CONGRATULATIONS TO YAMAHA AUSTRIA RIDER
IGOR JERMAN AND GIRLFRIEND KATHARINA
...MARRIED AT LAST!

TEAM INNODROM NEED A 3rd RIDER...IT COULD BE YOU!

Their website is HERE...contact Joerg Russ HERE

DAVID CHECA AND GMT94 AT BRNO WORLD SUPERSPORTS

We are coming back from Brno with 8 more points in our pockets ! Of course, David would have liked to get more after his fourth place in Italy. He was already looking forward to a podium in the next race! We knew it wasn’t possible for the Czech round for several reasons :

1) First of all, Brno is one of the two test circuits reserved for the official team’s riders. We are not one of them so we could not prepare the race as well as they did. We could have accepted Yamaha Moto1’s kind, sports offer to join them for the « Bikers’ Days » but, unfortunately, we had to turn it down as it clashed with the Bol d’Or test days at Magny-Cours. But we are happy to note that David proved to be the best of all the riders who could not take part in the Brno tests.

2) The second reason is even more obvious: the Brno circuit is made up of a lot of long straight sections. So it was out of the question to take any risk engine-wise, as our priority is to finish the season in the top ten. If we don’t, we won’t be able to take part in World Supersport next year. Don’t forget that overseas travel expenses are only paid to the 10 top teams. There have been some blown engines both in Supersport and Superbike this week-end, which have comforted us in our options .

3) Last but not least: David has given us a wonderful race and his fighting spirit is as tough as ever, so we have to help him progress and do better starts. That’s why we have planned a special test day at Carole circuit next week get him to practice race starts.

The next race is in England and we can be optimistic when considering the three handicaps I have just talked about really penalised our team at Brno. I don’t think David’s dream of a podium can come true this time but I reckon top five is feasible. In the meantime, we have already come all the way up to eighth position in the “team ranking”. There are 28 of them and we did not take part in the Valencia round. Also, we only have one rider to score the points we need.

It’s good news for us.
We have also demonstrated that a Yamaha fitted with a “client” kit can also produce great performance. Thank you David! And thank you to the whole GMT 94 team for their outstanding exploits in our first world season. See you on 5 and 6 August for the British round at Brands Hatch!

GMT 94

BRNO WORLD SUPERBIKES ROUND-UP

After a resurgent burst of form at the previous round in Misano, Yukio Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) scored two wins, in similar fashion, at the 5.403km Brno circuit, to take his first SBK double win. He got back to winning ways after running down long time leader James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) in race one, then repeating it even more impressively in race two, when he hunted down Superpole winner Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) to score a second magnificent 20-lap victory. Another candidate for rider of the day was Michel Fabrizio (DFX Treme Honda) who scored his first two podium finishes since his promotion from World Supersport. In a nightmare raceday for championship leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox), he tangled with Regis Laconi (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) in race one, and fell from contention at the first corner. A strong start in the second leg gave him only an eighth place finish. He lost ground to both Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) and Toseland in the championship chase, and now has a total of 262 points, with Haga on 189 and Toseland on 188.

RACE ONE
An astounding contest for the final podium place, behind the clear eventual winner Kagayama and second place rider Toseland, was taken by SBK rookie rider, Michel Fabrizio, all despite a recently broken shoulder. Kagayama claimed his first win of the year after sitting behind long-time leader Toseland and then making a break with six laps to go. Fabrizio, only fifth on the penultimate lap, took both Troy Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) and Haga on the final circuit, to score third, with Haga fourth and Corser fifth. Championship leader Bayliss retired after tangling with Laconi at turn one, after Laconi had been forced wide.
Toseland was lucky to make the start of the first race at all, after a collision with a backmarker in morning warm-up trashed his number one engine and chassis. The backmarker was cruising on the racing line, and Toseland's avoiding action, despite being committed to the corner, meant that they only hit a hard glancing blow, and not something even more serious. An oil leak and subsequent crash from a privateer's machine in the morning warm-up restart caused another halt to proceedings, postponing the start of the Superstock 1000 race to the last race of the day.

RACE TWO
With Kagayama finally away and clear, Fabrizio completed the most dramatic last corner double pass imaginable, forcing past Corser and then holding Haga to the white line on the outside of the corner exit, to score his second career podium in SBK, just a few hours after his first. Only 0.173 seconds separated Fabrizio in second with Corser in fourth, in what was an all-time classic finish that brought Sunday's portion of the 41,000 weekend crowd on the edge of their seats. Toseland took fifth, having difficulty getting into and out of right hand corners.

SUPERSPORT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) followed up his Superpole triumph with his first race win of the season in Supersport. His main championship challenger, current leader Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda), lost ground with a lowly 11th place finish. Charpentier now leads Curtain by only ten points, with the Brands Hatch round coming in two weekends' time. Broc Parkes (Yamaha Motor Germany) was an assured second, and a resurgent Kenan Sofuoglu (Winston Ten Kate Honda) third, but unable to take any points from Charpentier's main pursuers. Yoann Tiberio (Megabike Honda) was fourth, Gianluca Vizziello fifth on his Yamaha team Italia machine.

