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BMW MOTORRAD ITALIA SUPERBIKE TEAM - ASSEN - PREVIEW

15/04/2011

In addition to the third round of the World Superbike Championship, for which Ayrton Badovini will race with Barry Veneman – who will replace James Toseland for the Netherlands event, the FIM Superstock Cup season kicks off with Italian rider Lorenzo Zanetti and Sylvain Barrier.

At the Dutch circuit, Ayrton Badovini will try to increase his championship points haul. The Italian raced in Assen last year and won the round of the FIM Superstock Cup riding the S 1000 RR. Unfortunately, James Toseland will not be partaking in the event following his injuries sustained during a private test at Motorland of Aragon. James has won twice in Assen (with nine podiums in all) and he could have done well with four-cylinder German bike. He will be replaced by Barry Veneman who usually rides in the IDM German championship with the S 1000 RR.

It will be interesting to see the debut of the Superstock, where the BMW Motorrad Italia STK team are reigning champions, having won the 2010 FIM Cup with Badovini. The 2011 team riders will be Frenchman Sylvain Barrier and Lorenzo Zanetti, both of whom climbed on the CIV podium at Misano last Sunday. Sylvain raced with BMW last season for a French team, while Lorenzo is making his four cylinder debut.   

Andrea Buzzoni, Director of BMW Motorrad Italia said: "This weekend starts the Superstock 2011 which was our start point in international competition last year and proved very rewarding. We are no longer rookies and start with the clear objective of confirming the S1000RR as the best bike in the category and also retaining our title from 2010. We understand that we will not get the same results as the wins recorded by Ayrton in 2010 and our aim is to win the championship with two riders who show a very promising performance: Lorenzo Zanetti and Sylvain Barrier. The two riders have very different characteristics but the same potential to be winners in the 2011 season, which is more competitive with new riders and bikes, and both are very motivated by competing with the team who won in 2010. I think there will, in fact, be a real championship fight, with exciting racing and the outcome will be more unpredictable than that of last year.

This weekend will be particularly intense and challenging for us with four riders involved in Superstock and Superbike.

I am pleased to announce that James will most probably be back on track for the races at Monza. He is recovering from his injury and is showing his commitment to the team and the entire staff of BMW Motorrad Italia, for example, by coming to the CIV event where he wanted to be in the pits and on the grid to support his Superstock team mates.

We are delighted to welcome Barry Veneman to the team to ride alongside Ayrton Badovini for the upcoming round at Assen. Barry knows the Dutch track and our bike (albeit in a different configuration), so we are confident that he will do well and wish him the greatest of luck! The engineers and the team are working well on refining the development of the bike following the preseason work being limited by adverse weather. "

TT Circuit Assen Length: 4.555 km

Corners: 11 left and 6 right Winners 2010

Race 1: Jonathan Rea (Honda) 35'38 "483

Race 2: Jonathan Rea (Honda) 35'43 "137

Fastest Lap: Jonathan Rea (Honda) 1'36 "312