HISTORIC YAMAHA DOUBLE AT MONZA

Laverty Springs a Surprise
By Michael Esdaile

In day of high stakes Superbike racing there was drama aplenty at the fourth round of the 2011 Superbike World Championship, held at Italy’s historic and high speed Monza circuit near Milan on Sunday.

First surprise was the fact Ireland’s Eugene Laverty not only won the first race, but backed up to win the second. The first race win was the first time the Yamaha man had stood on a Superbike podium in his career. Not a bad way to make the podium.

Other surprises were defending champion Max Biaggi’s mistakes in the first race, then a ride through penalty in the second race that cost the Italian a clear shot at his first race win of the year.

Other drama came at the start of the second race when Jakub Smrz (Ducati), Leon Haslam (BMW) and Jonathan Rea (Honda) all came down in a tangle just as the field was heading for the first corner. They were unable to continue.

But that was not the end of it: after working through to second place and giving Aprilia hope for a 1-2, Leon Camier crashed; then there was Biaggi’s ride through penalty that took him from a comfortable lead to 11th place; and just when he was looking like a mid-field man, Michel Fabrizio turned in a strong ride on the Alstare Suzuki to nett the team its first podium of the year. And finally, with three laps to go, championship points leader Carlos Checa’s Ducati suffered an engine problem that dropped him from sixth to tenth. In fact, with two corners to go to the finish, the Ducati started smoking badly and the Spaniard had to coax the bike across the line.

The result was that Checa’s 43 point lead in the championship was slashed to 27 points, with Melandri taking over the number two place in the title chase, abeit by just one point from Biaggi, who really wanted to win both races at Monza to get his title defence onto a firm footing.

Biaggi leads the Yamaha of 
Eugene Laverty early in the first race.

POLE FOR BIAGGI
Biaggi had emerged from the three round Superpole session with a new pole record for the ultra-fast 5.77 km circuit, blasting the Alitalia Aprilia around in 1m 41.745s, well under the 1m 42.121s lap he used to take pole last year.

At that stage, he was focused on winning both races at a track where the 1000cc four cylinder machines can clearly use their superior top speed to good effect over the 1200cc twins. What was the difference? Well, Biaggi and Laverty were clocked at 332 km/h while Checa managed 329 km/h hanging in the draft in the first race, but running without the advantage of a slip-stream the Ducati could manage ‘only’ 318 km/h. That’s still wickedly fast for a two cylinder engine, but giving away a big speed advantage at a track with two long straights was always going to make Monza a tough nut for Checa to crack.

In the end his Ducati almost threw in the towel entirely in the second race.

Carlos Checa rode hard all day but the two cylinder
Ducati was out-gunned by the four cylinder bikes.

However, none of this detracts from the superb job Laverty did to emerge victorious with a double win on the Yamaha World Superbike Team’s YZF-R1. Laverty said later that he would have been happy to have just made it to the podium at Monza, but to take a double victory was something he had not considered likely beforehand.

MAX MAKES MISTAKES
His first race win came after a tough battle with defending world champion and pole sitter Max Biaggi who was showing plenty of determination by taking the lead off the Irishman several times in the first few laps. But each time they crossed the finish line, it was the Yamaha man in front. Laverty then got some respite from the relentless attacks from Biaggi when the Italian ran wide on three occasions and dropped placings so that he had to fight his way back toward the front, engaging in titanic scraps with Marco Melandri (Yamaha) and Leon Haslam (BMW) in the process.

In the end though, Laverty made no mistakes, apart from a big slide in the Parabolica on the last lap, and won by 1.5 seconds from Biaggi with Haslam grabbing the final podium spot from Melandri.

Michel Fabrizio had worked up from tenth on the first lap to get the Alstare Suzuki into sixth after five laps then got past holeshot man Troy Corser’s BMW to run in fifth to the finish.

With three laps to go, Assen first race winner Jonathan Rea also got past Corser, who had actually led for the whole of the first lap before dropping back due to some big slides from the German machine.

Biaggi’s team-mate Leon Camier helped the Aprilia cause by stalking Checa – who had started from 13th and got as high as eighth – passing the Spaniard on the last lap, bumping the Althea Ducati man to ninth.

