A tough weekend for BMW Motorrad Motorsport!



2011 Superbike World Championship race report from Miller Motorsports Park, USA


Today’s World Superbike round from Miller Motorsports Park in the USA won’t be fondly remembered by the BMW Motorrad Motorsport team as despite big efforts, things didn’t go according to plan for both Troy Corser and Leon Haslam, who struggled to achieve the results they had hoped for, with Haslam’s eighth place in race one ending up as the team’s best finish of the weekend.

Things had initially looked much more positive and expectations were high when Troy Corser made a fantastic start to race one from sixth on the grid and stormed into the lead, which he defended with some aggressive riding for the first six laps. However, from this point on he began to lose grip and was forced to concede position after position, lap after lap, eventually finishing in 13th place, and just in the points.

From 12th on the grid for race one, team-mate Leon Haslam had bravely fought his way up to sixth place by the latter stages, but with just three laps remaining he lost track position to fellow BMW S 1000 RR rider Ayrton Badovini and also allowed Tom Sykes to slip through, eventually finishing in eighth place.

Race two was one to forget for all the RR riders. First of all, BMW Motorrad Italia’s James Toseland was unable to start due to the pain from his wrist injury. Then, Troy Corser crashed on lap three while pushing hard, leaving Leon Haslam and Ayrton Badovini as the sole BMW riders in the race. It was Badovini who was the more successful of the two, passing Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea to secure ninth place. Haslam’s difficult weekend continued as he fought hard but was just unable to get his RR working around the Miller circuit, eventually finishing in 13th place.

There was no such drama at the front for Carlos Checa, who took his second victory of the day and increased his championship lead to 61 points over his nearest rival.

Leon Haslam: “This was a race weekend to forget. We have identified some issues, and we have to solve these. I am confident that the entire team will work hard to bring us further up the ranks soon. We need to go away from here and regroup if we want to be strong for the next races. We must now look to move the bike forward.”

Troy Corser: “We are disappointed with the way the weekend has ended. I felt like we had a good set-up for both the wet and dry conditions, and I was really confident going into the races today. In race one I got away well and led the early laps. The bike felt good for the first five to six laps then the grip from the rear tyre became a real issue. I don’t know why it happened, we need to have a look at the data and see. Race two I decided to take it a bit easier in the early laps to save the tyres but I began to lose too many positions. So I then started to push and clipped the curb with my engine casing and lost the front – crashing out of the race. On the whole it was a difficult weekend and one we need to analyse in more detail.”

Berhard Gobmeier – BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director: “This was a disastrous weekend and we cannot be satisfied with results like these. We stayed far behind our own expectations, so we now have to analyze the reasons for our weak performance. We have to and we will work hard to perform better.”

Results

Race one: 1. Checa (ESP – Ducati), 2. Smrz (CZE – Ducati), 3. Guintoli (FRA – Ducati), 7. Ayrton Badovini (ITA – BMW Motorrad Italia), 8. Leon Haslam (GBR – BMW Motorrad Motorsport), 13. Troy Corser (AUS – BMW Motorrad Motorsport), 15. James Toseland (GBR – BMW Motorrad Italia)

Race two: 1. Checa (ESP – Ducati), 2. Camier (GBR – Aprilia), 3. Biaggi (ITA – Aprilia), 9. Badovini (ITA – BMW Motorrad Italia), 13. Leon Haslam (GBR – BMW Motorrad Motorsport), DNF. Troy Corser (AUS – BMW Motorrad Motorsport), DNS. James Toseland (GBR – BMW Motorrad Italia)

Points: 1. Checa – 195, 2. Melandri – 134, 3. Biaggi – 133, 5. Haslam – 95, 12. Badovini – 51, 14. Corser – 49