RACING: 8 facts from WorldSBK racing

1. Bimota very nearly won the inaugural championship
Bimota’s Davide Tardozzi (better known today as Ducati Corse’s team manager) finished third in the championship behind Honda’s Fred Merkel and Yamaha’s Fabrizio Pirovano. But the then 29-year-old Tardozzi famously won the first-ever WorldSBK race on his way to notching up five race wins that season to Merkel’s (and Honda’s) two, making him the season’s most winningest rider. Tardozzi’s teammate Stéphane Mertens claimed a further two wins that year for the Italian brand which finished just 9.5 points adrift of Honda in the manufacturer standings. Twelve years later, Aussie Anthony Gobert also celebrated a win with Bimota, taking the victory in the opening race of the Aussie round in 2000.

2. Jonathan Rea doesn’t hold the record for the most wins in a single season
Despite the British talent’s staggering list of WorldSBK records, he sits second in the list of the most amount of wins recorded in a single season. American rider Doug Polen has held that record since 1991, when he scored 17 wins on the way to claiming the world title, compared to Rea’s 2017 swag of 16 victories. Polen finished the season on 432 points compared to runner-up Raymond Roche’s 282. Carlos Checa’s 15 wins in 2011 puts him in third overall.

3. Mick Doohan cleaned up at Oran Park in 1988
Twenty-three-year-old Mick Doohan was granted a wildcard ride in the Australian round of the championship at Oran Park. He rode his Yamaha FZR750 to pole position, 0.3 seconds faster than teammate Michael Dowson, forming an all-Aussie top five with Robbie Phillis, Robert Scolyer and Mal Campbell starting from third, fourth and fifth respectively. Doohan would go on to win the opening race by 20 seconds from Dowson, and he backed it up in race two with another dominant performance. It was his third WorldSBK victory in four attempts after receiving a wildcard earlier in the season in the Japanese round at Sugo. It wasn’t long before Honda tracked him down and inked a deal for the 1989 Grand Prix season.

4. Aussie Peter Goddard was the second bloke to win his first-ever race
Australian Peter Goddard became the second person in only five riders who can lay claim to winning their first-ever WorldSBK race. Davide Tardozzi became the first when he won the opening race of the inaugural round, but Goddard did it at his home round at Oran Park the following year in 1989 when he took the victory in what was the first of his 105 WorldSBK races. The other three riders were American great John Kocinski, Japan’s Yuichi Takeda and, most recently, Max Biaggi who won the opening race at Qatar in 2007. Goddard’s win from fellow Aussie Robbie Phillis remains one of the highest winning margin’s in the championship’s 30-year history. He crossed the line 56.255s ahead of Phillis.

5. 11 Aussies have sprayed winner’s champagne
Eight Australian riders have won a world Superbike race. Mick Doohan did it first in 1998, winning both races on Yamaha machinery as a wildcard at Oran Park. The following year at the same circuit it was one apiece for Peter Goddard and Michael Dowson. There was Troy Bayliss and Troy Corser, of course, as well as Kevin Magee, Anthony Gobert and Mr Superbike himself, Robbie Phillis. Chris Vermeulen won plenty, Garry McCoy grabbed one, as did Andrew Pitt and while Wally Campbell grabbed a fastest lap in 1990, a race will would elude him.

6. Misano holds the two highest combined podium ages
Of the list of races ranking the combined age of the podium getters from highest to lowest, Misano holds the top two spots. The circuit’s 2010 race one combined age of 115.36 years is the highest, with winner Max Biaggi (39), second-place getter Carlos Checa (37) and Aussie third-place finisher Troy Corser (38). The following year’s race two at the same circuit came in a close second on 114.98 years with Carlos Checa (38), Max Biaggi (39) and Noriyuki Haga (36).

7. Max Biaggi is the oldest bloke to win a WorldSBK race
When Max Biaggi climbed onto the top step at Nurburgring’s race two in 2012, he was 41 years, two months and 14 days old, making him the oldest bloke to spray the winner’s champagne in 30 years of WorldSBK. Fellow Italian Frankie Chili is the second oldest bloke at 39 years, nine months and 29 days (2004 Misano - race two), while Carlos Checa is the third oldest at 39 years, seven months and 13 days (2012 Miller – race one). Aussie Troy Bayliss comes in in fourth place (39y6m5d) ahead of Robbie Phillis in sixth (36y1d25d) and Troy Corser in 11th (34y3m6d).

8. When it comes to rookies, Ben Spies was in a league of his own
When you look at races won in a rookie season, American Ben Spies is something else. He won 14 races in his first-ever year in the WorldSBK category in 2009 compared to Davide Tardozzi (1988) and John Kocinski (1996) who both managed five each. Marco Melandri (2011) and Aussie Chris Vermeulen (2004) are tied in third with four race wins each.