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JANUARY 2007 Moto38 are back with a new team line-up; the X-One Italians have a new sponsor, news about them as soon as I get it; Freddy Moreira gets the coveted reserve seat at Kawasaki France, French team Genous have got a surprising berth in the permanent teams list and we've lost Classic Motos, SRU Sangerhausen, SRK and, most surprising of all...Innodrom. For those still confused about the Swedish teams - welcome to the club. I'm getting messages saying that Fagersjo-El still have the No.12 and are still in existence, managed by Christer Miinin...and that Suzuki Sweden are a new team with a new number. I'm trying to sort it all out... AND WHERE ARE MACO MOTO?? MORE AND MORE YAMAHAS - THE GIRLS (3A RACING) TAKE DELIVERY OF "MISS SNOWBALL"
We're not sure of the girls (Magali Langlois, Christelle "Speednénette" Orsi and honorary member Fabien Favre) plans this season but whatever they are, they'll be doing it on the new Yamaha. Magali's blog is HERE YAMAHA AUSTRIA - FIRST VIEW OF WHAT THE BOYS WILL BE RIDING IN 2007...THAT'S THE ONE ON THE RIGHT...
PRESS RELEASE FROM MANDY KAINZ: YAMAHA Motor Austria, YAMAHA Motor Japan, YAMAHA Motor Europe, Akrapovic Exhaust Systems, Öhlins Racing, Pirelli, MRA, MAC Carbon Products, NGK, Nissin Japan, BMC, MB Motorsport, France Equipement, Fritze Tuning.
Many thanks also to our sponsors Sexmagazin and Castrol ,
who will cover the biggest part of our 2007 budget ! BIKER ROCK Race Corporation is putting together are virtual rock band...James Toseland on keyboards, twin rock drummers Jamie Witham and Roger Bennett, GMT94 Team Manager Christophe Guyot on lead guitar, rider Igor Jerman and Moto38 Team Manager Jean-Claude Claperon backing up on accordion...I need more band members...
RIDERS WANTING WORLD ENDURANCE RIDES For teams still looking for riders, go to the Race Corporation Forum - and it's a great place to promote yourself if you're a rider. Currently, Damian "Demon" Rowley, Guy Martin and Steve Mizera are all on the market. If you're a team, you have a place to put your needs as well. TEAMS, TEAMS, TEAMS... News has been posted on the Esprit Racing site that French dealers Paris Nord Moto have Motors TV sponsorship and are running an MV Agusta F4 in World Endurance with riders Bruno Destoop and former Midi Pyrenees Racing riders, Nicolas Trolard, Gregory Lefort and David Fouloi. Fouloi was also instrumental in getting wins for the Junior LMS72 Suzuki team in 2004 and 2005.
Taree's Alex Cudlin has announced that he will be contesting the World Endurance Championships in 2007, his second season in this tough, but prestigious event. Alex will be part of the highly competitive Diablo 666 Kawasaki racing team, continuing the successful partnership that saw Alex and Diablo 666 finish 7th place in the 2006 world endurance championship. Alex had a successful year with Diablo in 2006, finishing in the Top 10 and taking out the inaugral Rookie of the Year award. "Diablo gave me a great opportunity last year, and I want to show my loyalty and gratitude to them by having a winning season in 2007" Alex stated. "Being my 2nd year in the WEC will be a bit easier for me because I will be more familiar with the different tracks than I was last year. Last year I learned a lot, and I hope to use that experience to have a really fast year this year. I can't wait to start racing" smiled Alex.
Alex will be heading to England at the end of February, before testing commences at Valencia In Spain, in preparation for the first round of the championships. We're still waiting for the official entry list of permanent teams from the F.I.M., which was expected on the 15th of January. Apart from that list, there are still other teams that will be participating in most of the 2007 six-round Championship, one of which is Team RAC41 Yamaha with riders Arnaud Larose, Alex Prigent and Dave Dumain, the team doing every round except Suzuka.
