Haga fit and ready for Nürburgring
Added on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Haga fit and ready for Nürburgring
Noriyuki Haga claims that he is fit and ready to get his World Superbike title challenge back on track at the Nürburgring after a difficult summer break.
After a blistering start, the Ducati rider has struggled in recent rounds after a crashes in Mugello, when he was struck by a bird, Salt Lake City and more recently at Donington Park left him with both shoulder and wrist injuries.
Those injuries have allowed Yamaha’s Ben Spies to slash the gap in the championship from 88 points after round six in South Africa, where Haga claimed a double victory – his last wins of the campaign, to just seven points going into this weekend’s German eleven round at the Nürburgring. In that time, Haga has managed just two podium, a third place finish in race two in Misano and another in race one at Donington, before crashing out of race two.
Spies on the other hand, has been in outstanding form, taking full advantage of Haga’s dip to win six out of eight races, including doubles at Salt Lake City and Donington.
But the six-week summer break has come at exactly the right time for Haga and he is confident that he has the ability and the fitness to repeat the double victory that he recorded in Germany last season, albeit with Yamaha.
“I got a great result at Nürburgring last year and hope to be able to do the same again this time around,” Haga claimed. It’s a really nice track though last year was pretty wet for race day which made things interesting!
“Anyway I’m feeling much stronger than I was at Brno and, after a relaxing holiday back home in Japan, I’m totally ready to continue the fight for the world title.”
