Day 2 of the SBK private test in Australia with a scare and a best lap time for Camier
The World Superbike Championship has said goodbye to its private test with more crashes. The Australian track is clearly very good, which gives a lot of confidence to riders who don't feel the warnings and "go down" without notice. Badovini was also caught out, and Camier suffered a spectacular crash with no consequences and still set the fastest time of the day. For their part, Sykes, Checa and Cluzel continue their recovery, and all three hope to be ready and prepared for the official tests and, above all, the season's first race next Sunday at Phillip Island.
The second day of the World Superbike private test at Phillip Island has once again been quite eventful in terms of crashes, some of them quite heavy, such as Leon Camier’s. Despite being the fastest rider of the day, he wanted to keep pushing harder, so much so that he finally ran off the track and gave himself a good scare, taking the bike all the way to the trees. Luckily, that was all it was: a good scare for the rider of Suzuki.
If there is one thing that has characterised these unofficial tests, it has been the crashes. Some of you may wonder why there have been so many, and a large part of the “blame” lies with the asphalt. Remember that yesterday we told you the Australian track had been resurfaced a few months ago, a process in which former MotoGP champion Casey Stoner took part. So it’s great work from the circuit, but since the track has so much grip and gives that feeling, the riders don’t notice those small warnings, and they “go down” without any prior notice and without being able to avoid it.
Camier closed the test with a time of 1:31.2s, followed by Sylvain Guintoli with a 1:31.3s. The rest of the session’s positions were Rea in 3rd, two tenths behind the leader; Marco Melandri, who was hampered by his back injury and was one of the few who did not touch the ground in Australia, placed 4th, four tenths off the top time; and finally Michel Fabrizio was 5th, half a second behind. That was the top 5 of a complicated second day.
Further back, we saw Giugliano 6th, Haslam 7th, Laverty 8th, Davies 9th, Badovini 10th and Neukirchner 11th. For Ayrton, Checa’s Ducati teammate, it was also a tough day, as he suffered a very nasty crash in the Lukey Heights area. Luckily he is fine, but the Italian manufacturer’s team now sees both of its riders in the infirmary: our Carlos is recovering from an intestinal obstruction, and Badovini is recovering from the impact. Jules Cluzel also had surgery without problems, and Sykes hopes to be more or less recovered for the official tests and the first race of the 2013 season.
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Photo | Crescent Suzuki and KRT
