Welcome to Road Track Dirt (RTD). RTD was created by a group of guys from Melbourne and Sydney who all love bikes, but different parts of motocycle culture. Contributors: Steve W, Joe Z, Shavarsh B, Matt P. Twitter: @roadtrackdirt Email: roadtrackdirt@gmail.com
It's always a trap to read too much into test times. Set up changes, race simulations, tyre testing and weather conditions play a huge part in determining the final order. The second MotoGP Sepang test was subject to all of these, but we can see a few trends emerging:
-The fight at the front will be once again Repsol Honda vs. Factory Yamaha
-Marquez is a freak and has gotten to grips with the machine very quickly, his comments that the other big three are in a different race are just for expectation management
-Pedrosa is not going to have it all his way, he could be easily upstaged as Marquez rapidly goes up the learning curve
-Rossi will fight for podiums and occasionally wins, but Lorenzo clearly has his measure at this stage as shown by his race simulation
-Cal Crutchlow is a podium contender, however the amount of support he gets from the factory could impede his raw speed
-Ducati are still in the doldrums
-The gaps between prototypes and CRTs remain staggering if you remove the Ducati's who are battling with the fastest of the CRTs
Pedrosa looks to be very comfortable without Stoner to chase
Marquez is up to speed with the machine already, imagine what it'll look like after another 2 tests!
Lorenzo's race pace puts him squarely in the mix
Crutchlow will be glad he missed out on the Ducati ride
Rossi shows decent pace, but not enough to reel in Lorenzo
Overall Results from all Three Days of MotoGP’s Second Test at Sepang, Malaysia:
Casey Stoner has taken the first step in his new career by unveiling his Red Bull Racing Australia Commodore V8 Supercar in Adelaide before the Clipsal 500. He will compete in the second tier Dunlop Development series.
This weekend will mark a number of firsts for Stoner. First race on a street circuit, first race in a V8 supercar, first time under scrutiny since he left the MotoGP paddock.
We at RTD see no reason why Stoner can't apply his sublime bike skills to hauling 1.3t of Holden around a track. Early practice had him consistently running in the top ten so things look good.
The start of any new motorsport season is exciting, but we at RTD are lucky to be based in Australia where we have the first round of the WSBK each year at Phillip Island. Now an annual pilgramage for the three of us, we had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere, amazing weather, the Pirelli sponsored wildlife and of course the close racing.
Bikes on the grid for Race 1
Ready to go
Pirelli's R&D department
Race 1
Sylvain Guintoli leads the field through turn 1
Sylvain Guintoli made the perfect start to his Aprilia
career by edging out his team mate Eugene Laverty to win Race 1.Starting from sixth on the grid, he carved up
the field and moved into the lead on lap 15 to take his fourth victory.
The early running had Sykes, Checa, Laverty and Melandri
vying for the lead, but each had their specific issues that gave Guinters the
opportunity to pick his way through.Sykes, in typical Kawasaki fashion, was fast straight away, leading the
field into turn 1 but faded as the race went on.Laverty seemed to be the man to beat,
building up a sizable gap to Checa/Melandri behind by a third race
distance.Soon Guintoli passed the
Ducati/BMW battle and set off after his team mate.
Melandri, looking strong, was ploughed into by Checa in turn
4, with both riders out of the race.Checa’s landing looked particularly nasty, and he was concussed for the
second time this weekend.Special
mention to Melandri, who win’s the RTD ‘good guy of the weekend award’ for
running straight to Checa’s aid when he realised his rival was hurt.
On lap 15, Guintoli made the definitive pass on his team
mate, and never looked back.It’s been
an amazing turnaround for the will liked Frenchman, who has gone from not
having a ride after splitting with Effenbert Ducati mid last season, to being a
race winner on a world champion bike.
Also worth mentioning the performance of Michel Fabrizio, who was the fastest man on Friday and much of Saturday. The satellite Aprilia rider was right there at the end, taking the final podium position just .07s behind Laverty in a tight drag to the line.
