but started with Ducati back in 1992 when Alstare Racing was formed by Batta who was formerly General Manager of the Superbike World Championship.Speaking to the press, Batta said: “For me, it’s an absolute thrill to be able to join the Ducati family again

JOHN HOPKINS looks set to miss the rest of the 2009 World Superbike series after doctor's discovered some minor bruising to the rear of the American's brain, following the first lap pile-up at last weekend's WSB race.Hopkins suffered a variety

Jonathan Rea has set back his World Superbike campaign with a crash at the Phillip Island test ahead of the opening round this weekend.Rea was running third quickest following the morning session of the second day of official WSB testing when on his

of it all. Congratulations to Michel in Race 2 of course and also to Marco (Simoncelli) and thanks to my engineer Ernesto, to my team and to Ducati. We are now back in the lead with a three point advantage but there are still four races to go so there

YUKIO KAGAYAMA says that wild card British rider Leon Camier was too wild in the first WSB race at Portimao and should have crashed after ramming into the back of the Japanese star.Kagayama scored a DNF in the first race at the final round

lot of fun." 2nd - Jakub Smrz: "Of course I am disappointed to not win the race but it was really nice and I am back on the podium, which is important. The feeling all the race was very good and the bike was perfect, in the end my rear tyre was gone

in the series. The American said: “I am really happy to be joining up with the Crescent guys again, we had a great year in British Superbike and I’m sure we can continue that in WSB. "I wanted to get back into world championship racing and this is a natural

BRUX) completed the top ten runners. Max Neukirchner (Suzuki Alstare BRUX) eased himself back into the WSB scene with an encouraging 14th position, but there was little joy today for Aprilia Racing, as Shinya Nakano and Max Biaggi could only take

to perform well, even with these extreme conditions. "In the afternoon we made some set-up changes, particularly testing a different fork, but unfortunately it didn’t give me a particularly good feeling and so we went back to that which I’ve always used. I

in the overall standings. Over the past few rounds of the series Spies has managed to peg back his Japanese rival from what was a 72 point advantage.There are now five rounds of the championship left, giving Spies ten races left to win the title in his first year