March 1, 2009

Superbike SeasonStarts at Phillip Island

BMW S 1000 RR SBK
The 2009 Superbike season started at Philip Island today. SBK's are a bit like the two wheel equivalent of tin top racing, production based bikes. There is some debate there as to exactly how you define "production based" but generally these are much closer to what you might go out and buy at your friendly motorcycle dealer than MotoGP prototypes.

Ducati, Aprilia, Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki and, this year for the first time in decades, BMW who entered their new S 1000 RR with Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus riding. Corser did well in the first race after a disaster in qualifying, in the very first race he started 17 and finished 8th. In race 2 Xaus had the highest top speed at 312 km/h. Nice to see BMW really come out of their super conservative road bike reputation.

The first win went to Haga on a Ducati in race 1 and Ben Spies the Yamaha R1 in race 2.

You can find the race after the jump (use "sbk")






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2 comments:

  1. My read of the results show Corser also had the fastest race lap in Race 1 [1:32.726]!

    I agree that it's nice to have BMW shake the staid attitude the bikes have gathered over the years.

    Go BMW!

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  2. Loooove Phillip Island! What a great circuit.

    ReplyDelete

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