MICHELIN MONOPOLIZE TOP FOUR IN EXTREME US GP Michelin riders dominated today’s United States Grand Prix, run in some of the most extreme weather conditions ever experienced by the MotoGP World Championship. With ambient temperatures close to 40ºC (104ºF) and the track at a sizzling 60ºC (140ºF), this race demanded everything from tires. But the vicious heat couldn’t stop World Championship leader Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda Team RC211V-Michelin) from storming to his second successive US GP victory after a brilliant ride from the second row of the grid. The Kentucky Kid beat teammate Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team RC211V-Michelin) by 3.1 seconds after leading from just after half-distance. Pedrosa’s second-place result, coming from sixth on lap one, was an impressive display by the MotoGP rookie who had never even seen this rollercoaster Californian track before he got here a few days ago. Marco Melandri (Fortuna Honda RC211V-Michelin) completed the all-Michelin podium, just ahead of Kenny Roberts Junior (Team Roberts KR211V-Michelin). “The track temperature was amazing, a record we think, so we were really going into the unknown here,” said Nicolas Goubert, Michelin’s director ofmotorcycle racing. “The heat was tremendous so the grip level wasn’t as high as it had been this morning, but the race was still faster than last year’s, mainly because of the new surface. All our riders used the same rear tire today and they all did an incredible job to race in such heat. We are happy to have filled the first four finishing positions in such difficult conditions. It was another great race from Nicky, Dani also did so well, Marco and Kenny too.” Valentino Rossi (Camel Yamaha Team YZR-M1-Michelin) had been in fourth placeand chasing a podium finish when technical problems ruled him out with just two laps to go. Hayden now goes into MotoGP’s month-long summer break enjoying a 34-point lead over Pedrosa with six of 17 races remaining. Top five Michelin riders’ tire choice Nicky Hayden: hard compound, wider-profile front; hard compound rear Dani Pedrosa: hard compound, narrow-profile front; hard compound rear Marco Melandri: hard compound, wider-profile front; hard compound rear Kenny Roberts Jr.: hard compound, narrow-profile front; hard compound rear Colin Edwards: hard compound, narrow-profile front; hard compound rear More, from a press release issued by Hawk Kawasaki: Points for Hawk at Oulton Park British Superbike Championship – Round 9 Hawk Kawasaki riders Craig Coxhell (23) and Peter Hickman (19) scored some strong points in round nine of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Oulton Park this weekend, 21st – 23rd July. After struggling during qualifying the two riders ended up in 17th and 18th position on the grid for the two races on Sunday. Coxhell fought hard to gain a 10th and 13th place and youngster Hickman once again gained some valuable Championship points with a 14th and 16th position. The two Hawk riders battled hard around the technical and demanding Cheshire Circuit and both made huge progress throughout the weekend. Race one saw Coxhell secure a flying start and had moved up the 13th by the end of the first lap. Locked in a dice with Billy McConnell and Ben Wilson the three exchanged places throughout the 17-lap race, Harris, Richards and Hill all crashed out and Coxhell crossed the finish line in a positive 10th position. The young Australian got a poor start in race two and he was forced to run on at Hizzy’s Chicane on the first lap when he was pushed wide dicing for strong position. Leaving him in 20th place at the end of the first lap he was left with a lot of work to do, he slowly found a rhythm and manoeuvred his way through the pack. In the closing stages of the race he latched onto the back of a freight train of riders including the factory Suzuki of Steve Plater but was unable to make a pass due to lack of laps remaining. Coxhell said “It’s been a difficult weekend to get the bike set up correctly and we were still struggling with a few issues during the qualifying session. I was unable to get a fast lap in qualifying and hindered myself by ending up in 17th place. I left myself a lot of work to do in the race, thankfully in the first race I got a great start and was battling for a top ten position. All in all I am happy with how thing have gone and hope that we can do a bit of testing before