Jakub Smrz got his Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing Ducati home tenth, less than a second behind Checa, with Ayrton Badovina (BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team) and Sylvain Guintoli (Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing Ducati) 11th and 12th, more than six seconds ahead of Tom Sykes on the Kawasaki Racing Team’s ZX-10R, with Maxime Berger (Supersonic Racing Team Ducati) and Rueben Xaus (Castrol Honda) rounding out the final points scorers.

CORSER HOLESHOTS AGAIN…
The second race saw Corser holeshot once again to lead almost to the end of the first lap, when Biaggi whistled past to take over out front. The Italian was in determined mood, clicking off a series of blazingly fast laps to pad his lead.

Behind him, Camier got the second factory Aprilia into second after diving inside the PATA Racing Aprilia of Noriyuki Haga into one of the chicanes then a lap later blasted past Corser.

By then Biaggi was 1.5 seconds clear and pulling away. Over the next three laps he stretched the gap to his Aprilia team-mate to 4.1 seconds while Corser slipped back to sixth after being passed by Melandri, Fabrizio and Haga.

At that point Laverty had made his way steadily toward the front from ninth at the end of the first lap and was right on Corser’s tail.

APRILIA DENIED
On the eighth of 18 laps Camier went down in a cloud of dust and flying debris after the front tyre of the Aprilia suffered an abrupt loss of traction in a terrifying front-end tuck. That left Biaggi leading by 5.2 seconds from Melandri with Fabrizio third from Haga, Laverty and Corser, with Checa seventh.

With a five second cushion over the scrap for second place between Melandri, Laverty, Fabrizio and Haga, Biaggi eased the pace to hold the gap steady at a little over five and a half seconds. He was looking well on target for his first win of the year, vital if he was to pull back a bigger bunch of points off Checa.

Then, on the tenth lap, he arrived at one of the chicanes way to hot and rather than trying to take the bend, he ran on through the slip road, rejoining the track on the other side of the chicane. He sat up then got his head down once more, with the gap to second placed Melandri 5.4 seconds. Laverty had by now passed Fabrizio to tail his Yamaha team-mate but any mistakes would see the Suzuki man back past, with Haga hot on his heels. It was very close.

Then the race officials announced Biaggi would have to take a ride through penalty for running on at the chicane.

Biaggi shook his head in disbelief but knew better than to ignore an official instruction so with just five laps to go he dived into the pit lane for his ride through, re-joining in 11th place behind the Kawasakis of Tom Sykes and Joan Lascorz.

From there he worked his way forward, passing the Kawasakis on successive laps, then nailing Checa after the latter ran into engine problems.

YAMAHA BATTLE
Out front Melandri had inherited the lead but had team-mate Laverty virtually glued to him, pulling alongside on occasion, the Yamaha men almost three seconds ahead of Fabrizio’s Suzuki, with Haga right up the GSX-R1000’s tail pipes.

In the last two laps, the huge Monza crowd was treated to a tense battle between Melandri and Laverty, decided on the final lap by Laverty getting the better of his team-mate. Behind the two Yamahas, Fabrizio held out Haga’s PATA Racing Aprilia ato give Suzuki its first podium of the year after a real cut-and-thrust final two laps between the former Xerox Ducati team-mates.

So after it appeared early on that Aprilia was going to score a 1-2, the first Italian V4 home was Haga in fourth, almost two seconds clear of Corser who was having a much better time on the BMW. Badovini brought the Italian team’s BMW home sixth ahead of Guintoli, Lascorz and Checa.

If Laverty’s first race win was a thriller, his second was epic: he’d come from ninth at the end of the first lap and had to engage some serious hard men in his race to the front. Two wins was just reward for his big effort.

POINTS CHASE
For Biaggi it was a case of what might have been. But for the mistake at the chicane and the subsequent ride-through penalty, he almost assuredly would have narrowed Checa’s lead in the title chase to just 11 points. Still, with another nine rounds (18 races) to go, Biaggi has time on his side.

However, with the next three rounds – Miller Motorsport Park, Misano and Aragon – being places where Checa and the Althea Ducati can be counted in the hunt for race wins, not to mention the new-found competitiveness of the Yamahas, it’s looking like a torrid next few weeks for Biaggi.

