Throwback Thursday: The Intensity of a Laguna Seca World Superbike Start
Larry Lawrence | December 5, 2019
Throwback Thursday: The Intensity of a Laguna Seca World Superbike Start
In this week’s Throwback we wind the time machine back 15 years to 2004 and that year’s Superbike World Championship round at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. That year a huge crowd showed up to watch Australian ace Chris Vermeulen score a perfect sweep of both legs aboard his Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR. The photo shows the start of WSBK Race One with Ducati Fila’s James Toseland (No. 52) leading the way ahead of Frankie Chili (No. 7), Steve Martin (No. 99) and the rest of the field. That’s Vermeulen (No. 17) motoring up on the machine that would carry him to victory. World Superbike first came to Monterey in 1995. WSBK visited the scenic hilltop circuit from 1995 to 2004 before a long break and then came back again from 2013 to 2019. Recently it was revealed that the championship would not return for an 18th edition in 2020. So, for now American fans of WSBK will once again have to wait and hope that the series will return to the U.S. sometime in the future.
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