World Superbike

Phillip Island: Series pre-race notes

World Superbike kicks into gear with media day at Phillip Island The 2009 Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship switched up a gear today with the traditional pre-event media conference and official photos at the Phillip Island circuit, venue ...

Published: Jun 19, 2009, 7:36 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

World Superbike kicks into gear with media day at Phillip Island

The 2009 Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship switched up a gear today with the traditional pre-event media conference and official photos at the Phillip Island circuit, venue for this weekend's opening round, which gets underway with practice and qualifying on Friday.

Given the interest in this year's championship, the press conference was a crowded affair. 11 Superbike and 7 Supersport riders took the opportunity to chat with the national and international media about their chances for this year and their thoughts on this weekend's race.

With the retirement of Troy Bayliss, his fellow Aussie Troy Corser has now, affectionately speaking, become the senior citizen of World Superbike and the Phillip Island lap record holder showed that he has lost none of the determination of his earlier years as he lines up for the debut season of German manufacturer BMW.

"Yes, who would have thought a few years ago that I would have been racing a BMW in World Superbike! It was a late start for us as I had to wait until my previous contract expired before I could test the bike, but we've made some good progress. Every time we've made a test, I've given them information and they've gone away and made some improvements, so fingers crossed we can keep doing that this year. Maybe for some people it's a bit of a gamble, but I think I've got enough experience to get to the front."

Max Biaggi faces a new challenge as well as he attempts to guide Aprilia back to Superbike success as the Italian manufacturer returns to the production-based series for the first time since 2002.

"The start of the season for me is different to last year and the year before that, because nothing was there when I started this new project with Aprilia. We had to make everything happen, and now we are trying to build this together. We have strong ambitions and want to try to make things happen this year. I love my team, they are great people, I pushed for them to come with me and be in the same team as years ago."

All eyes will also be on American Ben Spies, who will be attempting to transform his AMA triumphs into similar results on the world stage for Yamaha.

"The team is really good, the bike was a big change in switching to Yamaha from another manufacturer, and the tyres are new. Even for Yamaha the bike is new, so it's a big change for them too. It's been going really good so far, but it's going to be a tough year. There are a lot of fast guys around here and I'm used to racing pretty much one, now it's ten who can win the title so it's a really good series."

After many years racing a four-cylinder Yamaha, Noriyuki Haga this season switches to a twin-cylinder Ducati. The Japanese rider explained the differences he has encountered so far in pre-season testing.

"The biggest difference is of course the engine characteristics, in acceleration especially. Turning for me is not so different so far, but the riding feels more smoothly and more comfortable. Because the bike is already ready for winning, always I have big pressure because I have to win this season."

The opening round of the 2009 championship sees seven official manufacturers present and thirty-one permanent riders enrolled in the series, all racing on Pirelli control tyres. Local riders have won 23 of the 35 world superbike races held at Phillip Island over 18 years, with Corser leading the way on seven wins, followed by Troy Bayliss (six) and Anthony Gobert (five). The other Phillip Island winners in this year's field are Noriyuki Haga and Regis Laconi.

TV COVERAGE

Eurosport (pan-European):
Sunday 1 March, 17.00 SBK race 1 (delayed)
17.45 SBK race 2 (delayed)

British Eurosport (UK):
Saturday 28 February, 11.30 GMT Superpole (delayed)
Sunday 1 March, 01.00 GMT SBK race 1 (live)
02.00 GMT Supersport (live), 04.30 GMT SBK race 2 (live)

-credit: wsbk

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Phillip Island: Series preview

Next article Phillip Island: Friday qualifying times

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Ducati: “Marc Marquez has asked for guarantees to go to Qatar, while others stay silent”

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

48 min

Ducati: “Marc Marquez has asked for guarantees to go to Qatar, while others stay silent”

Red Bull reveals when 'silly' problems affecting Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar can be fixed

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

1 h

Red Bull reveals when 'silly' problems affecting Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar can be fixed

Manthey acknowledges IMSA to be "tougher than expected" despite two wins

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 13 h

Manthey acknowledges IMSA to be "tougher than expected" despite two wins

How a philosophy shift brought BMW to new heights in 2026

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 13 h

How a philosophy shift brought BMW to new heights in 2026

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts