Looks like he won't be battling for "race wins" like he stated http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Apr/090404z.htm
I thought he had no expectations of setting the series on fire? Just hoped for some competitive results. Besides, his pace wasn't that bad compared to most of the field.
In an interview he stated he and his team were confident he would be competing for race wins. I am not at all surprised by his placement in the time charts. The SBK field seems to be a lot deeper than GP. Plus it looks like Ben has everyone coverd already.
Before some of you get too much of a big head you might want to consider how difficult the new qualifying is in world superbike. Over on motogpmatters.com there is excellent coverage of the qualifying sessions. This new superbike qualifying is catching a lot of folks out like Biaggi and Xaus who never even made it out of the first session.
I'd say he's doing damn good for his first outing on a superbike, hopefully he gets a hang of the bike and we have to Americans up front
Not with the way that they run Superpole this year. http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=36053
Hopper is doing fine for someone who hasn't ridden any bike in 4 months. He also never said he'd be winning races the 1st weekend out. He said he wanted to challenge for race wins this year. Give him time. I suspect he'll be up at the front, but I seriously doubt anyone is going to challenge Ben.
I think you two should check out the qualifying times from Australia. You will be surprised to see that Ben's amazing pole position lap time was in fact "only" the second fastest. Laconi had the fastest qualifying time of the weekend and started 8th. I posted an explanation of how the system works in the Phillip Island thread, if I remember correctly.
The new Superpole is not verry complicated you get 2 Q's to use in 3 Superpole sessions if your fast like Ben Spies you use a soft race tire in the first Superpole , but if your not you have to use a Q tire to advance to the next Superpole .Biaggi gambled ,and used a race tire in the first Superpole and lost, and Xaus has been off the pace all weekend ,and was lucky to make Superpole in the first place .
You could have just searched for the explanation I mentioned, lazy mofo. Start with post #612 and keep reading down the page.
I think it'll take a few races for JH to get use to his new ride but I see him in the top ten this weekend and getting some podiums later in the season.I read yesterday in a speed report that his GP contract he had was for a reported 5 million a year.WOW!Anyhow I hope he does well on the Honda.It would be cool to see two Americans on the podium sometime this season.Ben is representing!