The Cup of nations in WSBK

Date published : 03 Mar 2010 - 08:11:23

The Superbike World Championship always draws on a wide range of countries for its deep well of riding talent, and the 2010 season is another example of the world coming to SBK to compete on machinery which is available all over the world.The permanent entry list is dominated - in impressive form - by a seven-strong contingent of British riders and a look at what they are riding in 2010 confirms that there is no reason at all why all of them cannot dream of podiums and more before the last race of the year, at Magny-Cours in October. So who headlines this panoply of British entrants? So far Phillip Island race winner Leon Haslam (Suzuki Alstare) but any one of them could join him on the podium this year. The next most populous bunch of riders come from another traditional world power of racing in all forms, Italy. Six riders, from factory to fully private, hail from somewhere in Italy. The recent announcement of Lorenzo Lanzi in the DFX team and Luca Scassa in the Supersonic Ducati squad takes the Mediterranean country to much more than a full hand of aces. Australia has given us some astounding WSB talent over the years, and this year there are four riders flying the Southern Cross, three of whom have won World Championship in one category or another - Troy Corser, Chris Vermeulen and Andrew Pitt. Spain has two representatives in 2010, Carlos Checa and Ruben Xaus, and Carlos has already opened his account in 2010. In some years the WSB paddock has had more than two top level riders from Japan, but in Noriyuki Haga and Makoto Tamada there are another two for whom top level wins have been taken. In Haga's case, he is one of the hot favourites for the title itself. They will be joined by Yoshimura Suzuki wild cards at some events in 2010 as well. German as a language will also be spoken in the SBK paddock, as top rider Max Neukirchner represents Germany itself, while Austrian Roland Resch provides a different accent and level of experience, in his second SBK season. The USA, France and the Czech Republic all field one SBK competitor each - which makes for a total of ten nations represented by at least one rider, from a permanent entry of 26. If you want cosmopolitan, you've got it with SBK.