While the Moto2 and Moto3 riders finish up their test at Valencia, on the other side of the world, the World Superbike and World Supersport riders are beginning the final run in to the season opener in 10 days' time. They started today with the first of two days of private testing, the first chance the riders get to see the resurfaced Phillip Island track. The overall reaction to the new surface was very positive, though the lack of rubber on the track caused a spot of mayhem in the morning, with several riders crashing out.
Fastest man of the day was Eugene Laverty on the factory Aprilia, the Irishman circulating at lap record pace, but still a second off the pole record. Leon Camier put the Fixi Suzuki into 2nd spot, ahead of the Pata Hondas of Johnny Rea and Leon Haslam, while Marco Melandri ended the day in 5th. Carlos Checa did not ride, as the 2011 World Champion was suffering with a stomach bug.
There was a costly crash for Tom Sykes on just his 5th lap, the Kawasaki man falling heavily and suffering a suspected wrist fracture, the x-rays at a local hospital showing up damage, but uncertain whether the damage is from his fall today or from an old injury. Sykes has still to decide whether to ride on Friday; with the official test due to start on Monday, the Englishman could afford to miss a day of testing. Other riders to crash included Leon Camier, Jules Cluzel and Loris Baz, the Frenchman managing to completely destroy his Provec Kawasaki, but walking away unhurt.
No times were published for the World Supersport riders, but reports from the track suggest impressive times from both Sam Lowes and Michael van der Mark, both men said to be lapping at 1'35.2, which is just three tenths off record pace. Lowes pronounced himself happy with the performance of the Yamaha R6, while Van der Mark was very pleased to be on the pace with Lowes, an impressive feat given that this was the young Dutchman's first visit to the Australian circuit.
Unofficial times, courtesy of Bikesportnews and GPOne:
Pos | No | Rider | Team/Bike | Time | Diff | Prev. |
1 | 58 | Eugene Laverty | Factory Aprilia | 1:31.7 | ||
2 | 2 | Leon Camier | Fixi Suzuki | 1:31.9 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
3 | 65 | Jonathan Rea | Pata Honda | 1:32.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
4 | 91 | Leon Haslam | Pata Honda | 1:32.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
5 | 33 | Marco Melandri | Goldbet BMW | 1:32.2 | 0.5 | 0.2 |
6 | 50 | Sylvain Guintoli | Factory Aprilia | 1:32.3 | 0.6 | 0.1 |
7 | 16 | Jules Cluzel | Fixi Suzuki | 1:32.4 | 0.7 | 0.1 |
8 | 34 | Davide Guigliano | Althea Aprilia | 1:32.7 | 1.0 | 0.3 |
9 | 86 | Ayrton Badovini | Alstare Ducati | 1:32.8 | 1.1 | 0.1 |
10 | 27 | Max Neukirchner | MR Ducati | 1:32.9 | 1.2 | 0.1 |
11 | 19 | Chaz Davies | Goldbet BMW | 1:33.0 | 1.3 | 0.1 |
12 | 76 | Loris Baz | Factory Kawasaki | 1:33.2 | 1.5 | 0.2 |
13 | 84 | Michel Fabrizio | Red Devils Aprilia | 1:33.7 | 2.0 | 0.5 |
14 | 66 | Tom Sykes | Factory Kawasaki | 1:34.5 | 2.8 | 0.8 |
Comments
Hopefully another good year!
The grid might've shrunk slightly, but I'm sure it will be another solid year in WSBK. Glad to see Laverty really getting ahold of the Aprilia this year. I'm expecting to see him on the podium more often now. Also bad news for Sykes, considering the way he finished off 2012 on such a high. And I guess I'll be torrenting the races, since there's limited ways to view it in the US. Dorna needs to get on that online streaming for it already!!
Hmmm..... Camier
Leon might just be in with a shot at this title this year. In fact, between Laverty, Sykes, Melandri, and Camier, this could be one hell of a championship fight. Davies could be there, and Checa could be there too, but early reports suggest he wasn't too keen on Ducati's new steed. Let's see what Alstare can do with something other than Gsxr's.
SPEED not showing WSBK in U.S.
http://superbikeplanet.com/2013/Feb/130213kqa.htm
I am not a violent man, but this has me seeing red like I haven't felt in a long time. SPEED is not showing WSBK on their channel for the 2013 season.