SUPERSTOCK 1000 FIM CUP
In a much delayed Superstock 1000 contest, the shortened seven lap race was won by Ayrton Badovini (Biassono Unionbike MV Agusta) making history for the Italian marque. Luca Scassa (EVR Corse Ormeni racing MV Agusta) scored second while Richard Cooper (MS Racing Honda) took his CBR to a well-earned third. In the championship standings, long term leader Alessandro Polita (Celani Suzuki) remains top, despite a crash and no score today, as Badovini moved to within two points of him. Scassa is third, with 71.

SUPERSTOCK 600 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
Xavier Simeon (Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki) scored his third win in five races to extend his lead in the Superstock 600 series. He now heads overall second place rider Niccolo Canepa (Ducati Xerox) by 34 points, 115 to 81. Canepa was also second in the race itself, with Andrea Antonelli (Junior Team Italia) third.



All classes return to action at Brands Hatch (raceday) on Sunday August 6th

DAMIAN ROWLEY'S NEW WHEELS
Damian 'Demon' Rowley's website is HERE

"Warriors...come out to PLAY-I-AY!" ('Luther' in 'The Warriors' - 1979)

How to get sponsorship -
A) Go to the airport
B) Chat with a bloke
C) Blag a  Mitsubishi

POST-ZOLDER - PRE-SUZUKA...DAMIAN 'DAMO' CUDLIN'S REPORT

So I’m home at last, slowly getting back into the routine of day to day life again. Apart from the usual ‘overdue bills’ to pay, and the stack of work I’ve got to get through at the shop, it’s good to be back into a groove so I can properly prepare for the next race in Japan. But before I go any further, I should start by filling you in on what’s been happening since I last posted.

Ok, so Belgium…..

My mate Ray, who me and Alex often stay with in England, was keen to come along to one of the rounds this year so we invited him along to Belgium. After a bit of brain storming over a couple of beers we all decided that we’d go together in his van, ferry it across to France, chuck in for some diesel and drive to Belgium. Road trip! We hooked up with ‘Demon’ Rowley in his new pimped out Mitsubishi Warrior at Dover, saw half my team on the boat across, and drove from France to Belgium convoy style.

Thankfully both Demon and Ray are pretty good drivers, so unlike road trips before (with Ben Wylie or Warwick Nowland at the wheel) I was able to catch a bit of shut eye without embedding my fingernails into the dashboard. Arrived at Zolder safe and sound in the early afternoon, and decided to walk the circuit that we’d never seen before and would be riding on the very next day. 1st problem of the trip came from the idiot at the gate put in charge of pit entry. This guy was of the same breed we find at a lot of racetrack entry points, a breed known as ‘wanker’.

Honestly when 10 or more people arrive at the gate, on the day before the event starts, wearing nothing but team clothing, complete with personal passes (with names on), but haven’t yet received the ‘car’ pass for the van due to slow
delivery from the Zolder race track staff (ok, so maybe I made that up- we just didn‘t have a car pass), but who promise to simply walk the circuit and leave again, you’re probably best to let them in. Oh no, Colonel Klink wasn’t having it, so we had to borrow a pass, drive through, walk back around to sneak it through the fence to the next car and so on and so on until we were all in. He wasn’t going to win. Apparently the guy almost got a head but from Al’s team boss Miles who wasn’t as patient as we were!

After getting into the circuit, we all took a walk around the track to check out what the place was like. The layout was pretty cool, and overall I thought the place was good but it did look a bit dangerous in a couple of sections. One left hander, where you crest a blind hill, tapped in 4th gear, had a concrete wall right along the outside of it. We all noted we didn’t want to hit that at 200kph+
By the time 1st practice came around on Thursday and we’d all had a go on the circuit, we all felt more comfortable with the place. You don’t really think about it when you’re out there.

The 1st day for me was pretty frustrating. I got 6 laps in the morning when the track was damp, then when it dried up Warwick crashed and banged the bike up pretty bad before I got to have another go on it. Russ (Phase One Yamaha boss) didn’t want to use our race bike, so decided to sit most of practice out while the crashed bike was fixed. By the time it was repaired there was only one session left, and after Christer and Warwick had ridden I only got about 4 more laps in before the session finished. 10 or so laps on the 1st day learning a new circuit didn’t impress me, but to be fair, the team knew I was a bit pissed about it and really made up for it over the rest of the weekend. I did appreciate that.

So after putting my head together, I got going again and by the end of practice and qualifying things started coming together slowly. I managed to do the fastest time for the team, but it was only good enough for 8th on the grid. Our race set up was better than our qualifying showed, but I think the time we lost on the first day hurt us a bit. We were just a bit behind. Alex’s team qualified 3rd on the grid after Marko put in a storming qualifying time. Alex was on it as well and was riding the best I’ve seen from him. His best time was less than half a second slower than mine and the Diablo Team were posing a bit of a threat in the race. It didn’t take long before people started hanging shit on me about my little brother being ahead of me on the grid. Jeez, what if he beat me? It was pretty funny all the same.

