As expected, Aprilia has filed an appeal with the International Motorcycling Federation‘s International Disciplinary Court for the finish to the second race of the past weekend’s World Superbike Championship round at Italy’s Monza circuit.

The race ended in controversy stemming from Kawasaki‘s Tom Sykes running wide on a corner and missing a chicane on the final lap. Sykes was in third place at the time ahead of Aprilia‘s Sylvian Guintoli, and was able to return to the track ahead of Guintoli, crossing the finish less than a second ahead of the Aprilia rider to take third place.

After the race, Aprilia filed an appeal and race direction ruled Sykes should have ceded position because he gained an unfair advantage by cutting the chicane. Kawasaki later filed a their own appeal with the FIM’s Stewards Panel, arguing Sykes was already well ahead of Guintoli and only ran off track to avoid running into BMW Goldbet rider Marco Melandri. The Panel agreed, reversing Race Direction’s decision and restoring Sykes to third place. Continue Reading »

Eugene Laverty and Marco Melandri split a pair of victories at Monza but the most biggest news from the World Superbike weekend was a strange series of appeals after Race Two that saw Tom Sykes finish third, relegated to fourth and then reinstated on the final step of the podium.

The unusual mix-up occurred after Sykes, sitting in third place, ran off track and into the run off area on Turn 5 on his final lap. The Kawasaki rider returned to the track again in third place where he finished ahead of Aprilia‘s Sylvain Guintoli. After the race, Aprilia filed an appeal and race stewards initially assessed Sykes with a penalty, dropping him one-position and awarding third to Guintioli.

This morning however, Kawasaki appealed to the FIM Stewards’ Panel which analyzed the race footage and sector times for Sykes, Guintoli and second-place finisher Melandri and decided to reinstate Sykes in third. But that may still not be the end of it as Aprilia has five days to lodge another appeal, this time to the International Disciplinary Court which would then make a final decision. Continue Reading »

Tom Sykes earned his first win of the 2013 season and came a hair short of a double victory at the World Superbike Championship round at Assen in the Netherlands.

Traditionally a fast starter and qualifier, Sykes started on the pole once again at Assen and had strong starts in both races. But unlike the first two rounds where he started strong before fading, the Kawasaki factory rider was able to remain at the front in both races at Assen and earn some valuable championship points. Continue Reading »

BMW Motorrad Goldbet racer Chaz Davies scored his first career World Superbike double victory, taking both races at Spain’s Aragon circuit. The wins were the second and third of Davies’ WSBK career (the first came last year at Nurburgring for the ParkinGo Aprilia team) and the second ever double in the series for BMW.

The Welsh rider and former AMA Pro Racing competitor has had some success at Aragon, getting his first career WSBK podium at the Spanish track in 2012. Davies continued his good form, taking third in the Superpole to start on the front row. Continue Reading »

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 »

Aprilia opened a new chapter in its racing history, unveiling its team livery for the RSV4 for the 2013 World Superbike Championship. The 2013 season will be the first since the Italian brand returned to WSBK racing in 2009 without “the Roman Emperor” Max Biaggi who retired at the end of last season after winning his second title in three years on Aprilia’s flagship V4 sportbike.

Despite the departure of Biaggi, who is moving up to the broadcast booth to cover WSBK for Italian television, Aprilia hopes to remain a title contender with the returning Eugene Laverty and the newly-signed Sylvain Guintoli. Laverty finished sixth overall in the championship in 2012, his first with Aprilia, scoring a win and six total podium finishes. His familiarity with both the RSV4 and the team will help him this season.

Guintoli meanwhile will find stability with Aprilia after a turbulent season that saw him quit the controversial Liberty Racing team ahead of its home round and finish the season with the Pata Racing team. Drama aside, Guintoli has shown flashes of talent, winning races and earning podiums with both his teams in 2012. Continue Reading »

You would think carrying a 30.5 point lead into the final round of the 2012 World Superbike Championship would be a safe enough margin to win the title. Aprilia‘s Max Biaggi made it interesting, inexplicably crashing out of the first race at the finale in Magny-C0urs before scoring a fifth place finish in Race Two to give him a 0.5 point margin over Kawasaki‘s Tom Sykes to win the title.

The 358 to 357.5 point difference is the narrowest finish ever in WSBK. The final round capped off a season that saw Biaggi leading the points chase nearly the entire campaign despite looking very vulnerable at times through the season.

“This is the fourth world championship out of six that I have won at the final race, I seem to like difficult challenges!” says Biaggi. “The 2012 season went right down to the wire: we started well with a win at Phillip Island after totally renewing my team and we also had some difficult moments. We had to work hard to win the title, and maybe for this reason it’s even better. A big thanks to the Team, Aprilia and the Gruppo Piaggio, from President Colaninno to every factory worker, because my success is the result of the work of a great Italian company. Thanks also to my family, my fiancée and my two children, as well as Marino Laghi who is always present with me.”

Continue Reading »

Last month, we wrote about the Diavel Drag Race at World Ducati Week 2012 starring Ducati’s current MotoGP and World Superbike racers and the one and only Troy Bayliss. If you missed it, the retired three-time WSBK Champion Bayliss defeated nine-time Grand Prix Champion Valentino Rossi in the drag race competition on Ducati Diavel Carbons.

Our initial post featured a video of highlights from the drag race competition shot by Italian website Motociclismo.it but it was filmed by a single camera from an awkward vantage point. Thankfully, Ducati has since uploaded a video of the entire competition with live commentary and various camera angles from its official WDW TV coverage.

Unfortunately the commentary is in Italian, but it’s pretty easy to figure out what is going on if you don’t speak the language. It isn’t difficult to make out the names of Bayliss, Rossi, Nicky Hayden, Carlos Checa, Jakub Smrz, Sylvain Guintoli, Niccolò Canepa, and Lorenzo Zanetti. Continue Reading »

World Superbike rider Sylvain Guintoli has left the Effenbert Liberty ahead of the team’s home round in Brno, Czech Republic. Guintoli and members of his pit crew walked off the job, reportedly in a dispute over overdue pay cheques.

Liberty Racing initially released a statement calling the crew’s departure as a “defection” born from a “misunderstanding between the mechanics and the administrative management of the team”.

Guintoli meanwhile told his side of the story in a series of tweets on Twitter, saying Liberty Racing failed to fulfill its side of their contract. Continue Reading »

Former World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss out-dueled MotoGP star Valentino Rossi in a highly-anticipated showdown to win the Diavel drag race on the Misano Circuit‘s starting straight as part of World Ducati Week 2012 celebrations.

Bayliss and Rossi faced off in the final round after getting through the preliminary rounds which also featured Rossi’s MotoGP teammate Nicky Hayden, reigning WSBK Champion Carlos Checa, Jakub Smrz, Sylvain Guintoli, Niccolò Canepa and Lorenzo Zanetti. Continue Reading »