I guess the masses must have their reality tv... screw top level sport and passion
FYI... from what I've read they are only planning on showing 'select' AMA races.
Truly, truly unbelievable, and honestly embarrassing for us to the rest of the world. Be ashamed SPEED, very ashamed.
In reply to SPEED not showing WSBK in U.S. by backmarker61
Speed needs to die a quick death...
I remember when the official WSBK site used to stream complete races from their website for free (2009?) before Speed put a stop to that.
I just don't understand why Dorna doesn't offer an online package with access to both MotoGP and WSBK streaming content...I'd buy it in a second. I guess I'll have to look into torrents until then.
In reply to Speed needs to die a quick death... by garrick
Feedback
Here is a link to to send them your thoughts if anyone wants: http://www.speedtv.com/feedback/
I seriously doubt it will make any difference at all, but hey, you never know. But, we all know this is some boardroom decision from an accountant with only bottom line dollars for his next quarter numbers. Instead of investing in advertising and enticing an entire country in one of the planets most exciting sports.
Instead every other commercial on SPEED is about their new reality show "R U Faster Than a Redneck"... seriously, no joke, complete with word abbreviations like a 12 year old girl... just can't help hanging my head in shame a little
In reply to Feedback by backmarker61
if we're lucky
maybe we can watch extended coverage of people driving their cars in circles or get in an extra episode of Pass Time, where people drive really fast for a 1/4 mile.
God they suck.
In reply to Speed needs to die a quick death... by garrick
I remember that as well
The coverage was better than Speed, the quality was not Motogp level, but it was FREE! I hope Dorna does offer the same thing with World SBK as they do with Motogp. That way we in the US can see practice, qualifying, and the race. Which we only see the race.... if that, because speed sometimes throws on BS at the time when the race was SUPPOSED to come on. Or better yet, the race is Sunday, and we don't get to see it until TUESDAY! By the time you see the internet is FLOODED with who won, what happened. I have to leave the computer off for days.
I am willing to pay for another online subscription, because it beats the HELL out of paying strike me down to homeless bills for Cable.
In reply to SPEED not showing WSBK in U.S. by backmarker61
you haven't been paying attention
re: "screw top level sport and passion"
no, like liotta said in goodfellas, the phrase is "SCREW YOU PAY ME".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP_GOoBPKfQ
where we failed, nascar and it's fans delivered.
In reply to SPEED not showing WSBK in U.S. by backmarker61
like the wisemen say...
re: "Truly, truly unbelievable, and honestly embarrassing for us to the rest of the world."
we get what we pay for.
re: "Be ashamed SPEED, very ashamed."
right now some good ol' boys in north carolina offices are rolling long cut tobacco in $100 dollar bills while point at you and laughing.
In reply to like the wisemen say... by normgshamarone
Not sure I'm following you...
"we get what we pay for." - Exactly, I pay my cable bill for my basic channels, and then I pay extra to be able to watch SPEED. I payed for it (and it's not cheap), so I want to watch it. So, I'm not sure what you're getting at, maybe I'm misunderstanding.
"right now some good ol' boys in north carolina offices are rolling long cut tobacco in $100 dollar bills while point at you and laughing." - You're absolutely right. But, doesn't that piss you off?! We are loyal customers, instead they are tailoring their new shows to lowest common denominator of mind sucking stupidity. It's all about the dollars, which I get, but the point is we have been their customers for years, and they are dropping us with no second thoughts. Their new shows will be gone in two years, but we will still all be racing fans. So they are screwing over a loyal fan base for a quick buck (which again, they could easily grow if they actually advertised it). Bad business.
And I think you are also insinuating that people pirating race coverage from online is a reason why they are dumping the coverage. If that is part of it, it is an infinitesimally small part of it. Those reality shows, as stupid as they are, absolutely rake in the money for them. Low production costs, no real actors, no real directing, etc. with lots and lots of dumb people to watch them. So, people stealing stuff online may be a part of the equation, but it's nothing compared to their real motivations.
I don't care if they air WSBK at 2am, we can tape it, DVR it, or whatever.... but to just drop us just makes me furious.
