Official statement by FIM, Dorna an YMS Promotion on Andrea Antonelli's death

The World Superbike website has released the following statement regarding the tragic death of World Supesport rider Andrea Antonelli:

During today’s FIM World Supersport race, at 1.32pm Italian rider Andrea Antonelli (Team Goeleven Kawasaki) suffered a serious accident on the straight between Turn 14 and Turn 15 wherein he sustained critical injuries.
The race was stopped with the red flag and the rider was immediately taken to an ambulance where the medical staff worked to resuscitate him.
Despite their efforts, Andrea sadly succumbed to his injuries at 2.10pm local time.
FIM, Dorna and YMS Promotion decided to cancel all activities scheduled for the rest of the day.
Everyone involved in motorcycle championships extends its deepest condolences to Andrea’s family, friends, team and Italian Federation at this tragic loss.

A minute of silence in Andrea’s memory will be held at Laguna Seca before the race.

Andrea Antonelli was just 25-years old when he tragically lost his life in today’s Supersport race in Moscow.

We’ll try to avoid any controversy regarding the track conditions and the complete lack of visibility (the video is after the jump) that may have lead to Lorenzo Zanetti crashing into the downed rider, and the fact that the afternoon races were first officially cancelled due to the horrible weather conditions, and prefer to talk about the late rider’s racing career.

Born on January 17, 1988 in Castiglione del Lago (Perugia) Antonelli began his racingcareer in minimotos and in 2002 joined the Skizzato team riding an Aprila 125 and taking part in the Coppa Italia and taking his first victory at Magione (only Marco Melandri was younger than he was when he won his race at that circuit).

In 2003 Antonelli moved to the team Leardini riding a Honda 125 GP in the Italian and European championship, and two years later he would ride a Kawasaki for Lightspeed and race in European Superstock 600 championship and finish 6th overall with, with two third place podiums at Assen and Imola, and a year later would finish 5th overall.

In 2007, with team Italia Megabike AX 52, he would win at Assen and take home four second places and become the runner-up of Superstock 600 class. In 2008 he moved up to the World Superstock 1000 FIM Cup riding a Honda and also take part in two races in the Supersport championship in Qatar and Australia.

2009 saw him in the Trasimeno Yamaha Italia team and 2010 back on a Honda for team Lorini where he finished fourth overall in the Superstock championship and 6th the following year.

Last year the Italian switched to World Supersport championship were he finished 9th and this year he was riding Kawasaki ZX-6r for Go Eleven, and his best result was a fourth place at Aragon and today he had started fourth on the grid when the tragic accident occured.

 from TWOWHEELSBLOG

Moto GP ; Stefan Bradl edges out Marquez in warm-up at Laguna Seca

It was sunny this morning at Laguna Seca for the 20 minute warm-up practice and the quickest rider of the session was polesitter Stefan Bradl. The German rider hammered out fast lap after fast lap, to take the top of the timesheets 1.21.743, and edging out Marc Marquez by a mere 0.008s.

Only a highly concentrated Jorge Lorenzo - who looks like he isn’t excluding a podium finish - was able to break the Honda hegemony, concentrating on his race pace and he finished less than one tenth of a second from Bradl and Marquez.

Alvaro Bautista who will be taking off in third on the starting grid, slid off track at turn 5. The Gresini rider was okay, but his Honda a lot less, as it slammed into the air fence, but his lap time before the crash allowed him to take fourth and just ahead of Valentino Rossi, and one tenth of a second faster than Cal Crutchlow who were all more than six tenths adrift.

Taking an impressive 7th was Bradley Smith, ahead of another impressive rider, Aleix Espargaro. The ART rider was faster than both Ducati factory riders Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden.

Dani Pedrosa didn’t force his pace as he was 11th and more than one second adrift.

2013 MotoGP Laguna Seca warm-up results:

01- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – 1’21.743
02- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.008
03- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.091
04- Alvaro Bautista – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 0.616
05- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.651
06- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.731
07- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.813
08- Aleix Espargaro – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP13 – + 0.853
09- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 0.908
10- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 0.908

from Twowheelsblog

WSBK : Marco Melandri wins dramatic and high attrition race 1 at Moscow

Race 1 at the Moscow Raceway was extremely dramatic and with a high attrition, due to high profile crashes, retirements, rain and pit stops.