For full results from Monza, click on this link:

http://sbk.perugiatiming.com/pdf_frame.asp?p_Round=ITA1&p_Anno=2011&p_Manifestazione=04&p_Gara=01&p_Sessione=001&p_Stampa=CLA

World Superbike Championship points (after four of 13 rounds):
Carlos Checa (Althea Ducati 1198R) 145
Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team YZF-R1) 118
Max Biaggi (Alitalila Aprilia RSV4 Factory) 117
Jonathan Rea (Castrol Honda CBR1000RR) 89
Eugene Laverty (Yamaha World Superbike Team YZF-R1) 85
Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport S1000 RR) 84
Michael Fabrizio (Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000) 74
Leon Camier (Alitalila Aprilia RSV4 Factory) 58
Jakub Smrz (Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing Ducati 1198R) 55
Noriyuki Haga (PATA Racing Aprilia RSV4 Factory) 47
Troy Corser (BMW Motorrad Motorsport S1000 RR) 46
Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team S1000 RR) 35
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team Superbike ZX-10R) 34
Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Racing Team Superbike ZX-10R) 33
Rueben Xaus (Castrol Honda CBR1000RR) 31

More about → HISTORIC YAMAHA DOUBLE AT MONZA

BYE BYE 125s

By REVSdaile

Here's the latest bit of silliness from the Grand Prix Commission.

Enjoy the 125 two-strokes while you can.  We are going to have 250cc four-stroke singles from 2012. And who knows what other silliness may follow?

IM announcement - Decision of the Grand Prix Commission
The Grand Prix Commission, composed of Messrs. Carmelo Ezpeleta (Dorna, Chairman), Ignacio Verneda (FIM Executive Director, Sport), Hervé Poncharal (IRTA) and Takanao Tsubouchi (MSMA), in the presence of Jorge Viegas (FIM Deputy President), Javier Alonso (Dorna), Rezsö Bulcsu (FIM CCR Director) and M. Paul Butler (Secretary of the meeting), in a meeting held on 19 March in Doha (Qatar), unanimously decided to introduce amendments to the Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix Regulations.
(Henceforth, only Italian and Spanish riders are allowed to race in the MotoGP class on a Honda.)
Please download the FIM press release in PDF format using the link below:
http://motogpinfo.cmail3.com/t/r/l/jlhiiry/btjjiuuhk/t/

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CARLOS CHECKS OUT!

By MICHAEL ESDAILE

Checa ready to go!

SPANISH veteran Carlos Checa translated his strong form in testing, practice and qualifying at Phillip Island into two comfortable wins in the opening round of the 2011 Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island on February 27.

Checa had been the fastest man around the track all week – in the pre-season tests on Monday and Tuesday, then in Practice and Qualifying on Friday and Saturday, ending up on pole position after snatching that from Alitalia Aprilia’s Max Biaggi in his final two laps of the third Superpole session.

In taking pole, Checa set the fastest official Superbike lap of the Phillip Island circuit, 1m 30.882s, – eclipsing both the old pole record of 1m 31.069s set by Yamaha’s Ben Spies in 2009 and the 1m 31.050s lap recorded by Regis Laconi in Superpole 2 in 2009.

For Biaggi, a pair of second places – the second after a torrid encounter with Superbike ‘rookie’ Marco Melandri on the Yamaha World Superbike Team YZF-R1 – was a very strong result. The Aprilia team has never taken a lot of points from the opening round at Phillip Island so 40 points towards his championship defence was a clear sign that the Roman Emperor is intent on retaining his crown.

Max and Marco

While the two Italian manufacturers took top honours at Phillip Island, the other European manufacturer in the series had mixed results. In the first, Leon Haslam rode a terrific race to bag the third rostrom spot for BMW but in the second, he was a distant fifth. Team-mate Troy Corser had a weekend he’d probably rather forget, with tenth in the first race and 19th and last in the second after he ran off the track mid-way through the race.

As a result, Yamaha emerged from the weekend with third place in the manufacturer’s championship, just ahead of BMW, while Suzuki was a distant third, ahead of Honda.