Race 1 Results
1. Sylvain Guintoli FRA Aprilia Racing RSV4 33m 47.109s 2. Eugene Laverty IRL Aprilia Racing RSV4 +1.352s 3. Michel Fabrizio ITA Red Devils Roma RSV4 +1.359s 4. Chaz Davies GBR BMW GoldBet S1000RR HP4 +5.702s 5. Tom Sykes GBR Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R +5.753s 6. Loris Baz FRA Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R +6.769s 7. Leon Haslam GBR Pata Honda CBR1000RR +6.830s 8. Jonathan Rea GBR Pata Honda CBR1000RR +17.944s 9. Leon Camier GBR Fixi Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 +19.152s 10. Max Neukirchner GER MR Ducati 1199 R +26.557s 11. Jules Cluzel FRA Fixi Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 +30.305s 12. Ivan Clementi ITA HTM Racing BMW S1000RR +30.411s 13. Alexander Lundh SWE Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R +45.185s 14. Glenn Allerton AUS Next Gen BMW S1000RR +48.632s 15. Jamie Stauffer AUS Honda Racing CBR1000RR +53.453s 16. Federico Sandi ITA Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R +1m 22.730s 17. Vittorio Iannuzzo ITA Grillini Dentalmatic BMW S1000RR +4 laps
Not Classified 18. Carlos Checa ESP Alstare Ducati 1199 R 12 laps completed 19. Marco Melandri ITA BMW GoldBet S1000RR HP4 12 laps completed 20. Davide Giugliano ITA Althea Racing RSV4 2 laps completed
Did Not Start Ayrton Badovini ITA Alstare Ducati 1199 R
Race 2
Laverty denies his team mate the double
In Race 2, Aprilia again too maximum points with a 1-2
finish, but this time Eugene Laverty got the best of his team mate in a
reversal of Race 1 fortunes.
With pole sitter Carlos Checa air lifted to hospital after
his race 1 crash, the entire grid was elevated a spot, giving Laverty pole in
race 2.Again, Tom Sykes lead the field
into turn 1 but this time faded even faster, with both Laverty and Guintoli
past by lap 2.
As a classic block passing spot, MG corner usually sees some
hairy moments in the opening laps and Race 2 was no exception.Chaz Davies, having a miserable weekend with
his new BMW, punted Loris Baz off which earned him a punctured rear tyre and a
penalty from the stewards.
With Guintoli leading the way from Laverty, the
two enjoyed a decent margin over Melandri, Fabrizio, Giugliano and Cluzel.Melandri managed to chip away at the Aprilias
but could not manage to overcome the hp deficit on the long Gardner straight to
pass either of them.
This status quo was broken on lap 16 when Melandri pulled off a spectacular
pass on Laverty at MG, which gave Guintoli some breathing space over them.A patient Laverty stalked Melandri up to lap
20 and then pulled off a classic overtake at Honda Corner.He then set the new lap record to claw the
gap back to his team mate and passed him into turn one on the penultimate
lap.
Laverty maintained the rage, and completed the perfect weekend for Aprilia by
taking his fourth victory.Melandri was
third. Race 2 Results 1. Eugene Laverty IRL Aprilia Racing RSV4 33m 45.938s 2. Sylvain Guintoli FRA Aprilia Racing RSV4 +0.418s 3. Marco Melandri ITA BMW GoldBet S1000RR HP4 +1.382s 4. Michel Fabrizio ITA Red Devils Roma RSV4 +2.282s 5. Tom Sykes GBR Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R +11.545s 6. Davide Giugliano ITA Althea Racing RSV4 +12.508s 7. Jules Cluzel FRA Fixi Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 +17.330s 8. Jonathan Rea GBR Pata Honda CBR1000RR +17.339s 9. Leon Camier GBR Fixi Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 +19.886s 10. Leon Haslam GBR Pata Honda CBR1000RR +19.996s 11. Max Neukirchner GER MR Ducati 1199 R +27.629s 12. Glenn Allerton AUS Next Gen BMW S1000RR +42.809s 13. Jamie Stauffer AUS Honda Racing CBR1000RR +42.893s 14. Federico Sandi ITA Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R +44.899s 15. Alexander Lundh SWE Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R +57.824
16. Vittorio Iannuzzo ITA Grillini Dentalmatic BMW S1000RR +1m 22.574s 17. Chaz Davies GBR BMW GoldBet S1000RR HP4 +2 laps
Not Classified 18. Ivan Clementi ITA HTM Racing BMW S1000RR 11 laps completed 19. Loris Baz FRA Kawasaki Racing ZX-10R 0 laps completed
Did Not Start Carlos Checa ESP Alstare Ducati 1199 R Ayrton Badovini ITA Alstare Ducati 1199 R
For as long as I can remember, every time I would pass a motorbike that
had obviously been modified, I would find the time to steal a moment to check
it out. Even if I was in a rush to get
somewhere. I wouldn't always love what I
saw, but I loved to see what form someone else's brainchild took, appreciating
the fact that someone managed to translate a bunch of crazy ideas from their
head into a living, breathing machine.
