| Stop Press! » | Visitor's Bits » | MyLaps results » | Actrix Vic RR Series '10 | Road Racing 2010/11 » | Those were the days! » | Cemetery Circuit, 2009 & Tri Series | MX / SX » |
|
 | Road Racing & Specialties
 MV AGUSTA CELEBRATES 50th ANNIVERSARY of ITALIAN AEROBATIC TEAM with the F4 FRECCE TRICOLORI Varese, 1 st September 2010 - Admiration, astonishment, magic. These are the feelingsthat the exhibitions of the Italian Aerobatic Team arise, since its foundation. A cohesive group of air force pilots capable of proudly taking the Italian colours worldwide, during its long history, in conjunction with the highest level of professionalism, performance and elegance. These results are the consequence of a methodical and ongoing commitment to the relentless pursuit of perfection. Values that also MV Agusta embodies in its history, in the brand and in its men. Guiding principles it shares with the legendary "Frecce Tricolori", a common awareness of being an icon of “Italian Style”, synonymous with technical excellence and unparalleled style. To seal the common objectives, on the 50 th anniversary of the National Aerobatic Team,MV Agusta dresses the most powerful and prestigious of its creations, the new F4, in the colours of the sky and of the Italian flag, producing 11 unique motorcycles in "Frecce Tricolori" livery. The eleven precious "pieces", prepared for the occasion with special components in noble materials such as carbonfibre and titanium, are numbered exactly as the eleven aerobatic aircraft, and are inspired by their distinctive graphics. A small silver plate on the steering head indicates the number and id of the aircraft to which each of the bikes is associated. Delivery of the motorcycles will take place at the military airport of Rivolto, the base of the “Frecce Tricolori”, during a dedicated event, a unique opportunity to spend an entire day with the pilots of the Italian Aerobatic Team. For information and reservations: from Italy 800.364406, from abroad + 39.0332.254.724. For details about the 50 th Frecce Tricolori Anniversary in Rivolto - Udine (Italy), on the11 th and 12th of September 2010, visit: www.aeronautica.difesa.it/PAN50PROGRAMMA - 16th Aer Macchi revival at MV Agusta SABATO 4 SETTEMBRE 2010 16.00 RITROVO INFORMALE ALLA SCHIRANNA VARESE (PARCHEGGIO CAGIVA-MV). DOMENICA 5 SETTEMBRE 2010 09.30 RITROVO PRESSO LA CAGIVA-MV. ISCRIZIONI PRESSO LA SEGRETERIA DA CAMPO DEL REGISTRO STORICO. 11.00 PARTENZA PER UN BREVE GIRO NEI DINTORNI CON MOTO ASSICURATE E IN REGOLA CON IL CODICE DELLA STRADA. SOSTA PRESSO LA PRO LOCO DI CASTELLO CABIAGLIO PER L’ APERITIVO OFFERTO DA MOTOFORNITURE MORO. RITORNO ALLA SCHIRANNA. 13.00 PRANZO PRESSO IL RISTORANTE “MARIUCCIA” (PRENOTAZIONE OBBLIGATORIA AL MOMENTO DELL’ ISCRIZIONE ENTRO LE ORE 11,00). 15.00 DISCORSI E PREMIAZIONI. 17.00 SALUTI E ARRIVEDERCI AL 2011. INFORMAZIONI PER IL RADUNO GIANCARLO COLETTO (0332-879325) EGIDIO COMOLLI (0332-284628) A.R.S.I.M.A. Registro Storico Aermacchi “Alfredo Bianchi” 16° RADUNO INTERNAZIONALE AERMACCHI HARLEY-DAVIDSON ENRICO MINAZZI (0332-463495) PAOLO MANUSARDI (02-89400619) Gianfranco Bonera su AMF Harley-Davidson 250 RR 5 settembre 2010 Schiranna - Varese 5th OF SEPTEMBER 2010: 16th AERMACCHI REVIVAL AT MV AGUSTA TO CELEBRATE THE VICE CHAMPION GIANFRANCO BONERA Varese, 30 th August 2010 – Also this year MV Agusta will give hospitality atSchiranna to the International Aermacchi Meeting that celebrates the 16th edition. The appointment is for Saturday the 5 th of September at the historic sitethat saw the birth of aeronautic production at the beginning of last century, and that after the Second World War extended into the motorcycle industry with the legendary Chimera, Ala Verde and Ala Oro for the competitions. The Historical Register dedicated to the Factory will celebrate the factory rider Gianfranco Bonera, class 1945, who has strong links with the manufacturer in Varese. Bonera rode in the World Motorcycle Championship first with Amf-Harley- Davidson, that in the 1972 acquired the Aermacchi shares when the aeronautic company left the motorcycle industry, and then with MV Agusta during the golden period. After the debut in 1973 with the 350RR twin cylinder at Monza, Bonera was hired for the two following years in MV and in 1974 he was second in the 500 World Championship behind his teammate Phil Read. In 1975 he lost part of the season due to a bad accident in an Italian race competition in Modena, so in 1976 we find him in Varese, teammate of Walter Villa riding the fastest Amf-H-D 2 stroke. The debut took place at the home race track, Monza, with an Aermacchi 125 Aletta Oro: first race and first victory, under the rain. The ice was broken and from that moment it was a crescendo of results. After MV and Amf-H-D, Bonera rode in the 500 and 750 World Championship classes finishing his career in 1980. Then with his brother Oscar, he devoted himself to the family dealership in Milan, but the call of the competitions, in this