World Supersport Championship underway with another Ten Kate Honda win

Curtain’s team-mate Broc Parkes’ Qatar outing was a short one, ending in the gravel on lap two. The Australian burnt the clutch out on the startline but continued anyway, only to be caught out by a lack of engine braking caused by the slipping clutch.

The new R6 is powering the bulk of riders in this year’s championship with Spanish privateer Javier Fores showing the potential of the machine with a fine fourth place. Italian riders Massimo Roccoli and Gianluca Vizziello also finished in the top 10 on their Lorenzini by Leoni entered R6s.

Finally, the race saw the return to international racing of eternal wild-child and eight-time world superbike race winner, Anthony Gobert. The former international supercross, MotoGP and World Superbike star has had a series of well publicised falls from grace with a series of the world’s leading race teams due to testing positive to marijuana (hardly a performance-enhancing drug) in blood tests, or missing drug tests or just going missing. Despite all this, the spectacular Gobert is still acknowledged as having superstar abilities by those in the know and though he’s seemingly been around forever, he’s still only 31 years of age and quite capable of putting it all behind him if he can find a sponsor and remain on the straight and narrow.

A crash by Yamaha GMT94 rider David Checa in testing last week saw him break his arm and Gobert has been given the opportunity to substitute for Checa. After undergoing a successful operation on Friday the Spaniard is expected to return to the saddle by the end of March, leaving the team needing a replacement rider for the opening two races. Round two takes place in next weekend at the Phillip Island circuit in Australia, being Curtain, Parkes and Gobert’s home race and it is to be remembered that the Philip Island circuit has seen Gobert perform miracles before.

Gobert, who celebrates his 31st birthday on the day of the Phillip Island race, rocketed onto the world superbike scene at the end of the 1994 campaign - taking pole position and a win at the Australian round. After three years in the championship 'The Go-Show' moved to 500cc Grands Prix before returning to the world superbike series in which he made his name in 2000. His win on the underpowered Bimota, again at Phillip Island, was as memorable as the race six years earlier and showed his undoubted natural talent as he won by almost 30 seconds in a wet race. His last world championship outing came in October 2000 when he rode a Yamaha YZF-R7 at Brands Hatch.

In the intervening years he faced well-documented personal problems while racing in American and Australian national championships. "I'm really happy to have the opportunity to get back into the world series with a good team and bike," he said. "I took a few years out to work out what I wanted to do and I've realized that it is to get back into racing. I raced in Australia last year and it looked like I might be doing that again, until this offer came to ride in the first few races. At first I was approached for the Phillip Island race but I really wanted some time on the bike beforehand, so the team invited me along to Qatar as well.

"The first race will really be a test for us. I raced supersport for Yamaha US in 2001 and 2002 but the bikes have changed a lot since then. It's a new track, team, tyres and bike for me and I haven't ridden for five months. If we can get into the groove in Qatar then there's no reason why we can't be aiming at the top five in Phillip Island."

After the race, Gobert said, “I struggled a bit at the start but once I got going and into the groove of it, it went better.”

...continued