Just like the next guy, I have crazy ideas too, but not having the
skills or experience to bring them out on a bike always held me back. As background, I’ve spend my life working a
desk job, so I have soft hands and pale skin…ha ha
Old Bike
It didn't help that the bike I owned was a Ducati
848 evo in white with red rims. Maybe
not everyone's taste, but it was too new and too pretty to start the sort of
project I had in mind. I'm not entirely sure
what the exact trigger was, but I reached the point where I wanted to give my
project bike a crack. Going into this I
figured that I would start with modest plans and build up from there. At this point in time, I don’t know exactly
what the project bike will end up looking like, but I know I want to start
it. Time will tell how much I end up
doing. The point of this blog on this
project bike is to demonstrate what someone with very limited skill can achieve
(or how quickly he can completely ruin a perfectly good motorbike).
Step one was to sell the Ducati. There definitely wasn't room in
the garage to keep it, the new bike and my trusty ktm dirt bike. So with the Ducati gone, I needed my project bike. I wanted my first project bike to
be newish because I'm not mechanically minded enough to deal with an aging bike. I wanted a good bike as a base with which to start and eventually settled on a 2009
triumph street triple r (yes, the last of the round headlights). After much searching, I eventually found the
right bike for the job. So after flying
down to Melbourne and riding it back to Sydney, I was good to go. Here she is…
Project Bike
Over the coming weeks and months (possibly years if things go really badly), I'll update the blog with what's new on the bike. Stay tuned....
I came across Maple Jeans when Dave Fairbain started advertising on a caferacer blog i followed. He's since produced a world first – Hand crafted, Kevlar® lined, premium Japanese selvedge denim motorcycle jeans.
This race was always going to be missing something with Nicky Hayden out and Casey Stoner having to fly back to Australia to get his broken ankle operated on. Having said that, this ended up being a predicatable battle of the Spaniards, with the lesser favoured rider taking a great race win after an epic battle.
After binning his bike during qualifying, Pedrosa made a strong start from third and tried to open an early lead over Lorenzo. Lorenzo tailgated Pedrosa for most of the race, testing Pedrosa's weak points and plotting an attack. The attack came with a surprise inside dive with 3 corners to go. Pedrosa, who was faster over the faster parts fo the circuits used this power to pass and outbrake Lorenzo, holding the lead to the finish line for what he called 'one of my best ever races'.
In a theme for the weekend across WSBK and MotoGP, Cal Crutchlow celebrated his contract extension with Tech 3 with his first podium.
With Stoner in recovery, the championship battle is a two horse race with Lorenzo 245 points leading Pedrosa's 232 points.
In contrast to Race 1, Race 2 was held in dry conditions which saw all runners start on slicks. The ducati's decided to run the softer compound, which ended up being a mistake and compounded a miserable weekend for the Italian marque.
Tom Sykes seemed to check out the front very early, with a chase group of Melandri, Haslam, Biaggi, Rea and Laverty following. That was until Biaggi, using the his Aprilia missile to good effect to get pass Rea on the back straight but the manouvre compromised his corner entry and he punted into the back of a helpless Haslam.
With Biaggi and Haslam off to the medical centre to get checked out, Melandri set about closing down Sykes, closing up on him quickly and taking the lead.
The battle for second went down to the wire, with the fading Sykes trying to hold of Rea and the charging Laverty. The drama continued to the end, with Laverty high siding on the last lap on turn 14, taking out Rea. Checa had to take evasive action, promoting Davies to the podium wth Checa finishing behind in fourth.
Melandri's win promotes him to the head of the champions with 308.5 points to Biaggi 290 and Sykes 267.5
Tom Sykes repaid Kawasaki's new contractr extension with his second win of the season at the new Moscow Circuit. Challenging weather conditions after a morning shower lead to consternation around tyre choice, but the front runners all chose to start on slicks, which turned out to be the right move. Pole man Checa crashed out on lap 3 in an incident with Jonny Rea. Crashes continued as Rea followed Checa for an early trip back to the pits and Giugliano making it 0/2 for Althea Ducati. The race for the podium behind Sykes ended up being between Davies, Haslam and Melandri, culminating with contact between Davies and Haslam, punting Haslam off his bike and Davies off the track. This left Melandri in second and Biaggi in a very unexpected third.
Unsurprisingly following the move of Dovi to Ducati, Cal Crutchlow has re signed with Tech 3 Yamaha where he has spent the last 2 years. His one year deal is apparently on better terms, with speculation of seven figures. While Cal still clearly covets a factory ride at some stage, if you have to be in a satellite team, Tech 3 is the place to be. Certainly, you would not expect as much competition from Bradley Smith as he is currently getting from Dovi.
