This weekend the World Superbike Championship makes its return to Misano Andriatico for the eighth round of the 2009 season. With seven rounds remaining Noriyuki Haga leads second place Ben Spies by 53 points and third place Michel Fabrizio by 64 points. The following are news and notes leading up to the race:Max Neukirchner is recovering from the injuries he sustained at Monza, and is planning on making his return at Brno on July 26th. Neukirchner’s injuries include a broken femur and broken bones in his foot and ankle. Makoto Tamada and Brendan Roberts will also remain on the sidelines with their Monza injuries. Tamada with a broken wrist, and Roberts with severe bruising and muscle inflammation.
Jamie Hacking will get his second consecutive start on the Paul Bird Motorsport Kawasaki ZX-10R at Misano. Hacking will once again be riding in place of the injured Makoto Tamada who broke his wrist in the first lap crash at Monza. Hacking finished seventh and nineteenth at the U.S. round after qualifying eighth.
Gregorio Lavilla will be riding the Guandalini Ducati 1198 at Misano in place of the injured Brendan Roberts. Lavilla’s rides as a substitute for Roberts have included a tenth and a twelfth at Kyalami and fourteenth and a retirement at Miller Motorsports Park. Roberts is expected to miss the next two rounds at Misano and Donington.
In other rider injury news Karl Muggeridge will miss the next two World Superbike rounds to recover from a cracked vertebrae he sustained in a crash at Assen. In his absence Italian Alex Polita will ride for the Celani Suzuki team.
Matthieu Lagrive has replaced Tommy Hill on the Althea Honda CBR 1000 RR. The combination of Hill and the Althea team was an unsuccessful pairing that had only resulted in six points through the first half of the season. Lagrive moves up from the team’s World Supersport effort where he was in eleventh place with 38 points. The French rider is a five time Endurance World Champion, and the race at Misano will be his first race in World Superbike.
Troy Bayliss tested a V8 Supercar at Queensland Raceway in Australia. Bayliss, who recently tested a Ducati MotoGP bike, completed over 80 laps in the 600+ horsepower Supercar. The three time world champion is planning on racing cars competitively, and said that he is hoping to race in “either the Development Series or the endurance races”. Riders who have made the jump to racing four wheels have had mixed success in the past. Englishman John Surtees and American Joe Leonard won titles on bikes and in cars.