The 25 lapper had very extreme weather and track conditions, dry at the start, a rain shower that left standing water in certain parts of the circuit and dry in other sections, which was followed by a massive monsoon rain shower, and an unexpected outcome.

In these horrible and tricky racing conditions Marco Melandri took his third victory of the season, and completing the very wet podium was Chaz Davies and Ayrton Badovini, and the championship lead returned into the hands of Sylvain Guintoli.

The race started in dramatic circumstance as just two turns into the first lap saw four riders crash out - Carlos Checa and Jules Cluzel clashed and went crashing out - the Frenchman was able to return to track - and then Lorenzo Savadori in his Superbike debut also crashed, taking with him a hapless Vittorio Iannuzzo, after Chaz Davies got the holeshot.

Pole sitter Davide Giugliano was chasing down Chaz Davies when he crashed out of second, and he was just the fifth rider to bin it, while Tom Sykes had a worse fate and it seemed that his race was already doomed after his crash yesterday in qualifying due to a clutch issue, and just before the warm-up lap.

Sykes’ Kawasaki died on him as he started to leave the grid for the warm-up lap and had to to be pushed, and that was the first signal that something wasn’t quite right and infact during the fourth lap, he angrily pulled over with a technical issue and trying to get his bike to work gave full throttle and the machine began spewing oil and then caught fire!

Sylvain Guintoli had a huge moment while riding third and no doubt it was like a knife to his injured collarbone and then he began to fad,e but he still managed to finish the race in 6th after pitting for a tire change and he regained the lead in the standings.

Eugene Laverty and a very unlucky Leon Haslam also crashed, while Max Neukirchner was given a ride through after his pit stop and admist all this massive confusion Loris Baz briefly took the lead - and still unexplainably on slick tires - but Melandri on full wets easily passed him as the Frenchman would fall back to finish 8th, as Ayrton Badovin would try to chase down Davies after passing Rea for third.

Michel Fabrizio finished fifth followed by Guintoli, Neukirchner, Baz, Leon Camier and lapped Jules Cluzel and Federico Sandi. both receiving precious points after all the carnage.

2013 WSBK Moscow Race 1 results:

1. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 46′03.043
2. Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 46′10.484
3. Ayrton Badovini (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 46′15.797
4. Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 46′24.360
5. Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 46′50.499
6. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 47′04.042
7. Max Neukirchner (MR-Racing) Ducati 1199 Panigale R 47′07.805
8. Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 47′07.990
9. Leon Camier (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 47′12.183
10. Jules Cluzel (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 46′26.550

from TWOWHEELSBLOG

Dry Martinis and a one-page contract… the birth of the Gulf legend

“Come a day or so earlier and stop by in Pittsburgh…” This informal suggestion, made by Gulf Oil to race team manager John Wyer in October 1966, led to Wyer returning to the UK with a one-page contract in his briefcase.

...he plied the hard-nosed team manager with cocktails.

The contract outlined a partnership that was to last until 1975: the Gulf Oil Racing Team was born. And the Dry Martinis? Wyer was offered the use of the company’s Sabreliner for his transfer from New York to Pittsburgh. With the co-pilot doubling as “a most efficient steward”, he plied the hard-nosed team manager (ex-Aston Martin, and the man who started the GT40 programme) with cocktails.

The connection with Gulf actually began a little earlier, when Gulf's Executive Vice-President Grady Davis commissioned a semi-competition GT40 for his own use. Talk soon switched to sponsorship and Wyer suggested a new way for Gulf to be involved in motor racing. Instead of a low-key alliance with several Formula One teams, why not exclusively back a sports car equipe? The cars would then wear the sponsor’s colours and logos as one overall design.

At first, dark blue and orange were the colours of Gulf’s service stations.

In those days, victory at Le Mans generated far more publicity than Grand Prix success. So it was at the Daytona 24 Hours on 4-5 February 1967 that a Gulf-backed GT40, run by JW Automotive Engineering Ltd (‘JWAE’), made its debut. In dark blue and orange, note, as these were the colours of Gulf’s service stations. The addition of the Wilshire Oil Company to the company’s portfolio, though, meant that its more attractive powder blue/marigold colours were to feature on every JWAE car from April 1967 onwards.

