After getting dumped by Ducati Corse, which will be running its own factory team, Althea Racing has made the unsurprising switch to Aprilia hardware for lone rider Davide Giugliano, as they gear up for the 2013 World Superbike Championship season.
A top team in the WSBK paddock, Althea has potent prospects for next season with the Aprilia RSV4 Factory, especially as Giugliano continues to gain experience in World Superbike. This announcement brings the total to four Aprilia machines on the 2013 grid: the two factory bikes of Eugene Laverty and Sylvain Guintoli, as well as Red Devils Roma’s entry with Michel Fabrizio.
Not withstanding the drama of Liberty Racing and Sylvain Guintoli’s slightly absurd dustup and parting of ways, along with the news the BMW Motorrad would fold its factory team into the BMW Italia effort, it’s been business as usual at Brno for World Superbike this week. The same could not be said for Saturday’s Superpole event though, which suffered from fluids being dumped on the track, and then a bout of rain caused the qualifying to go to a wet format. With teams having to adapt to the changing format, the grid for Sunday is certainly an interesting one.
With many of World Superbike’s top riders finding themselves on unfamiliar grid positions for WSBK’s stop at Misano, a slew of new names were thrust into the spotlight. Getting their chance to shine at the coastal track, WSBK fans were treated to a multitude of great battles under sunny Italian skies, as veteran riders had to work their way from the bike of the field, and contend with riders they normally don’t see in racing conditions. If you didn’t catch Race 1 at Misano, your life isn’t complete. Race reults after the jump.
With the rain pouring right before World Superbike’s Superpole event at Misano, Race Direction at the Italian track called the session “wet” — thus reducing the knock-out style qualifying session from three rounds to only two. With the track drying rapidly though, the wet session looked a lot like a dry one, sans for some early-on damp patches along the racing line.
Tipping the balance just enough, the two-round dry qualifying found some top riders biding their time too long in the pits, which proved to have disastrous effects on their grid positions for Sunday’s double-header race.
As had been the case all week, World Superbike had to look to the skies before Race 1 at Assen to determine what the weather gods had in store for the Dutch track. Expecting fair conditions for Race 1, and rain expected for Race 2, teams again would have continue to have to juggle two different setups for their riders.
With the grid on slicks for the start of Race 1, things would come to crashing halt just nine laps later, as the rain made an early appearance. Red-flagged and restarted, Race 1 ended up being a very wet affair. Click past the jump for spoilers and results.