XAUS FLIES SOLO AT HOME RACE Ruben Xaus (Castrol Honda) will be the lone representative of the official Honda Superbike World Championship squad after his team-mate Jonathan Rea suffered injuries at last weekend’s Misano round. However Xaus will be far from alone, as he will have thousands of his Spanish countrymen cheering him on at a circuit which is a new to the championship trail this year. Motorland Aragon was the site of Ruben’s first ride on his 2011 CBR1000RR machine, although cold and wet winter conditions ensured he could only do a relatively small number of laps. Ruben has made great strides since then, on a machine that has been modified and extensively developed to suit Xaus and Rea’s needs in the intense competition inherent in a race category that features seven competing manufacturers. All seven with official teams of some kind, plus a solid core of top quality privateers that have proven capable of podium finishes already. Rea is about to undergo a restorative operation to fix the clean break he suffered to his right radius in his high speed warm-up crash at Misano, but his other injuries are not causing him any real concern, other than understandable discomfort. Rea is hoping to be ready to return at the eighth round of the championship, at Brno in the Czech Republic on July 10. Brno was where Jonathan won his first world championship race, for Honda, in the Supersport World Championship class in 2008. After the Misano round Rea is now eighth in the championship standings and Xaus 16th. Ruben and Jonathan will face the Brno race on July 10th, with practice and qualifying commencing on Friday 8th July. WSBK Rider Comments Ruben Xaus, Castrol Honda says: “Hopefully we can step up at Aragon now. It is a new track for me there, so no ‘real’ test so far, which means it will be difficult. We did 20 laps in the winter, but it was my first time on the Castrol Honda, so I did not know the set-up at all. The set-up of the bike then and now is completely different. The best thing is that we are getting out of Misano with a good rhythm and the race is next weekend, so very quick, and that is going to help. Hopefully we will find a weekend with no rain. But most important is that Johnny will be OK and come back soon.” World Supersport Preview ROUND 6 Middleweight Division Hots Up As Aragon Approaches After some dramas and no shortage of injuries in the first sector of the season, 2002 World Champion Fabien Foret (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) finally took his place as top ranked Honda rider in the championship table so far thanks to a second place finish at the last round in Misano. Fabien, 12-times a race winner in this category, is now fourth overall, with seven rounds of the championship remaining. The first of those is at Motorland Aragon, Spain this coming weekend, where Fabien will be looking for his first win of the season. Robbin Harms (Harms Benjan Racing Honda) will find a new experience when he arrives in Spain, as he has never seen the well-appointed and designed Aragon facility before. Nevertheless, Robbin and his team expect to yet again punch above their weight in what is turning out to be a consistently impressive season for this very much a privateer effort. Sixth in the rankings now, Harms next aim is his first podium finish of the 2011 season. Eight of the top 15 riders in the championship standings after Misano are Honda-mounted. Sam Lowes (Parkalgar Honda) is now almost fully recovered from his nasty Assen collarbone break. He was on top form at Misano, scoring his first career pole and his second podium of the year, as he makes the transition from national to world level racing with some flair. Lowes is seventh overall, on 43 points, despite only scoring in three of the five rounds so far. Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider and rookie in this category Florian Marino sees Aragon as a chance to get back to his very best, having struggled somewhat at Misano despite having proved in earlier races that his a worthy addition to the class. Eighth in the standings, he has some degree of experience of the Aragon circuit, thanks to a short winter test session. James Ellison (Bogdanka PTR Honda) feels he and his team-made a set-up breakthrough at Misano meaning that should he qualify well he should be in contention for the podium places. A rider of vast experience now, in a range of classes and championships, Ellison sits ninth in the rankings. Gino Rea (Step Racing Team Honda) feels he has been held back recently by losing time in practice sessions, but he already has one podium to show this year, in the cold at his home circuit of Donington, in late March. Now 11th in the points table, he cannot wait to get going again at a circuit he knows the layout of from a short winter test. Despite a painful left shoulder injury, which had still not healed at Misano, Portuguese rider Miguel Praia (Parkalgar Honda) moved up to 13th in the championship last time out. He has hopes that he can continue to progress in the rankings after Aragon. Alexander Lundh (Cresto Guide Racing Team Honda) started the season brightly, but has seen his luck fall away in recent weeks, leaving the 15th place rider in the championship keen to score more at Aragon than the single point he left Misano with. Balazs Nemeth (Team Hungary Toth Honda), Vladimir Ivanov (Step Racing Team Honda) and Ondrej Jezek (SMS Racing Honda) are all nestled inside the top 20 places with five rounds gone, while Imre Toth (Team Hungary Toth Honda) and Bastien Chesaux (MACH – Moto Academy Swiss Honda) sit just outside. Pawel Szkopek (Bogdanka PTR Honda) is 25th after another no score last weekend. Like the Superbike World Championship contenders, the Supersport pack heads to Brno next, with race day on 10 July. WSS Rider Comments Fabien Foret says: “I am building up my fitness and it will be better again at Aragon. I know the track and we had a couple of hours there in pre-season but it was