Giugliano prend l'avantage malgré sa chute

Le ciel nuageux de vendredi matin a fait place au soleil cet après-midi au TT Circuit d'Assen, où a lieu ce week-end la troisième manche du Championnat du Monde eni FIM Superbike 2014, et a ainsi permis à la plupart des pilotes d’améliorer leurs chronos.

Davide Giugliano (Ducati Superbike Team) en a profité pour réaliser le meilleur temps, en 1’35.396, avant de finir sa séance sur une chute dans la dernière chicane. Indemne, il sera de retour en piste samedi matin afin de préparer son offensive pour la Tissot-Superpole.

Derrière l’Italien, Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) s'est classé second devant le Champion en titre Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) et Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), lui aussi tombé dans les dernières minutes. Chaz Davies (Ducati Superbike Team) a fini à la cinquième place, devant le Français Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team), Eugene Laverty (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) et le duo de l'Aprilia Racing Team, Sylvain Guintoli et Marco Melandri, qui ont concentré leurs efforts sur des runs longs cet après-midi. Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) complétait le Top 10. 

Niccolò Canepa  (Althea Racing Ducati) a encore une fois été le pilote de la catégorie EVO le plus rapide, devançant Leon Camier (BMW Motorrad Italia) et Ayrton Badovini (Team Bimota Alstare), qui continue d'impressionner ce week-end pour la deuxième épreuve depuis le retour du constructeur italien. 

S'il pleut, comme prévu, demain, la dernière place pour participer à la Tissot-Superpole reviendra à Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Kawasaki), bien que les pilotes préfèreraient logiquement des conditions similaires à celles d'aujourd'hui pour leurs derniers essais libres.

2014 Bol d'Or - Michelin - vidéo

Sealine Cross Country Rally (Day 5 and Finish )

Qatar's Al-Attiyah and Abu Issa and Spain's Barreda wrap up Sealine Rally Victories

---

• Final stage wins for Varela, Rodrigues and Abu Issa
• Vasilyev, Coma and Sonik finish second; Kaczmarski breaks a wheel

SEALINE (Qatar): Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah, Spain’s Joan Barreda and Qatar’s Mohammed Abu Issa confirmed victories in the car, motorcycle and quad categories at the Sealine Cross-Country Rally on Friday. Final stage victories fell to Brazil’s Reinaldo Varela, Honda’s Helder Rodrigues and Abu Issa, although the Rodrigues stage time remains provisional.

Al-Attiyah and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel’s winning margin was 1hr 16min 56sec. The Qatari duly confirmed his second victory in the progressive Sealine event in three years. He moves into contention for a second FIA World Cup success and will now represent the X-raid team at next month’s Pharoahs Rally in Egypt.
“This was a very tough race and I am so happy to win at home,” said Al-Attiyah. “I am also very pleased for Matthieu. This was a big test for him and we made only one small mistake all week. That was a superb job with such difficult navigation. I tried not to damage the car and drive safely, but also quickly. The Mini was perfect.”
FIA World Cup leader Vladimir Vasilyev and last year’s winning co-driver Konstantin Zhiltsov managed to overhaul Poland’s Adam Malysz (Toyota) to claim second position in a second Mini All4 Racing. Malysz fell behind team-mate Marek Dabrowski as well and slipped to fourth over the closing kilometres.

Barreda played the Honda motorcycle tactics to perfection to catch KTM’s Marc Coma on the stage and race with the defending champion to the finish to claim a second successive FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship win for Team HRC Rally.

“This is really good,” said a delighted Barreda. “We are all now, as a team, at a high level. The bikes, the riders and the mechanics are all working together and it is nearly one year ago in Sardinia since KTM won a World Championship race. We have been improving all the time and Paolo’s (Goncalves) win in Abu Dhabi and my win here is fantastic. I was disappointed after the Dakar, but this is special.”

Coma held on to seal second position, a mere 1min 23sec behind Barreda, and the unofficial fastest time on the final stage moved Rodrigues into an unofficial final podium place.


“You know I push as hard as I could, but the starting order did not work in our favour at all,” said Coma. “I lost some vital time on the first day and this is a short race and there is no way to make up that time. I am still happy with my performance.”

Thirty-four minutes lost on day three after navigational delays cost Poland’s Rafal Sonik dearly and he was never going to be able to recoup that loss and prevent the host nation’s Abu Issa from taking a hard-earned quad title by a comfortable margin.

“A great feeling to win here and brilliant to cross the last dunes where I normally come and play,” said Abu Issa. “My strategy was to follow Rafal this morning and catch him and I did that. But, then I punctured and had to stop and then had to catch him again.

SS5 – as it happened

The final 362.97km selective section headed due west across the south of Qatar to the western coast and then down the coastline before cutting across Saudi border country to finish close to Sealine. There were three passage controls at 150.18km, 201.37km and 292.88km.