Croft in a few weeks time.” Rookie rider Hickman once again used his time well and made good steady progression throughout the weekend. Although he struggled during qualifying he still managed to secure some strong results in the race and gained points in the first race. In both races he was locked in a tight battle with Kieran Clarke and Simon Andrews for positions. Hickman commented “We are certainly making progress every time we go out and I am learning more on each outing. It was a difficult weekend, as Oulton is so demanding on the bike and myself. Everyone worked very hard to try and get everything set up right and if I could start qualifying a little better it might help me gain some stronger results for the team.” Race One Result Kiyonari Honda Haslam Ducati Lavilla Ducati Byrne Suzuki Rea Honda Rutter Honda Laverty Honda Smart Suzuki McConnell Yamaha Coxhell Hawk Kawasaki 14th Hickman Hawk Kawasaki Race Two Result Kiyonari Honda Harris Honda Haslam Ducati Rea Honda Byrne Suzuki Hill Yamaha Rutter Honda Richards Honda Wilson Suzuki Mason Honda 13th Coxhell Hawk Kawasaki 16th Hickman Hawk Kawasaki More, from a press release issued by Centurion Racing: Win Number Eight for Spalding British Supersport Cup – Round 9 19-year-old Pete Spalding once again took an extremely confident win at Oulton Park (21st – 23rd July) at round nine of the British Supersport Cup Championship. He also gained a fantastic 12th position overall after been locked in a tight four bike scrap for tenth place. Spalding again set the fastest Cup rider record on lap four and was locked in a tight battle with experienced Supersport riders Jamie Robinson, Steven Neate and Martin Jessop. The youngster secured his eighth consecutive win this season and has now gained a 77-point lead over his nearest rival Aaron Walker. With the Cup riders allowed to drop their three worst positions Spalding has nearly done enough to secure the Championship win and still having five rounds of the series remaining. The Bournemouth based Centurion Racing Team have worked exceptionally hard this season and produced the results to prove that. Mixing in with the full Supersport class, Spalding is certainly promising to be a young British talent. Gaining a stunning fifth position at Knockhill last weekend and adding this weekend’s result he is certainly gaining in confidence on each outing. A contented Spalding commented “It’s been a difficult weekend as Oulton Park is a very tricky circuit to master. I love the track but it’s extremely important to ensure that you get a very good race set up round here. The team have once again been working very hard, I had a small off in the second qualifying session which saw me struggling again to gain a good position for the start of the race. I ended up qualifying in 17th on the grid which left me with a reasonable amount of work to do before I could gain a decent result in the race.” Team Manager Gary Stubbington said “It’s the first time this season that Pete has been mixing it with some of the top riders and he certainly did us proud. It’s been another confidence building weekend for us and a great follow up from Knockhill last weekend. Pete has worked exceedingly hard all year and he’s getting the results that he deserves. He’s now managing to get some very strong overall results which was one of our main targets for the season.” Supersport Race Result Crutchlow Honda Sykes Suzuki Camier Honda Hobbs Honda Lowry Suzuki Hutchinson Kawasaki Murphy Kawasaki Vincent Honda Dickinson Honda Robinson Honda Neate Honda Spalding Centurion Racing – Honda Jessop Ducati Young Triumph Martin Yamaha www.centurionracing.net More, from a press release issued by Tom Tunstall Racing: World Supersport Championship Round 7 Brno, Czech Republic Battling Tunstall Comes Good In Tough Brno Race Tom Tunstall battled through a tough weekend at his first visit to the spectacular Brno circuit in the Czech Republic to secure a hard fought 18th position in the World Supersport race. Despite not securing any world championship points this time out, the team remained satisfied with their performance and the pace they had shown onboard the Hardinge – Ice Valley Motorsport Honda CBR600RR. Tom arrived in Brno with no previous knowledge of the fast and undulating circuit, but he and the Hardinge – Ice Valley Motorsport team worked tirelessly to achieve the optimum set-up for the Honda CBR 600RR throughout the two days of practice