Winston Ten Kate Honda made a big step forward in this weekend’s World Superbike race two at Monza, putting Chris Vermeulen on the top step of the podium while teammate Karl Muggeridge finished fourth. Vermeulen was the first rider to break Alstare Corona Suzuki’s stranglehold on the series, and his success was at least partially due to some recent improvements in the Ten Kate CBR1000RR Superbike.
Ten Kate started from the same base as the American Honda team in AMA Superbike – that is, they are using the standard HRC kit parts (available for purchase by any privateer with a high enough credit limit), and developing the bike themselves from there.
However similar the starting point, the end results have been slighlty different. Vermeulen is third in the World Superbike Championship, having picked up 4 podiums so far (including his Monza win, two seconds and a third). Meanwhile, in AMA Superbike racing, Miguel Duhamel sits fourth in the championship, his best finishes being a pair of fourths (one at Barber and one at Fontana). Duhamel’s CBR just isn’t competitive with the Suzuki GSXR1000s of Mat Mladin, Aaron Yates, and Ben Spies.
Vermeulen’s team has been working hard to get their CBR up to the level of the GSXRs, and according to statements from their riders they have succeeded. We hope that the American Honda team can find a similar breakthrough soon, getting their riders back into contention for race wins and making the AMA series much more interesting in the process.
