“I have been to see specialists here in the UK and had relevant observations and tests, the last visit concluded that I was still unfit to ride. I’m a racer, I want to race, but for now I rest and do the relevant exercises I have been given so I can come back strong. I’ll be missing my Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team.”
Source: MotoGP.com – Read Full Article Here
Mattia Pasini will replace Dixon for the race at Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto, following a fourth place finish in Austin whilst riding for the Flexbox HP 40 squad in place of Augusto Fernandez. Pasini previously raced for the team in the 125cc class back in 2006, when he scored two wins and a total of six podiums to finish the season on 192 points – his best ever tally in a World Championship.
Source: MotoGP.com – Read Full Article Here
Rookie of the Year should be a thriller in Jerez, too. Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) has led the way for much of the season and the Frenchman will be confident he can continue the trend in Spain – giving him a good foundation for his upcoming home race in France. But Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Racing) is gaining some traction and Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) has been quick when avoiding errors like his COTA jump start. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech 3), meanwhile, has been shining and causing a headache for new Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider Johann Zarco – can he continue that in Jerez? And can the top man for the Austrian factory, Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), continue to pull out all the stops as he impresses race on race?
Source: MotoGP.com – Read Full Article Here
Traditional and electric motorcycles have been omitted from a major academic report that claims to be a blueprint for future transport in Australia.
The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering report, “Shifting Gears – Preparing for a Transport Revolution“, calls for the next Federal Government to provide incentives for electric and low-emissions vehicles.
However, there is not one mention of motorcycles or scooters, either electric or traditional.
We contacted the Academy to ask whether they had factored in electric and traditional motorcycles and scooters as well as e-bikes for their impact on future mobility?
“Good question,” they replied.
But no, they didn’t.
This glaring omission neglects the virtues of two-wheeled mobility and its advantages for traffic flow and relieving the strain on parking and other infrastructure.
It also demonstrates how little regard authorities have for motorcycles and scooters and the coming tsunami of electric two-wheelers.
The omission may also be a portent for the possible future of motorcycles and scooters – nil!
As governments and safety nannies place their hopes in these autonomous vehicles, we wonder whether “dangerous” motorcycles will simply be banned as in the fictional film “The Last Motorcycle on Earth“.
Academy spokesperson Kathryn Fagg says the rapid advance of technology was leading to “an extraordinary period of change”.
“With Australia’s geographic isolation and long distances between urban centres, the transport sector will be both significantly disrupted and revolutionised by this technological transformation,” she says.
“Failure to be prepared will risk a decline in many aspects of our Australian way of life and society, including increased congestion and vehicle-related emissions, a deterioration in health, safety and security, and a negative impact on the cost of living, productivity and the ease of mobility.”
And maybe the loss of our favourite pastime and form of transport!
Source: MotorbikeWriter.com
Masia certainly has. The sophomore took the second best result of his rookie campaign at Jerez in 2018 as he came home fifth, a highlight of an incredibly impressive debut year. Now he’s a year older, a race winner and the Championship leader it’s a different kind of pressure in front of the home crowd but he’ll be gunning for glory for sure. COTA podium man Andrea Migno (Bester Capital Dubai), meanwhile, was the highest finisher still in the class when Moto3™ raced at Jerez last season, but it’s another Italian who has the best record in Andalucia: Romano Fenati (VNE Snipers Team). So far the returning rider has struggled to find some clear traction, but Jerez was his first win in 2012 and another win in 2014 – a better rap sheet than Canet. Could this be where it starts?
Source: MotoGP.com – Read Full Article Here
Home hero Alex Marquez (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) is another man who’ll be fired up as well. With one podium so far this season, taken in Argentina, the number 73 has had some good pace so far – and was the man who took the win in Jerez the year before Baldassarri. It was his first in the intermediate class and the 2014 Moto3™ World Champion was just unbeatable from pole, so he can’t be counted out and will be looking for that tiny bit more than his pace in testing at the track. In preseason he rounded out the top five, though there’s plenty mileage been raced since then.
Source: MotoGP.com – Read Full Article Here
Career-best second for factory Husqvarna pilot at East Rutherford.
Image: Supplied.
A completely overhauled set-up developed during the off weekend has resulted in a breakthrough podium for Zach Osborne at East Rutherford’s penultimate round of the 2019 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship.