In reply to Not sure I'm following you... by backmarker61
big bank takes little bank
re: "Exactly, I pay my cable bill for my basic channels, and then I pay extra to be able to watch SPEED. I payed for it (and it's not cheap), so I want to watch it. So, I'm not sure what you're getting at, maybe I'm misunderstanding."
we didn't pay nascar money. and if we we're asked to pay more...? our kneejerk reaction would've been to whine and complain. you know it and i know it.
re: "Those reality shows, as stupid as they are, absolutely rake in the money for them."
why you understand just fine...!? my work is done here. :)
I'm with you! SpeedTV needs
I'm with you! SpeedTV needs to be renamed 'NumNuts' tv.... I think we should realize that 'the morons will inherit the earth'! They're advertising speed2, but where the hell do you get that AND does that whatever gonna televise WSBK? Heh DORNA, what the hell are you doing? We're a week away, with nothing signed OR any info on where you can get it here in the states! Who is televising it in Europe?
In reply to I'm with you! SpeedTV needs by 3B43
you will get nothing, and like it
re: "I think we should realize that 'the morons will inherit the earth'!"
what we should realize is morons who don't realize their pissant sport is competing with secular activities 10x their size, end up losing all their programming.
come 8/1/13, we won't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of.
I'm not surprised. Have you
I'm not surprised. Have you actually paid any attention to the advertising on a Speed WSBK broadcast? There's occasionally a couple of Yamaha ads, a couple by some mail order parts house I've never heard of, and a few by Progressive Insurance. The rest are the bargain-basement "stick the ad anywhere on your cable network at any time" commercials, purchased for almost nothing - sometimes as little as $3 a spot. This level of support is described in accounting terms as "s**t not worth counting."
I see a lot of torrenting going on in the near future.
In reply to I'm not surprised. Have you by morbidelli17
agree.
my buddies all do it via torrent but i decided to watch on TV in hopes of showing Speed that folks were watching - even though they would routinely change programming while the race was still going or cut from the quick post-race interviews.
This has me insanely mad...
In reply to agree. by MSS 58
ask them to stand up and take a bow
re: "my buddies all do it via torrent"
your so called "buddies" have killed us.
In reply to ask them to stand up and take a bow by normgshamarone
Doesn't matter
Sorry, but it really makes no difference if an ordinary person watches SPEED's program or not. TV doesn't have a backchannel, the TV stations never know if John Doe did watch WSBK on SPEED or using a torrent. There are a few, very powerful people, that have a device connected to their TV set, which records what they watch. All the viewing numbers are just projections. What would you suggest to do? Drink a few cans of Monster Energy every day? Better attend the races if you have the chance.
I'm located in Europe, so I can use the Eurosport player. If I was located in the US, I would buy a VPN account and pay for a Eurosport player subscription. But the right thing to do would be to write to Dorna, and lobby for WSBK streaming. In fact I will do this tomorrow, because I'm not interested in all the rest on Eurosport.
In reply to Doesn't matter by gsx750f
R.O.I.
re: "Sorry, but it really makes no difference if an ordinary person watches SPEED's program or not."
correct, the difference comes in the patronage of the advertisers who supported the programming with commercial time. yet another something we failed at.
re: "What would you suggest to do?"
i'm embarassed for you that you had to ask this question. even if rhetorical, buying and drinking monster is but the tip of the iceberg.
re: "But the right thing to do would be to write to Dorna, and lobby for WSBK streaming."
no, the right thing to do is PAYPAL dorna. we've wasted enough time floating down that african river.
In reply to R.O.I. by normgshamarone
Paypal
I do paypal Dorna, I pay them 99€ for a MotoGP subscription. And I would also happily pay another 99€ for a WSBK subscription. I've told them as much, I hope they listen.
In reply to Paypal by gsx750f
spread the word
re: "I do paypal Dorna, I pay them 99€ for a MotoGP subscription. And I would also happily pay another 99€ for a WSBK subscription."
from your mouth to GOD's ears. if we can collective donate to gino rea, we can collectively "donate" to other facets of motorcycling.
In reply to Doesn't matter by gsx750f
GSX750
Is this what you're referring to? I had not heard of that before and it seems to be what you mention...
http://www.bubbletunnel.com/
Coincidentally I had already written Dorna and Speed. I know it is like shouting into he sky, but telling Speed to piss off felt great.
