WSBK » Wright: Shakey can win '09 WSBK title

Well, a nice sentiment but Shakey will be on a
non-works bike, they don''t make work HP, and he''ll be
learning tracks. It will be interesting to track the ''
Brit Invasion'' Byrne along with Rea, Haslam &
Sykes in ''09 SBK championship.

R-

leon had a good second half of the season so he's gonna get my ten bob bet for top brit.

shakey is paid by ducati and wont be on a full factory bike but his wont be far off,he'll be up there every weekend.

Corser is a good outside bet, as is Biaggi. Aprilia are proven race winners and BMW know how to build a bike and have lots of bucks, it won't take either of them a whole season to get up to speed. I'll be interested to see how the new R1 goes, IMO it would have been ideally suited to Corser's smooth riding style. The fact that both riders are new to WSB wil hold it back tho. Having said all that I expect Byrne to be a regular frontrunner.

1. Haga
2. Kiyonari
3. Shakey

well said Stan. Ducati will be covering all bases next year, as I have said before. Byrne may well have as near as makes no odds an F09, albeit in RS09 clothing next year. Haga is not a dead cert to win, and might not gel with the F09 (although I expect he will), Fabrizio is not even a dead cert to win a race let alone a Championship, so if I were in Ducati's shoes, with Byrne being the only Ducati man in '09 to have ever won them a major title (twice) and two wildcard wins in WSBK, I'd be giving the boy a sporting chance with a decent bike!!
And to the numpty that said Byrne doesn't know half the circuits - actually he spent two years in MotoGP and went to 8 of the 14 WSBK '09 circuits in

both years. Plus I'm sure in that time he may well have done some mid and off-season testing at some of the other six. So he won't be that disadvantaged some how. Besides, the guy had never even put a wheel around Portimao a few weeks ago until the end of season test, and still he managed to lap faster than everyone else on someone elses bike, many of whom had a full race meetings track experience under their belt by that time. Don't write Byrne off - he's super hungry and knows only too well that he doesn't have as long to go in the sport as he's had already....

Frabrizio only just hung onto his seat and if byrne is doing well and fabrizio isn't byrne will have the best bike ducati have this year, as long as he has a good season he'll be on it the next year anyway.

Wasn't it Colin Wright who said, when Haga returned to supers after his ill-fated sojourn on the Aprilia Cube in Motogp, that Haga was done & would never win another race in SBK again?

A lot of namechecking for Byrne and Haslam, but what about Rea? He's won races this season, raced on ALL the circuits and is on a bike not that dissimilar from the one he was riding a season ago for HM Plant, that he beat Haslam on. He beat Byrne, but Shakey was on a lesser machine.

If Jonny can keep his head through the season, he's my bet to take the top Brit spot, if not the championship.

Its gonna be good whatever happens. We should be thankful we've got at least 4 or 5 brits for the next few years (with plenty to follow, like Camier, Ellison etc..) that can challenge for race wins and maybe the title. Far better position than ever before with just (just as in a solitary rider, not just as in 'alsoran') Fogarty or Hodgson or Toseland to root for each year.