Haga fit for Kyalami after bird strike
Added on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Haga fit for Kyalami after bird strike
Noriyuki Haga will be fit to race this weekend in South Africa after being struck by a bird during race two at Monza last week.
The WSB championship leader saw his advantage cut at Monza as he failed to finish in race two and finished behind teammate Michel Fabrizio in race one but has experience on his side at Kyalami this weekend.
The Japanese rider is the only rider in the paddock to have experienced victory at the circuit, which has been off the WSB calendar since 2002. Haga secured victory at the circuit in 2000 with Yamaha although he also has two DNF’s to his name from his four visits to the circuit.
“My arm is still sore today after my run in with a bird at Monza but I’ll be fine to race this weekend, he confirmed.
“I have to think back a long way to remember the 2000 win at Kyalami! But I recall that in the other race that day I had a really close battle for the win with Colin (Edwards) and Fogarty.
“It’s a great track and I’m happy to go back there again. Winter testing went well there, but it was my first experience riding the 1198 so there were a few ups and downs let’s say!
“Now I’m at ease on the bike and we’re well into the season, it’ll be interesting to go back and see how we fare over the race weekend – it should be fun.”
Fabrizio on the other hand has no competitive experience of the circuit and will be one of a number of riders calling purely on what he learnt during winter testing earlier in the year.
He claimed: “Having at last won a race this weekend at Monza I just want to win again as soon as possible!
“From what I learned of the track during the winter I can say that I’m really looking forward to this round. The Kyalami circuit is really fun to ride and I did well at the two “new” tracks in 2008 (Salt Lake City and Portimao) so I’d like it if this year’s new track were also to bring me similar luck.
“We recorded some very fast lap times during the test days and so of course we hope that conditions over the race weekend allow us to maintain that pace.”
