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OCTOBER 2008 2008 MACAU GRAND PRIX - PAGE STARTED... WORLD SUPERBIKES - PORTUGAL AND THE LAST RACE OF 2008 The Autodromo Internacional do Algarve is the newest circuit to appear in Europe and it promises to be one of the best, with first-class facilities, a variety of different layouts and an ideal climate for this time of the year. Extending over almost 300 hectares, the complex is the biggest investment ever in the Algarve and is located at Escapadinho in the foothills of the coastal town of Portimão. It lies about one hour's drive away from Faro airport and an exit road from the A22 motorway is also being built to facilitate access. The track used for Superbike will measure 4.592 kms although 64 different variants of the overall layout will be possible, adapting to the needs of numerous different events, which one day could include Formula 1. Mastermind behind the initiative is local entrepreneur and motorsport fanatic Paulo Pinheiro, for whom it represents a dream come true after seven years of commitment to the project.
YAMAHA OFFICIAL RELEASE: The 14th and final round of the 2008 World Superbike Championship takes place at an all-new venue this weekend, and the focus for both Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) and Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) is clear - to beat each other in the fight for overall second place in the championship rankings. Currently Haga has a nine-point advantage over Corser, with Corser himself 18 points ahead of Max Neukirchner, and a further 14 ahead of Carlos Checa. In all likelihood the runner-up spot will be contested between the two Yamaha riders, and each is keen to finish off the season with at least one race victory. So far Haga has seven individual wins to his credit in 2008, during a season which has included utter dominance at some rounds, then pain from injury at one or two others. Corser, despite his greater consistency week-on-week, is still looking for his first win in Yamaha colours, and will be bringing every ounce of the experience that brought him two world championships to bear this weekend, in his attempt to secure that elusive race win. At the most recent WSB race, at Magny-Cours in France, Haga took a win and second place, while Corser recorded third in race two, his 12th podium finish of the year. Neither Yamaha rider has experience of the new track but the combination of their talents and the unrivalled experience of the Yamaha Motor Italia technical staff will be a fearsome obstacle for their rivals to overcome, as always. The all-new track at Portimao was only competed recently and the first tests have just been carried out by a handful of World Superbike and Supersport teams. There are many blind corner entries and sudden changes of elevation at the track, which can be used in several different layouts. For World Superbike the lap will be 4.592km, and the Superbike races will be conducted over 22 laps. Haga was optimistic of his chances of success in the run-up to race weekend. "Portimao is a new circuit which I have never ridden. We planned to test last week but unfortunately that test was cancelled so we will start from scratch. Anyway, this is the last race of the year so I would like to finish well, for me and especially for our team. This season we have all tried and worked really hard and we had both good and bad days. This is the last race for us so I will try extra hard to get good results for Yamaha, my team and our supporters. I will send 'Kando'*to every race fan and all my supporters until the end of my last race with Yamaha." Corser is also committed to winning, as always, this weekend. "I'm looking forward to this weekend and I'll be going all out to get one or two of those wins we have been trying to take all year. It will be very interesting riding at an all-new track that maybe only one or two of the other guys have ridden at before. Most others, like us, have not been there to test. I don't know anything about the circuit at all but we are in the same position as we were in at Miller in America this year. That was a completely new track for us as well." Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Team YZF) will have a sign-off race for his French-based team at Portimao. He is the top ranked Yamaha rider behind Haga and Corser, 19th, and with designs on an improvement on that position at the final round. The GMT 94 team will once more field Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) and David Checa (Yamaha GMT94) at the Portuguese race, with the team-mates separated by a single point, in favour of Checa.
Massimo Meregalli (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team Manager) Points (after 13 of 14 rounds): Riders - 1. Bayliss (Ducati) 410 punti; 2. Haga (Yamaha) 325; 3. Corser (Yamaha) 316; 4. Neukirchner (Suzuki) 298; 5. Checa (Honda) 284; 6. Biaggi (Ducati) 235; 7. Nieto (Suzuki) 234; 8. Fabrizio (Ducati) 203; 9. Kiyonari (Honda) 193; 10. Xaus (Ducati) 171; etc. Manufacturers - 1. Ducati 520; 2. Yamaha 461; 3. Suzuki 384; 4. Honda 379; 5. Kawasaki 82.
Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport Team) and Fabien Foret (Yamaha World
Supersport Team) will be out to end the season on a high note at the Parkalgar
circuit in Portugal. Each rider has already scored a race win in 2008, Parkes in
Losail and Foret in Monza, and for Parkes, currently fighting for third in the
championship, there is only one ambition this weekend, to secure a victory for
his team and himself in his last race for Yamaha. Foret has recovered well from
the serious head and spine injuries that ruined his mid-season push whilst
sitting second in the championship. His comeback at Magny-Cours at the last
round was impressive, as he posted an eighth place finish, despite his enforced
lack of physical conditioning. Foret will return to the fray with Yamaha once
again in WSS in 2009, alongside new signing Cal Crutchlow, who will test the
YZF-R6 after the Portimao race. Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by
Leoni) is determined to march to a top ten finish overall after the Portuguese
round. Currently he is 11th, albeit only two points from tenth. Wilco Zeelenberg, the Yamaha World Supersport Team Manager, acknowledged that racing so late in the year - and at a new circuit - was slightly peculiar. "It is a little strange to be racing the final round of the championship on a track we have never been to and to be racing so late in the year, especially as the championship has now been decided. The new track layout looks challenging, there are lots of blind corners and those kinds of tracks are the most difficult to learn. Because the track is completely new, when the weather is nice all will be fine but it will be difficult if there is a lot of wind blowing dust across the track. We will start with our normal base set up and start working on finding the right gearing from the very start. It is our last race with Broc and I hope he will be able to take a good result." Points (after 12 of 13 rounds): 1. Pitt (Honda) 194; 2. Rea (Honda) 164; 3. Brookes (Honda) 157; 4. Parkes (Yamaha) 139; 5. Lascorz (Honda) 105; 6. Foret (Yamaha) 105; 7. Jones (Honda) 100; 8. Veneman (Suzuki) 92 Both Michele Pirro (Yamaha Lorenzini by Leoni) and Claudio Corti (Yamaha Motor Italia Junior Team) head into Portimao determined to end the Superstock 1000 season on a high note and secure as many points as possible on their Yamaha R1s. Talented young rider Loris Baz (Yamaha France Junior Team) goes into the last Superstock 600 race of the season as the Championship winner having secured top spot in the standings at the previous race at Magny-Cours, meaning he can enjoy this final round in Portugal with less pressure.
Superstock 1000 FIM
World Cup
European 600
Superstock Championship WARWICK NOWLAND TO MISS FINAL 2008 WORLD ENDURANCE ROUND Australia’s Double Endurance World Champion Warwick Nowland will miss next weeks final round of the Q-Tel Endurance World Championship at the Losail circuit of Doha in Qatar. Warwick has spent the last month in Australia preparing for the event but on Saturday the Aussie took a serious fall whilst training on his motocross bike. After 3 hours of riding, and nearing the end of the day, Warwick fell suffering concussion, abrasions, ligament damage and a broken scaphoid. At 9am Monday morning Sydney’s leading orthopaedic surgeon for hand injuries, Dr David Yee, diagnosed the extent of the injury and has scheduled surgery the week after the race in Qatar. “As you can imagine, I’m really upset, more so for my team than myself. I’ve moved out of the UK after 8 years and life couldn’t be better back here in Australia. I’ve been able to focus on being a racer again instead of doing too many other things. The month of October has been great to get my body back in shape and get a platform for next year. Saturday was my last motocross ride before I left for the race. I had been on my motocross bike every week since returning to Australia and my body was getting back into a rhythm. The timing is unfortunate but my motivation is re-born. I haven’t felt this way since trying to retain my title in 2003”.
Warwick may still be at the Qatar 8 Hour race to support his team, Maco Yamaha. If not, the operation to join the broken scaphoid will be moved to a day next week after PR commitments in Malaysia this weekend.