case of vintage bikes, has been irresistible. Bonera came back on the race track with Triumph and MV: in the most beautiful and resounding victories we remember the competition on the difficult track of Daytona. The festive day dedicated to Bonera will see the arrival of the Aermacchi bikes at Schiranna at 9.30 a.m., with an exhibition of all the motorcycles at the MV Agusta Factory. At 11.15 a.m. the trip on the roads around Varese will start. Lunch will be at 1 p.m. together with the managers, riders, technicians and specialists of the Aermacchi Race Department. Naturally, together with the many Aermacchi fans from Italy, many will come from France, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Austria and Luxembourg. Moto Academy Race Reports - go to http://www.motoacademy.co.nz/actrix-victoria-motorcycle-club-round-4/  Les Archer Senior rode this supercharged 350 cc Velocette called "Woofling Clara" at Brooklands UK before WW2 covering 100 miles (160Km) in less than 1 hour.
 Varese, August 6 th 2010 - Claudio and Giovanni Castiglioni, through their familyholding company have repurchased from Harley Davidson 100% of the shares of MV Agusta Motor S.p.A. which owns historic brands MV Agusta and Cagiva. Harley-Davidson announced in October 2009 its intention to sell MV Agusta to concentrate on its core business and brand. In connection with the repurchase transaction Lazard and Co. have acted as the financial advisor along with counsel Alessandro Varrenti (CBA) and Giuseppe Galeano whom provided legal and tax assistance in conjunction with family counsellors Giuseppe Carteni (Leadlaw), Andrea Lanata and Sergio Caramella. Along with Giovanni Castiglioni, the company will be headed by Mr. Massimo Bordi, a well known Italian manager. A 62-year-old engineer, Bordi took Ducati to success during the years when that company was owned by the Castiglionis and continued to manage it successfully under the ownership of Texas Pacific Group. Since 2003 Massimo Bordi has been the CEO of Same Deutz Fahr, contributing largely to the success of the company. Massimo Bordi commented that "MV Agusta has full capacity to once again become a major player in the high luxury brand motor bikes, this brand is one of the most recognized worldwide. We will implement a number of reorganization and managerial actions in the near future. Both the current and new models under development have a very strong character, great innovative features and a very unique design, I have no doubts about their future success." Claudio Castiglioni, the historic intimate soul of MV Agusta will continue as chairman, and will concentrate on the development of the new products. Upon signing the agreement with Harley-Davidson, Claudio Castiglioni stated "MV Agusta is the crown jewel of Italian motorcycles, I am thrilled to have completed this transaction. I have already won once together with Massimo Bordi, we made the most beautiful bikes in the world and we will continue with this tradition". Varese, August 6 th 2010 - Claudio and Giovanni Castiglioni, through their familyholding company have repurchased from Harley Davidson 100% of the shares of MV Agusta Motor S.p.A. which owns historic brands MV Agusta and Cagiva. Harley-Davidson announced in October 2009 its intention to sell MV Agusta to concentrate on its core business and brand. In connection with the repurchase transaction Lazard and Co. have acted as the financial advisor along with counsel Alessandro Varrenti (CBA) and Giuseppe Galeano whom provided legal and tax assistance in conjunction with family counsellors Giuseppe Carteni (Leadlaw), Andrea Lanata and Sergio Caramella. Along with Giovanni Castiglioni, the company will be headed by Mr. Massimo Bordi, a well known Italian manager. A 62-year-old engineer, Bordi took Ducati to success during the years when that company was owned by the Castiglionis and continued to manage it successfully under the ownership of Texas Pacific Group. Since 2003 Massimo Bordi has been the CEO of Same Deutz Fahr, contributing largely to the success of the company. Massimo Bordi commented that "MV Agusta has full capacity to once again become a major player in the high luxury brand motor bikes, this brand is one of the most recognized worldwide. We will implement a number of reorganization and managerial actions in the near future. Both the current and new models under development have a very strong character, great innovative features and a very unique design, I have no doubts about their future success." Claudio Castiglioni, the historic intimate soul of MV Agusta will continue as chairman, and will concentrate on the development of the new products. Upon signing the agreement with Harley-Davidson, Claudio Castiglioni stated "MV Agusta is the crown jewel of Italian motorcycles, I am thrilled to have completed this transaction. I have already won once together with Massimo Bordi, we made the most beautiful bikes in the world and we will continue with this tradition".
