The secret to craner curves?
Source: Jonathan Rea On Facebook
Look who’s learning to ride! Latest Vlog now online over on the old YouTube. Link in bio
.
📸 @lifelikemedia
Source: Jonathan Rea On Facebook
I’M LEARNING TO RIDE A BIKE **NEW VIDEO **
After all these years can i finally pass my CBT?
https://jonathan-rea.com/videos/im-learning-ride-bike
Source: Jonathan Rea On Facebook
This weekend the Donington Park Circuit will host the Motul FIM Superbike World Championship for the twenty-seventh time in history. This year the Premier Class will be the only WorldSBK Championship category to take to the track at Donington, while the WorldSSP and WorldSSP 300 classes will resume action in Assen.
As WorldSBK rolls into the Great British countryside for round four of the season at Donington Park. With sporting fever in the air across the whole world as summer kicks in, WorldSBK returns to its birthplace of Donington Park, where it all started back on a cold April Sunday in 1988. 31 years later and the Championship is red hot, with home-hero Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) leading an in-form Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) by 20 points, but that could all change in what is set to be, as ever, an unpredictable UK Round.
The man in the best form coming into the Prosecco DOC UK Round is Toprak Razgatlioglu, having taken his first 2021 victory last time out, the latest in a string of six consecutive podiums that have consisted of four second places, one third and now a victory. He also returns to a happy hunting ground at Donington Park, where he achieved a career-first WorldSBK podium by beating Jonathan Rea in 2018 on the final lap of Race 2. In 2019, they also went head-to-head in the closing stages; is another duel on the cards? Teammate Andrea Locatelli makes his racing debut at Donington Park this weekend and will hope for a solid weekend after visiting the track two week before.
“Donington Park is a great track! Normally I like it a lot as it is really fast and flowing, I think it is my favourite track, but the last time we raced there was 2019. I am excited because this weekend will be the first time with the R1 WorldSBK at Donington. I remember in 2018 that Michael won both races with the Yamaha, so this year of course I want to be fighting again for the win. We will see, I’ll say it again, I am really excited! A lot can happen and we will see what is possible in the race weekend, but my plan is to fight at the front again and to enjoy the races.”
Aiming to bounce back and strike with victory on home soil, Jonathan Rea took all three races at Donington Park in 2019. Whilst the last three races at the track may well have been good to the reigning six-time World Champion, the last three races of recent times were more of a challenge. Three third places at Misano left Rea wanting more, but when this is a ‘bad’ day at the office, you know his monumental consistency is strong. He aims to be back on the top step at Donington Park for a sixth time, whilst team-mate Alex Lowes hasn’t ridden Donington Park on a Kawasaki.
“I am really excited to go to Donington because we missed it last year. We had a great weekend there in 2019 and it is a circuit that I really enjoy riding at. From past experience it is also a good track for the Ninja ZX-10RR so I am excited to get the new and improved 2021 model there. Our first home race in two years and we will have some fans trackside, which is nice, although it would have been good to have a packed Donington. There will be a bit of atmosphere there and I am looking froward to it. I hope to make a really strong weekend and work from Friday morning to understand the tyre options Pirelli has brought, and we will continue to fine-tune our bike to be ready for the races. At the recent Navarra test we tried some chassis options and we have a great understanding of the working window of the bike, so we have options should we face some limitations. I feel we really understood how we could get the bike to turn better and that will help us in some sections at Donington.”
“It is great that we are heading back to the UK round of WorldSBK after missing it last year because of the Covid-19 situation. There will not be as many fans as we would like, due to the limitations that have been put in place, but it will be great to be riding in front of the British fans again. Coming up through the BSB series I feel a really good and close relationship with the fans here. That is going to be one of the main things that is going to be really enjoyable. The second thing is that I like the track, it has always been a fun track for me, and I have taken some good results there. On top of that the Kawasaki – looking back – has always gone quite well there. This will be my first time trying the Ninja ZX-10RR at Donington and I am excited about it. It is a track that looks like it works well for the bike. Kawasaki has won plenty of races there and the target for me is to get back on the podium. We had solid second and third rounds of the championship, but maybe the higher temperatures and some track layouts did not quite suit the bike quite as well as some others. So, the target is clear for this weekend. Get back on the podium like we started the year in Aragon and enjoy the whole weekend in front of the home fans.”
After a difficult Misano where he couldn’t crack the front-running pace, Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) needs a resurgence at Donington Park, the circuit where he took a first ever World Championship win at back in 2008’s 125cc World Championship GP. Three fourth places at Misano leaves Redding 45 points back in the title race, whilst on the other side of the garage, Michael Ruben Rinaldi was in sensational form at Misano, with two wins and a second, something he hopes will act as a key change in 2021 after a difficult first two rounds. Two 12th places in 2019 for Rinaldi at Donington Park, something he should improve on this weekend.
