FIM SUPERBIKE / SUPERSPORT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 05 SUNDAY MAY 13 DONINGTON, GREAT BRITAIN PREVIEW REA AND AOYAMA IN GOOD SHAPE HEADING INTO DONINGTON Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike Team) will be chasing his second win of the Superbike World Championship season this coming weekend at Donington, which will be the first of two home rounds the British rider will face on his CBR1000RR. Rea’s race win at Assen in round three came during a weekend of very changeable weather conditions and with the most recent round at Monza also proving to be heavily disturbed by rain the whole paddock will be hoping for a dry weekend. They may not get their wish but wet or dry Rea and his team fully expect to be contenders from the start. Jonathan has never taken a win or podium at Donington but recent improvements to his technical package have encouraged him that his Honda will handle the challenge of Donington well, particularly the slower parts at the Melbourne Loop. For 2012 SBK rookie Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda World Superbike Team) Donington is a known quantity, if not on his current machine. He took one of his nine career 250cc Grands Prix victories at Donington as recently as 2009. He hopes that this track knowledge will help him get his settings dialled in early, to make the business of qualifying for Superpole for the first time relatively straightforward. In the championship fight itself, after half points were awarded for the only race finish of the day at the previous Monza round, Rea is on 70 points, in overall fifth place and only 27.5 points off the lead. Aoyama is 13th, with a total of 24.5 points. LOWES OUT TO JOIN CLUZEL IN THE WINNERS’ CLUB AT HIS HOME RACE In the 2012 FIM Supersport World Championship the battle for the title is absolutely wide open after the first four rounds of a 13-round season have been completed, particularly for Sam Lowes (Bogdanka PTR Honda) and Monza race winner Jules Cluzel (PTR Honda). The British rider and French rider, who both operate from within the same PTR team structure (even if they are they are not technically team mates) had a great fight for the win at a wet Monza. Each expects to continue their friendly hostilities at the sharp end into the forthcoming British round. Lowes is yet to win a race at this level although he has eight podium finishes from the 2011 and 2012 seasons so far. He could think of no better place than his home race to notch up his first race win and will try to peg back current championship leader Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki). Sofuoglu has 61 points, Lowes 51, Fabien Foret (Kawasaki) has 49 and Cluzel now has 48, making for a spread of only 13 points across the top four. Broc Parkes (Ten Kate Racing Products Honda) is out to recover ground after falling, restarting and then eventually no scoring at Monza. For him Donington is an ideal place to begin his fight to climb up the table from his current sixth place. He knows he can go well there and feels his bike is a rounded package which is capable of taking on the slightly schizophrenic Donington, which features many flowing and undulating sections, then dead-stop hairpins and a slow chicane. Ronan Quarmby (PTR Honda) is currently ninth in the rankings, all ready to go again at Donington despite a fall in the wet at Monza. His right thumb injury should cause him no trouble on raceday, which may once more prove to be wet. If it is, it will be the third meeting in succession where weather has played a part on raceday. Andrea Antonelli and Roberto Tamburini (Team Lorini Honda) are 11th and 12th respectively after their second home round of the year was completed at Monza. Tamburini has had the best finish in a single race inside the Lorini set-up, fourth at Imola in April. New Lorini rider Raffaele De Rosa, who started the season in the Superbike World Championship, is 23rd after finishing tenth at Monza. After some bad early season luck Imre Toth (Racing Team Toth Honda) came back with a bang in fourth place at Monza, only losing out on a podium place in the last couple of laps. Toth is now just inside the top 15. His team-mate Balazs Nemeth (Racing Team Toth Honda) dropped recently to 19th overall, after three no scores in four rounds. After his last-minute debut at Monza, Kieran Clarke (Bogdanka Racing Honda) will join fellow WSS points scorers Mathew Scholtz (Bogdanka PTR Honda) and Martin Jessopp (Riders PTR Honda) at Donington, with this being a home round for Clarke and Jessop, and one of the favourite venues of Scholtz. There will be no Supersport race at the next SBK round after Donington, Miller Motorsports Park in the USA, on Monday 28 May. The WSS championship will reconvene at Misano Adriatico, with raceday on Sunday June 10. HONDA RIDER COMMENTS Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike Team): “I’m looking forward to getting back to a home race and looking forward to seeing how the bike works round Donington. We have quite a different setting from what we have raced there before. Our main point of focus at Donington last time was the last sector and entering the corners, but now we have addressed that and the bike works well in that kind of area. We are quite optimistic. We will see what happens and I really enjoy the circuit. I have never had a podium in SBK at Donington so that is something to try and work on this weekend. This track has never been too kind to me but we will give it some this weekend. After Monza last weekend, the championship has opened up a bit so we need to build on the win at Assen with some more podiums so we can make some more inroads.” Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda World Superbike Team): “The last three weekends have been difficult with either new tracks for me to learn, or changing conditions, or both! We have found some positives and the short race at Monza was a bit better. It has been some years since I raced at Donington Park and I mostly remember cold, wet weather and drinking a lot of coffee at the cafeteria near turn one. I think it was called Redgate Lodge but I hear that has gone as part of the restructure. I also hear the track is mostly the same as before, which is like two circuits in one. The first part is like flying an aeroplane, going up and down and banking left and right it’s a lot of fun. The second part is a chicane and two corners when you nearly have to stop the bike. But I have some good memories of riding there, so I want to start the weekend with no drama and try to move forward.” Sam Lowes (Bogdanka PTR Honda): “Donington is a track that I love; I have always liked it. Whatever the weather I will be pushing for my first win and our championship position now is good. I am just going to let things happen there. I have had three poles in a row and I know if it is dry there then we can be fast and enjoy it. I want to win really badly and I think maybe that is showing through a little bit. But if we keep knuckling down we should be somewhere near, so I should just chill out a bit.” Jules Cluzel (PTR Honda): “Donington is another track where we could have some rain and Donington in the rain is really hard, because it is easy to make a mistake. But I want to race there and I look forward, after our good result at Monza, to making sure we take something away with us. In the rain Donington is a very difficult circuit but in the dry I really like the track layout. Sam is a really good rider so we should have a good fight there too.” Broc Parkes (Ten Kate Racing Products Honda): “I just want to go out now taking it race-by-race and see what happens. Just ride like I normally ride. Our aim is to get on the podium in England and see if we can get some points back on our championship rivals. The Honda should work well there, it has done well in the past and I could see the CNR600RR worked well there last year, when I raced against a few Honda riders. I think our combination should be good at Donington.” Ronan Quarmby (PTR Honda): “I hurt my right hand a bit at Monza, sprained or dislocated my thumb I think, but I will OK for Donington. After Monza I was happy that my team manager was impressed that I had improved from Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Although I fell in the wet I feel a lot more confident than I did in the wet at Assen, so no matter what the weather does this weekend I will be on it. I am sure we will get a good result at Donington.” Andrea Antonelli (Team Lorini Honda): “Donington is quite a difficult track and it has two parts, one fast and flowing and the other with hard braking areas and very tight corners. I prefer the faster parts. If we find a good set-up I want to make a fast race and I hope to take a finish inside the top five or six places. It is possible if things go well for us.” Imre Toth (Racing Team Toth Honda): “We may have the same weather as we had at Monza in Donington, but I hope we can have a dry weekend. After a good Monza race we will try to collect more points and an even better result. Our goal is to continue in the top ten at every race meeting. I feel we have started to prove that our real position is towards the front of the field.” Martin Jessopp (Riders PTR Honda): “A point at Monza is something to build on for Donington. It won’t be easy there just because it is a home race, it may be harder than coming to a new track, because I have only really raced Superbike around there for the past four years. There will be a lot of support there so that cheers me on a bit. Donington is one I am really looking forward to.” More, from a press release issued by Aprilia: SECOND RACE IN TWO WEEKS FOR THE APRILIA RACING TEAM. IN THE FIRST ENGLISH ROUND OF 2012 MAX BIAGGI WANTS TO HOLD ONTO THE RIDER LEADERSHIP. EUGENE LAVERTY, AFTER TWO CONSECUTIVE PODIUM FINISHES, AIMS TO CONTINUE THE POSITIVE TREND. Donington, 9 May 2012 Just hours after the difficult Sunday in Monza, the Aprilia Racing Team is already prepared to take on the first English race of 2012. In Donington all eyes will certainly be on Max Biaggi, leader in the rider standings, as well as Eugene Laverty who is getting consistently stronger on his RSV4. The Corsair, who has always maintained a liking for the circuit near Sherwood Forest, will have the chance to confirm his lead, but he will have to reckon with some particularly seasoned rivals. The home riders have especially shown that they can ride at the highest levels, and here they have the added incentive of support from their home fans. “The season is really coming alive now comments Max Biaggi Every race from here on becomes crucial, especially since the point spreads are very tight after the Monza round. The 2012 Championship is turning out to be as heated a competition as ever. Practically all the manufacturers have at least one rider that can battle for victory. At Donington the first rivals are clearly the home riders, but I can’t rule anyone out. The important thing for us will be to find the right direction to go for the set-up right away in order not to struggle during crucial moments and to have a good package ready on Sunday”. Northern Irish rider Eugene Laverty, in a race where he can be considered a local rider, can count on his good performance of late. The podium in Monza, after the one a few weeks ago in Assen, is further confirmation of the good feeling that has fully developed between him and his RSV4. As somewhat of an expert on English weather conditions, Eugene expects Donington Park to be another climate-conditioned weekend. “We’ve been getting stronger and stronger at every round so far this season. I feel that we now belong at the front fighting for the podium after our success at both Assen and Monza. However, the Donington circuit has not been kind to me in the past. My only success there has been two podium finishes in the British Championship and both were held in extremely wet conditions. Perhaps I’ll find the same weather again this time! My main aim for Donington is to close the gap to the lead of the championship as we approach mid-season. Donington is the round of the World Superbike Championship that is closest to my home so it would be great to put the Aprilia in the winner’s circle with so many of my friends and family trackside”.