yelozx10r
Expert Class
Green '07 zx6r
Posts: 122
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posted March 03, 2008 02:31 AM
The WSB Grid
This is my OPINION on the wsbk grid at the mo. And I'm basing my OPINIONS on what I saw in the Superpole from philip island this last weekend.
Ducati 1098: This bike is the business at the moment. Great power, completely stable through the corners and seemingly able to get on the power nice and early through the corners. It looks so incredibly smooth. Also there is talk of them adding more weight to the bike to bring the performance down again. 3kg's aint much tho...
Yamaha: Haga and Corser are doing well with this bike and their team has built a hot bike. But I can't help but feel that they have to try too hard to get up front, thus destroying their tyres early and their late race pace suffers. I think they have the engine performance sorted but are battling to get their tyres to last the race. I dunno what the problem could be but I do think their bike is a better bike out there than the GSXR is, well, that yamaha team has built a hot bike that is.
Suzuki: A well sorted bike that is nice and smooth and can get the power down very well. Well, perhaps the Yamaha and the Suzuki are more equal than previously stated and simply depends on the rider and setup on the day.
Honda: A new bike this year and is not highly developed, but you can already see the improvement in the CBR's since the last race. Generally speaking (and the commentator pointed this out) the fireblade looks incredibly twitchy and nervous under braking and turning into the corners. It was only with Checa in superpole that he looked SO incredibly smooth!!! No twitchyness! And this showed in his 4th place on the grid. I think he suits the bike very well and it going to be up front every track. Perhaps Ten Kate have figured something out which allows their bikes to be smoother but most of the Hondas in Superpole looked downright dangerous although in the same breath they were getting the power down very well and hooking up some good lap times.
Kawi: 10th on the grid  Laconi loves this track and I think that that is the reason for the half decent showing. The Kawi looking so smooth and planted ALL the time but you could hear the traction control kicking in out of every corner and I think this is their downfall. I don't think they can get the power down. Steve Martin said that Laconi should rather turn the TC off, he'd go faster but obviously it would be harder to ride. The other Kawi's were all lining the bottom of the grid. Very sad... For the first start Laconi was running 6th until the red flag. Who knows how long he coulda kept it up there. But that wasn't too bad. Kawi still have alot of work to do and I'd like to see them get up front, just don't see it happening for a while.
Its so hard to compare bikes on the WSBK grid cos the teams vary so much in budget and parts. We also can't judge these race bikes to stock bikes although the stock bike is the foundation of a race bike and you gotta have a good foundation to build a great race bike.
Racing was really good this weekend and big ups to Honda for improving so much since the last race. I think Ducati are going to get caught up alot more with the Ten Kate guys.
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By the time you read this, I'll be gone!
  
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