Paolo Goncalves opened the road for the motorcycle riders and still had a chance of winning his second successive event provided that he could maintain his composure and not make a navigational mistake. Barreda needed to catch and stay with Coma to earn Honda another scalp. Thirteen bikes and two quads started the special.

Predictably, the leading five riders pulled clear of the rest of the field from the outset and Barreda had managed to catch and pass Coma by the first checkpoint and overturned the overnight deficit. The new rally leader was now in the group of five leading riders and one navigational mistake would be catastrophic. Faria had endured a miserable Sealine outing, but the KTM rider was running second fastest at PC1. Abu Issa caught Sonik and the pair passed PC1 together, as the Qatari closed in on the quad title.

Barreda’s lead was pegged back to 1min 45sec through PC2, but the Honda rider maintained the advantage heading down Qatar’s west coast towards the third checkpoint.


Varela was in good form from the start and passed PC1 2min 49sec faster than a cautious Al-Attiyah in the car section, but Malysz had already dropped over seven minutes to Vasilyev and looked set to lose out on second overall. Krzysztof Holowczyc dropped further time with navigational problems.

Varela maintained his pace through PC2 to keep the unofficial stage lead and Vasilyev continued to edge clear of Malysz in his quest for second position. Barreda shadowed Coma through the third and final PC, as the leading quintet of riders made their way to the finish. Pole Martin Kaczmarski retired his Mini from sixth overall with a broken wheel after 175km.

There were no late dramas for Al-Attiyah, Barreda or Abu Issa and the Spaniard and the two Qataris reached Sealine to confirm their wins in the three categories. Vasilyev managed to hold off Dabrowski and Malysz for second place in the cars and Rodrigues and Viladoms shadowed Barreda and Coma to the finish on two wheels, although KTM looked likely to query the final stage time set by Rodrigues as we closed for press.


2014 Sealine Cross-Country Rally – positions on SS5 (362.97km) – unofficial @ 13.50hrs:
Cars

1. Reinaldo Varela (BRA)/Gustavo Gugelmin (BRA) Toyota Hilux	3hr 37min 27sec
2. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Mini All4 Racing	3hr 41min 58sec
3. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) Mini All4 Racing	3hr 48min 23sec
4. Miroslav Zapletal (CZE)/Maciej Marton (POL) Hummer H3	4hr 00min 57sec
5. Marek Dabrowski (POL)/Jacek Czachor (POL) Toyota Hilux	4hr 04min 18sec
6. Andrey Cherednikov (KAZ)/Dmitro Tsyro (KAZ) Toyota	4hr 15min 47sec
7. Adam Malysz (POL)/Rafal Marton (POL) Toyota Hilux	4hr 16min 47sec
8. Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL)/Andreas Schulz (GER) Mini All4 Racing	4hr 20min 24sec

Bikes

1. Helder Rodrigues (PRT) Honda CRF 450	4hr 17min 59sec*
2. Ruben Faria (PRT) KTM	4hr 19min 05sec
3. Joan Barreda (ESP) Honda CRF 450	4hr 21min 54sec
4. Marc Coma (ESP) KTM 450	4hr 23min 58sec
5. Jordi Viladoms (ESP) KTM 450	4hr 28min 02sec
6. Paolo Goncalves (PRT) Honda CRF 450	4hr 29min 56sec

Quads

11. Mohammed Abu Issa (QAT) Honda TRX 680	4hr 53min 56sec
12. Rafal Sonik (POL) Honda TRX 700	4hr 56min 58sec
2014 Sealine Cross-Country Rally – overall positions after SS5 – unofficial @	13.00hrs:

FINAL
Cars

1. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Mini All4 Racing	17hr 22min 51sec
2. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) Mini All4 Racing	18hr 39min 47sec
3. Marek Dabrowski (POL)/Jacek Czachor (POL) Toyota Hilux	19hr 09min 47sec
4. Adam Malysz (POL)/Rafal Marton (POL) Toyota Hilux	19hr 33min 51sec
5. Reinaldo Varela (BRA)/Gustavo Gugelmin (BRA) Toyota Hilux	19hr 47min 21sec
6. Miroslav Zapletal (CZE)/Maciej Marton (POL) Hummer H3	20hr 30min 42sec
7. Andrey Cherednikov (KAZ)/Dmitro Tsyro (KAZ)  Toyota	21hr 20min 20sec

Bikes

1. Joan Barreda (ESP) Honda CRF 450	20hr 28min 46sec
2. Marc Coma (ESP) KTM 450	20hr 30min 09sec
3. Helder Rodrigues (PRT) Honda CRF 450	20hr 30min 36sec*
4. Jordi Viladoms (ESP) KTM 450	20hr 36min 05sec
4. Paolo Goncalves (PRT) Honda CRF 450	20hr 38min 16sec
6. Mohammed Al-Balooshi (ARE) KTM 450	23hr 41min 22sec

Quads

7. Mohammed Abu Issa (QAT) Honda TRX 680	24hr 44min 56sec
8. Rafal Sonik (POL) Honda TRX 700	25hr 17min 12sec

*Note: Results exclude additional time penalties and any protest reviews that may be added later by race officials.

FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies – positions after round 4 (unofficial):

1. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS)	135 pts
2. Marek Dabrowski (POL)	70 pts
3. Adam Malysz (POL)	66 pts
4. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)	60 pts
4. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)	60 pts
6. Miroslav Zapletal (CZE)	48 pts
7. Reinaldo Varela (BRA)	46 pts
8. Boris Gadasin (RUS)	27 pts
9. Yayha Al-Helai (ARE)	24 pts
10. Martin Kaczmarski (POL)	22 pts

FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship – positions after round 2 (unofficial):


Bikes

1. Joan Barreda-Bort (ESP)	35 pts
2. Marc Coma (ESP)	34 pts
3. Paolo Goncalves (PRT)	31 pts
4. Jordi Viladoms (ESP)	26 pts
5. Helder Rodrigues (PRT)	24 pts
6. Mohammed Al-Balooshi (ARE)	20 pts

Quads

1. Rafal Sonik (POL)	37 pts
2. Mohammed Abu Issa (QAT)	35 pts
3. Sergey Karyakin (RUS)	17 pts
4. Camelia Liparoti (ITA)	13 pts , etc

AVENTURE : Transibérica 2014.

via http://traildreamer.com/

Jaunt into the wood

Jaunt into the wood from Hookie Co. on Vimeo.

Bol d’Or: pole position for Honda Racing

Today’s track conditions prevented the top teams from improving on the qualifying times posted on Thursday afternoon. Honda Racing will consequently start the 78th Bol d’Or from the front of the grid, ahead of GMT 94 (Michelin) and SERT. Kawasaki SRC qualified in 16th place.

Following torrential overnight rain, the conditions at Magny-Cours were still damp for the beginning of the second qualifying session today.
As a result, Honda Racing’s provisional pole (average time: 1m40.802s) didn’t come under threat and the N°111 Honda only lapped at the very end of today’s session. GMT 94 had no chance to make up the 0.117s deficit which separated it from the sharp end of the grid, but Mathieu Gines succeeded in posting this afternoon’s fastest time (1m43. 841s).
Third on Saturday grid will be SERT (1m41.130).
Indeed, there were no changes at all compared with the provisional top 10, which means that Suzuki Junior Team (fourth overall) will be the best-placed Superstock bike (1m41.956s), ahead of EWC runners National Motos (1m42.014s), Bolliger Team Switzerland (1m42.317s) and YART (1m42.370s). Penz 13, the second fastest Superstock machine (1m42.602s) ahead of another Superstock team, Hall Moto 02 (1m42.891s).
Matthieu Lagrive bounced back from his nasty fall during Thursday’s free practice session to take part in Qualifying 2. The four-time world champion didn’t benefit from ideal conditions but his fastest time (1m48.307s) at least enabled the N°11 Kawasaki to qualify in 16^th place (1m43.208s). His team-mate Grégory Leblanc was the fastest rider over the two sessions (1m39. 608s).
The weather forecast for the rest of the weekend isn’t particularly encouraging and it promises to be a drama-filled race. MotoRacingLive will be back on air from 2pm Saturday for coverage of the 2014 Bol d’Or (live streaming, live timing, etc.).

Bol d’Or :Honda Racing’s comeback to endurance racing / la pole pour Honda Racing

Although it has been represented these past three years by Honda TT Legends, this season marks the return of the Bol d’Or’s most successful Japanese make to world class endurance racing. Its riders are French specialists Julien Da Costa, Sébastien Gimbert and Freddy Foray.

Free practice - 2014 Bol d'Or - Michelin

VISMAIOR MOTORCYCLES

Vismaior 3D is a new company that specialises in helping people model their ideas for a custom motorcycle, without turning a wrench.

If you want to create a unique custom and want know exactly how it’ll look before you buy a single part, the team at Vismaior will model your motorcycle of choice in impeccable detail, then work with you on implementing different parts, paint, wheels, tires et all – 100% digitally.

I can see this being a very popular service, especially with people who have limited experience customising bikes – it can make life far easier to know exactly how parts are going to look ahead of time and would make ordering parts online far less stressful.

Maserati Kyalami: Out of Africa

At the 1967 Formula One season opener, held at Kyalami in South Africa, Pedro Rodríguez scored Cooper’s final Grand Prix victory in a Maserati-powered T81. Nine years on, the Trident Marque christened its new flagship coupé after the location of that momentous win…

Indonésie : Glinding Kustom

ON TRACK / OFF ROAD

cool drive !

Bol d'Or 2014

Message sur le mur by Yellow Flag.