Last year's Superbike World Championship was won after a close contest by James Toseland (415 points), the English Honda rider only narrowly beating Japanese Yamaha rider Noriyuki Haga (413 points). The 2008 Superbike World Championship has been presented at Superstudio Più in Milan and Alfa Romeo who joined up with the series as a sponsor last year is once more to be an official partner.

The 2008 Superbike World Championship, which gets underway on February 23rd with the opening round in Qatar, has been officially presented at Superstudio Più’ in Milan.

This year’s edition was presented by representatives of the major partners of the world championship for production-based bikes: Paolo Flammini, CEO of FGSport, Kevin Chang, President of HANNSpree Europe, Sergio Cravero, Marketing Manager of Mondo Alfa Romeo and Alberto Viganò, Marketing Director of Pirelli Tyres (Bike Business Unit).

Starting from this year HANNspree, the Taiwan-based electronics giant, becomes title sponsor of the Superbike World Championship thanks to a three-year agreement. As a result the championship now becomes officially known as the “HANNspree Superbike World Championship”.

During the press conference the new liveries of the bikes of the top teams were seen for the first time and a stellar line-up of the championship’s riders were introduced to assembled media, sponsors and guests: Carlos Checa, Kenan Sofuoglu and Ryuichi Kiyonari (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), Roberto Rolfo (Hannspree Honda Altea), Troy Bayliss and Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox Team), Max Biaggi and Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Go Eleven), Regis Laconi and Makoto Tamada (Kawasaki PSG-1 Corse) and Massimo Meregalli representing the Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team.

Paolo Flammini declared: “The Superbike World Championship starts its 21st year with a number of important changes for 2008. The agreement with HANNSpree as title sponsor, synergy with important partners such as Alfa Romeo and Pirelli and the high number of riders and manufacturers present in the championship allows us to look forward to a significant and long-lasting development that will enable the Superbike World Championship to achieve excellent results.”