2009 World Superbike Championship: season preview and predictions

The global financial crisis has clearly hammered the highest echelons of prototype racing, with established teams like Honda and Kawasaki pulling out of F1 and MotoGP respectively in the last couple of months. But for the production-based (and much cheaper) World Superbike series, things have never looked better than they do at the start of 2009. Despite the retirement of beloved champion Troy Bayliss, the 2009 WSBK grid will field a record 32 bikes from a record 7 manufacturers as BMW and Aprilia join the fray with exotic new machinery. There's also an influx of phenomenally talented riders - including AMA champ Ben Spies, BSB champ and ex-GP god Shakey Byrne, and precocious youngsters Tom Sykes and Leon Haslam to do battle with battle-hardened veterans like Nitro Nori Haga, Biaggi, Corser and Kagayama. The first pre-season test has been run, giving us a glimpse at who's fast and who's faster, so it's time for a WSBK season preview, looking at the class, the teams, the bikes and the personalities that make SBK the race series to watch in 2009.

While it may be true that MotoGP is the premier class of motorcycle roadracing, the GP series is suffering lately. The expensive prototype series boasts the fastest lap times, the most advanced technology, and global superstar Valentino Rossi remains a massive drawcard - but fielding a team at the top level has proven too expensive for many teams, including the Kawasaki factory team, which announced its intention to pull out from the 2009 series due to the global financial crisis. There stands to be as few as 17 bikes on the GP grid when the season starts.

What's more, the 800cc MotoGP era has arguably produced some of the most boring racing of modern times, with fewer races being decided by less than a second than at any time in the last 10 years. Simply put, the fastest guy on the fastest bike, be it Rossi, Stoner or Pedrosa on a given day, has been disappearing into the distance and winning pole-to-post with alarming regularity, a far cry from the elbow-bashing battles that were so common at the end of the 500cc era and with the 990cc four-strokes.

Exactly the opposite has been happening in World Superbikes. The modified production bikes are far cheaper to run, for a start, and a more direct advertisement for the products the manufacturers are promoting. The grid has been steadily expanding to a record number of 32 bikes for 2009 - nearly twice that of MotoGP - and the racing between the guys at the front (Bayliss, Haga, Corser, Biaggi, Checa) has been absolutely desperate, edge-of-the-seat stuff, a refreshing antidote to the MotoGP parade. Check out this video to see Bayliss and Haga going hammer and tongs at Vallelunga last year.

2009 sees the debut of new Superbike teams from Aprilia and BMW, some seriously talented new riders, a few high-profile team swaps and even a new Superpole format. Here's what we have to look forward to when the flag drops at Phillip Island on March 1!

Shootout Superpole

The 2009 Superpole format will be 50 minutes of sudden-death madness. The top 20 riders from the two qualifying sessions will get a shot at Superpole, which will consist of three 12-minute elimination rounds. The slowest four riders will be eliminated in the first stint, then the slowest eight in the second, leaving the eight fastest riders to compete for pole position in the final session. This will hopefully add an extra element of cut-throat competition to the qualifying format.

Team Beemer out of the gates at a gallop

While BMW has not prouced a roadgoing superbike or raced in this series before, you'd be foolish to discount the Bavarians as a serious contender. BMW has proven time and again in off-road bike racing, as well as Formula One, that it knows how to make a big impact fast.

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