WSBK News

Changes are afoot in preparation for the upcoming new superbike and supersport season, with not only new riders and mechanics but, most notably, new relationships being made on the technical side too.

Team Alstare Suzuki has confirmed that it will continue to contest both the Superbike and Supersport World Championships in 2002 as a Suzuki-supported team.

Carl Fogarty has agreed a deal with Malaysian oil and gas producers Petronas to run the all-new Sauber-developed GP1 engine in next year's World Superbike series.

Petronas, Malaysia's national petroleum corporation, has confirmed that it will race its high-performance GP1 motorcycle engine from the fifth leg of the 2002 World Superbike Championship next year.

Japanese Honda rider Tadayuki Okada, who won six MotoGP grands prix, has retired from racing after a 14 year career.

Next year's WSBK schedule bears close resemblance to the 2001 example, but features the arrival of Silverstone in the UK and an as yet unknown French venue.

Following a meeting held at Imola on September 29, the Superbike Commission, composed of Messrs. Claude Danis (FIM), Paolo Alberto Flammini (SBK International), Takanao Tsubouchi (MSMA) and Giulio Bardi (Team representative), made the following changes to Art.

Troy Corser experienced the highs and lows of racing at Imola yesterday during the last round of the 2001 Superbike world Championship.

Newly crowned 2001 World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss will not take the start of the second race of the day at Imola after it was discovered that the Australian rider had fractured his right collarbone in his penultimate lap accident with Regis Laconi at the San Marino Grand Prix venue.

Complete results from race two at the 4.390km Dino Ferrari circuit in Imola, round 13 of the 2001 World Superbike Championship.

The scenery may change but the problems remain the same for the factory Benelli World Superbike team as they once again suffered from a lack of power in qualifying at Imola which left Peter Goddard languishing in 23rd on the grid, four seconds slower than the pace setters.

The wild-card and replacing riders who will race in the World Superbike, Supersport and Sidecar World Championship rounds at Imola on September 30th, are the following:

GSE Racing has confirmed that it has agreed a three-year contract with Ducati Corse to compete in the Superbike World Championship, and will field an unchanged line-up next season.

It has not been an entirely happy 2001 World Superbike season for Pierfrancesco Chili and the Alstare Corona Suzuki team but if any circuit could bring the familiar smile back onto the face of WSB's elder statesman it was Assen and sure enough the classic Dutch circuit saw Frankie back on form an

Australian Troy Bayliss wrapped up this year's 2001 World Superbike Championship in emphatic style in Assen on Sunday by becoming the first rider other than Carl Fogarty to score a double victory at the legendary Dutch track, which was in a fickle mood throughout the two races.

Complete results from the first race at the 2.228-mile Oschersleben circuit in Germany, round eleven of the 2001 World Superbike Championship

The fledgling Benelli World Superbike outfit watched rider Peter Goddard dump the beautiful Tornado 900 triple cylinder machine on the tarmac during final qualifying at Oschersleben as he qualified 21st for Sunday's eleventh round of the 2001 Championship, but the team are still upbeat about thei

The World Superbike Championship returns from a one month hiatus this weekend at the German track of Oschersleben, the track where Colin Edwards magnificently wrapped up the 2000 World title with a dominant double victory.

V&M Racing's World Supersport challenge came to a premature end at Brands Hatch, as Matt Llewellyn failed to finish the ninth round of the highly competitive world series when his Racing R6 Yamaha developed an ignition problem during the opening stages of the race.

Ben Bostrom was in immaculate form at Brands Hatch, running away with both races on a day which saw a record 122,000 weekend attendance at the Kent circuit.

Race one at Brands Hatch has been red flagged after 11 of the 25 laps following a fiery accident involving wild card James Haydon and Robert Ulm, who were both fortunate to escape serious injury.

Minor technical problems held Peter Goddard and the Benelli Tornado back in qualifying for the European round of the World Superbike championship at Brands Hatch.

The Fuchs Kawasaki team's qualifying woes continued at Brands Hatch, where riders Akira Yanagawa and Gregorio Lavilla slid down the time sheets to thirteenth and seventeenth positions in timed practice.

It may not be setting the superbike world alight in the face of competition from Ducati and Honda, but the Fuchs Kawasaki team can lay claim to having helped German daredevil Dirk Auer set a new world speed record of 270.0kph.