BIKEROAD RACINGWSBK - SSP | Page 8

Noriyuki Haga picked up from where former Ducati incumbent Troy Corser left off last season by taking the opening race of the 2009 World Superbike championship at Phillip Island on Sunday.

Jakub Smrz produced a superb, if not surprising performance in the provisional qualifying session at Phillip Island today (Friday) to head the World Superbike field on his Ducati 1098R.

Leon Haslam enters this weekend’s opening round of the 2009 World Superbike Championship in Australia in confident mood after a successful pre season testing programme with his new Stiggy Honda team.

BMW Motorrad have published the first official images of the race livery that will adorn its S1000RR machine in 2009.

Max Biaggi ensured Aprilia remained on top of the testing times at Phillip Island today after edging out Regis Laconi’s Ducati by just 0.01 seconds.

Max Biaggi has revealed that morale in the Aprilia World Superbike team isn't high after a disappointing pre-season test at Portimao that left him and team-mate Shinya Nakano in the lower reaches of the top twenty.

Shane Byrne has admitted his hopes of winning this year's World Superbike title could come down to whether his Sterilgarda Ducati team can keep up with the development of their factory rivals.

David Salom and Luca Scassa gave Team Pedercini a boost during pre-season testing at Portimao as they mixed it with the factory Kawasaki team throughout the weekend.

Gianluca Nannelli was the fastest Triumph rider during the official Portimao WSS test, in which he put his BE1 machine ninth overall - within 0.