Althea Ducati’s Carlos Checa and team owner Genesio Bevilacqua were more or less complaining that the twin cylindered Ducati’s are struggling against the four cylinders and they were lacking in acceleration and top speed and the current rules are penalizing the twins, and believe us here in Italy this isn’t exactly breaking news.
Former Xerox Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi, before switching over the BMW team, used to moan about the same thing, at least twice a year and usually on certain tracks especially when his former team got their butts kicked.
After his victory in Australia, Checa asked for a faster bike, but Ducati’s Ernesto Marinelli told the private team that they already had the max on the current technical development of the Ducati (electronics excluded).
The problem is that satellite teams run different rpm on their 1198’s.
The factory team Ducati’s reaches 12,800 and are checked over every 400-500 km, while the Althea team engine’s are limited to 12,200 and revisioned after 800 km.
Jakub Smrz of the B&G team has a standard 2009 1198 (and no ride by wire) that is blocked at 11,700rpm and his engine gets revisioned after 1200 km.
Carlos Checa shouldn’t be complaining too much because the Spanish rider once again took home the Pirelli Performance Award at Assen for the best lap in Race 1, while in Race 2 it went to Jonathan Rea.
In the special Pirelli Awards that will go towards Best Lap Winner 2010: Fastest Rider of the Year” standings Checa has already 3 points compared to Max Biaggi’s 2 and Leon Haslam, Sylvain Guintoli and Jonathan Rea have only one each.
The “Best Lap” award is to be given after each Superbike and Supersport race to the rider recording the race’s fastest lap.
Assen top speeds: 1.
289 km/h – Max Biaggi (Aprilia), Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki).
2.
288 km/h – Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)3.
286 km/h – Jonathan Rea (Honda), Leon Haslam (Suzuki), Leon Camier (Aprilia), Michel Fabrizio (Ducati), James Toseland (Yamaha),4.
285 km/h – Troy Corser (BMW), Noriyuki Haga (Ducati)5.
284 km/h – Tom Sykes (Kawasaki), Max Neukirchner (Honda)6.
282 km/h – Jakub Smrz (Ducati), Shane Byrne (Ducati), Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati), Chris Vermeulen (Kawasaki)7.
281 km/h – Carlos Checa (Ducati)8.
279 km/h – Ruben Xaus (BMW), Broc Parkes (Honda)9.
278 km/h – Luca Scassa (Ducati)10.
275 km/h – Matteo Baiocco (Kawasaki)11.
273 km/h – Roger Lee Hayden (Kawasaki)