MotoGP ; Rossi ravi de renouer avec la victoire à Phillip Island / Rossi delighted to win again at Phillip Island

Malgré un départ en huitième position, Valentino Rossi est parvenu à s'imposer dans une course marquée par de très nombreuses chutes au Grand Prix Tissot d'Australie.

Valentino Rossi a pris l'avantage sur son coéquipier Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamah MotoGP) et Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) dans la bataille pour le titre de vice-Champion du Monde MotoGP™ 2014 en décrochant sa seconde victoire de la saison au Grand Prix Tissot d'Australie. 

Huitième au départ, l'Italien est progressivement revenu sur Lorenzo pour lui disputer la seconde position et, une fois passé devant le Majorquin, a profité de la chute de Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda), qui avait deux secondes d'avance, pour filer vers la victoire.

Le nonuple Champion du Monde s'imposait pour la 82e fois en 250 courses dans la catégorie reine et pour la première fois à Phillip Island depuis 2005. Il dispose désormais de huit points d'avance sur Lorenzo et de vingt-cinq sur Pedrosa avant les deux dernières manches de la saison.

« C'est une fantastique journée, » a affirmé Rossi. « Un résultat incroyable après une excellente course. Je partais malheureusement derrière mais je savais que mon rythme et mes réglages étaient bons pour la course. Dans le second virage, je voyais Marc et Jorge déjà devant. Je savais que ça allait être dur mais j'ai été suffisamment rapide pour vite doubler les autres. »

« Je me suis concentré pour rattraper Jorge et je l'ai fait petit à petit. Nous avons eu une belle bagarre. Marc n'était pas trop loin mais il avait déjà deux secondes d'avance et j'ai donc choisi de me contenter de la seconde place, pour ma position au championnat. Márquez est ensuite tombé et tout a été génial après ça. Je retrouve la première place ici à Phillip Island près de dix ans après ma dernière victoire, sur l'un des plus beaux circuits du calendrier. »

Despite having started from eighth on the grid, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi took victory in a hectic Tissot Australian Grand Prix.

Rossi started his 250^th premier class Grand Prix on Sunday looking for crucial points in the battle for the runner up spot in the 2014 MotoGP™ World Championship. A crash filled race allowed the Italian to mark this historic event with his second win of 2014.

He made steady progress in the opening laps, catching teammate Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) and engaging in a heated battle for several laps. Eventually getting the better of the Spaniard, Rossi settled into second as Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) had a two second advantage ahead of him.

Lap 17 saw the 2014 MotoGP World Champion crash out of a comfortable lead, promoting Rossi to first. By the race finale a huge gap of 10.836s saw Rossi clinch his 82^nd premier class win ahead of Lorenzo. Rossi last won at Phillip Island in 2005.

Second in the championship, Rossi now has 255 points, eight more than Lorenzo, who is third. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) suffered a DNF and is 25 points behind the Italian in fourth.

An elated Rossi explained, “It’s a fantastic day. An amazing result coming after a great race. Sadly I had to start behind but I knew my pace and setting were quite good for the race. On the second corner I saw Marc and Jorge already ahead and I was sixth, I thought this will be hard! I was fast enough to overtake the other riders quickly.”

“I focused on just gaining on Jorge and I got there a little by little. We then had a great battle. Marc wasn’t too far, just two seconds but I settled for second to fight for the championship position. Then Marquez crashed and it was great after that. I came back to victory here almost ten years after my last win, a great achievement at one of the most beautiful tracks of the year,” he concluded.

OVERLAND EXPO EAST 2014

Published on October 14th, 2014

While not as massive in attendance as the well-established Overland Expo West the inaugural East event was easily as big in acreage and enthusiasm for the overland world. What set the East event apart from it’s Western brother is the picture perfect North Carolina Fall setting and close proximity to big population centers, who came out in big numbers to see what this “overland” thing is all about. The same tested formula for a quality overland event was used; hands on driving/riding courses, tons of industry vendors showing off and selling the latest greatest toys, lots of educational opportunities on a wide variety of overland relevant topics and scheduled opportunities each day for the overland tribe to gather around food and beverages to share their stories.

Fall showed all her South East flavor during the weekend. Venders and attendees started to roll in Thursday to hot sunny weather and a truly spectacular venue that featured lush green rolling hills, beautiful old trees full of vibrant Fall colors and a picture perfect large pond that was the centerpiece of the Taylor Ranch venue. On Friday the weather took a drastic change with lots of rain and high gusty winds. Many campers arriving on Friday were redirected to camp in the primary day pass parking fields in order to preserve the well manicured fields at Taylor Ranch, as the steep hill into the main camping area turned into a rutted muddy mess.