“We’re going back to racing in England after a year’s absence and for me, it’s a very pleasant feeling, also because of the great memories I have of the 2019 season in which I won the BSB title. We come from a not easy weekend like the one in Misano and in Donington my goal is to come back to win. It will be my home GP and I’m very happy that I will find so many fans to support me.”
“Donington is a circuit where I have not been particularly comfortable in the past. But now the situation is very different. Certainly, we will need to find the speed to be competitive. We will work hard both on Thursday and in Friday’s free practice to get to Race-1 in the best conditions. Of course, it’s not like racing in Misano but I’m confident that we can have a positive weekend“.
Team HRC riders Leon Haslam and Alvaro Bautista are ready to race at one of their favourite venues and one that also has a special place in the hearts of the WorldSBK fans. Last time out, the team worked hard at the Misano World Circuit, completing the third championship round with a best result of sixth for Alvaro Bautista in race 1. Leon Haslam’s weekend was hindered by a few small issues that he is confident he can iron out in time for his home round.
There was no UK SBK event last year owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, but both Bautista and Haslam reached the podium during the 2019 event at Donington Park. The British event is often characterised by mixed or wet weather, conditions in which both the riders are comfortable, Leon having in fact scored one of his 2019 podium-finishes in the rain (Superpole Race).
“Donington is a very nice track, one of my favourites when we went there with the 125cc and 250cc championships in fact. When I returned two years ago with the Superbike I found it more challenging due to the type of bike, but still very enjoyable. I especially like the mixed section of the track. I am also very happy to be back knowing that there will be fans in the grandstands because there is so much love and support for the sport and for Superbike here in the UK. As far as the set-up is concerned, we don’t have any reference points for this track, so we’ll start from a basic set-up and try to improve from there. In testing at Navarra we tried some electronic things that will probably help us in this race and let’s hope the weather is good and we can work well all weekend, never a given in England. As a team, we are really keen to take steps forward and move closer to the front, so we look forward to Donington with optimism and a determination to do well.”
“We didn’t race at Donington last year so it’s especially nice to be heading there again now. It’s my home circuit and so I’m really looking forward to it of course, particularly as we’ll have the support of some local fans. We completed a test after the Misano race weekend and they never stop working back in Japan, so we hope we can hit the ground running at Donington and fight for the kind of results we know we can achieve.”
After the third round at Misano (ITA), WorldSBK took a short break with no races taking place over two weekends. BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team used that time for two days of testing at Navarra (ESP). The Spanish circuit has been added to the calendar this year and will host the seventh race event of the season from 20th to 22nd August. The tests provided an opportunity to continue development of the new BMW M 1000 RR, while simultaneously becoming familiar with the characteristics of the circuit. Their focus now switches to the upcoming weekend at Donington Park.
“For me, the Navarra test was good for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it was to continue the development of the new BMW M 1000 RR. We had some items that we needed to confirm there and we were able to do that. Then it was great to learn the circuit and get some data there for when we go back in August for the races. Now I am obviously looking forward to my home race at Donington. I’ve had a lot of success there in the past and I really hope that we can find the set-up to enable me to be more consistent and stronger over the race weekend. We need to work on finding those last little items now to put us in that position. The new M RR has had a big step in terms of engine and braking performance and quite a number of other things so we just need to find the last part of the jigsaw so we can use all of this. I am looking forward to going there and fingers crossed we can have some good British weather. But we take what we get and try to get a strong result.”
“It was good to have a test at Navarra, not only as we race there later this year, but also as we had faced some problems at Misano and BMW responded very quick so we had some new parts to Navarra test. I was happy with the test; it was a step in the right direction but of course you have to see if it also works on a different track but luckily we have Donington this weekend. Donington is fantastic; I really love these old-school circuits. I had some good results there in the past and I love the circuit and the history and after missing it last year, it is good to go back there now. Regarding the characteristics, for me the first part is the best; it is fast and flowing and a really exciting section of the track. The last part does not really fit to that but there you have some really good overtaking opportunities so the circuit is exciting in two very different ways.”