and qualifying before the race. Unfortunately they were hampered by both technical problems on the Honda CBR600RR and an untimely rain shower in the final qualifying session which left Tom way down the grid in an uncharacteristic 35th place. “It’s always tough coming to a new track but we certainly made some good progress. Between the Friday morning and the afternoon session I slashed 2.5 seconds off my lap time and then went out on Saturday morning and took another second off. I was feeling confident for qualifying and after about four laps I came in to fit a new tyre but when I went out on track the bike had developed an engine problem so I had to come in and use my number two bike, which was set-up a bit differently. By the time we got it working it had started to rain so I had no chance to get myself higher up the grid for the race.” explained Tom. The 18 lap World Supersport race took place in scorching 34 degree temperatures in front of a strong 41,000 crowd who got to witness a full day of seriously exciting racing. Tom fired his Hardinge – Ice Valley Motorsport Honda CBR600RR of the start line well and dived up the inside going into the fast turn one. This proved a wise move as a number of his Supersport rivals got tangled up going through the corner and were forced out of the race. Tom quickly forgot about the incident and began closing down the group of riders in front of him posting some impressive lap times in the process. After battling with former World Supersport champion and Superbike rider Stephane Chambon, he was soon entangled in a hard battle with Russian rider Vladimir Ivanov. Tom eventually won through to claim a well deserved 18th position, finishing less than five seconds behind the final point scoring finisher. “We were helped a little bit in terms of position after the first corner crash, which I was lucky to avoid. It was my plan to go up the inside at the first corner and although I managed to miss the crash it left me with a big gap to bridge to the group of riders in front. I was battling with Stephane Chambon but then I started dicing with Vladimir Ivanov and although we were having a good fight, we were holding each other up and we started to lose ground. In the end we started to real in the group in front but just ran out of laps to get any higher up the field.” said Tom. “Our aim is to be in the points every weekend and we haven’t quite been able to manage that this weekend. On the positive side we’ve made some good progress with the bike, which should put us in good stead for our home race at Brands Hatch in a couple of weeks time. Brands Hatch is a track I really like and it will be nice to turn up at a track at least knowing which way it goes.” he continued. The next race for Tom and the Hardinge – Ice Valley Motorsport team takes place at Brands Hatch on 4th to 6th August 2006. Brands Hatch is the team’s home event and with in excess of 100,000 spectators expected throughout the weekend Tom will be aiming to make a real impression and fight for championship points once again. More, from a press release issued by Tim Knutson Racing: Tim Knutson of El Cajon California finished 21st in the Repsol Lubricants Superstock race at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca July 23rd. After a long day of delays due to a deteriorating track, the Superstock race went green 2 hrs after the original scheduled start. A brief 20 minute warm-up at 4pm gave Tim his first look at the track since Qualifying. “I had heard that the track was falling apart but I couldn’t believe the poor condition of the surface when I went out for the warm-up. The first lap I was coming down Rainey curve with a group of guys and I was pelted by the asphalt coming off the rear tire of the guy in front of me, I thought I was on a motocross track having roosters thrown up at me” said Tim after 5 laps. The green flag dropped and 35 1000cc Superstock went barreling into turn 1 and 2. After a hectic but clean first lap, Tim settled into a race long battle that included 3 other riders jostling and swapping positions for 19th through 22nd. In the end Tim finished 21st with all four riders finish within .9 of a second of each other. “I got a good launch off the line, tried not to get mixed up in any first turn melees, after that I just tried to find a good rythym and make the best result I could. I didn’t finish as well as I wanted but considering I was riding a borrowed 3 