Keep up to date with all results: A message from Tim Gibbes We at Tim Gibbes Track Timing are providing "Live Results & Timing" from all the motorcycle & car events we cover.Using "Alert Manager" texts to your mobile phone or e-mail, we can send reminders, prior to these events, so you know when & where to look. which will have the approximate time schedule, switching to live racing on the day. The response we need from you is >> "No Thanks" if you don?t want the Alerts "Mobile Number" if you want them to your phone Do nothing, or "Thanks" if you want them to your email. The texts for local events this year are free of charge, all we need is your confirmed e-mail address or mobile phone number to direct the texts to. Yours in motorcycle sport, Tim Gibbes Phone & Fax 06 353 0750 (not auto) Mobile Tim 0274 422 662, 166 Kelvin Grove Rd., Palmerston North, 4414 e-mail timgibbes@clear.net.nz Website www.motorcyclesport.co.nz However, due to personal reasons, Kenneth will not be riding our Yamaha TZ125 ma-chine this championship sea-son as planned. He will still be an integral part of the team, moving on from his riding duties to a new role of data technician for the coming sea-son. He will also form part of our testing program and will still regularly ride our bikes , helping Jake Lewis to understand the intricacies of our machines. Ken has a wealth of knowledge that will be invaluable to Jake as he prepares for, and competes in the national titles early in the new year. Ken will still have his usual column in our team newsletter, no doubt filling you all in with the news and views from the other side of the pit wall . We will still see #33 racing around our circuits as Ken is also the test rider for Global Motorsports. We look forward to having Ken riding for Team vB Racing again in the very near future, in which class? Wait and see! You would think that having your wrist in plaster would slow one done, that is probably true for most of us, but not Jake Lewis! While he has been convalescing he has been hard at work securing personal sponsorship from accessory giant Darbi?s. Added to that, he has further secured a very solid deal with Christchurch?s Budget Motorcycle Spares. Both Jake and father Rob have certainly been busy inking the deals that will see Jake using Berik Leathers, Sidi Boots and KBC Helmets. Budget Motorcycle Spares will be assisting with the helmets as well as the Bridgestone tires that the team will be using again this season. As if that was not enough! Young Jake has also gained support from New Zealand Motorcycling legend Bob McCleary. Bobs assistance will be a „behind the scenes? deals that will help Jakes cause immensely. And lastly, Jake has also enlisted the help of the medical staff that look after the Canterbury Crusaders! These amazing folk have seen to it that Jakes recuperation is both fast and safe, allowing Jake to be back training only 6 weeks after breaking his wrist in a basketball accident! A young man on a very fast mission! Jake?AngleJake?s Angle The world through the eyes of Jake Lewis! I am so looking forward to getting back on Maartys Yamaha TZ 125 My super-trick new „soft? cast! Having a spin on Dennis Charletts Avon City 600 at Levels a couple of months ago! AWESOME!You can follow Jakes blog at: http://jakelewis29.blogspot.com/---------------------------------- road racing titles and numerous other minor titles and placings. My last mechanics job for Bruce was the 1984 Easter road races at Bathurst running a TZ205 & TZ350. At the time I was a teenager doing an electrical appren-ticeship in Nelson and spending my sum-mer holidays travel-ling the country on the road racing circuit. The rest of my time was spent tearing up the local firebreaks and moto-cross tracks on vari-ous MX bikes till a knee injury ended my MX career. After licking my wounds for awhile I got into bucket racing and kart racing which gave me a chance to practice my two stroke tuning skills and try to emulate the riding I had been watching for the past years. !986 saw me move to Christchurch and spend the 86 / 87 season turning the spanners for Colin Fenemore a local TZ350 racer. At this time I actually came across a young guy called Maarty van Booma who was hang-ing around with some of the other racers. Later in 1987 I pur-chased a TZ350 for myself to try a bit more serious racing. 1988 I went into partnership in a mo-torcycle wrecking, servicing and tuning business. A highlight of 1988 was win-ning the South Canterbury Motorcycle Clubs winter series in the bucket racing class on a highly modified Yamaha AG100 that I had built up. During this time I met up with a Glenn Martin the founder of the Martin Air-craft Company, the company that makes a Jetpack. Over the years I have been involved in Glenn?s project working on all kinds of things but mainly looking after the motors he has tried on different prototype machines. I was involved in the design and ran the engine simula-tions for the current engine a 2.0 litre V4 two stroke motor. During the early 90?s I spent time working as a car race mechanic on For- Page 4 Volume 6 Team Newsletter Hello everyone This is Stu Holdaway the new technical guy in Team VB Racing. Maarty has asked me to give a bio of who I am and my history as a race mechanic. This has meant that I have had too sit