Donington Park Circuit, built in 1931, is located in the East Midlands near Sherwood Forest, and is 4023 metres long, with seven right and five left hand turns and has a maximum gradient of 8 per cent slope. The radius of the curve goes from a minimum of 24 metres to a maximum of 333 metres. The circuit direction is clockwise and the rider in pole position starts on the left. This track alternates between fast flowing ‘up and down’ sections (eg Hollywood) to slower parts with curves interrupted by short straights that force braking and sudden acceleration like the Melbourne Hairpin (curve 10). The exit of Turn 8, known as Coppice, sees the highest acceleration out of any corner. In the two medium length turns, Old Hairpin and McLeans Corner, which interrupts the straight opposite the finish line, riders never drop below 100 km/h and can gain considerable time by keeping up their corner speed.
Pos | Rider | Points |
1 | Jonathan Rea | 149 |
2 | Toprak Razgatlioglu | 129 |
3 | Scott Redding | 104 |
4 | Alex Lowes | 88 |
5 | Michael Ruben Rinaldi | 82 |
6 | Garrett Gerloff | 59 |
7 | Michael Van Der Mark | 52 |
8 | Tom Sykes | 51 |
9 | Chaz Davies | 48 |
10 | Andrea Locatelli | 45 |
11 | Alvaro Bautista | 43 |
12 | Axel Bassani | 38 |
13 | Lucas Mahias | 22 |
14 | Leon Haslam | 18 |
15 | Kohta Nozane | 17 |
16 | Tito Rabat | 16 |
17 | Eugene Laverty | 10 |
18 | Jonas Folger | 8 |
19 | Isaac Vinales | 7 |
20 | Christophe Ponsson | 1 |
Date | Track | SBK | SS600 | SS300 |
2-4 Jul | Donington Park (UK) | X | ||
23-25 Jul | Assen (Netherlands) | X | X | X |
06-08 Aug | Autodrom Most (Czech) | X | X | X |
20-22 Aug | Navarra (Spain) | X | X | |
3-5 Sep | Magny-Cours (France) | X | X | X |
17-19 Sep | Catalunya (Spain) | X | X | X |
24-26 Sep | Jerez (Spain) | X | X | X |
1-3 Oct | Portimao (Portugal) | X | X | X |
15-17 Oct | San Juan Villicum (Argentina) | X | X | |
12-14 Nov | Mandalika*** (Indonesia) | X | X |
*** = Subject to homologation
Source: MCNews.com.au
Source: Jonathan Rea On Facebook
Me and my mate @brnosworld just taking it all in! Enjoying this great weather at home, and the calm before the weekend. #raceweek
Source: Jonathan Rea On Facebook
Six-time world champion Max Biaggi turns 50, or perhaps it would be better to say that he has completed 50 seasons. The Roman’s life has been marked by wins on tracks all over the world. Many of these proudly bore the Aprilia name, a brand for which he is now a popular ambassador.
From the roaring years of his four consecutive world championships in 250 to his return to Superbike in great style, Max and Aprilia share a long history. The first to ride the “quarter-litre” from Veneto to a world championship title, the first Italian (and on an Italian bike) World Superbike Champion, the list of firsts is long and lends merit to the value he demonstrated on the track. Without following the traditional path, making a rather late début as compared with the usual practice of grooming pure natural talent. All the way to his return to the podium with a wild card in the 2015 Malaysia WSBK round, almost three years after his retirement, that has all the flavour of a legend.
Max Biaggi
“This is also a nice milestone and it’s great to celebrate it with so many friends, with the entire Aprilia family, and to celebrate it along with the many victories that we have taken on tracks all over the world. I am especially proud to have been the most victorious rider ever for Aprilia and adding two SBK titles to my trophy case is truly a particular feeling, because we won them many years after the world championships won in the 250 class. Just like having marked two very different and very important eras with those wins. But I must say that I am always thinking of the future and the challenges that await us. With Aprilia and with many friends who are riders and former champions, I still love and frequent the track. Putting myself to the test and always being fast is a goal that I hope I’ll never lose. See you on the track, at my next outing on my RSV4.”
Max Biaggi, Roman, born in 1971, began his motorcycling career in 1989 at 18 years of age making his début in the 125 cc category. One year later he is already the Italian champion in the “Sport Production” category.
Max, immediately held in high esteem for his efficient and clean riding style, Max shows his talent each time he changes categories. In 1991 he is already racing in the 250 world championship with Aprilia. The 250 title in 1994 is the first of an exceptional hat trick where he dominated astride the Italian bike through 1996.
In the “quarter-litre” category, Max catalogues results that are unprecedented in the history of World Championship Motorcycling: the most ever pole positions, the most podiums in the category and 4 world titles won (three with Aprilia) consecutively from ’94 to ’97.
