WORLD SUPERBIKES NewsThursday, 1st March 2007
Biaggi joins 'famous five'.
Max Biaggi's debut World Superbike race win, last Saturday in [COLOR=#009900! important][COLOR=#009900! important]Qatar[/COLOR][/COLOR], placed the Italian on an elite list of five riders - but he also claimed one absolute first.
The previous four riders to have won on their WSBK debut are:
1. Davide Tardozzi (middle picture, now team manager of Ducati Xerox) - won the opening race of the championship in Donington 1988 on a Bimota YB4. At that time the points were distributed upon aggregate times from the two heats and the final winner was Marco Lucchinelli, riding a Ducati 851.
2. Peter Goddard (lower picture, with Steve Martin) - won at Oran Park in 1989 on a [COLOR=#009900! important][COLOR=#009900! important]Yamaha[/COLOR][/COLOR] FZR 750R.
3. John Kocinski - won from pole on a Ducati 916R at the opening race of the 1996 season in Misano.
4. Yuichi Takeda - the HRC wild-card won the 1996 Sugo round on a [COLOR=#009900! important][COLOR=#009900! important]Honda[/COLOR][/COLOR] RVF 750 and is still the youngest ever winner of a WSBK race at 18 years, 8 months and 27 days.
By contrast, Biaggi became the second oldest winner in the history of the World Superbike championship. The record was set last year by Alex Barros, who took victory in Imola race one at an age of 35 years, 11 months and 13 days. Biaggi won his first race at 35 years, 7 months and 29 days.
Meanwhile, Biaggi also scored an absolute WSBK first in Qatar by setting the fastest race laps in both races. Before Biaggi, only four riders - Marco Lucchinelli, Christophe Bouheben, Garry McCoy and John Kocinski - had managed to set the fastest lap at their first race, but no one had previously been able to repeat the feat in race two
info crash.net
Etonnant comment certains noms nous semble inconnus (tardozzi et takeda !!).
decidemment quand Biaggi est surmotivé ...difficile de resister a ce "vieux" pilote !!