Well we were geared up for the beginning of the World Superbikes season in our house, with endless debates on who would likely be champion this year, we joined the MCN fantasy road racing league and set the Sky box to record.

Well the opening round from Philip Island did not disappoint.

With Brit Leon Haslem easily taking his first WSB Superpole – leading all three sessions – plus three other Brits in the top 10, together with serious title contender Michel Fabrizio, it was always going to be a cracking race.

Surprisingly, last years runner up, Nori Haga, qualified tenth, but see later…and Ruben Xaus did his best to end Nori’s season before it started with a spectacular crash in warm up where both riders were lucky to be relatively unscathed.

Leon led from the off in both races and the two works Ducatis of Fabrizio and Nori Haga (from 10th – 4th row of the grid) were soon on his tail. It must have been a disappointing season opener for Yamaha after their clean sweep in the championships last year, and I suspect not too happy a time for riders James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow who both crashed out in the first race, having complained of handling issues in practice.

Despite the top three remaining fairly constant through both races, there were battles a-plenty further back with Biaggi, a revitalised Carlos Checa on the privateer Ducati, who qualified third, Biaggi’s teammate Leon Camier as well as Moto GP returnee Chris Vermeulan on the Kawasaki, all vying for position. We also saw fresh from his debut BSB season Sylvain Guintoli, Haslem’s teammate, in the mix with the front runners.

Vermeulan was soon in the kitty litter and Camier almost was when he went too hot into a corner, but managed to rejoin the race.

In the first race once they made the break it always looked as though the front three would be on the podium and almost certainly the spoils were to go to Haslem, with Fabrizio and Haga doing battle for second position. It just goes to show that nothing is ever guaranteed and in a last lap surge that saw Haslem making mistakes there was nearly an upset as Haslem and Fabrizio battled to the line and for a good few minutes until we saw the photo replay it looked as though Fabrizio had cruelly snatched victory from Haslem in a re-run of the epic Bayliss/Toseland result. However, Haslem managed to land jam side up and took the victory by only 4000ths of a second!

And that was only the first race!

In the second race the same three riders soon stretched out a lead on the remaining pack and soon Guintoli and Checa came to join the party. Haga dropped back to fifth with speculation that the earlier crash was taking its toll. Checa stalked the front pair and timed his assault on the lead to perfection, he dispensed with Haslem and Fabrizio effortlessly and they looked as if they had no answer leaving Checa the spoils.

A disappointing result in race two for Yamaha teammates Crutchlow and Toseland who finished 9th and 10th, respectively, but at least they kept it upright.

These results show what a wide open championship this is going to be, with a clear favourite yet to emerge. The smile on Ron Haslem’s face when his boy won the race was great to see and I personally think there is more great stuff to see from him during the season.

World Supersport
Eugene Laverty has got to be the hot favourite to win this championship and certainly his manager is giving interviews to that effect and even the man himself is saying the same. That’s confidence. But rightly so. Last seasons epic battles with eventual winner Cal Crutchlow were great and certainly showcased Laverty as a champion in the making.

Laverty qualified third on the grid behind Joan Lascorz (pole) and Kenan Sofuoglu, but straight away Laverty swept across to take the lead and started to pull out on the following riders, with Chaz Davies one of the four (yes four) Triumphs on the grid soon looking threatening. Unfortunately his race was very soon cut short as an apparent engine problem threw oil all over the track and caused the race to be red flagged.

Qualifying positions were resumed for the restarted race and Laverty repeated his tactic from the first race and was soon out in front, this time managing to pull out a commanding lead. Further back vying for second place was Sofuoglu, his teammate Pirro, Lascorz and his teammate Fujiwara, with a late surge from Salom one of the other Triumph riders.

Laverty took the win easily and Lascorz took second with Sofuoglu third and Salom a promising fourth.

You can all of the news and the full results listing from the links below.

Did you watch it? If so what did you think?

http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/latest-news.html

http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/latest-results/1557-phillip-island-superbike-race-1.html

http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/latest-results/1561-phillip-island-superbike-race-2.html

http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/latest-results/1559-phillip-island-supersport-race.html