The two-time 250SX East champion suffered a broken collarbone in the lead up the Anaheim 1’s season-opener, prompting him to miss the first six rounds.
The Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing rider seemingly struggled to rediscover the initial comfort he possessed prior to the injury, however the change of settings saw him claim a career-best result of second place on Saturday night.
“It’s been a long, huge, gruelling road to get back to where I’m at now, whatever it’s been now – 16 weeks or something,” Osborne explained. “I felt great in the off-season, had a really great bike and it was something that I was super comfortable on – maybe more comfortable than ever.
“Just one tiny mistake took me out of the first six rounds, and I missed about eight weeks of riding. It’s finally coming back to me, and we changed some things with the bike – pretty much the whole package – in the off weekend, and obviously as you saw tonight, I was a lot more comfortable.”
With just one more round to spare at Las Vegas, Osborne sits 15th in the championship standings.
Source: MotoOnline.com.au
BMW squad suffers two significantly damaged S 1000 RRs.
Image: Russell Colvin.
Maxima BMW team manager Wayne Hepburn has indicated a disaster weekend at The Bend Motorsport Park will be difficult to overcome after two of its BMW S 1000 RRs were severely damaged during round three of the 2019 Motul Pirelli Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK).
Three-time ASBK champion Glenn Allerton was the first casualty for the privately funded squad when he was collected by Suzuki-mounted Alex Phillis in a two-rider crash on lap one of the opening encounter, sustaining a broken right wrist in the incident and calling for a premature end to his weekend.
The team’s woes didn’t stop there, with 2017 Supersport champion Ted Collins also falling victim to another rider’s error in race two, the youthful talent crashing heavily as a result.
“The Maxima BMW team hasn’t really had a great start to the season and we really wanted to make this weekend our turn around round,” Hepburn explained. “We were well and truly on the way to doing that. Everything which both Glenn and Ted did was exactly what we set out to do.”
“Unfortunately, as soon the lights went out for the races, it fell apart, through no fault of the riders. We are not pointing any fingers. However, how unlucky can one and two riders be? Especially for Glenn and Ted, as they have both had a run of bad luck. I understand we have to make our own luck, which we are trying to do.
“As we are a ‘privateer team’, these crashes will put a big dent in our 2019 season, which will make it very hard to proceed. Anyhow, we have a two-month break until the fourth round of the championship. So, Glenn will work on getting back to full fitness in regard to his wrist and of course, so will Ted. However, the team has a lot of work to do to get these bikes back into working order again.”
Collins’ 13th place finish in race one granted him 19th overall. Allerton and Collins are ranked 15th and 16th respectively in the championship standings.
Source: CycleOnline.com.au
On a jump infested and highly technical layout Cooper Webb has managed to win an action packed 450 main event to extend his championship lead in the 450SX championship. Meanwhile Chase Sexton took over as the 250 East Coast class championship leader position after winning his first main for the year.
While his teammate Marvin Musquin was avoiding being run over after crashing in the first corner, Webb grabbed the holeshot from Zach Osborne and Eli Tomac. But before the opening lap was complete Tomac had moved to second and was right on the rear wheel of Webb.
After a few attempts Eli was finally able to get to the lead and reminiscent to his Vegas performance in 2017 Tomac was looking to unsettle Webb as he slowed in several sections before cutting down to a tighter line through some of the corners, but the Kawasaki rider finally cleared his thoughts to establish a small lead.
In fact, it looked like Eli would pull away for the win until he got cross rutted and went down in the whoops to drop back to fourth. This left him behind Webb, Osborne and Blake Baggett, before Osborne caught up to Webb to make the pass for the lead. At this stage Zach led ahead of Webb, Baggett and a fast closing Tomac but then Baggett crashed and Osborne rode straight up a right hand berm which gave the lead back to Webb.
The atmosphere was electric as Tomac caught all the way up to Webb but an identical crash in the whoops dropped him back to third. That is the way they stayed to the line with Webb winning over Osborne, Tomac and Baggett.
With one race left, Web has a 23-point lead over Tomac while Musquin, who came into the race as the only other rider besides Tomac within striking distance of his teammate salvaged a fifth after his crash to now trails Webb by 31 points so he is no longer in championship contention.
