The second year of SBK competition for Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France Ipone) has been another mixed bag, with injury interspersed by some great individual performances, most notably at Valencia where he scored a brace of fourth places. He currently ties on 51 points with top Kawasaki runner Chris Walker (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse), with the Englishman still looking for his first podium of '06. Walker's classy team-mates,
Fonsi Nieto and
Regis Laconi now sit 11th and 14th respectively. The Kawasaki Bertocchi squad once more features their latest recruit Joshua Brookes, after the exit of Franco Battaini before the previous
Silverstone round.
The championship top 12 is currently rounded out by another former
MotoGP rider of great skill,
Roberto Rolfo (Team Ducati SC Caracchi) who has nonetheless found the challenge of World Superbike every bit as tough as any he has faced before. Injury and bad luck are capable of holding back the championship push of many a top rider, so don't be surprised to see big names like
Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda, currently 13th),
Yukio Kagayama (Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki, currently 16th) and
Michel Fabrizio (DFX Treme Honda, currently 15th) reasserting themselves this weekend. Returning to the fray at his home track is SBK legend Pierfrancesco Chili (DFX Treme Honda), back from recent pelvic and shoulder injuries.
Other names with a proven Misano pedigree include former WSS champion Fabien Foret (Alstare Engineering Suzuki), and Marco Borciani (Sterilgarda Berik Ducati), not forgetting the factory Petronas rider Steve Martin (Petronas FP-1), who may find the Misano circuit one of the better ones for his 900cc triple. His team-mate Craig Jones is looking to score his first points of what has been a tough and demanding year.
