WSB round 8: Misano this weekend and here’s the stats that matter

Fancy being better in the know than the weekend’s professional ‘experts’? Then here’s the stats that you need ahead of this weekend’s WSB round at Misano.

The Riviera di Rimini round is the eighth outing for the WSB boys this year and sees our own Tom Sykes making his 200th start in the class. It’ll be in the following round where Sykes equals James Toseland’s record of 201 starts although he’s got a long way to go to equal the all-time starts leader in WSB, Troy Corser – the Aussie racked up a total of 377 starts.

Here’s some more interesting numbers to get you warmed up for the action this weekend:

75 – The podium placements of Ducati riders in Misano, an all-time record. The Assen value for the Italian manufacturer is 70.

46 – Misano has hosted 46 WorldSBK races so far, and will equal Donington at 48 – third overall. Only Phillip Island (51) and Assen (50) have hosted more races.

28 – This is the track in which a single manufacturer has won the highest number of races: Ducati have won here 28 times. Next up is also Ducati, with 25 wins in Assen. The best value for another team is 13 by Kawasaki at Donington: 8 by Tom Sykes –the last eight- and 5 by Scott Russell.

27 – The podium finishes of the two Troys: Corser (16) and Bayliss (11) at Misano. They are the only ones with double-digit podium figures here. Among the current riders, Rea leads at 4.

20 – Twenty years ago John Kocinski was making his WorldSBK debut in the first races of the season, held in Misano. He stormed the opposition, recording a double win from pole position. He would become World Champion the following year.

11 – Ducati counts only one pole less than the sum of all its rivals (12). Curiously, the last two poles at Misano for the Italian team didn’t come from the works team: in 2009 Jakub Smrz recorded pole for Guandalini Racing, while in 2004 the Ducati poleman was Steve Martin for D.F.Xtreme Sterilgarda.

11 – Ducati was the sole winner here for 11 straight races: from 2001 Race 1 to 2006 Race 1. Andrew Pitt (Yamaha) broke the streak, taking his only WorldSBK win in 2006 Race 2.

7 – Seven years ago Jonathan Rea got his maiden WorldSBK win at this track. 33 more and a World Championship have since followed.

6 – Troy Bayliss is the most successful rider in Misano, with 6 wins spanning from 2001 to 2007, all scored with Ducati. In second is Max Biaggi, with 4. Max also obtained all his wins here with an Italian bike: Aprilia.

6 – Another Troy leads the standings for poles at Misano – Corser – with no less than six. His last one, in 2010, was of particular significance as it was the last of his 43 poles (an all-time record) and the first one for BMW.

4 – Kawasaki have won the last four races here. With a win in Race 1 they can record the third best streak at this track after the 11 straight wins by Ducati from 2001 Race 1 to 2006 Race 1, and the 6 by Ducati from 1994 Race 2 to 1997 Race 1.

1 – There is only one rider in the current field who has started from pole at Misano: Tom Sykes, 4 times. He has recorded pole in all his last four race weekends here.