Wednesday, January 4 2012
It’s now less than eight weeks until the start of the 2012 World Superbike season and preparations by the Crescent-Yoshimura backed Suzuki World Superbike Team are well underway.
The strong two-man team consists of British Superbike Championship runner-up, John Hopkins and Suzuki newcomer, Leon Camier. Running the squad is long-standing Suzuki BSB Team Manager, Jack Valentine.
Team Principal, Paul Denning: “The series looks very interesting for 2012 and even with Yamaha’s withdrawal, the level of manufacturer representation is very positive – Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki, Ducati, BMW and Aprilia all have strong teams, whether “factory” or privately operated and all have very fast riders. The combination of the Pirelli tyres and Superbike specification machine is an “easier” package to access the limits of performance compared to the MotoGP bikes and therefore more riders can battle for the top positions. I say that with complete respect to all the riders in SBK, who fight like animals to win, but the Superbike specification bikes generally permit closer racing and different riders going for the podium week-to-week which is great for the fans. In Superbike, the rider can still make the difference. That said – the highest quality riders, bikes and teams are the ones who always end up battling for the title and we hope to be amongst them!
“The 2012 GSX-R will look pretty much the same but very few components will be shared – the whole bike has been seriously updated. Yoshimura is working very hard on the motor and we are sharing a lot of development ideas together; the suspension and brakes are all new, the Motec electronics package is updated and every single detail on the GSX-R is being carefully considered. The Suzuki is a great all-round package – we have to make sure we allow the riders to use 100% of the bike’s abilities by refining the GSX-R to be as good as it can be.”
2012 WORLD SUPERBIKE DATES:
1: 26th February – Australia – Phillip Island
2: 4th March – TBA – TBA
3: 1st April – Europe – TBA
4: 22nd April – Netherlands – Assen
5: 6th May – Italy – Monza
6: 13th May – Europe – Donington
7: 28th May – USA – Miller Motosports Park
8: 10th June – San Marino – Misano
9: 1st July – Spain – Motorland Aragon
10: 22nd July – Czech Republic – Brno
11: 5th August – United Kingdom – Silverstone
12: 26th August – Russia – Moscow International Raceway
13: 9th September – Germany – Nurburgring
14: 7th October – France – Magny Cours
15: 21st October – Portugal – Portimao
