World Superbike Misano (that's in Italy, ya know.)

Seeing as the MotoGP posse had the weekend off, God took the opportunity to divert his 'piss down' attentions to the World Superbike races @ Misano. Qualifying came and went, with Jakob 'vowels are for the weak' Smrz landing his Dcti on pole, followed by Rea, Speez, and Fabrizio. Up to this point, Ben Spies has started from pole at every round. Even with Spies' double win last time out here in the U.S. of A., Haga still holds a 48 point lead over Spies in the championship. Will Spies close the points-gap on Haga? Will Smrz parlay his pole into a win or two? Will AMA homeslice Jamie Hacking crack the top ten? Will I actually be able to post this using my poop-slow antique laptop? Stay tuned...

Race 1 was declared a 'wet race'. Britain's Shakey Byrne took his milk-sponsored Ducati into the lead into turn 1. At one point, Bryne had a 15 second lead over Xaus in 2nd and (gasp!)Hacking in 3rd. About 12 laps into the 24 lap race (a.k.a. half way), the track started to dry, and bike-swaps ensued. Spies was one of the first to switch which allowed him a few laps to get his slicks up to temp. By the time the rest of the field (except Hacking*) had switched to dry tires, Spies was already up to a dry race pace. Watching him blitz everyone and take an 8 second win was actually pretty comical. Byrne brought his private Duck home in 2nd followed by the factory Duck of Fabrizio (who just held of Mr. No-vowels)in third.

*Hacking's team put in the time, money, and effort to prepare a bike and get him across the pond to ride it, but failed inform him of the 'wet race' tire rules. Oops.

Race 1 1) Spies 2) Bryne 3) Fabrizio

Rossi was in the house...bored with MotoGP?

Race 2...Dry race. Off the line, Fabrizio gets the jump followed by Britain's Johnny Rea (Ten Kate Honda) and some dude named Haga. Spies settled in behind Haga in 4th...for the time being. About 2 laps in, it was obvious that all was not well in the land of Spies. After being easily passed by 4 or 5 riders, threw up the S.O.S. hand. After a few laps of cruising around, Spies seemed to be back up to speed and picking off riders left and right. It turns out his clutch was fried.

Said Spies; “The clutch was just fried. I couldn't accelerate at all. It was slipping so bad I just had to baby it out of the turns. Then I adjusted the hell out of it for several laps, trying anything to make it work. It was difficult trying to race and work on the bike at the same time. At one point I came up on Nakano and Kagayama and I couldn't get around them because the clutch kept slipping on me every time I came out of a corner. I tried to change my riding style by going in late on the brakes, but it was useless. After the clutch finally came in I was able to turn in some good laps. I think I turned my best lap with two or three to go. I just wish it [the clutch] would have come in earlier. I know I could have done a lot better.”

The race up front was pretty much a 3-way battle between Fabrizio, Rea, and Haga. With Fabrizio and Rea beating the shit out each other for the win and Spies struggling to for a top ten position, Haga chose to play it cool safe and bring it home in a safe 3rd place. Rea put a rather bold inside move on Fabrizio, and was just able to hang on for his first World Superbike win. Poleman Smrz again took 4th. He'll be on a factory bike next year. Spies managed to clutch it home in 9th spot. As for Hacking...21st. He'll get one more chance at Donington.

Race 2 1) Rea 2) Fabrizio 3) Haga

Even with his trainwreck race 2, Spies managed to take 5 points out of Haga's championship lead. Fabrizio's 2 podiums keep him in contention in 3rd overall.

Top ten points after 8 of 14 rounds

1) Haga 292

2) Spies 244

3) Fabrizio 237

4) Rea 167

5) Biaggi 135

6) Haslam 134

7) Sykes 130

8) Checa 109

9) Smrz 108

10)Kiyonari 98

Next weekend, it's off to Donington Park in dreary old Great Britain. All of the usual suspects will be there. In addition, AMA Superbike rookie, Blake Young, has been drafted in for the injured Max Newkerschner on the Alstare Suzuki. Young and Hacking will duke it out for the honor of '2nd best American'.

T...out