In 1998 he makes his début in the 500 category on a Honda. His entrance on the scene at Suzuka is a memorable occasion when he takes a triple victory: pole position, first place and the fastest lap in the race, an accomplishment which had only ever been achieved by the Finn, Jarno Saarinen, 25 years earlier. At the end of the season Max will come in second place in the world rankings.
In 1999 Biaggi moves to Yamaha and begins a progressive ascent. He places fourth in the rankings his first year, improving in 2000 with third place and then growing again in 2001, ending the season in second place. The 2002 season ends the same way, marked by the change in rules for the premier class and the birth of MotoGP.
In 2003 when Biaggi moved over to Honda, he ranks third with the Sito Pons private team. In 2005 he is the Repsol HRC team rider.
In 2007 Max made his Superbike début with Suzuki. Once again, Max astonishes everyone from the outset on the Qatar track. He wins Race 1 and takes second in Race 2. The season is characterised by the battle for the championship, with Max missing the title by just eight points.
In 2009, Biaggi comes back to Aprilia to ride the futuristic Aprilia RSV4 that marks the Noale-based manufacturer’s return to World SBK. Aprilia had never before won the WSBK title and with the new RSV4 attempts the assault on the championship in the races reserved for large-engine four-stroke bikes.
It is a triumph: Max rides the Italian V4 to victory in the rookie season and dominates in 2010 and 2012, earning a double world title – Rider and Manufacturer – the first and only Italian to succeed in this undertaking. He retires from racing after the 2012 title with six career World Titles under his belt, but the call of the track brought him back to racing in 2015. Riding as a wild card in the World SBK Malaysian round, he made an extraordinary podium finish at Sepang, reiterating (at 44 years of age and almost three years after his last race) the talent of a champion.
Source: MCNews.com.au
When the team whisper, you have to wait another week to twist the throttle!
Source: Jonathan Rea On Facebook
The 2021 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship may well be underway but crucial testing has been undertaken at the Circuito Navarra, a new venue on the calendar for this season. In the north of Spain in Los Arcos, the all-new venue for WorldSBK welcomed day two testing action and it was once again a Yamaha on top with Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK), whilst Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) made it a Yamaha 1-2.
Toprak Razgatlioglu worked tirelessly over the two days but a small bit of drama in the morning when he ran out of fuel didn’t dampen the Turk’s spirits as he completed an astonishing 190 laps.
Toprak wasn’t the only one to suffer from running out of fuel as team-mate Andrea Locatelli also suffered a similar fate. Locatelli did briefly top the timesheets just before lunch but finished the test early after a positive two-day test where the bike kept getting better and better.
Gerloff was working across the two days on an array of things, from set-up to configuration, aiming to refine the set-up on the 2021 motorcycle.
It was a difficult test on the other side of the garage for Kohta Nozane (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team), who after a crash on day one – which left him with a micro-fracture to his middle finger on his right hand – sat out day two and was replaced by substitute Niccolo Canepa who helped develop some new parts and concluded the test in ninth place overall.
Kawasaki Racing Team’s riders Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes had another new experience to add to their bank of WorldSBK knowledge on the new Ninja ZX-10RR thanks to the two-day confidence building test session at the Circuito de Navarra. Although controlling their track time to save on their limited number of testing days available in 2021 both Rea and Lowes learned valuable lessons at the 3.933 km long Navarra circuit.
Rea concentrated on making sure both he and his Ninja ZX-10RR would arrive at Navarra for race weekend ready to put in the best performance possible, rather than pushing for a fast time at this particular test. In his first experience of this relatively new circuit in Spain Rea found it challenging and fun to ride, with all kinds of corners and a greater change of elevation in some sectors than he had been expecting. After the first day he changed his riding approach and found benefits on a track neither he nor the team had any data for until this test.
“It has been a really positive two days. I learned the circuit and it is a very difficult circuit to go fast at, to be fair. It has lots of little intricacies and challenges. From a technical point of view it is very challenging. I enjoyed working it out. On day one I learned the track quite quickly but I wasn’t comfortable to keep pushing the bike. On day two I woke up after sleeping on all my feelings and the data we gathered on day one, and I was able to be quite fast straight away. I carried that rhythm through. We found a lot of valuable information that will be good for race weekend and it will definitely allow us to make a shortcut in our set-up time when we start out in free practice one. This track has some mixtures of everything. Some super-fast corners but also some very tight and twisty sections in sectors two and three. The race is going to be a nice one. The main priority here was to learn and I am looking forward to Donington now for our next race weekend.”
