BMW Superbike World Championship – Doha, Qatar Preview.
Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport head to the Losail circuit in Qatar knowing that it will be harder to get another superb top ten position than it was in the opening round of the championship in Phillip Island, Australia. In Phillip Island the team benefited from a two-day test prior to the event, but their first chance of seeing the Losail racetrack will be the first practice session on Thursday morning.
The circuit in Qatar will be just the first of many tracks about which the team have no data or information from previous seasons and their task will be that much harder than that of the competitors. The first two sessions will be vital for the Troy, Ruben and the team, but hopefully the experience of the riders will help the technicians do their work smartly and provide a good platform for raceday.
Troy Corser
Getting an eighth in Phillip Island was a fantastic result and gave us all great hope for the season. But now we are going to a track and we have no data about if for our bike and that is going to be a big disadvantage. The race weekend in Phillip Island was real eye-opener for our team and things happened during the three days that don’t happen in tests, so the team gained a lot of experience. We all have to build on that but all the guys are very committed and are working hard to push this project forward as quickly as possible. Qatar will be an interesting test for us all, but we’re going to give it 100% and see what happens.
Ruben Xaus
I think that Phillip Island showed that our team is going to be competitor – and sooner rather than later. If I hadn’t had two or three collisions in race one, I am sure I would’ve had a much better result and probably been able to challenge for a top ten place. But at least, I stayed on the bike and I’m happy because Troy got a great result in the first race and we managed to finish both races. Qatar is going to be harder because our bike will be racing there for the first time and so we don’t have any data or telemetry to work from. We all have to be at 100% right from the start and push all the way to end, but this is a great team and who knows what may happen?
Berti Hauser (Director BMW Motorrad Motorsport)
It was great to finally start our big adventure and fantastic to get such a good result in the first race. If there hadn’t been a problem in Superpole, who knows what result would’ve been possible? Our team have a tremendous work ethic and I am so happy because I think everybody can see that we mean business and that we are going to be a competitive force before too long.
2008 Results
Race 1: 1 Bayliss (Aus-Ducati), 2 Biaggi (I-Ducati), 3 Troy Corser (Aus-Yamaha), 4 Ruben Xaus (E-Ducati), 5 Max Neukirchner (D- Alstare Suzuki),
6 Checa (E-Honda)
Race 2: 1 Nieto (E-Suzuki), 2 Ruben Xaus, 3 Biaggi, 4 Bayliss, 5 Fabrizio
(I-Ducati), 6 Lanzi (I-Ducati), 7 Troy Corser