And the new cars rolled out at Monza were ‘Mirages’.  Based on a redesigned GT40, the Mirage gained its name as a result of brainstorming between Wyer and JWAE Executive Director John Horsman. What might have been a ‘Puma’, ‘Ocelot’ or ‘Lynx’ turned out to be a ‘Mirage’. The years 1968 to 1969 saw Gulf colours mainly on JWAE Ford GT40s, with the occasional Mirage prototype making a – usually unsuccessful – appearance.

Drivers of the calibre of Ickx, Oliver, Rodriguez, Hobbs and Bianchi won race after race. For 1970, the team took over the Porsche’s factory racing programme. Over the next two years, the pair of blue/orange Porsches blitzed the Championship. In 1971, Jo Siffert lapped, (lapped!) Spa in a 917 at an average of 162.08mph – an extraordinary feat. And if Siffert/Bell did not come first, you could then depend on Rodriguez/Oliver… very often with the other pairing inches away on its tail.

Wyer retired from everyday team management at the end of 1971. For 1972-1975 it was Horsman at the helm, running Bell, Hailwood and others (even James Hunt) in Cosworth DFV-powered prototypes. With the worldwide recession biting there was only time for one last hurrah, the 1975 Le Mans 24 Hours. The result? First and third overall for the GR8 Cosworth, a fitting end to the team with one of the most famous liveries in history.

Photos: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch, Classic Driver

via Classic Driver

McLane Thruxton Cafe Racer

Cafe Racer McLane Thruxton is a newest work of Australian customizer “Garage Project Motorcycles” (Pert. Australia), which won the support of the owner Lee Draman. The last 5 years a fireman Lee enjoying distancing sensations that gives him a job. However, he is always looking for new emotions and love to ride on motorcycles. For the first time he sat in the saddle about 4 years ago. About a year Lee rode a motorcycle Triumph Street Triple and saw an ad for a motorcycle Triumph Thruxton at a good price, I could not resist buying it. He decided to rebuild and remake the bike to your taste, however, the skills are clearly not enough, so Lee turned to the guys from the workshop “Garage Project Motorcycles”. Why motorcycle called McLane Thruxton? Becasue, in honor of John McLaren. Lee believes that the characters are well-known actor and custom bikes something similar: strong, tough, stubborn, etc.

from bikeglam

Aston Martin Rally to London Centenary Celebration

To celebrate 100 years of the Aston Martin brand 100 Astons will wind their way through Europe’s most amazing landscapes and along some of the continent’s best roads. The event is current taking place and is due to end tomorrow (21st July) in London, where the 100 Astons will join 1,000 more from all over the world. The distance travelled over the full five days of the event will be 1,000 miles but drivers have been able to pick up the trail from various points throughout the continent.

The trip crosses seven countries and starts from Lake Como in Italy. From there it goes on to St.Moritz in the Swiss Alps, passes Lake Constance and Stuttgart in Germany, as well as the Aston Martin Nürburgring Test Centre, before going through the Ardenne region in Belgium before reaching Château de Cocove in France where the drivers pick up the Eurotunnel.

Aston is also celebrating 100 years with Centenary Editions of their cars. The Centenary Edition Vanquish, along with special editions of the V8 Vantage, DB9 and Rapide are all available to collectors. Only 100 examples of each are being built. Each model has bespoke interiors, “a unique graduated paint finish” and each car is individually numbered.

Aston Martin Rally to London

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Once all of the Astons have met up in Britain, the celebration concludes at the Freemason’s Hall followed by “Picnic in the Park” on Sunday.

from EUROCARBLOG

SLR 600 NERD by FMW

The owner of this SLR 600, a former super stock rider, wanted a special bike which was like a Japanese schoolgirl, the one you see in the manga, wearing white socks and high school uniform: one of those quiet-looking and vaguely resigned, but a real tiger in the intimacy. A Cagiva tank, MV Brutaleexhaust, several handmade aluminum components and the usual classy work… That’s the way Fugar Metal Worker made “the Nerd”: a city tracker with a prissy dandy appearance but ignorant in the soul, evil in the engine and with a sharp chassis...

Photos by the legendary Franco Mazzetti "Frankye" for Inazuma Cafe