down and think about where I have come from and what I have done with regards to motorcycle sport and racing. So here goes. As a youngster growing up with petrol head older brothers and a keen inter-est in motorcycles it was only natural that I ended up developing a friendship during my high school years with the Woodley family. This friendship lead to me becoming Bruce Woodley?s mechanic as competed on his Yamaha TZ350 grand prix motorcycle. This partnership was successful in gaining two National road racing titles and numerous other minor titles and placings. My last mechanics job for Bruce was the 1984 Easter road races at Bathurst running a TZ205 & TZ350. At the time I was a teenager doing an electrical appren-ticeship in Nelson and spending my sum-mer holidays travel-ling the country on the road racing circuit. The rest of my time was spent tearing up the local firebreaks and moto-cross tracks on vari-ous MX bikes till a knee injury ended my MX career. After licking my wounds for awhile I got into bucket racing and kart racing which gave me a chance to practice my two stroke tuning skills and try to emulate the riding I had been watching for the past years. !986 saw me move to Christchurch and spend the 86 / 87 season turning the spanners for Colin Fenemore a local TZ350 racer. At this time I actually came across a young guy called Maarty van Booma who was hang-ing around with some of the other racers. Later in 1987 I pur-chased a TZ350 for myself to try a bit more serious racing. 1988 I went into partnership in a mo-torcycle wrecking, servicing and tuning business. A highlight of 1988 was win-ning the South Canterbury Motorcycle Clubs winter series in the bucket racing class on a highly modified Yamaha AG100 that I had built up. During this time I met up with a Glenn Martin the founder of the Martin Air-craft Company, the company that makes a Jetpack. Over the years I have been involved in Glenn?s project working on all kinds of things but mainly looking after the motors he has tried on different prototype machines. I was involved in the design and ran the engine simula-tions for the current engine a 2.0 litre V4 two stroke motor. During the early 90?s I spent time working as a car race mechanic on For- Page 4 Volume 6 Team Newsletter Places to be in July! 1) 17th, Levels Raceway, King of Levels , Round 1 In Timaru You can follow Jakes progress on his „Road to Redbull Rookies? at: http://eu.redbullrookiescup.com/riders_ontheroad_overview.php A real „big boys toy? the Martin V4, 2Lt 2 stroke engine ! Photo courtesy of Championship Digital 2) 17th, Manfeild Park, VMCC winter series, ound 2, Fielding mula Ford?s and Formula Pacific?s. I still keep my hand working on motorcycle engines doing porting & tuning work for various people and friends. I was also seen around the kart tracks helping friends run their karts. Unfortunately my working and private life kept me away from the race tracks and for a period of time during the late 90?s and early 00?s. A move to Wellington in 2002 saw me re-acquainted with a friend from my youth who was now busy raising two sons that were into racing junior MX. This lead to me helping run his boys racing This entailed bike setup and maintenance and some coaching. A move back to Christchurch saw me working with the then owners of Dirt Action Service. I did some general me-chanics work, as well as specialising in motorcycle electrical work on a part time basis. April 2009 I became a partner in Dirt Action Service and once again became a full time motorcycle mechanic. About June last year (2009) I learnt that Dennis Charlett was setting up his own team to do the local and national cham-pionship road racing series. I offered Dennis my services for the season and as he accepted it was back to race me-chanic duty again. Although we did not win the 600 sports production champi-onship as we had hoped, we did manager to pick up some god race wins and placings. During this past season I also got re-acquainted with Maarty and watched with interest his operation as he ran young Jake Lewis at Manfeild and Hampton Downs. I was very impressed with the set up Maarty had and also the way he was helping Jake adjust to his move up to the 125 class. Discussions at the end of the season lead to my doing improvements to the bike in my Christ-church workshop. Further working together on the bike and discussion has lead to Maarty and myself agreeing to team up for the forth coming season. For me it is a re-turn to my roots in racing, working on a two stroke GP bike and to be involved with such a young up and coming talent like Jake will keep me young (hopefully). Looking forward to this season with the team members that are going to be on board the team, Team VB Racing is go-ing to be to a potent force in the cham-pionships it competes in. I look forward to the coming season and meeting the rest of the team VB Racing supporters. Stu---------------------------------------------------------------- If anyone would like to contribute to our team newsletter, please feel free to email me with your contributions! It can be anything you like really, probably more topical if it?s about motorcycling but, hey!, if its funny, thought provoking, commentary, or mad, then we are up for it!! Or, If you would just like to pass comment on our