Surprisingly, for a team that had looked strong in testing, Kawasaki emerged from the weekend last on the manufacturer’s points table, not what the green team was looking for.

The first race saw Biaggi grab the holeshot and this time – unlike his poor start in the first race last year – Checa went with him before young Irish tyro Eugene Laverty snatched the lead off both veterans at the top of the Southern Loop and led the first two laps.

Behind him Checa and Biaggi were running nose-to-tail with Leon Haslam pushing hard in fourth on the first of the factory BMW S1000RRs. After a troubled practice and qualifying, Troy Corser showed plenty of grit with a daring move inside the second Yamaha ridden by Marco Melandri at the entry to Lukey Heights.

That made it: Yamaha-Ducati-Aprilia-BMW-BMW-Yamaha.

But Checa wasn’t about to let the young Irishman get away and it was not long before he was ranging up on the back of the Yamaha and before the third lap was over he had got in front. From therer he proceeded to steadily pull away, leaving Biaggi to deal with the young Yamaha man.

Biaggi was playing a waiting game. He knew his Aprilia had the speed advantage on everyone down Gardner Straight but he wanted to preserve his Pirellis for a late charge. Behind him lurked an impatient Haslam, with Corser fifth before Melandri got some pay-back, pushing the Aussie wide with a scything inside pass at Honda Corner.

Fujio & REVSdaile share a joke

By the time Max motored past Laverty to start the sixth lap, Checa had checked out. Biaggi pushed hard but was unable to make any impression so he worked at getting away from the pursuing pack, led by Haslam, with the Yamahas of Laverty and Melandri just behind, then a gap back to Castrol Honda’s Johnny Rea, Noriyuki Haga on the PATA Racing Aprilia and the fading Corser, who now had Alstare Suzuki’s Michel Fabrizio on his tail.

At that point, a third of the way through the 22 laps, Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli crashed the Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing Ducati out of tenth place. His team-mate, Jakub Smrz, was running in 13th spot but a steady push saw him move steadily forward, ultimately seeing him home in seventh place.

With Checa extending his lead, Biaggi too had a little breathing room, having built a two second buffer over the untidy BMW of Haslam, who in turn had a gap on the battling Yamahas of Laverty and Melandri. Then, when they got the message that Rea was zeroing in on them, Melandri stuck it up the inside of his team-mate to leave the Irishmen – Laverty and Rea – to squabble over fifth, while a little further back, Fabrizio displaced Haga from seventh.

After giving Laverty the slip, Melandri set about working on Haslam for the final rostrum position and just past the half way point, Rea sliced in fifth spot while Melandri passed Haslam for third and set about trying to build a buffer over the BMW man who now had Rea glued to his rear Pirelli with Laverty and Fabrizio close behind.

The heat came off Haslam a little when Rea ran down the slip road at Honda Corner leaving the young English rider, runner-up in the 2010 World Championship, to set his sights on Melandri and slowly close in.

Out front, Checa had a very handy five second lead over Biaggi and unless something drastic happened, the top two places looked set in stone so all interest was in the four-way battle for third. Melandri lead a nose-to-tail team of Haslam, Laverty and Fabrizio with a big gap back to Haga and Corser who had Tom Sykes on the new Kawasaki and Smrz hot on their heels.

Adding further spice to the absorbing battle for third, Fabrizio passed Laverty for fifth while Haslam mounted a determined attack on Melandri, passing the former MotoGP man at Doohan Corner with four laps to go.

Haslam held onto third place from there to the flag, giving BMW a podium in his first race with the team. His best lap, 1m 32.266s, was just 73 thousandths of a second slower than his best lap last year, set on his way to winning the first race of that season on the Alstare Suzuki. The difference was that wheras last year he looked as if he was on rails on the GSX-R1000, this year he was trying to beat the BMW into submission. The S1000 RR was untidy under brakes and rather ‘loose’ in the rear around many of Phillip Island’s fast turns and that podium place says more about Haslam than it does about the factory BMW.

Just when it seemed the top six places were set, with a lap and a half to go, Laverty re-ignited things with a slick pass on Fabrizio at Honda Corner, then pipped team-mate Melandri for fourth on the final lap with Fabrizio sixth on the Suzuki GSX-R1000 that last year won the race.

