Max Biaggi who? The Roman Emperor’s retirement after winning the 2012 World Superbike Championship marked the end of an era for Aprilia, with the 2013 campaign marking the first without Biaggi since the Italian manufacturer came back to the WSBK scene with the RSV4. If Aprilia misses its two-time WSBK Champion, it sure didn’t show it with a dominating display at the 2013 season opener in Australia.

Aprilia riders swept the podium in Race One at Phillip Island and nearly did it again in Race Two, taking three of the top four spots. Factory riders Sylvain Guintoli and Eugene Laverty swapped a couple of one-two finishes while Red Devils Roma Aprilia rider Michel Fabrizio added a third- and a fourth-place finish to complete a nearly perfect start for Aprilia’s post-Biaggi era. Continue Reading »

Max Biaggi won the opening race to the 2012 World Superbike Championship while defending champion Carlos Checa came back from a high-speed crash in the first race to win the second at Australia’s Phillip Island circuit.

Reigning champion Checa of Althea Ducati had a stunning high-side crash while leading on the sixth lap of Race One. The WSBK paddock was already in shock with the death of 17-year-old Oscar McIntyre in the Superstock 600 race the day before but thankfully Checa was not seriously injured.

The crash however allowed the 2010 champion, Aprilia Alitalia’s Biaggi to take over the lead. Biaggi would lead the rest of the way for the season-opening win.

Finishing second was Marco Melandri in his first race with the BMW factory team, who edged out Effenbert Liberty Ducati rider Sylvain Guintoli by 0.274 seconds. Also noteworthy was Tom Sykes on the factory Kawasaki ZX-10R who started on the pole and led the first two laps before finishing fourth.

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(Post updated with photograph of Oscar McIntyre. Our condolences to his friends and family.)

According to an article on canberratimes.com.au, 17-year-old Australian racer Oscar McIntyre died as the result of a crash Saturday, February 25th, during a race in the WSBK Superstock 600cc Championship — a support race at the Phillip Island round of the World Superbike Championship. Phillip Island serves as the opening round of the 2012 World Superbike Championship this weekend.

Two other riders, Luke Burgess and Michael Lockhart, were involved in the crash. Burgess was treated and later released, while Lockhart remains under observation for non-life-threatening injuries. The Canberra Times article states that WSBK officials called off the day’s remaining sessions.

At the time of this writing the news section of WorldSBK.com has no specific article on the death of McIntyre, but does mention the incident in a briefing about racer Tom Sykes’ pole position for Sunday’s Superbike race.

Read more at www.canberratimes.au.com

[Image from Tom Reynolds via Twitter]

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With the Phillip Island round of World Superbike starting this weekend, this officially marks the beginning of the 2012 racing season. As a precursor to this weekend’s festivities, however, we thought we’d get the racing juices flowing with this YouTube gem of radio-controlled motorcycles going wheel-to-wheel on a RC-specific racetrack. Continue Reading »

Our own Kevin Duke is in Abu Dhabi this week to test the 2012 Ducati 1199 Panigale, but elsewhere in the world, the Panigale was receiving another shakedown test in Australia.

The Effenbert-Liberty race team was at Australia’s Phillip Island circuit to prepare for the 2012 World Superbike Championship and Superstock 1000 Cup. While WSBK racers Sylvain Guintoli and Jakub Smrz tested their Ducati 1198 Superbikes, Superstock racers Brett McCormick and Federico Sandi got their first chance to ride their 1199 Panigale racebikes.

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Here is some spectacular footage of Castrol Honda World Superbike racer Jonathan Rea crashing during a pre-season test at Australia’s Phillip Island ciruit.

Rea’s Honda CBR1000RR Superbike went up in flames just before he highsided at turn three at Phillip Island. Rea injured his hand and a collarbone in the crash but he still hopes to compete in the Feb. 27 season opener.

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