year old motorcycle I think we did ok today, I really have to thank Chris White for letting me ride his motorcycle and Phil Allison of Evan Steel Performance for keeping it together and getting the suspension sorted out.” said Tim after the 17 lap race in record heat. Tim’s next race will be a WSMC club event August 18-19. More, from a press release issued by Buell Motorcycle Company: BUELL XBRR CRACKS TOP 10 IN AMA FORMULA XTREME AT LAGUNA McWilliams Finishes Eighth on a Buell XBRR LAGUNA SECA, Calif. Jeremy McWilliams, riding a Buell XBRR for Warr’s of London Harley-Davidson/Buell (Great Britain) and Buell Motorcycle Company, finished eighth in the AMA Formula Xtreme race at round seven of the AMA Superbike Championship at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Classic H-D/BuellMillville H-D/BuellInnovative Motorcycle Research rider Mike Hale qualified another Buell XBRR for the Formula Xtreme National, but was forced to retire after the warm-up lap due to an oil leak resulting from a harried, last-minute mechanical change. McWilliams, a veteran Irish racer and former MotoGP rider, posted the seventh-fastest lap time during Formula Xtreme practice, but had a disappointing qualifying session and started the race from the 15th position. “We made a few mistakes in Jeremy’s setup for qualifying,” said Steve Anderson, Buell Platform Director, “but the team got the bike back on the pace for the race and that’s what mattered. Jeremy was able to move up quickly at the start.” Hale, in his first race aboard the XBRR, qualified in 27th position. During the Saturday morning warm up, he bettered his qualifying time by 1.3 seconds and was running in the top 20 overall. McWilliams sprinted from 15th to ninth position on the first lap of the 15-lap race on the 2.24-mile Mazda Raceway road course, and moved up to seventh spot on lap four. He dropped to eighth on lap 11 and finished in that position. “A top-ten finish at an AMA National event, with very little setup and practice time is a great result for this young effort,” said Buell Motorcycle Company Chairman and Chief Technical Officer Erik Buell. “We’re learning quickly and the XBRR is gaining performance and reliability, a trend that will continue as we and our dealer teams keep the effort high.” Both teams racing XBRR models received support from Pirelli Tires, Sentry Insurance, Harley-Davidson Financial Services, Screamin’ Eagle SYN3 Synthetic Motorcycle Lubricant, and Harley-Davidson Visa. The Buell XBRR is a limited-edition production racing motorcycle based on the Firebolt XB12R, which is reworked at the factory into the XBRR for use in closed-course competition. It offers private racers a professional-level, race-ready, production-based platform. Buell Motorcycle Company, a subsidiary of Harley-Davidson, Inc., produces sport motorcycles, motorcycle parts, accessories and apparel. To learn more about Buell motorcycles, visit your local Buell dealer today and experience the pure streetfighter attitude, style and performance only found on board a Buell. Pull into www.buell.com for the Buell dealer nearest you. More, from a press release issued by Beowulf Racing: BITTER BLOW FOR BEOWULF RACING AT BRNO 2006 FIM Superstock 1000 Cup, Rd 5 Brno, Czech Republic Race, Sun 23rd July The fifth round race in the 2006 FIM Superstock Cup ended in disaster for Beowulf Racing and rider Nick Henderson (Suzuki) at Brno today. Having put in their best performance of the season so far, qualifying 17th and making exactly the right tyre choices during the rain-hit timing sessions all weekend, Henderson crashed out on the second lap of the delayed race in an incident involving Enrique Rocamora (Yamaha) and Matej Smrz (Honda). It came as a bitter blow to the likeable Aussie who looked set for his first points haul of the season and to the Shepton Mallet-based team who are desperate to re-establish themselves as front-runners in this feeder class to the prestigious World Superbike series. Italian Ayrton Badovini (MV Augusta) went on to notch up his third race win of the year. The day had started so well. After two days of intense heat, mugginess and thunderstorms the temperatures were much more bearable around the 3.4-mile forest-lined track. During the ten-minute warm-up session Henderson ran with the pack and retained his 17th place on the grid, lapping less than two-tenths of a second away from a points-scoring position. The team’s problems