After the first day of WSB testing at Jerez, the Kawasakis of Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea were first and third quickest, respectively. Slotting into second was the Ducati of Chaz Davies. WSB rookie and former MotoGP champ Nicky Hayden placed his Honda fourth quickest on the day. Times were decent today, but expect several riders to get under the lap record tomorrow. Stay tuned for more reporting.
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I’d like to see this series on TV. Anyone know how to accomplish that goal? Love Motogp, but this cat fight behavior is a bummer.
I’d like to see Sykes get the title this year. I like Rea, but some variety is good.
Too bad Honda can’t homologate the RC213V-S. That bike was never intended to be a race bike at $180k as it was intended as a MotoGP replica-collector’s item. They’d have to get the price down to about 70 or $80,000 minimum so they can sell the quantity required to homologate.
For Nicky’s sake I hope Honda has a new bike coming next year and that is why Nicky signed a race for them. What exactly that new bike is, I don’t know.
An I-4 can certainly be competitive just look at the BMWs and the Kawasakis.
So Honda’s new bike could be an I-4 or could be a V-4. Who knows.
Unless I only dreamed that I read it, Honda did promise him a new bike for the 2017 season.
What would it take for Honda to homologate the RC213V-S?
My sneaky suspicion: Honda would need confirmation that it could be competitive under WSBK rules.
It’s hard to believe it would be slower than the current how-many-year-old Fireblade.
It’s designed for a totally different set of rules. WSBK rules could be crippling to a GP bike for all we know.
You might find it interesting to compare Nicky’s times from this test to his qualifying time on the Honda GP bike at the same track this past season. 😉
“WSBK rules could be cripping…”
Good point.
Only a half-sec faster on the crappy customer MotoGP bike, huh?
Hey, wait, that (might, sorta) support my theory.
In any event, Nick is surely riding the Ten Kate Fireblade for somewhere near all its worth (that final 1% will surely be saved for race day). That’s why I’m a fan – always looking on the bright side, that fellow. And good on Ten Kate for pushing the oldest superbike platform on the grid so close to prototype MotoGP machinery. I regret my conclusion that Nick and Ten Kate deserve better than Honda.
125 people to run out and buy the $184,000 street legal version of it. Then another 125 by the end of the season. Then another 750 by the end of the second year.
They must be selling pretty well. I don’t see any sitting around on the local showroom floors. 😉
LOL!
Over the years it feels like I have read many quotes by executives that the two series should feature very different kinds of machines (though I cannot provide references…), and the current rules and bikes bear that out. Even if homologation requirements could be met, it feels like something ranging from gentlemanly business practices (common among Japanese brands) to arcane rule interpretation would prevent Honda from running the same machine in both series.
1/2 second, you do know that you can subscribe and have all the action streamed live.
Or it could be broadcast via a cable network I am already paying for like it used to. Sigh, looks like another year of watching torrents…
BeIn Sports. check your local listings.
But how close is he, consistently lap to lap? Time will tell if Nicky can repeat laps within a couple 10ths throughout the race. Maybe these tires don’t drop off the same way the GP tires do. I’m excited to see him possibly dice it up with the frontrunners instead of steadily going backwards.
I hope I can actually see something broadcast in my area this year.
Isn’t the Honda considered kind of lame in WSB? If I’ve got that right,this seems really encouraging. Nicky, if it’s not too much to ask, it would great to see another American world champ. You can do it!
The Honda is in desperate need of a new platform. I haven’t seen the times yet, so I don’t know how close “fourth quickest” is to the other three times in front of it. It is a great result regardless. Sounds strange hearing Hayden referred to as a “rookie.”
Nicky is just under a half second off Syke’s best time and Lowes on the R1 is just behind Nicky.
Lame may be a little strong.
The Honda hasn’t done very well because the last time they really came up with a new bike was 2008 so their bike is really old by comparison everyone else.
That’s just adds fire to the rumor an expectation that Honda has a new bike for next year and if you look at everyone else’s bike you can expect that that bike will have all sorts of electronics and rider aids in suspension technology that the current Honda does not have.
All the more impressive that Hayden is moving so quickly on the old Honda. I wish him (very) well.
And intriguing to hear him quoted as indicating the electronics on the current Honda SBK Fireblade are more sophisticated, or at least effective, than on the Honda customer MotoGP steed. Crazy!
nick’s got it all to do, maybe he would’ve had a chance to at least appear racy/competitive…? but those K-heavy “dream crushers” went and updated the Zed.