efforts, then please feel free to do so! Please send in a "Word" format and any pictures etc in "jpeg" .The more the merrier! My email address for all correspondence is: maarty@vbracing.co.nz Looking forward to your contributions! Kindest regards to you all, Maarty BRUTALE CANNONBALL  Personalization as new border of exclusiveness Varese, 28 th June 2010 – The Cannonball kit that has been created by MV Agusta Corse for racinguse only and adds more magic and performance to the prestigious naked Brutale, turning it into a precious, exclusive and extraordinary jewel. The interventions are targeted, the objectives are very clear: increasing the performance, making the bike even lighter and fully exploiting its technology. A number of components have been developed exclusively for the Cannonball kit. The Engine Control Unit, the cylinder head, the camshafts, the valves and the exhaust system, which is manufactured completely from titanium and is completed by a low and spirited exhaust pipe, have all been purposely designed for this kit, enabling the Brutale to increase its maximum power by an additional 20 hp: Brutale, in name and in deed. All this without giving up to the exceptional dynamic qualities and the taste of incomparable ride of a naked version which adds a touch of crazy exuberance to its notorious determination. The new technical components enables the Brutale Cannonball to excel on the track: the exciting performance are restrained by the pure chassis and by high quality suspension components which enable the rider to enjoy easy handling and the typical pleasure of riding an MV Agusta bike. Calm readiness on gas control, resounding acceleration, lively engine: all this becomes reality with the Cannonball kit of 165 hp. The excitement starts in figures: the maximum power flies to 165 hp, 21 more than the 1090RR standard bike. At 9.000 revs/min the power is 140 hp, at 10.000 it is 160 hp, a little later the maximum is reached, an absolute record for Brutale. You don’t have to give up to torque as there is the same (112 Nm) of the 1090RR standard bike. The objective of the highest performance has not given a back seat to the traditional care that MV Agusta dedicates to design and attention to detail. Brutale is a wonderful example of essential and smart details, it can be enriched with the addition of a lower fairing, of tail section and a large number of additional components in carbon fibre and aerospace aluminium enhancing its racing heritage. The unique and unmistakable characteristics of Brutale have made it famous throughout the world, but the MV Agusta kit has been created to transform it into a unique motorcycle with unbeatable performance, providing the typical excellence that MV Agusta customers have come to expect. On the MV Agusta official website www.mvagusta.it it is possible to design your own “Brutale Cannonball” thanks to the special 3D configuration program: the bike takes shape on the screen and then it transforms into a titanium Dear Supporters of Moto Academy NZ. We have been extremely busy over the past few months getting motorcycles ready, securing riders, dealing with a withdrawing rider, securing another rider, looking after my young daughter and trying to get two other businesses off the ground. So it has taken some time to organise updating our website with reports from the first two rounds of racing for 2010. We launched the year with Glen, James, Ben and Daniel on board with Ben and Daniel attending the California Superbike School and a couple of testdays. Following that, Daniel and family decided to change their focus and withdraw from Moto Academy NZ. This was quite a blow, but we have recovered and have negotiated terms with Kyle Hammond and family for the 2010 season. Kyle joined us in our foundation year in 2008 and has progressed quite strongly since then from being 10-15 seconds a lap slower than the front runners, to running 0.56 sec a lap off the new lap record pace at Manfeild in the NZSBK round in March 2010. Kyle is also studying for his Engineering Technology degree so will have a very busy and rewarding year. Please take the time to have a read of our race reports from Glen and James (Ben has a very demanding job running a farm with no internet access and some distance from civilisation, so we may not see too much from him during the year) and myself. I would like to thank Alpinestars, RaceSupplies.co.nz and W White Wholesale in particular for their support during this past period as the changes most affected them and they all helped us a lot. http://www.motoacademy.co.nz/201/ http://www.motoacademy.co.nz/news-201/ THE SIDI STARS: CROSS, SUPERBIKE AND SUPERSPORT Cairoli & Nagl off road and Crutchlow, Sofuoglu and Pirro on track Maser (TV), May 10th, 2010 - Sidi Sport had another great weekend as a major player in the world of motor sports. We start with motocross, specifically from the dirt circuit in Agueda where Antonio Cairoli (Team Ktm), fifth in race1 and first in race2, reinforced his lead in the World MX1 standings by taking second place in the Portuguese Gran Prix. Third step of the podium for the German Max Nagl (Team Ktm). Moving from off road to the track, Sidi continues on its positive roll. Even if they narrowly missed victory, Sidi pilots enjoyed brilliant results that were an encouraging sign for the rest of the season. The Italian Gran Prix in Superbike took place on Sunday in Also on the circuit in Monza, Sidi pilots made their mark in the Supersport class with Turkey’s Kenan Sofuoglu (Team Ten Kate Honda) starting from pole position and coming in second over the finish line, putting him in second place in the overall standings. Italian Michele Pirro (Team Ten Kate Honda) had an excellent fourth place. Before heading to Monza Pirro made a stop at Sidi’s headquarters in Maser (TV) to put the finishing touches on his Sidi Vortice boots. This welcome visit seems to have brought him good luck! Attached photos of Cairoli in
