WSBK News

The opening day of a two-day Pirelli test session at Valencia gave James Toseland his first chance to sample the Ten Kate Honda CBR1000 Fireblade he will ride in the 2006 World Superbike championship, although wet conditions in Spain severely limited the amount of running as the test got underway

Steve Martin's involvement in the spectacular turn one pile-up at the Magny Cours World Superbike season finale has proved to be a blessing in disguise for the Foggy Petronas rider.

2005 Renegade Honda World Superbike rider Ben Bostrom will return to the AMA Superbike championship again next season after signing to replace younger brother Eric, alongside Neil Hodgson, in the Parts Unlimited Ducati Austin team - where he will ride a factory 999.

2004 World Superbike champion James Toseland has now been officially announced as a Winston Ten Kate Honda rider for the 2006 WSBK season, having agreed terms with Gerrit and Ronald ten Kate in Holland last Saturday (as previously reported).

Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra team manager Francis Batta visited Suzuki Motor Corporation in Japan this week and presented the factory with the 2005 World Superbike Championship Manufacturers' Cup - Suzuki's first in the 18-year history of the series.

After consultation between the teams and championship organiser FGSport, the 2006 World Superbike Championship Official Tests schedule has been confirmed as follows. Valencia : March 27th, 28th and 29th. Misano : April 12th and 13th.

The highlight of the restarted race two at Magny Cours on Sunday was undoubtedly the furious race long battle between Japanese aces Yukio Kagayama and Noriyuki Haga for what would turn out to be second position.

Winston Ten Kate's Chris Vermeulen showed the entire field a clean pair of heels for the first race of the final round of the Corona Extra World Superbike Championship at Magny Cours in France.

The Yamaha Germany duo of Broc Parkes and Kevin Curtain stole the show at the final World Supersport round at Magny Cours in France, finishing one two on the podium.

The Magny Cours circuit, venue for this weekend's World Superbike season finale, is a favourite of Yamaha Motor Italia rider Noriyuki Haga, who won the last race of the 2004 season to take third in the championship with Renegade Ducati.

Garry McCoy may have already ridden in his final race for Foggy Petronas following the news that the Australian will be forced to miss this weekend's Magny Cours season finale, after fracturing a bone in his coccyx on Saturday afternoon in Imola.

Winston Ten Kate Honda rider, Chris Vermeulen, had to concede defeat in the 2005 World Superbike championship on Sunday afternoon - after the second race of the penultimate Imola round was cancelled for safety reasons.

The second race of the eleventh round of the Corona Extra World Superbike Championship at Imola is delayed due to heavy rain.

Carl Fogarty has re-signed Steve Martin for his Foggy Petronas Racing team for the 2006 World Superbike Championship campaign. The 36-year-old Australian's skill and determination has impressed Fogarty during a difficult season for FPR in a rejuvenated championship.

Italian Lorenzo Lanzi caused a major sensation in World Superbike Saturday afternoon as he stormed to pole position on the Xerox-backed Ducati 999F05; not bad for a stand-in rider and the Italian spoke of his 'great pleasure' is beating 2005 pole specialist, Troy Corser.

Mike Edwards has been racing for over twenty one years and it is that wealth of experience that the Foggy Petronas team had hoped to exploit during a test day at Snetterton.

Race day at Assen lasted little more than a few corners for PSG-1 Kawasaki's Chris Walker, the hard charging Brit colliding with local wild-card Jurgen van den Goorbergh on lap one of race one - the impact breaking the Brit's elbow in two places even before he even fallen from the bike.

It hasn't happened much in 2005, but Troy Corser finally endured a difficult weekend in the Alstare Corona Extra World Superbike Championship as he failed to finish on the podium for the first time this year.

While using a recent British Superbike Championship race at Silverstone to get in some valuable testing miles, Renegade Honda's Ben Bostrom suffered impact injuries to his back and internal organs after a massive highside, but hopes to recover sufficiently by Assen to improve on his overall 15th

Dutch racer Jurgen van den Goorbergh sampled the performance of the Rizla Suzuki GSX-R1000 that he will campaign at the Assen round of World Superbikes during a private test at Silverstone yesterday (Wednesday) evening.

Racing at high speeds in front of thousands of fans doesn't concern current World Champion James Toseland, however the Xerox Ducati rider admitted to Crash.net that meeting the stars still makes him star stuck - especially when that star is Jools Holland.

Fresh from finishing second in last weekend's Suzuka 8 Hours World Endurance race, riding a full factory HRC Fireblade on Michelin tyres, Chris Vermeulen returns to his Winston Ten Kate Honda on Pirelli tyres for this weekend's eighth round of the Corona Extra World Superbike championship.

2005 Corona Extra World Superbike championship leader Troy Corser extended his points advantage after retuning his GSX-R1000 to the top step of the podium during race one at Brno, but was forced to yield the race two victory to a charging Noriyuki Haga.

Noriyuki Haga claimed the first ever World Superbike race win for Yamaha's YZF-R1 after charging from just 16th on the grid to beat world championship leader, and race one winner, Troy Corser in the final outing at Brno on Sunday.