Elation turned to disappointment last Sunday afternoon for the Ten Kate Honda World Superbike team and their talented 21 year old rookie WSBK rider, 2003 World Supersport Champion Chris Vermeulen. After achieving the highest-ever top speed for an SBK bike at Monza (313 kph), and finishing second in race two behind Regis Laconi, Vermeulen was disqualified in post-race inspections when his bike failed to shut off automatically when leaned (way) over. On Sunday night I spoke to Chris, who was surprisingly philosophical and good humored about the debacle.

Chris Vermeulen Fast Facts
Born: June 19, 1982 Rides: Team Ten Kate CBR1000RR Superbike Nationality: Australian Competition number: 17

Soup: So Chris, why were you disqualified?

CV: There's a rule in SBK that when the bike lays over to a certain degree, it must automatically switch off. It's more of a safety thing, and it's a disadvantage to bikes that can't start themselves, like the Ducati, due to high compression. We don't need it because I have electric start on the bike, but that's the rule and I got DQ'ed. The team tried the bike at the start of the year and it worked, we received some new electronic parts from Honda, and we didn't check that it worked with the new parts. You just assume that it does, but we didn't check it, and shit happens I guess (laughs).

Soup: It's a shame because you seemed to be the only guy out there who could stick with Laconi this afternoon. Looking at your rear tire after the race, it seemed like yours had a lot more wear than Laconi did.

CV: Because we got our bikes so late, Pirelli couldn't do any testing with us, and we're the main four cylinder in the championship, all the top bikes that have been tested with the Pirellis are Ducatis. A four cylinder bike carries a lot more corner speed, where a Ducati two cylinder accelerates out of the corner, so in the middle of the corner we struggle with grip, especially the rear tire. So, we're going to Assen after here to do a test with Pirelli to do some testing with our bike, and hopefully we'll be a step closer soon.

Soup: Given that you don't have direct HRC support ...

CV: We don't have any actually! (laughs)

Soup:...unlike AMA SBK, British SBK, and you're still right up there pushing Laconi, how does that make you feel? Are you going to be on the phone Monday to Honda saying come on guys, give us some help?

CV: (laughs) I wish they would, but it's all political, they don't support the rules that SBK came up with for the Pirelli tire, that's basically why HRC don't support us. We get full support from Honda Europe, without them we wouldn't be able to do it. I think it shows how good the bike is. Okay, Ten Kate has a lot of experience with Supersport, but Superbike is new for them; I'm a new Superbike rider, and we can run podiums already from the second race on. So I think that goes to show how good the bike is and how well the team works.

Soup: How much development had been done on the bike since Valencia?

CV: Quite a lot, but it comes slowly, because we haven't done much testing, only racing, and you can only test certain things at a race, you can't take gambles with it. You've got time to set the bike up, turn a quick lap, find a tire that works, do Superpole and try & get on the grid, you know? But this (upcoming) test at Assen I'm looking forward to—we've got some chassis things to try, some different things with the engine, pipes, different characteristics to move the power around, and also the slipper clutch, we're still developing that.

Vermeulen's DQ promoted NCR rider Garry McCoy to third place in race two.