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Stiggy Racing Honda>> Chaotic Superbike racing at Misano

June 24 2009

Superbike World Championship
Stiggy Racing Honda

Round 08, Misano
Sunday, June 21
Superbike Race

The blistering heat that opened the eighth round in the Superbike World Championship, remained absent for the rest of the Misano event as wet conditions and crashes dominated at track today.

Haslam suffered a crash in the early minutes of the wet warm-up session, which left him with minimum time to familiarise himself with the tricky wet track conditions.

The first Superbike race was declared wet, but riders were soon confounded by changing weather conditions that caused rapid drying of the track. For the first time this season the new flag-to-flag rule - which allows riders to return to the garage and switch machines - came into action in the ninth lap of the race.

In the chaos that followed the changing of machines, Haslam - still out on wet tyres - climbed from his tenth position on the grid to a fourth place, but lost valuable seconds on every lap to the guys already out on dry tyres. Haslam returned to the garage to change machines on the 18th lap, but struggled to make up for lost time in the remaining six laps of the race. One of the first riders to change machines, Ben Spies, took the win in the first Misano race, while Haslam finished 12th.

The second race was undertaken in dry weather conditions. Despite issues with the electronics of his bike, Leon Haslam managed to take an eighth place and took valuable points home for the team.

Leon Haslam, Race 1-12th, Race 2-8th:
"I had an issue with the front end of my machine in the first race. I stayed out long on the wet tyres, got into fourth position, and then obviously stayed out for too long. When I went into the pit I only had four laps remaining, so I should have returned to pit four or five laps earlier. That was my own mistake. In the second race there was something wrong when the engine kept pushing me in and I kept losing the front. When the engine was good and the electronics were good, the lap times were as quick as anyone, but for seventy percent of the race the engine was just pushing me in so I really struggled."

Johan Stigefelt, Team Manager:
"The first race was difficult for everyone to know what was going on with the new flag-to-flag rule.  It didnt really work out, the track dried quicker than we thought it had and Leon returned to the pit too late and failed to hold on to his fourth place. That was a real pity. In the second race, his start was pretty fine, as were his lap times. But he struggled with the electronics of his machine which made it hard to push any further. We have to work on this for the next race in Donington."

Results Race 1:
1. B.Spies
2. S.Byrne
3. M.Fabrizio
12. L.Haslam

Results Race 2:
1. J.Rea
2. M.Fabrizio
3. N.Haga
8. L.Haslam

Championship standings:
1. N.Haga 292p
2. B.Spies 244p
3. M.Fabrizio 237p
6. L.Haslam 134p
21. J.Hopkins 9p

Stiggy Honda is sponsored by Hotbodies Racing and uses our windscreens on all of their bikes. Hotbodies Racing specializes in manufacturing high-performance parts for high-performance sportbikes, and is the North American distribution of KR Tuned performance parts. Hotbodies Racing is the market leader in Undertails, Huggers, Windscreens, Flush-Mount Signals, Megaphone Exhausts and full-race Bodywork. Hotbodies Racing supports the sport with sponsorship around the world and encourages dealer and distributor inquiries. For more information visit: www.HOTBODIESRACING.com.