“Overall, I felt like it was a good race. I felt like I rode in a nice pace that was consistent and I’m not saying that the other guys weren’t, but the mistakes they made were definitely the difference. I’m happy, another win is incredible and we’re inching a little closer to the final goal.”
“It’s been a long gruelling road to get back, I felt great in the off season, had a really good bike and one tiny mistake took me out of the first six rounds but it is finally coming back to me, we completely changed the bike in the off week and I felt a lot more comfortable in the whoops. In the main event I got off to a good start and after getting beaten up in the past I decided to just send it which I did for a couple of laps then made the pass for the lead – it was a really good race for me.”
“I had to have a chuckle about it, I mean, I did the exact thing twice (crash twice in the same spot), I mean, how do you even do that? We were going triple into the whoops and I was leaning a little too far to the right, got cross rutted and then went into the same tuff block, the same tip over, it’s like a replay. I could have got away with one of those but the second one really did me in.”
“It was a huge bummer to have that crash in the first turn, considering I was feeling great all day today. From dead last I came back to fifth-place, it’s a good race but it didn’t bring me what I wanted points-wise and I wanted to win tonight. But is what it is, it’s racing and things like that obviously happen.”
After the injured championship leader Austin Forkner made his way to the main event with a far from convincing fourth-place in his heat race it was Alex Martin who grabbed the early lead in the main event, this was ahead of Martin Davalos, Sexton and Forkner.
Then Austin slammed by Sexton for third and he was soon in second behind his teammate Davalos after Martin slid out so it looked like things were going the way of Forkner BUT a flat landing before the wall jump caused him to re-aggravate his knee and take him out of the race.
When Austin pulled off, Sexton inherited second place and later he took over the lead from a struggling Davalos who would also surrender second and third to the Yamaha duo of Mitchell Oldenburg and Justin Cooper so the win went to Sexton over Oldenburg, Cooper and Davalos.
With just the final East/West shootout at Las Vegas to go next weekend Sexton has inherited/earned a nine-point lead over Cooper, with Forkner a further 13 points back. The 250 West Coast series is similarly placed with Adam Cianciarulo holding an eight-point lead over Dylan Ferrandis heading into Vegas so the combined final is going to be very interesting indeed.
“We have made a lot of bike changes from the beginning of the season, it is pretty crazy when you compare what I was riding back then to now, it has made a big difference and I have just been trying to put in my laps but I felt really good out there tonight, it feels awesome to be fastest qualifier, win my heat then the main, it’s been a long time and it feels great.”
“It’s unbelievable. With all the injuries… I just didn’t know if this was for me anymore. My wife has always been behind me and this feels amazing. Everyone in my corner have been so awesome and the people around me have never stopped believing in me. It feels good to finally get this done. It feels like we finally got this monkey off our back.”
“I just struggled to find my flow. I didn’t feel good the whole race so to I can’t really complain about a podium finish. It would have been nice to get second, but I’m pumped for Mitchell. We’ll see what we can do in Las Vegas.”
Josh Grant made the penultimate race of the year count with his best finish of the season in eighth, as a fill-in rider for Aaron Plessinger.
“I’m really stoked on how my night went. The track conditions were really difficult and made for some tough passing. All in all, I am happy with an eighth-place finish and looking forward to finishing off strong in Las Vegas.”
Source: MCNews.com.au
News 29 Apr 2019
Section: Competition
New South Welshman filling in for injured contender Roberts this weekend.
Image: Foremost Media.
Jye Dickson has been called into the Raceline KTM Thor squad for this weekend’s Pirelli MX Nationals double-header at Murray Bridge in South Australia.
New South Welshman Dickson will fill-in for injured contender Jy Roberts, who’s now returned home from hospital and currently rehabilitating from a serious head injury sustained while practicing earlier this month, where he eventually woke from an eight-day coma.
Dickson has been piloting a KTM SX-F 250 all season long in a privateer effort backed by Raceline, and currently sits eighth in the championship standings following a strong opening three rounds.
Raceline KTM Thor, which currently fields MX1 points leader Hayden Mellross and MXD red-plate holder Regan Duffy, has also extended its support to three-time defending MX1 champion Dean Ferris as he continues to secure a deal in America, recently declaring his intentions to race Murray Bridge’s fourth and fifth rounds.
Source: MotoOnline.com.au