MOTO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP THE YOUNG CHAMPIONS FROM THE SIDI SPORT STABLES Moto2 & 125cc Maser (TV), May 3rd, 2010 – Young aces from the Sidi Sport stables gave an excellent performance in the second stage of World Motorcycle Championship that took place Sunday, May 2nd on the The young riders in the 125cc class also had an excellent podium, with Plenty has happened since our last newsletter, strangely though, no racing! This is the first time in many years that our riders have been so busy and yet not actually riding their designated machines! Ken has been busy testing for our partners, Global Motorsports, on their amazing little "Junior Series" 150cc four stroke machine. Com-pleting 2 test days and a race day at Taupo Motorsport Park as well as a full days testing at the new Hampton Downs circuit near Hamil-ton. (See Kens Corner for his im-pressions!) Ken also spent a day testing the Yamaha R6 600cc Sport Production race bike of BJ Caw-thorns. Jake Lewis meanwhile has been back on his 150 Street-stock bike at Levels Raceway, near Timaru, as well as testing the 600cc Sport Produc-tion race bike of Dennis Charlett! On top of this, he has been training hard on his new dirt bike and play-ing a ton of sport in order to keep himself fit and healthy in the in-terim! Back at base camp, we are super busy putting together our race program for the next 12 months. We are still putting the finishing touches to our team lineup and our bikes are undergoing some major development work. All this will mean that when we hit the track in about 6 weeks time we will be firing on all cylinders and ready to fight for the top spots! On top of all this, were are still negotiating with several organiza-tions for both support for our team and also offering support for causes that are important to us as a team, so watch this space for some excit-ing developments in the near future! Maarty. Hi everyone In the past 7 days I have had some really great news and some not so great news, the great news first which is really exciting, my applica-tion to be part of the ROAD TO REDBULL ROOKIES CUP has been accepted and is a dream come true for me, I'm on my way to the RED-BULL ROOKIES CUP. I have to thank a number of great people who have helped me with this, Brian Bernard, Grant and Peter Ramage, Peter Clifford, Maarty van Booma and also a big thanks to my Dad. I'm so very excited about this and intend to train and give my very best with the fantastic opportunity i have been given. Last Friday week ago Bob McCleary Yamaha gave me a great deal to update my Moto-x bike to train on and keep my fitness up, I've changed colors now to blue and have got a 2010 YZ250F which I've now done 5 to 6 hours riding on and have really enjoyed every minute of them, what a great bike, I'm really loving the extra power, Awesome !! The not so great news this week , part of my fitness training I've been back playing hockey for my championship winning team the Carlton Redcliffs, also have been playing basketball at night during the week, on Wednesday night I filled in for a senior men's team who were down a player, I had a full on game which was great, but with just minutes to go I was ma-jorly taken out by a particularly big guy who was an ex Canterbury player and landed backwards badly on my left hand and snapped my radius bone to my wrist, very pain-ful, I spent most of that night in hospital with my dad waiting to see a bone specialist, early hours of the morning there was a lot of pushing and pulling to get it back in place which was painful, but all is good now, I have a cast from my elbow to my fingers for 5 to 6 weeks so that's not so good, I have had some really great people who have of-fered me some good sports therapy and a new sports training regime while I have the cast on. Thanks heaps to Jackie Paget for her help with this. I am so looking forward to getting back on Maartys Yamaha TZ125 as I know we have a great program planned. Well I'll be out on my push bike this Sunday rather than my dirt bike so that will still be o.k. Thank you again for everyone's help, you've all been great. Jake Lewis Busy times at headquarters! So much to do, so little time! Kenny's Corner News and views from Kenneth Jones! When Maarty told me we needed to do some testing, great, I thought! I have been itching to get back aboard my TZM 125 for ages. He also told me about Andrew from HGS’s plan to get juniors racing and it sounded like a great idea! Imagine my surprise when I got to Taupo Raceway and found no Yamaha TZM125! In its place in our pit box stood a brand new Global Motorsports "Junior Series" 150cc four stroke