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful sunny day, but was still quite windy and very cold. Sunday everyone awoke to frost covered vehicles and thick fast moving fog rising from the Taylor Ranch pond. Luckily as the sun rose everything thawed quickly and Sunday ended up being a perfect Fall day full of sunshine, puffy clouds and moderate temperatures.

Land Rover again built a great little offroad driving course to showcase the off pavement prowess of their vehicles, as well as teach basic offroad driving skills and provide the opportunity to learn your own vehicle’s limits. The weekend’s muddy conditions really highlighted vehicle and tire differences, as well as the value of proper driving skills. Because of the layout of the venue site the driving course was a bit hidden, and hence not as much a centerpiece as it is at Overland Expo West. Even though it was a bit out of view by most show goers, the line to drive the course was usually well over an hour long. Rawhyde Adventures also brought their adventure motorcycle riding expertise to Expo East through a rodeo ring riding course, similar to Expo West, and through utilizing the hills, fields and forest trails of the ranch.

Events of this caliber just can’t happen without the support of great industry and local companies. There were over 50 vendors at this inaugural event showing off everything from the latest overland expedition vehicles all the way to the local animal rescue, and everything in between. It was great to see industry veterans like U-Joint Offroad, that don’t make it out to Expo West, have a big presence at their backyard event. A big thank you to the event’s presenting and title sponsors, Four Wheel Campers and Sportsmobile, for helping to make it all such a success.

Essential to the Overland Expo model is classes, workshops, demonstrations and roundtables. Topics range from; exploring your back yard trails to far away exploration, boarder crossings, sharing your adventures through stories, photography & video, traveling with a reluctant partner, overland women specific courses, finding the perfect vehicle for your overland travels and so much more. There was truly something on offer for everyone and anyone who likes to explore and find adventure.

As usual it really did come down to the amazing people you meet at these events. Sharing stories, experience and skills with each other in order to better and grow the overland tribe. It was great to see so many fresh faces and absorb their enthusiasm for adventure and exploration. On the flip side of the coin was being able to learn so much from the many seasoned overland travelers who truly love to share experiences and skills from the road less traveled. The message shared by all was; Go adventure!

Overland Expo East 2014 

Published by Bryon Dorr  via  http://expeditionportal.com 

Ricardo Santos Car Art. Motorsport’s icons

Portuguese former rally co-driver Ricardo Santos depicts some of the most iconic motorsport names from the 1980s and 1990s to print in colourful and retro style.

Those of you with subscriptions to Turbo, Portugal’s oldest car mag, will already be familiar with the work of Ricardo Santos. The Portuguese former rally co-driver may have spent his career competing in Citroën AXs (primarily on home turf between 2002 and 2005), but his distinctive artwork depicts some of the most iconic names from the rally stages and the circuit throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Amongst Santos’ Formula 1 pieces are tributes to Juan Manuel Fangio’s W196 (which took him to both his second and third titles in ’54 and ‘55), Aryton Senna’s Lotus 98T from 1986, and the Renault RE30 (which brought eventual four-time F1 champion Alain Prost three Grand Prix victories in 1981), as well as Francois Cevert, former teammate at Tyrrell to Sir Jackie Stewart (who also makes the grade) who tragically met his maker in 1973 at Watkins Glen. Even Martin Brundle’s 1993 Ligier JS39 and its distinctive Hugo Pratt livery make the grade, adding to Santos’ retro and colourful style.

From the rally stages we find representations of some familiar names like the Stratos HF, which took Lancia’s first three world rally titles (’74-’76), and the Delta S3, which took its final six (’87-’92). Much has been written lately about 1981 WRC champion Ari Vatanen’s decisive run to his first victory on the Paris-Dakar Rally in ’87 for Peugeot, which returns to the endurance stages in 2015. Little has been written however about Vatanen’s colossal roll at the same event in the 405 T16 in 1989, an accident from which the Frenchman walked away unscathed and still managed to take victory.

And if you have a penchant for colourful sports cars on your living room wall, Santos has also committed the BMW M1 and Porsche 962C – that of two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winning fame in ’86 and ’87 – to the canvas. All examples that can be bought as a canvas, framed prints, pillowcases, iPad and iPhone cases, and t-shirts.

And if that’s not enough for you to unlock the chains to your wallet, allow me to end with just three words. MG. Metro. 6R4.

Source – Ricardo Car Artwork