Motourage

An exciting weekend of World Superbike action from Round 1 at Phillip Island. This weekend was also round 1 of the Motourage Fantasy Riders league.  Suzuki and Ducati – both factory and privateer efforts – came up big in Australia, and the players who picked those teams also came up big.

Here are the results of Round 1 of the Motourage Fantasy Riders league:

1st Swamphole Racing, Noel Nunkovich 46

2nd MinellaSpeed, Dave Minella 45

3rd Team Motorious, Ivan Lo 35

4th East Coast Racing, Brad Boutilier 33

5th Flying Monkeys, Jeff Ritter 29

6th team karbonated, Rebecca Saclolo 27

7th BNG Racing, Bridget Kirkland 27

8th Motherless Goats, Jared Koch 27

9th Dark Energy, Camila Restrepo 27

10th Team Rig, Lee Lilly 27

11th CornerSpeedPhoto, Dan Lo 27

12th Spieswise, A. Van Donselaar 24

13th Pretty.2010Pretty Pretty 16

14th irishlad, Dave Kelly 9

15th Uttley Allstars, Richard Uttley 6

16th JJ’s M1 Super Scooters, Jennifer Jabbusch 6

17th ducatinewstoday.com, Mark Morrison 0

18th Desmodromic Demonoids, Aaron Boyle 0

19th rozlanbgsp, Rozlan Abdullah 0

20th MotoGPNewsBlog, Chris Lykins 0

21st MotoGPBlog, Rob Jones 0

22nd Ow My Freakin’ Ears!, Leigh Berwick 0

YAMAHA FREE PRACTICE REPORT

Challenging start to Imola for the Yamaha World Superbike Team riders.

The first day of free practice did not go according to plan at Imola today. The first scheduled Superbike free practice session lasted for just two laps, with less than perfect conditions resulting in a huge high side crash for rider Tom Sykes. Luckily he walked away uninjured. Touring Car racing the weekend previously had resulted in a dirty track with minimal grip and spilt oil in places. The track was re-cleaned and practice got underway after several hours delay. Spies was quick from the word go, dropping into second position two tenths behind leader Byrne as soon as he started. He went on to take the lead until the closing moments, dropping to third as the free practice session ended.

Team mate Tom Sykes was working hard lower down the board, starting in 21st, the British rider improved his times to take 18th spot at the end. Sykes was still suffering from his huge high side crash which brought the first session to a premature end.

As a result of the closures and delays there will be just one qualifying session for the Superbike riders this weekend on the Saturday.

Ben Spies

Ben Spies, Yamaha World Superbike Team (3rd, 1’50.213)
“we got straight down to it this afternoon when we could finally get on track. Since we lost a lot of time today we’ve been focusing on the race set-up. There’s a tyre that I think most people where on today which we haven’t tried yet so we’ll throw that in there tomorrow. We’ve got some time still to find, but we’re on it. The cleaning made a big difference to the track, and felt a lot better, although still slower than the test. I think it will get better tomorrow.”

Tom Sykes

Tom Sykes, Yamaha World Superbike Team (18th, 1’51.922)
“It was a very strange day today, the first time I can remember most of the day being cancelled that’s for sure. It was a big crash for me this morning, I thought I was feeling ok from it but in the afternoon session I felt a bit sick so the knock was a bit more than I first thought. I’m going to have a nice sleep tonight and I’ll come out tomorrow swinging. I’m a bit disappointed in my times as I was doing good 1.50s and 1.49s in the test and am a bit off that so far today. We’ve got different settings on the bike to try so we’ll go back to basics and see what we can do tomorrow.”

Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team
“Today was definitely a strange day, we lost a complete session. Fortunately they found a way to clean the circuit so we had at least one practice today. In the end we are lucky to have already tested here so although we’ll miss the practice, we still have a good set up to work from. Tom had a big crash today but we’re happy that he’s fine and ok. We will have some work to do tomorrow, the bike needs some improvement as the temperature is very different from the test, so we are looking forward to getting started in the morning.”
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The Hannspree World Superbike Championship moves into the final stages when round twelve of the fourteen round series heads for the legendary Imola circuit in Italy this forthcoming weekend (September 25 – 27).

Paul Bird Motorsport's Broc Parkes

After a disappointing weekend in Germany last time out which saw both Paul Bird Motorsport riders, Broc Parkes and Makoto Tamada, involved in an opening corner accident, which ruled the Japanese rider out of the meeting with concussion and left Australian Parkes to race his spare machine, both are hoping for a strong showing at Imola.

Makoto Tamada

27-year-old Parkes has a good record at the Italian track and is confident of success whereas 32-year-old Tamada is looking to salvage something from a disastrous, injury-ridden season aboard the www.supercasino.com, Vent-Axia, Kick Energy and Henleys-backed Kawasaki Superbike Racing Team Ninja ZX-10Rs.

Meanwhile, team boss Paul Bird will be hoping he can bring some silverware of his own to the team in the final two rounds of the World Rally Championship.

For the Salou-based Rally de Espagne on October 2/4th and Rally GB which starts in Cardiff some three weeks later, the Cumbrian has been drafted into the official Munchi’s Ford World Rally Team alongside Argentine driver Federico Villagra whereby he will drive a works Ford Focus WRC as one of the ten ‘A’ seeded drivers.

Broc Parkes:  “I’m looking forward to the Imola race as I have had podiums in WSS there before and also a couple of top tens in WSB. I really enjoy the circuit and it has a great atmosphere. Nurburgring was a tough weekend after I was taken out in the first race and I was lucky not to break any bones, but I had skin taken off my bottom which made it uncomfortable to ride but I’m feeling good now and ready to race. For Imola, we have some more things to try on the bike so I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes. Each race we seem to be making progress and I would really like to be back in the top ten in Imola.”

Makoto Tamada:  “The test went well earlier in the season at Imola and I am pretty confident about the circuit. We were still relatively behind the leaders in terms of lap times at the test, but the bike feeling has improved significantly since then and I was confident on the race set-up at Nurburgring but unfortunately the crash in race one took me out of both races. I have no significant injury and my broken finger from Brno is healed so I am 100% fit for Imola. If the bike works well as it did in Brno and Nurburgring, the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R should finish in an easy top ten. I guess it depends on me if we can finish in the top five, or even on the podium.”