In reply to GSX750 by MSS 58
There are loads of VPN providers
I haven't used bubbletunnel.com, so I can't say anything about it, but it looks legit. I had an account with https://www.vpntunnel.com, and it worked well. Something like that should work to get you an IP address from Europe, and then you should be able to sign up for eurosportplayer.
But I didn't try it myself using a VPN, so I can't guarantee that you will be able to sign up. It's possible (though unlikely) that VPN IPs are blacklisted, and it's also possible that you have to provide a verifiable address in Europe. So while I think it should work, unfortunately I can't really tell because I haven't tried it myself. My subscription is running for a few more months, so I can't make a new one to check if I have to provide an address.
Please also be aware, that you absolutely should run a firewall when using VPN. Due to the way it works, it's possible that connecting to a VPN server will expose all your ports that are normally only accessible on your local area network to the internet. But the Windows firewall should be sufficient to prevent this. It's also likely that the client the VPN provider will provide will take care of this problem.
Personally, I always use a dedicated system in a virtual machine with Virtualbox when using VPN.
Sorry I can't be of more help.
I am so disappointed with SPEED
I was looking forward to the 2013 season - and now Speed is not broadcasting 2 of the 3 series I follow - WSBK and AMA.
I wish they had the races online like MotoGP.
In reply to I am so disappointed with SPEED by TPR
Online Coverage
Maybe it's possible that worldsbk.com will make the race broadcast available on their website proper (likely not a live feed, but at least available post race.) for last season it was blocked from all U.S. Ip addresses because SpeedTV (a.k.a., worst motorsports network ever) had rights to the broadcast in the states. I just checked and the eurosport2 broadcast for the entire 2012 season is available for viewing online.... fingers are crossed...
UPDATE
*Just checked the WorldSBK site today and the Eurosport broadcasts from 2012 are no longer available... dark days ahead I fear
In reply to Online Coverage by Ducati_750
That sucks...
I was hoping we were jumping the gun, and there was something planned we were not aware of... Hard to believe Dorna is going to let that happen?
In reply to I am so disappointed with SPEED by TPR
what she said... last time we visited this topic
re: "I wish they had the races online like MotoGP"
what you really mean to say is you wish they had races on youtube for free...?
so that way the costs of YOUR entertainment could be offloaded on to someone else in the never ending quest to pay nothing for everything.
exhibit a...
http://www.r3owners.net/rocket-iii-touring-forum/14770-sticker-shock.ht…
YOU WERE WARNED
hate to say i told you so, but "i told you so." not a gloat, but you HAD to know i was going to show up and read off the riot act.
when i spoke of this in threads past, many of you made a conscious choice to be dismissive and not listen. i've only been explaining ad-nauseum now that actions have consequences. that a decade of "devauling behavior" (not from outsiders mind), but from you, YES YOU, the very people who claim to be fans of the sport and consumers of the industry (ie. "fan-sumers"), would slowly erode it's foundations and bring about it's demise.
thankfully, one of the hallmarks of this forum that distinguishes it from all others, is the readership HERE leans towards being an intelligent lot. okay, well use the intelligence GOD gave a cat and do the math. could you NOT see with every dollar you tripped over yourself to withhold from an industry (you claim to love), that ultimately nothing good would come of it...?
it wasn't a matter of if...? it was that ol' matter of when. newsflash guys, WHEN is NOW...!!! the proverbial chickens have come home to roost. so stop blaming speed, dorna, the GEC, nascar, the obama administration, and your nana helen and take responsibility ffs. speed faithfully aired over 10 years of motorcycling programming (i know, because i have an archive of VHS tapes i recorded myself going back to the 90's).
but rather than be appreciative all's we ever did was bitch and moan. and here we are... predictable and true to form still... BITCHING AND MOANING...!!! smarten up, that hasn't worked for us in a decade. if you wanted to affect change, what you had to do was open your wallets and let the moths OUT...!!!
make no mistake, you STILL have the power to do this...? but will you choose to keep doing the same old things, while expecting different results...?
In reply to YOU WERE WARNED by normgshamarone
oh dear
"fansumer"
here we go again! sigh :(
In reply to oh dear by MSS 58
"whining" about speed TV
here we go again is right. :(