Assen - WSBK

[Auburn]

Spies was fastest in first practice and on provisional pole.

1st practice results

Provisional Pole results

Another new track for him, and looks like he is a rocket out of the box!

:clapping:

 

[Auburn]

John Hopkins hurt in crash in first practice.

Superbike planet says...

Hope it's not as serious as it sounds.

 

[Auburn]

Update on John Hopkins condition:

Hopper

 

[Auburn]

Spies on pole!

Pole results and press releases

 

[wfooshee]

Spies was absolutely heroic in the first race. Had a little bobble that let Haga then Haslam through, but his pass to get back by Haslam with 4 to go was simply epic!!! Side by side through three turns, squeezed down to the curb and still stayed inside there, and put the power down! If you didn't see it, find someone who has it! The pass to get the lead on the last lap would have been the pass of the year, except the pass over Haslam was better.

Unfortunately, the second race was not so good for Spies, crashing out at the beginning of lap 2. Yet like everything he does, the crash was also epic! Cameras didn't pick it up till he was already down, but the bike was ahead of him, both sliding fast into the gravel, at which point the bike started tumbling and flying, ending up over the barrier. He walked away from it, but looked shaken up a bit. I haven't heard anything about his condition, if anything happened. Haga took the second race, with Haslam 2nd, and Smrz 3rd after a mistake somewhere by Fabrizzio, also not caught on video. His frustration as he crossed the line a distant 4th was, shall we say, evident.

 

[Bugnatr]

Holy Cow that was some first race. Amazing what Spies is doing at his first visit to these tracks. Ben gets A++ for effort but Haga is going to be hard to catch in the points. Bummer about crashing in race 2. Think I may watch the first race again- Yes is was that good!

 

[Randy]

I haven't been that excited over a race (race 1) in a very long time. Ben has a 60 point deficit, but, if he keeps it on 2 wheels and finishes ahead of Nori consistently, he can reduce the gap. Ben and Nori have shown to be the class of the field. There will be some guys that are fast at one track or another, but, I don't know that anyone will be as fast as these guys at all of the tracks.

Race 1...Go to the 8:23 mark for Ben's pass on Haslam and 10:00 for Ben's pass on Haga for the lead.

 

[tstaff]

Huge crash, Ben needs to calm down a bit IMO, clearly faster than the rest but needs to not worry about leading every lap on tracks that he has only seen on TV. Lucky to have walked away from that one.

Like Randy, race one was one of the most incredible races I have seen in a long time.

 

[wfooshee]

I don't know about needing to calm down, that was really a pretty small mistake to have the outcome it had. He ran about a foot wider than the rest of the guys there, but that put him over the curb instead of on it. Might have missed the tip in just a touch.

At least the marshalls didn't have to move the bike outa the gravel . . . . . :huh:

Thanks for finding that, Randy.

 

[Randy]

I don't know about needing to calm down, that was really a pretty small mistake to have the outcome it had. He ran about a foot wider than the rest of the guys there, but that put him over the curb instead of on it. Might have missed the tip in just a touch.
At least the marshalls didn't have to move the bike outa the gravel . . . . . :huh:

Thanks for finding that, Randy.

yw.

You're right - not that big of a mistake for that outcome. I'm wondering if the fact that it was astroturf rather than a natural substance had anything to do with it? It's not uncommon to see racers touch the 'dirt' and gather it up without incident. Granted, anything other than pavement isn't going to have a great adhesion factor, but, he was nearly straight up and down when he went wide. You don't realize how damn fast that turn is until you see something like this. He is very lucky to come out of it relatively unscathed.

 

[tstaff]

I don't know about needing to calm down, that was really a pretty small mistake to have the outcome it had. He ran about a foot wider than the rest of the guys there, but that put him over the curb instead of on it. Might have missed the tip in just a touch.
At least the marshalls didn't have to move the bike outa the gravel . . . . . :huh:

Thanks for finding that, Randy.

I’m sure when Ben looks back at this he will not call it a small mistake, but I’m quite sure he will call it a stupid one seeing how it was only lap two.

You are right about him making it easy work for the corner marshals. :wacko:

KRJR had a very similar looking crash at Assen when the throttle stuck wide open on him on a 500.

 

[Foxhuntr]

I haven't been that excited over a race (race 1) in a very long time.

I'll second that! That was white knuckles all the way for me.

 

[wfooshee]

Just watched the Supersport race, recorded yesterday while I was busy, and I'm not sure that didn't beat the SBK race 1 for action at the end. I remember last year's Supersport race at Assen being remarkable, and this was an incredible race. Crutchlow left for dead from pole (imagine an MSF school bike against that field) worked his way up, was a distant third with 3 laps to go, ran consecutive lap records to catch the leading pair. Then the three of them got busy!