The sporting spirit and passion for bikes that have always been part of Giovanni Bussei’s make-up have now infected Alfa Romeo Automobiles and GQ Italia, who have been the main proponents of the veteran biker’s return to Superbike.

A Turin rider with a long, acclaimed motorcycling career behind him, Giovanni Bussei has returned to racing on the occasion of two exceptional events: Donington, the first European stage of the World Championship which is taking place this weekend, and Valencia, riding a Ducati 999 F06 for GMB Sterilgarda, a team for which he has already raced in the past. On-track technical assistance will come from Luca Gasparro, responsible for Ducati SBK and GP development.

As was perfectly normal for riders in the 50s and inspired by his indomitable sporting passion, Giovanni Bussei is driving to the two European stages with his bike on a trailer. The car joining him on this adventure is an Alfa Spider under the banner of enterprise and competitive spirit, values that motivate all Superbike riders and that are shared by Alfa Romeo Automobiles.

On the Donington track yesterday Sterilgarda GMB’s English week-end got a great start. Ruben Xaus did the third best time in the first qualifying session, while his new team-mate for the weekend Bussei closed with a positive 11th position. Today, during the second session and the Superpole, the Spanish rider will want to keep his temporary first row, while Bussei will try to go near the top rider performances.

Alfa Romeo's involvement at Donington Park this weekend isn't just limited to sponsoring Bussei's bike, they are also the official sponsor of the WSB Championship, the sponsorship deal includes high profile track advertising at all 13 rounds in the 2007 race calendar.  Alfa Romeo livery can be seen from bridges, corners and the pit lane, and Donington Park has an Alfa Romeo special hospitality area for guests and VIPs.

On track, Alfa Romeo is supplying the official safety car, an Alfa 159 TI.  In addition to its role at each WSB race, the Alfa 159 TI safety car will precede all three Championship support races. Soon to be launched in the UK, the sporty Alfa 159 TI features 19” wheels, lowered sports suspension and body kit.  This TI specification is available with a choice of three engines – a 185bhp 2.2 JTS or 260bhp 3.2 JTS petrol engine, plus a 210bhp    2.4 JTDM diesel unit – when it goes on sale from May.
 

At the same time, Alfa Romeo has allied its own rich sporting pedigree with that of Ducati Corse in a sponsorship deal. Riding his Alfa Romeo sponsored Ducati Xerox 999, the current World Superbike champion, Troy Bayliss, looks like a favourite to retain his title, having taken first place in the last round in Australia, and having set the fastest time in Valencia for next month’s action.

Bayliss in fact set the pace in first qualifying at a cold and damp Donington Park yesterday. The Australian's time of 1m32.333s was well inside the long-standing best lap set by Neil Hodgson in 2000 although it is the first time World Superbikes have raced at Donington since 2001. Team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi was less fortunate, crashing in the one-hour session and ending up outside the top 16.

"It's a pretty good start to the weekend" declared Troy. "This morning we had very mixed conditions, around 6?, and the track was quite wet. We did OK but were a little bit hesitant and had to work our way into it. This afternoon the track finally arrived dry towards the end of the session and the times were quite good considering we hadn't had any dry track time. I'm confident tomorrow if we get some good conditions we can go quite a bit faster, but overall the bike's feeling good and I'm happy on it so we'll move on to tomorrow."

"I could have done without that crash at the entrance to Coppice when I lost the front", commented Lorenzo. "I haven't been here for six years and I'm finding the conditions quite difficult. Tomorrow the forecast looks better and today I just didn't want to take any risks. However I feel that potentially I can go a lot quicker because the bike set-up is pretty good. The crash led us astray a bit because we then made the wrong choice of front tyre, the softer one, and the track started to dry out and I was unable to set a quick time. Tomorrow I'll try and improve, especially in the last part of the circuit from the chicane to the final hairpin."