[sportrider - latest stories] - 2011 World Superbike Imola Friday provisional qualify

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2011 World Superbike Imola Friday provisional qualifying report/results—Rea tops Checa

Using a new ride-by-wire throttle system on his Castrol Honda CBR1000RR superbike now permitted by WSBK rules, Jonathan Rea powered to the provisional pole at Imola on FridayJonathan Rea used a new ride-by-wire throttle setup on his Castrol Honda CBR1000RR to top the Friday provisional qualifying timesheets at Imola ahead of championship points leader Carlos Checa, with the Northern Irishman just a tick off the superbike lap record set by Checa last year. Leon Haslam powered his BMW to third spot, just ahead of Suzuki’s Michel Fabrizio, with Yamaha’s Marco Melandri in fifth and hoping to somehow claw some points back from Checa with just three events (six races) left in the season. Right now, it’s the Althea Racing Ducati rider’s title to lose, as the Spaniard holds a yawning 74-point lead over Melandri. Aprilia’s Max Biaggi saw his hopes for retaining his world title fade away after deciding to forego participation in this weekend’s race due to the foot fracture he suffered during practice at the Nürburgring round.

The Castrol Honda team tested its self-developed ride-by-wire throttle system at the Misano WSBK test last week, and both Rea and teammate Ruben Xaus experienced positive results. Although many bikes in the WSBK field are already equipped with ride-by-wire throttle setups (Aprilia, Yamaha, BMW) since the stock production machines come with them (the Ducati 1198 F10 customer superbikes are equipped with ride-by-wire throttles, while the street production 1198 does not), the FIM altered the regulations on Friday to allow the stock EFI throttle body setup to be modified with ride-by-wire electronic systems. Although this theoretically would increase costs for many non-factory teams, WSBK is instituting a number of rule changes for 2012, the biggest of which will be the “one-bike� rule—each rider will have access to only one bike for the duration of the race weekend (although a “rolling chassis� minus engine and ECU will be permitted as spares), which will help save a significant amount of expense costs.




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