So, race day. I was chosen to start the race, which I was happy about as I haven’t started one all year and I like doing them. My start was good, and I was 4th after the first lap, but the hard compound tyre we had chosen didn’t work real well in the beginning and the front guys got away a bit in the first 6 or 7 laps. Then things started getting better. The tyre started to feel good and my times were coming down as I got into a better rhythm. I’d just caught and passed Vankeymeulen (Moto38 Yamaha) and could see Marko’s (Diablo Kawasaki) bike up ahead when we came to some lapped traffic. I wanted to get through them as quick as possible and try and put a break on Vankeymeulen who was on my tail, when I came up to this guy at the 2nd chicane.

I went for the gap up the inside, but just misjudged it as he came across on me. I slammed into the side of his bike and got chucked down the road. Damn it. It wasn’t a fast crash but I came down like a spear tackle. I got bent round that much that the chin of my helmet whacked me just above the old twig and berries. Yes lads, I too now know that it really is possible……I picked the thing up as fast as I could and got it going again. I was so relieved to see that I’d really only bent the left handlebar and broke the clutch lever. I was lucky. Although it felt like forever, by the time I completed the lap I’d only lost around 40 seconds, and after a couple of shakedown laps my times came back down too. I ended the hour stint about 12th.

Russell came and saw me after I’d got my lid off and noticed that my Shark helmet was cactus. He went away for a bit, then came back and told me that I wouldn’t be riding for the rest of the race as he thought I was too crook to continue. I knew he was only looking after me, but I knew I was ok to go on. I quickly got out of my banged up leathers, into my new ones, and got Eileen (our
team physio) to give me the all clear. She was on my side, and after some serious negotiating, Russ agreed to put me on for the final stint. In the meantime, Warwick and Christer were riding great and had clawed back to 7th spot. Then at one of the stops our gear change mechanism failed and we lost another very painful 3 minutes. We were 20th again.

The race went on and Christer and Warwick continued on back to back while I watched them climb back through the field. Both of them were doing great, and as other teams started having problems of their own, the boys charged through the pack. With about 2 hours to go, Alex and the Diablo squad were 3rd and looking good for the podium. Then I saw them disappear from the monitors. Al had gone down. I went over to their garage to find out what was going on when he pulled up outside his pit. One look at his bike told me they were out, it was rat shit. I asked Al if he was OK, but I could see he was. He replied that he was fine, he was just pissed off that the podium was gone. I could see in his eyes how he felt, I knew exactly. Apparently the bike jumped out gear through the fast right hander onto the back straight and sent him skyward. By now I was getting ready to get back on, and the boys had climbed to 6th.

Eileen begged me to perform well or she’d look stupid telling Russell I was good enough to go on, which I found pretty funny at the time. I kitted up and remounted for the last stint. It went well, my times were good and consistent and I was making ground on the guys in front. Although I was catching 4th place by 2 seconds a lap, we ran out of time and had to settle for 5th at the finish.

It was an average result, but pretty good considering all the drama’s. Could definitely have been worse.

So after packing up, we hit the road that arvo and headed in the direction of England and decided to crash in Antwerp. This place was pretty sweet, so after a Chinese feed we had a couple of beers at a pub near by then headed to a place called…. I think it was LaRoca or something, a big club in town. Our token local LeRoy, who rides for the Shell Academy, told us about this place, so we decided to give it a go, but when we arrived another dickhead doorman wouldn’t let Rowley’s mate in with trainers. After getting a bit feisty he also told us his shirt was no good, and that he’d need to change both before getting into the club. Must have been related to the bloke at the gate at Zolder! I was sure we were doomed, and to be honest I was starting to walk like a penguin from after effects of my prang anyway. I had a bruise on my hip the size of a dinner plate!

But LeRoy wasn’t giving up. He called one of his mates (at 3.30am) and asked him to bring a shirt and shoes for our mate who couldn’t get in. 10mins later the guy was there with a fresh shirt and designer shoes!! How good are Belgian’s? My mate Rennie was over from Oz, travelling Europe at the time, and come out with us as well. The highlight of the night included him having a dance off on the podium with this other bloke who thought he ruled the club… Was very funny stuff….. Of course he won.

Back on the road in the morning, headed all the way back to Ray’s in Chelmsford in England in the one day. A nice evening in Chelmsford followed, before heading to Heathrow in the morning to jet back here. This pretty well brings us up to date.

Back in Oz now for a couple more weeks before flying to Japan for the Suzuka 8hour. Really looking forward to Suzuka this time, as last year it was my first visit to the place, so I’ll know what to expect this time around.

DAMIAN CUDLIN'S WEBSITE IS HERE