Smrz came through the field to grab seventh, eight seconds back from Fabrizio, while Sykes took a disappointing eighth in the debut of the new ZX-10R Kawasaki, having got by Corser, then Haga in the final few laps. His best lap, 1m 33.501s, was well off the 1m 31.813s effort he had managed in the second qualifying session and was not even as good as his best lap from the very first free practice session on Friday.

Adding to Kawasaki’s woes was young Spaniard Joan Lascorz. The former 600 Supersport pilot had managed third fastest time in the first free practice session, inproved his time in the first qualifying session but dropped five places in the process, then had a big go in the second qualifying session, only to run off at high speed. He kept the Kawasaki upright but was clearly chastened by the experience, which showed him just how fast things can go wrong on a 1000cc Superbike.

In the race, he crashed out of tenth place just past mid-way.

Race two was no better for the Spaniard. From sixth at the end of the first lap he dropped to tenth in the space of three laps, had a brief interchange with Rueben Xaus (Castrol Honda) then faded to 16th before pitting to retire the ZX-10R with eight laps to go.

Sykes’ performance was almost the opposite in race two. He started from 13th on the first lap then moved forward before getting involved in a battle with Xaus and Smrz around mid-race, then, after escaping that moved up to eighth before once again tangling with Xaus and a strong finishing Leon Camier (Alitalia Aprilia) and ending up ninth.

However, from the lap times achieved in practice and qualifying, the Kawasaki has a lot more in it than these results suggest.

On the other hand, while Ducati is no longer involved as a factory entrant in Superbike, it would have been delighted with the Althea team’s efforts. In the second race, Checa carried on where he left off in the first, taking an early lead, and after a bit of sport with the holeshotting Haslam, settled into the lead role effortlessly and pulled away to another untroubled win.

That Checa was barely raising a sweat could be seen by his race two lap times – he ran 1:32s for the first half dozen laps before easing back to 1:33s from there, and ran two 1m 34s on his last two circuits when it was clear he had the race well and truly in the bag.

The reason for this? Max Biaggi. The Italian made a mess of the start of the second race and was buried in the ruck, finishing the first lap in eighth place before mounting a very forceful charge that proved the burning desire to win still burns in the Roman Emperor. By the tenth lap he was in second place, having dealt with Melandri and Haslam in a cat-and-mouse game over three laps.

However, with Checa comfortable in the lead, any aspirations Biaggi had for a win were brought undone by Melandri. The younger Italian harried Biaggi all the way to the chequered flag, the pair of them jousting all around the track to give the crowd its money’s worth. In the end, Biaggi’s ruthless efficiency was too much for Melandri, who conceded due to still recovering from shoulder surgery.

Johnny Rea gave the Ten Kate team reason to smile again by bringing the Castrol Honda home intact, in fourth place, wrestling that off Haslam with a lap to go after running 11th at the end of the first lap. It was a troubled weekend for the Irishman who had a heavy tumble in testing on the Tuesday and was airlifted to Mebourne where a blood test indicated enzymes in his blood that should not have been there. He returned to the track, was second fastest to Checa in the first practice session, qualified fifth fastest for Superpole then crashed in Superpole 2, dislocating a finger. But Rea is a serious little racer. While he was ferried back to the paddock on the back of a scooter, he popped the finger back into joint, jumped on his spare CBR1000 and posted a faster time. Gutsy.

Haslam had ridden above the BMW’s real capabilities in the first race and was fifth at the end of the second race, six seconds ahead of a strong finishing Leon Camier on the second Alitalia Aprilia. The former British Superbike Champion had been crook all weekend, suffering from a very bad does of the ‘flu, so his fighting effort in race two was noteworthy, especially with the second round of the championship at Donington Park.

Haga made it three Aprilias in the top ten with a seventh place finish, just ahead of Fabrizio and Sykes, with Rueben Xaus rounding out the top ten.

Troy and Max

And what of lap record holder Troy Corser? Well, after running as high as third in the early laps after a great start, he was bumped back to fifth by Melandri and Biaggi on lap five, but was giving a good account of himself when he ran on at Honda Corner, rejoined in 11th place and worked his way up to eighth before fading in the second half and eventually finished 20th, the last man home.