ma-chine! I must say though, it did look awesome! Although I had seen it before at both Man-feild and Hampton downs, I hadn’t heard it or seen it running, and now it looked like I was the guinea pig who was going to get to test it! Yeah? I think? Andrew, Bruce and Kerry had prepared the bike well, it looked a million buck! Didn’t sound too bad either (for a 4 stroke) I had a sit on it and adjusted the beau-tifully made rear sets to my liking, albeit in road pattern for the shifter! Out on track I went! After not having ridden much for the last 12 month, the bike felt kind of strange, Maarty said it was just a 4 stroke thing and to "get over it!" We tested a couple of different brands of tires (I found the BT39’s to my liking) and mucked around a little with the front forks, pottered with the gearing for the windy conditions and gener-ally made steady progress as the day went on. At the end of the day we had a debrief and discussed what we would do for the following days race meet-ing. It was great to work with such a professional (and funny) crew, it made for a great old time! We decided that Kerry would make a couple of small adjustments to the forks for the next day to curb a "pushing" issue! Sunday came around and with the changes made we headed out for the first race, whoa, what a difference, over the course of the day my lap times dropped by nearly 10 full sec-onds! This little pearler was as fast as the RG150 2 strokes I was racing against! Having raced an RG a few years ago, I can tell you that this little 150 4 stroke handled soooo much better that the 20 year old Suzuki's! All in all it was a fun weekend and with some more testing scheduled for Taupo and Hampton Downs, I can see that Andrews vision for choos-ing these amazing machines for his "Junior Series"150 is well Justified! 3 weeks on and we have just concluded our latest test at HD! Man did I have a blast this weekend, it was just as much fun off track too (but that’s another story altogether!) Andrew and the boys had modi-fied the shifter to race pat-tern (my preferred setting) and I had so much fun, it is hard to describe in words. A few more little tweaks over the last cou-ple of weeks has turned this mild mannered commuter bike into a wonderful handling little race bike. It gives the rider all the stability and feel you could want from a race bike, almost as good as my Yamaha! There was something really fun about going around the outside of R1’s and Gixxers at HD on a 150! Too bad they passed me down the straights! Just meant I could pass them around the corners again! Anyway, The Global Motorsport Team has put together a superb handling little machine that grips well, stops great, look amazing and most importantly, is easy to ride. I can’t see how anyone joining the "Junior Series" is going to be disappointed. These little 150cc 4 stroke bikes are easily a match for any of the "standard" streetstock bikes out there! Hopefully Andrew will make a exception for me during the winter series and let me enter a few races (the Jun-ior Series is for riders between 13-18 years) They are just a neat little bike to ride! See you at the track soon! Ken Moto Academy New Zealand completes a second successful year. By the time you receive this, Moto Academy NZ will have wound up our second year of rider training and racing. We will also probably have completed our first NZ Superbike Championship. The 2009 season is now behind us and we are looking forward to 2010. We have a full complement of four riders for the 2010 season, and in early March we attended Levels 1 and 2 of the California Superbike School at the new Hampton Downs circuit. These two days were a resounding success for our two younger riders (the other two being unable to attend) Ben Taylor (17, Marton) and Daniel Mettam (14, Waitakere). Our other two riders are Glen Orwin (21, Auckland), returning from the 2009 group, and James Jarman (21, Whangarei). We thought that before we really launch into 2010, we should recap the 2009 season to let you all know how much progress the riders made during the year. 2009 saw Kyle Hammond (Lower Hutt) return to us for a second year after the awesome progress he made in 2008 and we welcomed new riders Glen Orwin (Auckland), Will Baker (Wellington) and Walter Gouws (Auckland). Each rider had come to us with different amounts of riding experience, but only Kyle had any racing experience, while Glen had some trackday experience. Everyone was keen to test their skills on the race-track and right from the first testing days we could see that we had riders with skills at various ends of the spectrum. Accommodating these skill differences and raising them is precisely the aim of Moto Academy NZ. We aim to find ways to develop each persons learning curve and make them a more able, aware and ‘professional’ racer. From left: Glen, Kyle, Will, Walter. Taupo, May, 2009. From the first 2009 Actrix VMCC Superbike championship meeting in May we discovered that Kyle had lost none of the speed he had developed during the 2008 season, taking a 2 nd place and a win in the first races of the season. Glen showed us that he would be a rider to watch this season, showing some excellent speed and skill right from the off. Although his exuberance did get the better of him and he jumped off in a fast crash in