2012 World Superbike Video
The Nurburgring round of the 2012 World Superbike Championship was a historical feat for one manufacturer and one racer.
In race one, Aprilia earned its first-ever 1-2-3 finish in 25 years of World SBK history. That race was won by Aprilia Racing Team’s Max Biaggi, the 2010 WSBK champ joined on the podium by teammate Eugene Laverty and ParkinGO MTC Team Aprilia’s Chaz Davies.
In race two, Davies once again made history after taking his first win in World Superbike. Davies was joined on the podium by Laverty, which his first double podium in WSBK history, and FIXI Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier.
With his win, Davies gave UK riders a combined victory total of 118 in individual SBK races, joining the USA and Australian on the same record of 118 victories each.
Following are Nurburgring race summaries:
Race 1
In race one, Biaggi’s dominate win allowed him to retake the lead. Biaggi, who started on the pole, would chase the early leader, Kawasaki Racing’s Tom Sykes, but finally get past him on lap 12. Biaggi would lead the remainder of the 20 laps. Meanwhile, Laverty and Davies would also get pass Sykes, making an Aprilia 1-2-3 podium.
Sykes would finish fourth, followed by Camier, who was a battling fifth after a last minute glitch on the starting grid. The man who was leading the World Superbike Championship heading into Nurburgring, BMW Motorrad’s Marco Melandri, suffered a DNF following a lap-six crash.
Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team RSV4 Superbike): “It’s just a happy moment to be here. The result is the best that we can do, so we can be proud of all the work we did during the weekend. We keep improving the bike especially in the set-up. Overall I could ride well, even though it was slippery basically I could set good lap times. Sykes impressed me with his pace in the first half, and finally he started to lose concentration and maybe grip and I could take him and keep my lap time.”
Race 2
Davies claimed his and his team’s first win with an impressive display of eventual front-running, winning by over three seconds and easing up, after top contenders Melandri and Biaggi found the gravel traps.
In a festival of points for British and Irish riders, Laverty was second, and a great ride from Camier saw him recover from a less than perfect start to go third, only losing second place to a late push from Laverty. Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike Team) was fourth, and one-time race leader Sykes was fifth. Biaggi recovered to finish 13th, half a minute down on the winner.
Chaz Davies (ParkinGO MTC Team Aprilia RSV4 Superbike) says: “What a feeling! I got an average start and went the long way round at the first corner. It was risky but it worked and I was fourth. I was comfortable all race, and knew if I could just get away with the front guys I thought I could stay and that was the case, but I didn’t expect them the mistakes from Marco and Max! In the end it was just a concentration game with myself, keeping the lap times consistent. What a way to repay the ParkinGo team for their efforts!”
Attached are video highlights of 2012 Nurburgring World SBK (race one above, race two below); for a review, including full results and current point standings, click here.
