Following the death of Italian rider Andrea Antonelli in Moscow a fortnight ago, the World Superbike and World Supersport championships will move to Silverstone in the UK this Sunday.
Antonelli died after coming off his Kawasaki in torrential rain on the opening lap of the Supersport race in Moscow on July 24 and being hit by a rider behind him. It caused the race to be cancelled.
It leaves the Supersport standings unchanged with Sam Lowes on a Yamaha leading the championship ahead of Kawasaki’s Kenan Sofuoglu.
Sheridan Morais will carry South Africa’s hopes this weekend. The former SA Superbike champion lies 12th in the standings but has often threatened to break into the top three on his PTR Honda. Having missed the Moscow round to recover from an earlier injury, he hopes to have improved race fitness at Silverstone.
PREMIER CATEGORY
In the premier World Superbike category, Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli reclaimed the championship lead in Moscow. Tom Sykes dropped to second in the standings after suffering a mechanical failure on his Kawasaki, but will be hungry for victory on home turf.
BMW lead rider Marco Melandri won in Moscow to give his championship hopes a boost, but it wasn’t enough to stop BMW from announcing its exit from World Superbikes at the end of the season.
The BMW S1000RR has taken 11 race wins and 33 podium finishes since the German manufacturer entered the championship in 2009; Its most successful season so far was 2012, when it finished runner-up in the Manufacturers’ classification and fought for the Manufacturers’ and the Riders’ titles until the last race.
LOCAL HEROES
Three South Africans will take part in the Superstock 1000 supporting class on Sunday: regulars Greg Gildenhuys and David McFadden will be out on their BMWs, while James Egan has earned a wild-card ride on a Kawasaki ZX-10R. - Star Motoring
Follow Denis Droppa on Twitter.
Newsletter note: If you use Gmail to read IOL's newsletters , note that Google is rolling out a new tabbed inbox that filters your mail into 5 separate tabs - Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums. IOL emails will probably be sent to the “Promotions” tab instead of the “Primary” tab. If you don't want it that way, drag the newsletter from the Promotions tab to the Primary tab. An alert will pop up. Click “yes” and your newsletters will continue to go to your Primary inbox.