BMW Motorrad France Team Thevent en pole provisoire aux 24 Heures moto

A l’issue de la première séance d’essais qualificatifs, BMW Motorrad France Team Thevent (Michelin) est crédité de la meilleure moyenne et bat sa propre pole de 2011 en 1.37.351. La BMW n°99 devance la Kawasaki n°11 et la Suzuki n°1.

Sébastien Gimbert (1.37.306), Damian Cudlin (1.37.123) et Erwan Nigon (1.37.351) ont hissé la BMW-Michelin en pole provisoire de la 35^ème édition des 24 Heures Moto. Rapides et homogènes, les pilotes ont tous les trois signé des temps très proches en 1.37. Cudlin et Nigon sont crédités du meilleur chrono de leur session.

Malgré le meilleur temps absolu en 1.36.826 signé par Julien Da Costa, le team SRC Kawasaki pointe en seconde position avec un temps moyen d’1.37.640 à seulement 0,289 seconde de BMW Motorrad France.

La chute d’Anthony Delhalle, 10 minutes après le départ de la séance des pilotes « blanc », a rétrogradé le SERT à la troisième place avec une moyenne d’1.37.845 malgré les deux belles prestations de Vincent Philippe et du japonais Tsuda.

Les trois premières équipes se tiennent dans un mouchoir de poche et ne sont séparées que de 0,491 seconde.

Derrière, à la quatrième position, on trouve le GMT 94 (Michelin) avec une moyenne d’1.38.484. Pour son retour à la compétition, Matthieu Lagrive s’adjuge le troisième temps de sa session.

Le YART (Michelin) se classe à la cinquième place (1.39.152) devant Bolliger Team. Le Honda TT Legends est septième devant Yamalube Folch Endurance et National Motos. MCP Starteam (1.40.379), première équipe Superstock, complète le Top 10.

Le nom de l’équipe qui s’élancera de la pole position sera connu demain à l’issue de la seconde séance d’essais qualificatifs programmée  à partir de 11h00. Les essais de nuit à 21h00 vont clôturer cette première journée ensoleillée.

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Hoshikawa Hideki Flys in from Japan to take 2012 2012 LA Calendar Motorcycle Best of Show!

Jorge Lorenzo tops final day of Aragon testing

In today’s second and final day of private testing at the Motorland Aragon circuit where the 13th round of the season will be held on September 30th, four of the five riders present were able to break under 1.49 barrier as they also tested Bridgestone’s new rear tire.

Jorge Lorenzo left the Spanish circuit as the fastest rider of the day (he’ll be heading to Italy to be one of the judges in the 2012 Miss Italy beauty pageant) however he wasn’t able to smash the new circuit record that rival Dani Pedrosa set yesterday (1’47″983), but he did shave off two tenths of second while testing once again the new chassis combined with a new engine hoping to find those extra 4/5km he was losing to the Repsol Honda rider yesterday.

Dani Pedrosa set the second fastest time again working on suspensions and he also testing a new exhaust and he wasn’t able to repeat his own lap time, but he seemed more interested in solving rear grip issues. Stefan Bradl made a big jump forward as he shaved off more than seven tenths of second from his day 1 lap times as he alternated between the 2013 factory RC213V and his own satellite machine to finish in third, while Yamaha’s Ben Spies continued his long runs and a race simulation.

Jonathan Rea who will be officially stepping in for Casey Stoner in next week’s Misano GP, also made a big jump forward in his third test on the Repsol Honda as he cut the gap to Jorge Lorenzo to 1.706s, while yesterday he was more than 2.6 seconds adrift compared to Pedrosa’s untouchable lap. The Honda rider will have a full and very busy schedule of racing this month. This weekend he’ll be at Nurburgring for the 12th round of the World Superbike championship. Next week he’ll be racing in MotoGP at Misano (September 16th), the week after he’ll be back on his CBR1000RR for the Portimao round (September 23rd) and then back for the Aragon GP (September 30th).

MotoGP Motorland Aragon day 2 test results:

01- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – 1’48.244
02- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 1’48.499
03- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – 1’48.834
04- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – 1’48.946
05- Jonathan Rea – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 1’50.057

from http://www.twowheelsblog.com

Honda RC166

Here is a series of fantastic photographs of a truly beautiful machine. The Honda RC166.

The statistics tell you everything you need to know about how great this bike was. In the hands ofMike Hailwood this bike had a perfect record as the winner of 10 out of 10 races in the 1966 World Championship Series. The RC166 ensured Honda captured the Manufacturers and Riders Championships in the 250cc class for two consecutive years.

Hailwood also piloted the incredible 250cc bike to victory in the Lightweight Class at the Isle of Man TT in 1966 to claim one of his 14  titles.

Just imagine what Honda’s rivals would have made of the following specification back in 1966.  The engine was an air-cooled, 4-stroke,  inline 6-cylinder, DOHC 4-valve, 6-carburetor, 60 horsepower monster spinning to 18,000rpm. Drive was through a 7-speed transmission that hurtled this lightweight 112kg bike to a top speed of over 240km/h.