like winter. I know that it is a good track and I know where we are going. Kawasaki has tested there, so it will not be easy, but I am a racer so I will be ready to fight.” Robbin Harms says: “I have never been to Aragon, so I am just looking forward to trying out a new track, and it looks very good. I want to finish in the top five, that is my main goal all the time. Sometimes the odds just go against you, like at Misano when I was eighth. But I will be all out for a top five again in Spain.” Sam Lowes says: “I got pole at Misano and a podium in the race so we are leaving there in good shape. I tested at Aragon in the winter, and I am looking forward to that track. It will be tough because it is Kawasaki and Yamaha’s test track, but we will go there and be all right. I felt good at Misano and I feel we have kicked something off now, so I am looking forward to Aragon.” Florian Marino says: “I was at Aragon this winter for two days of testing, but we only did one day because the track temperature was less than zero, so not good conditions. Our first job there this weekend is to make the bike feel good because at Misano we could not find settings to let me ride the bike the way I like. We must first a set-up so that I can ride the way I want, then get my speed back again, like I had at Assen or Monza. I want to get closer to the leaders. The track at Motorland has some good corners and a nice layout.” James Ellison says: “We have a lot of good things from the Misano round to take to Aragon. I love it, we went testing there in winter, but it was freezing, snowing in the morning. All the same, I loved the track because it is really good fun and from the testing times that Chaz Davies did last week there, we should be about the same. So I am quite confident about going there.” Gino Rea says: “Hopefully at Aragon, if we do not lose time in practice sessions like we did at Misano, then we should be fine. We did a test there, but it was about zero degrees before the season started, so it was more of a shakedown than a real test. I know which way it goes at least, which is good, so we just need to concentrate on our set-up. That is where results should come from.” Miguel Praia says: “A 12th at Misano was a good result for us, considering my sore shoulder and my condition. I hope now I have a couple of more days to work on my shoulder to bring it back for Aragon. We rode there straight after the Portimao tests in the winter, but it was very cold! But at least I have been there.” More, from a press release issued by Castrol Honda: Xaus to fly Castrol Honda flag in Spain Ruben Xaus will be the sole Castrol Honda rider at this weekend’s seventh round World Superbike championship event at Motorland Aragon in Spain after team-mate Jonathan Rea was forced to miss the two races. Rea will undergo an operation on Wednesday to secure the radius bone in his right arm, which was fractured in a warm-up crash at Misano in Italy last Sunday. The 24-year-old from Northern Ireland also sustained minor fractures to his right foot and left collarbone and is working on regaining 100% fitness as quickly as possible. For Xaus and the rest of the World Superbike paddock, Motorland Aragon is a new circuit on the calendar. Despite a scheduled test last December, the Castrol Honda team possesses very little set-up information after the riders were restricted to a handful of laps in sub-zero temperatures. The 5.345km circuit is a relatively new, multi-purpose facility approximately three hours to the west of Ba rcelona and caters for a great enthusiasm for motorsport in the surrounding area born out of a street circuit which was used for over 40 years in nearby Alcaniz. Aragon also marks a World Superbike home round for 32-year-old Spaniard Xaus, being a four hour drive from his base in Andorra. Ruben Xaus We’re working hard every day to find something extra and I think from race two at Misano last weekend we got something positive and I was able to find a really good rhythm with the bike. We need to keep working and, of course, every circuit is new for me with the CBR1000RR. Aragon is a new circuit for everyone, however. It’s a good facility and it’s great to have another circuit like this in Spain, but honestly I cannot tell you about the track. We had a test there at the end of last year but we could do nothing because it was so cold. The conditions will be completely different this weekend, so there is no real compa rison to make. I will let you know on Friday how it is! Jonathan Rea I’m so disappointed to be missing the Aragon round because when we rode a couple of really cold laps there last year I did enjoy the layout. I like riding at new circuits and it would have been useful to get some data from there. It was a pretty fast crash last weekend – everything’s quite sore and I also got some gravel rash on my neck which is pretty painful, too. I’ll be rooting for Ruben and the guys, of course, and I hope they can go well there, spurred on by a bit of local support. In the meantime, I’m going to concentrate on getting fit again as quickly as I can. When I get back on the bike I want to be at 100% so that I can really get the very best of out it and try to get us back on the podium and back to winning ways. Ronald ten Kate team manager Well the test we had at Aragon w as so cold that all we really got was an idea on gearing and the riders found out which way the corners go. Jonathan not being able to ride is obviously a major set-back for us and it’s the first time he hasn’t been with us since 2008. We all wish him a very speedy recovery and hope that he can be back to fitness again for Brno. We don’t have a replacement rider fixed because, with Misano and Aragon being back-to-back races, time was very short. For Ruben, it will be a true home round since he only lives a few hours from the circuit. We hope that his momentum from the Misano weekend and the cheering of local fans will give him some good inspiration for the weekend.