(One piece of good news is that the team that Warwick manages in British
Superbikes, the STP MV Agusta team with rider Chris Burns, has got a wildcard
entry to the final World Superbike race of the season at
DAMIAN CUDLIN AND THE 'KALEX AV1' TV DEBUT Australian Damian Cudlin will star on the European Broadcasted channel DSF, in a documentary featuring the KALEX AV1. Cudlin, who has worked directly with the KALEX company as the development rider of the AV1, will share his opinions on the bike in the show, as well as go up against a Ducati 1098R ridden by Austrian Ace Roland Resch. After 3 days of filming at Pannoniaring in Hungary, Cudlin believes the show should answer a lot questions people have about the machine, as well as covering the past, the present and the future of the KALEX AV1.
Damian: “Although the conditions were pretty average, the DSF guys really got a lot on film, so I’m excited to see how it all comes together. The comparison we did with the Ducati 1098R was a lot of fun and it was encouraging to see just how good this bike really is. I’m looking forward to seeing the show.”Austrian magazine Der Reitwagen also did a feature on the machine which will be available in the next issue. “I’m just pleased to be a part of the development of a bike that has so much potential.” Cudlin explained. “I get a real buzz from riding this bike and working with the KALEX guys and would love to see these things riding around on track days everywhere.” The show will appear on DSF Bike at 9.15pm on the 5th of November. WORLD SUPERBIKES 2009 PROVISIONAL CALENDAR
YAMAHA AUSTRIA TO RUN TWO BIKES IN DOHA The final round of the 2008 World Endurance Championships is being held at Doha in Qatar on the 8th of November and the famous No.7 Yamaha Austria team of Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Steve Plater will be joined by a second YART Yamaha. The No.77 will be piloted by a team made up of the top 3 riders in the Austrian "Dunlop YZF-R6 Cup". It's meant a lot of work from the team, as they now have 4 extremely fast Yamaha R1's ready to race...two for the No.7 team and one for the No.77 team in Doha - and a Superbike-specification machine destined for Thomas Hinterreiter to race in the 2008 Macau Grand Prix the following weekend.
The No.7 has also picked up even more sponsorship, this time from Coca Cola - and, of course, they are only focused on the win at the Losail track. The 2006 runners-up lost 2nd in the Championship last year by just one point - and although they can't win the Championship this year, they will be out to confirm their credentials...and maybe put the SERT team under even more pressure at the end of the season. To go into next year with the win, that's the aim... WORLD ENDURANCE - BROADCAST RUMOURS FOR 2008 Somewhere, someone has come up with a way to broadcast highlights of all World Endurance rounds for 2009. On top of that, it's looking possible to even have some live coverage, at least the start and finish of the races. From the gossip going around, it just might be that Eurosport will be covering all the rounds except the Bol d'Or. Don't get too excited - it may only be a 30-minute package - but at least it will be better than the total lack of coverage (apart from Le Mans) in 2008. Remember the news earlier this year that Zeltweg could be in for 2009...well, that seems to have gone from 'possible' to 'most probably'. It seems that Red Bull may be negotiating with this years headline sponsors QMMF to sponsor the entire World Championship. ...but that's not all - hold on to your hats... It's quite possible that Red Bull are not just after World Endurance...but Speedway, Supermoto, Motocross, World Superbikes, MotoGP - in fact, ALL of the FIM World Championships. It's a big ask...the F.I.M. is a committee...but Red Bull is, in effect, just one guy. A very rich guy. WORLDS SECOND GREATEST ENDURANCE RIDER INJURED Diablo 666 rider Alex Cudlin broke his collar bone at the British Endurance Championships at Silverstone after being spat off his GB Moto Yamaha R1 and isn't too sure about the treatment he would receive in the U.K. (isn't that a sad indictment of Britain's 'famous' health service?)...so he's decided to wait until he get home to sunny Australia to have it plated up. It's the same clavicle he busted badly in 2005 and he wants it done right.
UPDATED:... WORLDS GREATEST ENDURANCE RIDER INJURED Suzuki Endurance Racing Team's Vincent Philippe has been injured in a crash while competing in the French "Dark Dog" racing series and will be unable to ride at the final World Endurance round in Doha. Get well soon Vincent! More information at Race 24.
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