“The test has been positive. Yesterday we did a half day on track. Johnny was learning the layout and where the most important places were. It is a very different track to ride compared to the ones we are used to. Also, technically, we started to collect information because this is an all new track for us. We had no data, nothing. We found the base but day one was not an easy day because it was a very different track, very bumpy. But we did the job. Today we kept focusing on the most important points and leave here with some base settings to start the race weekend in Navarra. Finally, Johnny was fast with the SC0 tyre and also on the SCX tyre he was strong. Considering we did a half day yesterday and a half day today I think we are in a good place to start the race weekend.”
For Lowes this ‘mid-season’ test was an important one to allow him and his technical crew to try some new things based on the experience of the first three rounds on the new Ninja ZX-10RR. He was able to set fast early times, but fell twice on day two. Unhurt, Alex’s confidence was not dented and he now looks forward to his home round in the UK in early July, and the return to Navarra later this summer.
“I really enjoyed the Navarra circuit in my first time there. I had a good feeling on the bike and I was able to try everything that I wanted to and with a couple of things we tried on corner entry we were partly thinking about Donington, which is our next race. This was also positive. Unfortunately today I had a couple of crashes; made a couple of mistakes. Apart from that, it has been a great test. I leave here happy with the bike, enjoying the Ninja ZX-10RR, and it was a really good test for us. That gives me some confidence going into the next round, which is my home round at Donington Park. So we are really happy.”
“This was the first time we had been to Navarra and the target was to learn the track as much as possible, and of course to prepare ourselves for the race in August. From the very beginning Alex was fast, one of the fastest on track, and he learned the layout very quickly. We also confirmed our base set-up was working well here. Of course we also tested a few items. After three rounds of the season we know more or less where to improve. So we did a couple of small tests on the bike which worked out very positively. On the second day Alex had two crashes, which can happen; it is part of the job sometimes. But we also reached our target of confirming our machine set-up for race weekend. Overall it has been a really positive test here. Now we can switch off for a couple of days and get ready for Donington and the next round.”
Also finishing up at midday was the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team, as Tom Sykes and Michael van der Mark continued to work on a variety of areas of the new BMW M 1000 RR. The team worked on suspension settings across the day and focused on getting the bike set up as it would happen in a race weekend. However, they were left wanting more after day one when their chassis solutions didn’t give the expected results. For van der Mark, he finished sixth and said his side of the garage is still aiming to make the bike stop and turn better, whilst Sykes was seventh and pretty pleased with a productive test in northern Spain. For the Independent BMW of Jonas Folger (Bonovo MGM Racing), he was eighth and found the new chassis to offer better braking stability, whilst he was left wanting more grip. Overall, he commented that the new chassis had more good points than bad.
HRC got through its initial work programme swiftly and smoothly and the team decided to continue non-stop for the entire opening day, completing tasks that it had originally planned to address over two half-day sessions.
“Today we used the time we had to understand the Navarra track and collect some references for when we return for the races. The circuit is very small and narrow, with a lot of first gear turns. It is definitely different from what we are used to and challenging because it’s not easy to tackle with a superbike. Another aspect is the asphalt, which is very bumpy, so all in all I think it will be a demanding round. I’m happy we had this test because, in addition to working on the bike set-up for this layout, we also did some electronics testing which we needed to complete, despite having to stop about an hour early because of the rain. It was definitely a useful test, and now we look forward to the next round at Donington Park.”
“We had to finish the test session a little early because I had a small crash with around one and a half hours to go and once the bike was ready, the rain came. So, we missed the last hour of track time, but we tested many of the items we wanted to try. The track is obviously very different to most others. It’s quite bumpy and reminds me of some of the old English tracks but, honestly, I think it will be a fun one to ride. For sure we have collected some positive information during this test.”
After the first three rounds of the FIM Superbike World Championship and now this Navarra test have been completed the next points-scoring round will take place at Donington Park in the UK, between 2-4 July.
Pos | Rider | Points |
1 | Jonathan Rea | 149 |
2 | Toprak Razgatlioglu | 129 |
3 | Scott Redding | 104 |
4 | Alex Lowes | 88 |
5 | Michael Ruben Rinaldi | 82 |
6 | Garrett Gerloff | 59 |
7 | Michael Van Der Mark | 52 |
8 | Tom Sykes | 51 |
9 | Chaz Davies | 48 |
10 | Andrea Locatelli | 45 |
11 | Alvaro Bautista | 43 |
12 | Axel Bassani | 38 |
13 | Lucas Mahias | 22 |
14 | Leon Haslam | 18 |
15 | Kohta Nozane | 17 |
16 | Tito Rabat | 16 |
17 | Eugene Laverty | 10 |
18 | Jonas Folger | 8 |
19 | Isaac Vinales | 7 |
20 | Christophe Ponsson | 1 |
Source: MCNews.com.au