The 2018 WorldSBK season will begin this weekend from 23 to 25 February 2018.
The opening Yamaha Finance Australian round was officially launched at the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit.
Race 1 will start at 12 pm local time tomorrow (Saturday) and Race 2 (Sunday) at the same time.
Get ready, folks. The 2018 WorldSBK season will begin this weekend and it promises to be one of the most interesting ones yet. The iconic Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit will play host to the Yamaha Finance Australian opening round where the superbike boys will duke it out once again.
With new rules and regulations thrown into the mix this year, the 2018 FIM Superbike World Championship will bring the grid closer together than ever before with tighter races, more level playing field and opportunities for other manufacturers to catch up to Kawasaki and Ducati.
The boys had their time on the 2018 machines just a few days back to finalise their machinery for this season. Unsurprisingly, Jonathan Rea of Kawasaki Racing Team (KRT) took his latest Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR race-bred superbike to the top of the timesheets ahead of Ducati’s Aruba.it Racing Marco Melandri.
Tom Sykes seems to be more ready this year with the third fastest time during last weekend’s testing. The next rider sitting in P4 was Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) on board the RSV4 RF. He impressively managed to take his Aprilia within half a second gap of the top runners of the testing.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) seems to be struggling with his Ducati Panigale R last weekend. He finished the testing in P11 which was a whole second slower than last year’s champion, Jonathan Rea. Rea and Davies constantly battled each other last year and by the looks of things, things might be a lot different.
Free Practice will start this morning whereas the Superpole qualifying sessions will begin tomorrow (24 February 2018) at 9.30 am local time. As for the races, get your gears ready as the lights will go out for Race 1 on Saturday and Sunday (Race 2) at 12 pm local time right after the conclusion of the WorldSSP race which starts 10.30am.
Image source: WorldSBK
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