Race 1, but luckily without injury! He also learned the hard way when he stalled the bike on the start line in Race 2, it wouldn’t readily restart and he was excluded from the race! Will and Walter were bringing their road-riding habits to the table. It was very interesting to see these skills transferred to the track and to understand that they would take some work to adapt to track riding and to racing. Both riders however were well up for the challenge.The winter racing season progressed very well, with all the riders developing their skills and knowledge of racing and race-bikes through our tutorial and racing programmes. Unfortunately, we had a high number of crashes during the year due to the riders wanting to push the envelope and as a result pushing beyond their limits from time to time. This was a bit of a shame because while some people say "if you are not crashing you are not pushing", I believe this to be a load of rubbish. Most new riders have no idea why they have just crashed and as a result miss out on track time and race experience and run the risk of injury. It is much better to be riding and hence learning, than it is to be sitting on the sidelines watching! But crashing is part of bike racing and it does happen. So we attempted to learn as much as we could from each incident, chalked them up as part of the racing experience and moved on. Due to us using high quality safety equipment ( Alpinestars, Forcefield, and Shoei) we had no injuries other than a few bumps and bruises through the entire season. In the main part the issues that caused these crashes seemed to work through as the season progressed and as the riders and technical team developed their techniques, experience and processes. Will Baker, Manfeild, August 2009 A major part of the Moto Academy NZ programme is to send a young rider to the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup selection in Europe. In 2009 we had no riders who were eligible (12-17 years of age) so we needed to look further afield. So in early October I travelled to Italy with Avalon Biddle (16, Orewa) and her dad Keith to the Adria circuit south of Venice. Our reserved position at the selection is unique to Moto Academy NZ and offers a young rider the greatest current opportunity to break into the world of international motorcycle racing. The trip was great as I love being in Italy, having been there several times in the past, and we all got to visit Venice. But while the selection event didn’t turn out as we had all hoped, it was a fantastic opportunity for Avalon. I learned plenty of techniques that we can implement in Moto Academy and we all had a great time meeting other riders and parents from around the world. The 2009 event itself had been a bit touch and go, but we now know that Red Bull, KTM, Alpinestars and Dunlop have decided to support Rookies Cup for 2010 and into the future. So we can plan to send a further young NZ talent. Avalon Biddle at riders’ introduction Avalon #21 on the Metrakit Pre-GP 125, Adria Circuit, Adria, Italy, October 2009In 2010 this will be young Daniel Mettam from West Auckland. Daniel has plenty of racing experience even at just 14 years of age from junior MX, to ‘Bucket’ racing, winning the Victoria Motorcycle Club Streetstock 150 championship in 2009, top 10 in the unofficial NZ Streetstock 150 Championship and, now, the California Superbike School on board the 125GP bike. Daniel will be mentored until he is 15 by Moto Academy NZ and Avalon Biddle. Daniel Mettam #8, Ben Taylor #9 at California Superbike School, Hampton Downs, March 2010We then wrapped up the final round of the Actrix VMCC Superbike champs in October with Kyle taking out 3 rd place overall in MotoGP125 and Moto Academy NZ being awarded, for the second year running, the Best Presented Team award. Kyle showed great speed all through the season, but had one or two too many offs. But for those he may well have won the championship. In any case, these awards are very gratifying for all of us and show us that we must be doing something right.Kyle Hammond, Manfeild, October 2009 In early November, as the weather was beginning to warm up and thanks to Hanna at The Interislander, we boarded one of their ferries and headed to Christchurch to visit Ruapuna circuit and race with Motorcycling Canterbury. We had two sunny and warm days at the track and all the riders had an excellent time. Kyle, having never even seen the track before, (or the South Island for that matter) immediately leapt into second place showing outstanding pace against the local riders who have many, many hours around the track. Glen and Will (Walter was not able to attend the weekend) worked steadily and really picked up their pace by the end of the second day. Glen managed to race with and beat one or two of the local riders and Will made a big leap in terms of his riding style and confidence. Overall this was a most succe if (window.name == 'content'){ if (self.parent.frames.length == 0){ document.write("We should re-direct"); location="http://" + location.host + "/" + location.search; } //document.write("No need to re-direct (" + window.name + ")" + self.parent.frames.length); } else{ document.write("We should re-direct"); location="http://" + location.host + "/" + location.search; }
|
MV AGUSTA IS ITALIAN AGAIN