began even before the race started. The planned 12-lapper had to be delayed following an oil spill in the World Superbike warm-up session. When the race finally got away in the afternoon, there were a couple of further stoppages due to accidents, cutting its distance back to seven laps at the third attempt. Henderson made his usual excellent start and had moved up a place by the end of the first lap. Trying even harder in the second, he was unable to avoid an incident between Smrz and Rocamora: Smrz had already fallen after running into the back of Rocamora’s rear wheel. Trying to change direction, Nick could not avoid clipping the helmet of the Czech rider and went down himself with the Beowulf Suzuki picking up extensive damage in the process. The fact that with just one full race lap under his belt the Australian had still managed to set the second-fastest top speed of the entire race, at 168.3mph, didn’t come as much consolation after all the hard work he had put in over the weekend. Although the day didn’t end with the result that the rider and team had been looking for, they can at least take solace from the fact that they had proven they are still a competitive force in this year’s championship. It’s a point they will want to underline when the series moves to it’s next round at Brands Hatch in two week’s time. To learn more about Nick Henderson and Beowulf Racing, visit www.beowulf-racing.com FIM SUPERSTOCK 1000 CUP, RD 5 BRNO Race result 7 laps 1. Ayrton Badovini (Ita) MV Augusta 15:08.344 2. Luca Scassa (Ita) MV Augusta +00:00.137 3. Richard Cooper (GBr) Honda +00:06.161 DNF. Nick Henderson (Aus) Suzuki +6 laps Championship standings after 5 of 10 rounds: 1 Allessandro Polita (Ita) Suzuki – 95pts 2. Ayrton Badovini (Ita) MV Augusta 93pts 3. Luca Scassa (Ita) MV Augusta 71pts More, from a press release issued by Brendan Roberts: Roberts on Winning Form National Superstock Championship – Round 9 Young Australian Brendan Roberts once again dominated proceedings at the weekend, 21st – 23rd July at Oulton Park. Roberts took his fifth race win of the season in the ultra competitive National Superstock Championship. The 21-year-old not only took the race win but in doing so he also broke the lap record and set Pole Position for the race, his first this season. It was a perfect weekend for the likeable Aussie as he extended his lead in the Championship to 71-points from his nearest rival Ian Hutchinson. He took his third race win on the trot in glorious weather conditions in front of a bumper crowd who had turned out for the event at the picturesque 2.7-mile circuit. Roberts was unable to take advantage of his pole position in the race and ended up in third place into the first corner behind Ian Hutchinson and Tristan Palmer. Running in hot at Shell corner saw him drop another place to Marshall Neill. As the pack settled into a rhythm it was not long before Roberts was manoeuvring himself through the pack and was soon back at the front by lap three. As the 15-lap race progressed Roberts began to pull a healthy gap between him and second place man Hutchinson. By lap ten this was a 2.3-second lead, an incident at Island Bend forced the safety car out on circuit and it was soon set to be a three-lap dash to the chequered flag. As the car pulled in Roberts once again got his head down and managed to gain an outstanding 1.9 second advantage on his first flying lap, then on the penultimate lap his relentless pace saw him set a new lap record as he confidently took his fifth win of the season. An elated Roberts commented ” What an awesome feeling, I knew I didn’t need to take risks out there today but it all seemed so easy. When the safety car came out I got a little nervous as I had relaxed just enough and I wasn’t sure if my tyres would handle the pace needed to keep the pack behind me, but when it was time I was focused on what I had to do and concentrated on making no mistakes, and to top it off with a new lap record right at the end was mega! ” Roberts will next be out on track at the World Superbike Round at Brands Hatch, 4th – 6th August, competing in the European Superstock Championship. National Superstock Race Result Brendan Roberts Ian Hutchinson Luke Quigley Hudson Kennaugh Adrian Coates Marshall Neill Overall Championship Standings Brendan Roberts 171 Ian Hutchinson 100 Aaron Zanotti 95 John Laverty 90 Luke Quigley 81
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