Moto Revue out of France reported that Yamaha is developing a new triple road bike citing an internal document. Yamaha produced one of my favorite bikes of the seventies, the XS750 from 1976-1979 before replacing it with the XS850 in 1980.
So the silly season for factory bikes is over. Ducati announced that Andrea Dovisioso would take Valentino Rossi's seat next year, having signed a contract until 2014. The likely candidate for this ride has changed from Rossi staying, to Dovi's team mate Crutchlow, and finally to Dovi. The irony of the situation is that Dovi had moved to Yamaha Tech 3 with the hopes to move up to Spies' seat in the Factory team. With Spies quitting Yamaha, it seemed that the plan was falling into place, however Rossi's desire to get on a competitive bike asap blocked this path for Dovi. Crutchlow 'The Honey Badger' has been speaking publically about the verbal offer he had from Ducati for a long time and will be dismayed by the way he has been strung along and ultimately dumped in favour of his team mate.
So Dovi is now back in a factory team, but the underperforming one. The Ducati has been a career killer for all but Stoner so it is a brave move, however Dovi will be hoping that new Audi money and technology will fast track the development of the bike.
So confirmed riders for 2013 prototype bikes are now:
Factory Yamaha Racing: Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi
Repsol Honda: Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez
Ducati Team: Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovisioso
LCR Honda: Stefan Bradl
Tech 3 Yamaha: Bradley Smith
Cardion Ducati: Karel Abraham
The key riders looking for a ride are now Cal Crutchlow (who you would think would stay with Tech 3), Ben Spies (Could return with Suzuki to MotoGP or go to WSBK with BMW), Hector Barbera (who is currently injured) and Alvaro Bautista (talk is that his ride at Gresini is at risk).
I'm going to start this review by ranting a bit about the existence of the Indy GP weekend. Firstly, it has to be acknowledged that in general, the fans, media and mechanics love the facilities and the history of the track. However, the riders have consistently rated it as one of the tracks that they truly could care less for and the reasons are multiple.
Ducati America has just announced it is recalling 375 1199 Panigale superbikes, for some reason almost 2 weeks after the Aussie authorities. MY 2012 and MY 2013 Motorcycles are affected in Australia.
As
expected, Rossi has confirmed that he will be going back to Yamaha next
season to partner Jorge Lorenzo. While some held out hope that Audi
coming on board would keep Rossi with Ducati, it seems that he has
chosen to go back to a bike he knows can win races immediately rather
than potentially develop into a winner. It is expected that Rossi's
crew will also move back to Yamaha with him.
So where does this leave us in the game of musical chairs?
Yet to be confirmed
-Cal Crutchlow
-Andrea Dovisioso
-Alvaro Bautista
-Ben Spies
If
you had asked me a couple of weeks ago I would have said that under the
Rossi to Yamaha scenario, Cal Crutchlow was the firm favourite to go to
Ducati. Crutchlow has been very public about a verbal offer made by
the Italian factory but also the lack of paperwork that has come with
it. There is increasing chatter that his Tech 3 team mate Dovisioso has
jumped ahead of him in Ducati's preferences. Indeed, on twitter Cal,
has responded to questions about what is going on with the comment that
'passports are getting guys jobs'. This may suggest that Dovi has
leapfrogged him at Ducati and his best option bay be to stay at Tech 3.
To be honest, the satellite Yamaha package is faster than the current
factory Ducati package, so it's not necessarily a bad thing. However,
Cal's belief that he needs a factory bike to win a championship is well
founded, it's just that a factory Ducati is unlikely to be that bike.
Ben
Spies is the other wildcard, with rumours of a move to BMW or Suzuki.
Spies recently got a new tattoo, do you think it's a suzuki or BMW
tattoo?
For those intimidated by the thought of racing a motorcycle, don't think it's the seriousness of MotoGP on a lower budget. There are plenty of clubs and competitions that allow you to dip your toe into motorcycle racing on everything from a social level to something more serious. One such club in Sydney is the St George Motorcycle Club. Two friends competed in a club meet last weekend, consisting of a sprint round on Saturday and a 4hr enduro on Sunday. I had the pleasure of being part of the pit crew and took a few videos from the weekend.
hmm, apparently the 2013 zx6r will have a more aggressive look, not dissimilar to its current big brother. But having waited 4 years for a new model, i hope there a few more changes than just the front fairings and lights.
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