This was not the way the Aussie two times Superbike World Champion wanted to start his third season in the BMW team, so expect some big changes before the Donington round.

However, none of this can take anything away from Checa, who quite simply was in a class of his own all weekend.

And the record shows the Ducatis don’t do too badly at Donington either…

More about → CARLOS CHECKS OUT!

CZECH DUCATI FASTEST AT ASSEN

Czech Pata B&G Racing Ducati privateer Jakub Smrz was the fastest man around the Assen circuit in Holland in the first qualifying session for round four of the HANNspree Superbike World Championship this weekend.

Of the fastest 15 riders in the first qualifying session, seven (7) were Ducati 1198R mounted. And once again it was the privateer teams setting the pace, with Smrz fastest while the Althea Ducatis of Carlos Checa and Shane Byrne were 6th and 8th fastest, ahead of the first Xerox-backed factory bike of Michel Fabrizio.

Next of ther booming V-twins was the DFX Corse machine of Lorenzo Lanzi (11th) while last year's winner Noriyuki Haga was 14th quickest, just ahead of another Ducati, that of Luca Scassa (Supersonic Racing Team).

There has been a slight change to the Assen 4.542km track, which features a faster Ruskenhoek chicane section than last year. This means comparisons with previous years' lap times and race records are difficult.

2010 WSB The Netherlands
Qualifying 1 - Assen 23/04/2010

Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Lap Time
1 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 1'36.041
2 Jonathan Rea Honda GBR 1'36.339
3 Troy Corser BMW AUS 1'36.489
4 Leon Haslam Suzuki GBR 1'36.618
5 Cal Crutchlow Yamaha GBR 1'36.752
6 Carlos Checa Ducati ESP 1'36.805
7 Leon Camier Aprilia GBR 1'37.064
8 Shane Byrne Ducati GBR 1'37.081
9 Michel Fabrizio Ducati ITA 1'37.165
10 James Toseland Yamaha GBR 1'37.166
11 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'37.344
12 Tom Sykes Kawasaki GBR 1'37.434
13 Max Neukirchner Honda GER 1'37.453
14 Noriyuki Haga Ducati JPN 1'37.462
15 Luca Scassa Ducati ITA 1'37.506

Weather: Sunny

Lap Record: Leon Haslam (2009, Honda), 1m 38.370s (race 1)
Fastest Lap Ever: 1m 37.626s (Ben Spies, Pole, 2009).
Last Years Top 3: Race 1: Ben Spies, 1; Noriyuki Haga, 2; Leon Haslam, 3. Race 2: Haga, 1; Haslam, 2; Smrz, 3.


The other news was the pace of Jonathan Rea on the HANNspree Ten Kata Honda CBR1000 and that of Australian Troy Corser on the factory BMW S1000RR, second and third fastest respectively.

Unlike the Ducati-Yamaha monopoly of MotoGP, the depth of the Superbike World Championship was once again illustrated by the fact that five different manufacturers were represented by the fastest five bikes.

Championship leader Haslam was looking good as his closest rival, Max Biaggi, was languishing in 16th fastest. But it is early days!

Here's the Suzuki take on things:

LEON IN TOUCH, SYLVAIN NOT
There were mixed fortunes for Team Suzuki Alstare riders Leon Haslam and Sylvain Guintoli on day one of the fourth round of the Superbike World Championship at Assen today. Leon kept up his impressive start to the season by posting the fourth fastest time of the day, but Sylvain struggled in both sessions and only ended 17th quickest. Sylvain at least ended in good company though, as Max Biaggi (Aprilia) and Noriyuki Haga (Ducati) are just in front of him in 16th and 14th places respectively. Jakub Smrz (Ducati) once again showed his liking for Assen by taking provisional pole position, with Jonathan Rea (Honda) second and Troy Corser (BMW) third. Leon in fourth and Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) means that the top five places are filled by five different manufacturers.


Leon - 4th, 1:36.618
I’m quite happy to be fourth at this stage because today we were just going through the usual motions and trying out a few things. We tried some different brake options, but didn’t really try any soft rubber, so to end fourth is pretty good, I think. Tomorrow, we’ll try altering the balance of the bike and see if we can make more progress.

The new section of the track is going to improve the lap times for sure. It’s still quite technical and high-speed, but that’s the kind of corner I like. The track felt a bit dusty today, but I’m sure it will get better as the weekend goes on. I feel pretty confident about our prospects and I’m looking forward to tomorrow and the races on Sunday.


Sylvain - 17th, 1:37.684
I’m not sure where I was today and could not get a comfortable feeling at all. All day, I struggled and could not find any confidence in the front end of the bike and I felt like I was losing the front everywhere. On our last run of the day we made a radical change to the chassis and we will carry on in that direction tomorrow. It should be better because it can’t be worse!

I know that the bike is a really good package and it’s up to me to get my head round what’s going on and work with my mechanics to find the improvement we need so much. I feel confident that tomorrow will be a lot better than today and I will end up at the right end of the grid.

And for the Yamaha point of view:

Yamaha Sterilgarda riders Cal Crutchlow and James Toseland spent the first day of the Assen race weekend working hard on setting up their bikes for tomorrow's Superpole heats. Crutchlow got quickly down to fast consistent laps, spending the majority of the first qualifying session in second position. Two crashes resulting from losing the front end disrupted his session although he was unhurt and came away from the heat having demonstrated a consistent fast race pace.

Team mate James Toseland spent the session working with his team on two very different bike set ups, exploring both front and rear end feel. They found positive steps in both areas so will work to combine and produce a race package ahead of tomorrow's Superpole session.


Cal Crutchlow

Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (5th, 1'36.752)
"It's been a good day speed-wise, I felt quite comfortable keeping the pace I had. We had two stupid crashes, both when I lost the front end. I was using my usual tyre for the first one, I hit a bump and crashed, on the second one I used the new harder front tyre but didn't have any feeling in it, I came into the last chicane maybe 6km slower than usual and just crashed for some unknown reason. Still, as I said I'm happy with the pace so looking forward to tomorrow and seeing if we can improve and achieve something good in the Superpole session."

James Toseland

James Toseland, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team (10th, 1'37.166)
"We've been trying a few things with the geometry to see if we can improve the front feel and the rear feel. Over the last three rounds we've either got the one or the other so we're trying to find a better balance using head angles and offsets. On one bike I had a setting very similar to what we used in Valencia, and the other bike had something completely different, I've been jumping between the two, and towards the end of the session I think we were getting there. My best lap time of the session was on the harder rear tyre which is generally not the quick tyre which is encouraging. I'm pleased with what we've done today, we've got through a lot and we've got some good ideas for tomorrow. There's a lot more time in me and the bike to come."

Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team Manager
"For our first day today we saw some good things, for sure tonight the technicians and the riders will continue to work to find ways to improve on the current set up even more. I'm expecting to be in a different position tomorrow afternoon. Cal has really good times through three sectors of the track, he's losing something in the last sector, we know this and so we're studying to understand why so we can fix that. When we do I think he will be really strong. I'm expecting James to take another step forward tomorrow, today he was focussed on comparing two very different bike setups, we found good things in both so we'll work tonight to bring those together."

More about → CZECH DUCATI FASTEST AT ASSEN

BMW SALES JUMP IN USA

S1000RR Auckland Launch

IN February 2010, BMW sales jumped 52 percent in the USA compared with the month of February 2009. The sales increase is attributed to sales of the new four cylinder S1000 super sport machine, which hit US BMW dealers in February.

The BMW sales increase came against a background of a 36 percent slump in sales of all motorcycles in the USA in the month of February, compared with the same month in 2009.

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HARLEY POSTS LOSS

HARLEY Davidson posted a loss of $US218.7 million in the final quarter of 2009, its first quarterly loss in 16 years.

Meantime, Harley Davidson chief executive officer Keith Wandell banked a pay package of $US6.4 million for his first eight months on the job, according to an Associated Press (AP) report which quoted "regulatory filings."

According to the AP report, Wandell was paid a base salary of $US650,025, plus a bonus of $US780,000, as well as stock options of $US4.9 million at the time they were issued, as well as other "compensation".

