After discovering his knee injury to be more extensive than previously though, Christopher Vermeulen will miss World Superbike’s stop at Valencia this weekend, but is expected to be back on the saddle at Assen. Vermeulen injured his knee during a bad highside at Phillip Island, and was unable to rejoin the series at Portimao despite making an attempt during the free practice. As such, it looks like the Australian rider will be replaced this weekend at Valencia.
Somewhere between the tulips and windmills, MotoGP riders assembled in Assen, Netherlands this Saturday for the Dutch GP. Loyal Dutch fans were treated to a race that saw the front-runner break away from the rest of the group, a series of sketchy passes, some key crashes, and a hair-raising battle for 6th place. Continue after the jump for some sizable spoilers.
With the Dutch GP a day ahead of the other racing events, today’s Friday qualifying session was not only special because of its weekday time slot, but also because of the close clustering of riders for the top 3 spots. Valentino Rossi had a squeaker of a run, just beating out Dani Pedrosa by under a tenth of a second. Rossi is looking for his 100th win at the Dutch track, and seems to be on-track to achieving that goal.
It was Ben Spies again who took the holeshot of Race 2. Building off of his performance in Race 1, the American again began building a lead early on in the race. But wait! There’s more, continue reading for the full report from Race 2 of World Superbike at Assen.
In Assen, Holland, it was Ben Spies who took the holeshot in Race 1, launching off the line from pole position and into turn 1 of the Dutch course. Spies was followed by Max Neukirchner and Noriyuki Haga, neither of whom could touch the American’s lead position after turning just one lap around the course. As Haga closed in on Neukirchner it seemed there would be a good battle for second brewing, but the German made a mistake in the GT chicane and tossed his bike. He would finish 13th for the day. However, Race 1 at Assen wasn’t about to disappoint. Continue reading for a woefully inadequate description of one heck of a Superbike race that was WSBK Race 1 at Assen.
In Assen, Ben Spies took his fourth Superpole win in a row by besting the existing pole record by 7/10ths of a second, with back-to-back 1’36.6 laps. Nipping at the heels of Spies, and the only other man to break into the 1’37’s, was Jakub Smrz and his Guandalini Ducati. Continue reading for the rest of the front row, and the Superpole results.
If you were to ask John Hopkins what his least favorite track is right now, we’d bet good money the American would say the Dutch track Assen. The last time Hopper was in Assen, he smash his leg in a huge crash, which left him sitting out of two races, and struggling in pain for the rest of the season. Now, after only four laps around the course this year, Assen has shown its teeth again for Hopper. During the free practice today Hopkins dislocated his hip in another big crash, and there is doubt surrounding his return to riding by Sunday.