youthful talents to join the series at various rounds as wildcards , even after the Misano opener . There is the possibility to field as many as 36 riders in the fullness of time .
The preparation , the anticipation and even the initial test period of this new championship has now been surpassed by real race action , with qualifying and Superpole on Friday 11 and two full races on Saturday 12 June at Misano .
“ I ’ m very happy , it was a really difficult race because a lot of people had good pace ”
EXCITING CONTENT
The first Superpole ‘ win ’ of the season belonged to local wildcard rider Matteo Vannucci , who had also led the first practice session on Friday morning . Local knowledge may have counted for something but there were eight nationalities in all represented in the initial top ten ranking of the season .
Come race day at the ever-popular WorldSBK venue of Misano , and in the heat of an Italian summer was even more in evidence than it had been on Friday .
In the two 10 lap races , held in front of spectators for the first time in the overall WorldSBK season , 16-year-old Spaniard Iker Garcia-Abella ( in race one ) and 15-year-old Slovakian Maxim Repák ( in race two ) came out on top in the consecutive on-track battles , firmly embossing their names inside the first chapter of this new championships ’ personal history book .
Raceday was the culmination of a carefully planned and finely executed series of preparations when the full WorldSBK circus came to town on Italy ’ s Adriatic coast . The Yamaha R3 bLU cRU European Cup riders had got their weekend underway with a track walk on Thursday , during which 2004 European STK1000 champion and official bLU cRU coach Lorenzo Alfonsi advised them on the best way to tackle the 4.226 km circuit .
Friday morning saw the 27 riders take their Yamaha R3s on-track for the
Garcia-Abella
first time , with a 30-minute free practice session . Wild card rider Matteo Vannucci topped the session but a united nations of riding talent packed into the leading positions , including 13-year-old Kayla Yaakov of the United States and Humberto ‘ Torquinio ’ Maier of Brazil .
For the afternoon qualifying session on Friday track temperatures neared 50 ° C making the challenge all the more difficult for the riders . Vannucci went quickest , becoming the championship ’ s first-ever pole-sitter , while the other riders closed the gap to the top .
Alongside the Italian youngster on the front row was 18-year-old Spanish rider Julian Giral and Slovakia ’ s 15-year-old talent Repák , while Italian duo Giacomo Mora and Edoardo Colombi , plus Spain ’ s Garcia-Abella , made up the second row .
The inaugural race got underway on Saturday , with all 27 riders getting through the first corner cleanly . After some wonderfully close battles it all came down to a titanic final lap battle , in which Garcia-Abella hit the front and crossed the line to take victory ahead of Repák and Britain ’ s Fenton Harrison Seabright .
Leon Camier
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