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KAWASAKI WINS LE MANS

KAWASAKI's ZX-10R won the Le Mans 24-Hour race on April 18, the first round of the 2010 Qtel FIM Endurance World Endurance Championship. The winning Pirelli-shod GSR Kawasaki of Julien da Costa, Olivier Four and Grégory Leblanc covered 828 laps of the 4.185 km Bugatti circuit, a distance of 3465.18 km - averaging 144.38 km/h (including pit stops for re-fuelling, fresh tyres and brake pads, and rider changes).

The GSR Kawasaki team set the tone by taking the Superpole after leading all the qualifying sessions.

The three Kawasaki riders raced the entire 24 hours on standard Pirelli tyres: a Diablo Superbike SC2 at the front and SC1 on the rear.

The GSR Kawasaki ZX-10R was 11 laps ahead the second placed team, the Michelin-shod reigning World Champion Yamaha Austria Racing Team YZFR-R1 which was piloted by Gwen Giabbani, Igor Jerman and Steve Plater. The Yamaha started over-heated during the night, forcing them to make several unscheduled pit stops.

Third place went to the privateer RAC 41 City Bike Suzuki GSX-R1000 ridden by Gregory Junod, Greg Black and Olivier Depoorter. They were four laps behind the struggling second-placed Yamaha. The Suzuki ran on Dunlop tyres.

And to make it four tyre brands in the first four, the next bike home, the Yamaha France GMT 94 Ipone YZF-R1 was running on some new Bridgestones.

The fancied multi-world championship winning SERT Suzuki team was out after two hours and the podium challenging Bolliger Kawasaki team had clutch trouble while the National Motos Honda CBR1000 had to deal with numerous mechanical problems, a crash and finally a fire during one of the pit stops.

Kawasaki's ouotright victory was the first time the green team had won the gruelling French classic since 1999. Eleven years ago, the winning Kawasaki was a ZX-7RR and was piloted by Frenchman Bertrand Sebileau and British riders Steve Hislop and Chris Walker.

Kawasaki has now won nine Le Mans 24-hours in the 33 years of the event.

The first Le Mans 24-Hour win for Kawasaki (as opposed the the Bol d'Or 24-Hour that was run at Le Mans until 1978) was in 1981 when Jean Claude-Chemarin and Christian Hugeut teamed up on a SIEMM Kawasaki Z1000J powered racer.

May 22 is when the second round of the 2010 Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship takes place, when Spain hosts the 8 Hours of Albacete.

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VIKINGS STOP MOTOGP

By REVSdaile.

Icelandic Volcano Claims Japanese Victim!

THE plume of volcanic ash spewing into the stratosphere from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland has claimed a victim in Japan – the MotoGP world championship round scheduled for the Motegi circuit north of Tokyo this weekend (April 25).

The Motegi race has been re-scheduled to October 3, a week before the Malaysian round of the championship.  This means the Asia-Pacific area will now host three MotoGP events in successive weekends:  Japan (Motegi), October 3; Malaysia (Sepang), October 10 and Australia (Philip Island), October 17.

High altitude volcanic ash presents a considerable danger to passenger jet aircraft.  The volcanic dust can stick to hot gas turbines and eventually lead to flame-out – as happened in 1982 to a British Airways flight enroute from London to Auckland.  The BA 747-236B flew into a cloud of volcanic ash from the Mount Galunggung volcano in Indonesia and lost power in all four engines.  And in 1989 a KLM 747 had all four engines fail when flew into a cloud that turned out to be volcanic ash while descending to Anchorage, Alaska.

For more on how volcanic ash effects jet aircraft, go to:  http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63E46D20100415

So with European airspace shut down due to the ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, the motorcycle Grand Prix Permanent Bureau met and decided that a case of ‘force majeure’ existed, which obliged it to postpone the Grand Prix of Japan.
In this they had the agreement of Japanese Grand Prix promoter, Mobilityland Corporation, a Honda-owned company.

As a result of this, the next race on the MotoGP calendar will be the Grand Prix of Jerez, Spain on May 2.

Meantime, for a British spin on how a 1783 Icelandic eruption led to crop failures, famine and a very cold northen hemispehere winter, go to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/15/iceland-volcano-weather-french-revolution

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