandbagging about the ankle I think...but made his typical red mist mistakes and lost it after Checa passed.

Melandri a distant 3rd.

Smrz and Haslam both crashed hard.  We'll see if they make Race 2.

Marco a distant 3rd indeed. Maybe Max was bullshitting about the ankle. But then again it was hurt and maybe the docs gave him a local injection that helped for the race. 7 DNFs due to mechanical or crashes! Good to see Sykes and Laverty up there. Once again, a nice mix of riders and bikes in the top ten.

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2011/06/12/checa-over-biaggi-in-race-one/

Checa two for two!

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2011/06/12/checa-does-it-again-in-misano/

that was a great race overall... those opening laps in race one were awesome.

Nice to see Haga back on the podium again.

Quote from: Jester on June 13, 2011, 08:27:14 AM
Nice to see Haga back on the podium again.

I miss that cheeky little rider  and his insane antics. Spies just broke the little guy.

*Edited because I'm an Idiot  *

Glad to see Checa taking advantage of the Ducati friendly tracks. He has said some of the upcoming races could be a little hairy for him and his Duc. I like many of the WSBK riders but I'd love to see Checa take home the big prize at the end of the season. He has been at it for so long and has always struck me as a good, hard working rider and a decent guy. If he keeps this up he just might walk away with all the marbles. He deserves it. He's only got X amount of racing seasons left in him and I'd love to see him close out this era of Ducati superbikes with a Championship.

After watching Checa perform so well this year, you have to wonder why Ducati did so poorly last year, or am I missing something?

Cuz The Ben broke Haga and doucebrizio pits when he gets a hangnail.

I think you're onto something with that. As much as I like Checa and want him to win the championship this year I wish that Haga had squeezed one in during his career. 2000 was a mess of a year for me personally and I didn't follow WSBK that closely... my shitty life at the time got in the way. Didn't Haga technically win the title in 2000 but got canned due to some sort of doping scandal? Am I dreaming in colors again? Probably...

Quote from: fastwin on June 15, 2011, 02:27:53 PM
Didn't Haga technically win the title in 2000 but got canned due to some sort of doping scandal? Am I dreaming in colors again? Probably...

ma huang/ephedra showing up in a regular test at the first round of 2000. the issue was appealed numerous times all the way to the CAS (court of arbitration for sport) where it was eventually denied.

as a result, haga wasn't allowed to race at the final round. up until that point, the championship was undecided.