WSB Misano Results

In the country of San Marino, surrounded by Italy on all sides, just north of Valentino Rossi's hometown, sits the slightly odd, but certainly world-class, Misano race circuit. Saturday's Superpole qualifying saw first go to Jakub Smrz, followed by Jonathan Rae, Fabrizio then Spies. This turn of events was followed by a wet start on Sunday, with Shakey Byrne taking the early lead and holding until halfway through, when bikes started pitting for dry tyres. Shakey postponed the inevitable until 7 laps to go. He pitted, got off to a slowish start on dries and Spies, who had already been on dries for a couple of laps, passed him for the win. Final flag went Spies, Byrne and Fabrizio. If the track had stayed damp, Byrne would certainly have taken his first WSB win. Race 2 was more conventional, but Ben fried his clutch, dropping to 16th or 17th for the early part of the race. In spite of the crippling injury to the Yamaha, he managed to recover 9th position by race end. The first half of the race saw Haga take the lead, with Johnny Rae sandwiched between him and Ducati teammate Fabrizio. Rae's new suspension seemed to work for him as he passed Haga at mid-race. Fabrizio also passed Haga shortly afterwards, but these two then swapped back and forth until Fabrizio was able to pull away several laps later. Michel, once free of Haga, then caught and fought Rae for the lead right down to the wire. Rae owned the last few corners and captured his first WSB win. Fabrizio and Haga joined him on the podium. Smrz who won Superpole, just missed the podium, finishing 4th in both races. Byrne fininshed 6th in race 2. It will be interesting to see how the Brit riders Rae, Byrne, Sykes and Haslam do at the next race on home soil at Donington next week. Also riding Misano under the Union Jack was Anglo-American, AMA rider Jamie Hacking who finished 16th and 22nd yesterday. Hacking was born in The English Lancs village of Oswaldtwistle (pronounced 'Ozzle-twizzle', or 'Ozzie') and, like racing's other Anglo-American: Hopper, has always wanted to ride internationally under his home flag.