RAC41 (you may also know them as Tanesie Racing, or Coquard Moto, racing the No.27 Suzuki last year) are one of the success stories in the French Endurance Championship, winning the 2003 600cc class (3rd overall) and taking 2nd overall in 2004. They have always been one of the fancied teams in the Stocksport class and have finished in 7th place in class in the last two Le Mans 24 hour races. In the French Championship they sported the No.41 but had to run the No.27 in the World Endurance events - the team are hoping to secure their favourite No.41 for 2007. Their website is HERE. AMENDMENT - Texan Will Gruy is only 20 years old at the moment...and he will be racing in World Endurance this year for Team Amadeus X-One Yamaha. Will is no stranger to endurance racing, although of a different class entirely - along with co-rider Tyler McDonald, his team won the 2003 and 2004 CMRA heavy mini/F4 endurance championships. This class consists primarily of 125 grand prix motorcycle running gear with up to 85cc two stroke motocross engines installed. It's been a steep learning curve since then...but, depending on how many races his team runs, he could be another contender for the Rookie Of The Year Trophy...speaking of which...is there one this year?...we'll keep you posted! WORLD ENDURANCE - PHASE ONE INCREASE THE YAMAHA CHALLENGE - AIMING FOR A FOURTH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN 2007 PHASE ONE
PRESS RELEASE - Didier van Keymeulen to join
Warwick Nowland and Glen Richards.
Didier and his co - riders will meet for the first time at
the team's Albacete tests in mid-March. Didier is very well-regarded in World Endurance circles, having ridden for both GMT94 and Moto38 amongst others, his signing suddenly puts together an extremely strong and very worrying team for the other competitors. Didier's homepage is HERE. It's only been a few days since two-times World Champion Warwick Nowland was confirmed in the Phase One Yamaha team along with 34 year-old Australian Glen Richards. The former 2005 Hawk Kawasaki and 2006 Hydrex Honda rider finished 12th in the fiercely competitive 2006 British Superbike Championship and has yet to change his website to reflect his new status on the World stage.
The teams' website had let on that they were also trying to get American Jason Pridmore back in the team but that didn't happen - speculation is that Jason's commitments to Suzuki via his Star Motorcycle Racing School may be one of the reasons for this. Phase One have taken delivery of two 2007 Yamaha R1's and will run with race-kitted engines, brand-new Ohlins TTX front forks, running on Dunlop tyres. WORLD ENDURANCE - YAMAHA AUSTRIA UPDATE News from the Yamaha Austria website - Yamaha Austria and sponsors Sexmagazin are presenting their 2007 R1 on Friday 19th of January , 7pm at Motorrad Klein. All 3 Racebikes are ready for their first official roll out at beginning of February. The official launch will be next week from 26-28 of January at the Austrian Bike Show at Linz. Every interested R1 fan is invited and a small gift is waiting for everybody who turns up at the Klein event. Race Corporation have the inside news from YART but have given their word not to tell anybody until the Austria Bike Show. WORLD SUPERBIKES - PIRELLI TEST IN PHILIP ISLAND SBK test Phillip Island Interesting news is coming from both the SBK and SS categories, with very good laptimes and good performances in terms of long runs and race simulations. In the SBK class the fastest rider was Troy Bayliss, who managed to set the incredible lap time of 1’30”7: two seconds faster than the previous record! Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox): "It's been a good three-day test. We tried some new settings and electronics and the latest Pirelli tyres and were able to set some fast lap times although over the race distance things were a bit different. Even though today's long-run didn't go as well as we had hoped, yesterday's simulation was good and we learnt a lot of things that will benefit us for the race here in March. I'm very happy with the way the bike is working and we went faster than the race pace of last year so everything is going really well". Max Biaggi (Alstare Suzuki): “Phillip Island has been very interesting and we have had to do a lot of work here to understand this new bike. We did a couple of long runs, but the results were not so good because the bike was vibrating a bit and that affected the overall times. Also the track was quite a bit hotter on the final day and when that happens normally we don’t go so quick. I tried two different engine specifications and got on better with the Japanese spec one. For me it just felt more comfortable to ride and it was a good engine package. The team now has a lot of information and data to work with and the results of this we’ll try at our next test. Hopefully, the good work we have done in Australia will pay dividends next time out." Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia): "The top speed and the engine feel is not bad, but we are struggling a bit with rear grip coming out of corners. We are a bit too sideways. So the lap times are not coming for us at the moment. I’m pretty happy with the bike and the team is working well, but we just need a bit more testing, and this is only the third day of riding a Yamaha at Phillip Island. We need to adjust the swingarm angle. We could use a hard tyre and get the same grip and push as a qualifier. But it’s not that disheartening because despite having some troubles we are not that far away on lap time. I know where I’m losing time and how much time I’m losing, and I’m confident we can fix it." Regis Laconi (PSG-1 Kawasaki): “Not so bad, but the last day was difficult. We had a very small problem with the bike after yesterday’s crash and until 11.30 or 12 I could not get my best chance to set a fast time and I missed the best track conditions. But I did a 1’32.2 and I am happy because I am sure in the right conditions it could have been better. We did not get the chance to do a big race simulation but I did many laps.” Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia): "Finally I found a good setting and good acceleration, but I still had problems with a few things, same as Troy. Today I made 20 laps in a long run, which went very good, but after eight laps the rear problem started and the tyre started grooving. We need more testing with the new parts.” Kenan Sofuoglu and Kevin Curtain have set new lap records with the same amazing time of 1’33.9. Good news for Pirelli technicians, with two different bikes (Honda and Yamaha) able to exploit the benefits of these new tyre developments. Kevin Curtain (Yamaha World Supersport): "I did a 1’33.9, and I was really impressed! Pretty good for a 600. Today was obviously good in terms of the outright lap times but we have quite a big rear endurance problem on the tyres that give the best lap time, and I think most people have the same. We always have a known quantity tyre that we can fall back on for the race and in general my test has been really good right from the start. The front has been good here, and we know what works and doesn’t work. We basically used the setting from the recent Qatar tests as a base point." Test laptimes: WORLD SUPERBIKES - 2007 RACE CALENDAR Just one change from the provisional calendar - the July 8th TBA round, whatever it may have been, has been dropped.
* Saturday SHORT UPDATE The Christmas and New Year celebrations are over - but it seems that the holiday for World Endurance gets longer than the school holidays - things MUST be happening but people are OH SO QUIET and probably awaiting an official release from the FIM before releasing their own "official" press releases - and meanwhile nobody wants to say anything. Word is that the date for Oschersleben isn't exactly set in stone and may be changed to a week earlier to avoid other race conflicts. Steve Plater's team-mate at the 2006 Macau Grand Prix was Guy Martin and he split the Stobart Hondas to claim 5th place. He's now interested in riding in World Endurance and is looking to talk to any prospective teams - contact Guy HERE Ok, it's looking like this - Kawasaki France's line-up is Steve Plater, Gwen Giabbani and Ivan Silva with the reserve rider still to be decided....and they DO now have a website...HERE. At the moment it's still under development, so there are speed issues - but fans of Kawasaki France now have a portal on the web! Yamaha Austria...can't say...not until their presentation at the end of the
month. ...names that keep coming up...Jason Pridmore, Piergiorgio Bontempi, Guy Martin... KAWASAKI FRANCE - WILL KAWASAKI FINALLY WIN IN 2007?
This is the man who expects victory in 2007 - not only victory but the entire World Championship, Kawasaki's first since 1996 with "Mr Endurance", Brian Morrison (Kawasaki World Champions - 1981, 1982, 1983, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996).
But they are up against Yamaha in the form of Yamaha Austria, who came so close to taking their first World Championship last year - and Castrol Suzuki, who have won six World Championships since 1980...and with the most consistently awesome rider in many years, Vincent Philippe. BOL d'OR WINNERS 2006 ...and we waited and waited until the rest of the Kawasaki team found their way through the crowd to the press conference...
PRIMO-VERBOVEN COLLABORATION FOR 2007 New has reached Race Corp Towers that the
Belgian Primo team will be back for 2007 in World Endurance - and this time
partnered up with long-time Endurance regulars Herman Verboven. |
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